Major Tom (Völlig losgelöst)

When Peter Schilling's single came out in the autumn of 1982, it stalled at number 73 in the German charts. A few weeks later, carried by the media frenzy around the Neue Deutsche Welle, it broke through, climbed to number one and stayed there for eight weeks, then repeated the feat in Austria and Switzerland. Its hero was borrowed: Major Tom, the astronaut David Bowie created in "Space Oddity" in 1969, a man looking back at Earth who knows he will never return. Schilling's floating, weightless chorus travelled well. He recorded an English version, "Major Tom (Coming Home)", which went to number one in Canada and became a top 20 hit in the United States. In Germany the single was certified double platinum in 2022 for more than a million units, making it the best-selling song of the Neue Deutsche Welle, and worldwide sales passed six million. Over the years it turned up in Breaking Bad, Atomic Blonde and the soundtrack for German astronaut Alexander Gerst's space mission. Then came a second life in the stands. Ice hockey fans in Mannheim had long sung along to it during breaks. In March 2024, after an online petition signed by 70,000 people, its chorus was played for the first time as the goal song of the German national football team, and in June 2024 the federation made it the permanent goal anthem for home matches. More than four decades after release, it was back in the German top 10, a lonely astronaut song that now belongs to crowds.