StrandGut cultural moments: On October 25, 2025 with Peter Urban, legendary commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest, presenter and podcaster
Peter Urban has been shaping the German radio landscape for decades - as a legendarily dry commentator on the Eurovision Song Contest, as a presenter of various music shows and now also as a podcaster. He has been observing the national and international music scene openly and unpretentiously as a pop expert for almost 50 years and has met, interviewed and portrayed countless pop greats in his long career - from Keith Richards and Yoko Ono to David Bowie, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Harry Belafonte and Eric Clapton. With this book, he now presents his memoirs, the soundtrack to a life that has always been shaped by music, both professionally and privately.
The journey begins in the 1950s in Lower Saxony, where the Urban family set up a new home after fleeing the Sudetenland. Peter Urban came into contact with music at an early age in the family orchestra “Urbani”, but his passion was not classical music, but new music from the island. His enduring love affair with England began in the 1960s and his other great love was HSV, where he was also a stadium announcer for a time. His love of new styles was later the key to the great success of his music broadcasts. This book tells the story of an eventful life and is also a piece of international music history made in Hamburg.
Peter Urban, born in Bramsche in 1948, began his career at NDR in the early 1970s with the program “Musik für junge Leute”. His dissertation on song lyrics from Anglo-American pop music was published in 1977. Since 2003 he has been editor of the “Nachtclub” format, and since 1997 he has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. He is still active today with “Die Peter Urban Show” for NDR, and since January 2021 he has been hosting a podcast entitled “Urban Pop”.
Jan Northoff Photography