Judith Holofernes

Holofernes was able to focus on music after leaving university.[5] Towards the end of the nineties, she performed in Berlin clubs as a solo artist and self-released the EP Kamikazefliege (1999),[1] though only 500 copies were produced.[7] Some of the songs from the EP, such as "Außer dir" and "Aurélie", would be later re-recorded by Wir sind Helden for the band's debut album.[8]

Holofernes in 2008 with her bandmate and husband, Pola Roy

In mid-2000, Holofernes met drummer Pola Roy, keyboardist/guitarist Jean-Michel Tourette and bassist Stefan Nietzky at a pop music workshop in Hamburg. They formed a band together, though Nietzky was later replaced by bassist Mark Tavassol.[5][9] The band was initially briefly called Helden (which means "Heroes") before being renamed Wir sind Helden (which means "We are heroes").[10] Wir sind Helden's breakthrough came in 2002 without the support of a record label, when the band's song "Guten Tag" was played by radio stations and a self-produced music video for the song received heavy rotation on MTV Germany.[11] The band subsequently signed to Labels[12] and released its debut album Die Reklamation (2003), which was a top 5 hit in Germany and Austria[13] and sold over half a million copies in Germany alone.[14] The band went on to record the albums Von hier an blind (2005), Soundso (2007) and Bring mich nach Hause (2010), all of which reached high positions in the German, Austrian and Swiss charts.[13] In April 2012, the band announced that it was taking an indefinite break owing to family commitments, the long distances between the band members' home cities, and "signs of wear and tear".[15]

During her break from Wir sind Helden, Holofernes began composing songs informally using Apple software application GarageBand and then later decided to record them in the studio, with herself on guitar, piano and ukulele, Roy on drums, and Jörg Holdinghausen from German band Tele on bass. The songs appear on her solo album Ein leichtes Schwert, which was released in February 2014 and charted at No. 7 in Germany.[16][17] Holofernes' newest album, Ich bin das Chaos, was released in March 2017.[18] For the album, Holofernes collaborated with the Faroese singer-songwriter Teitur Lassen and her husband Pola Roy who produced the album.[19] In 2019, Holofernes joined the crowdfunding platform Patreon. She received support by the American artist Amanda Palmer who has been using crowdfunding to finance her work since 2012. On the platform, Holofernes, amongst other things, shares essays and episodes of her podcast Salon Holofernes in which she talks to various artists.[20] Holofernes' memoir, Die Träume anderer Leute, was published in September 2022. In the book, Holofernes reflects on her experiences with the music industry, focussing primarily on her time as a solo artist since the hiatus of Wir sind Helden.[21]

Holofernes' voice appears on the song "X" from the album Supporters' Album #1 (2003) by German band Einstürzende Neubauten.[22] She also sang background vocals for two songs by Tele on the band's album Wovon sollen wir leben (2004).[23] Further vocal contributions by Holofernes can be heard on the song "Wir rühren uns nicht vom Fleck" (2004) by German band Die Sterne[24] and "Armer Vater" (2006) by German band Olli Schulz und der Hund Marie.[25] Together with Swedish singer Moneybrother, she recorded the song "Magic Moments", which appears on his album Mount Pleasure (2007).[26] She has also collaborated with German band Die Höchste Eisenbahn, recording and performing the song "Vergangenheit" (2012),[27] and with German singer Maxim, co-writing and recording the song "Meine Soldaten" (2013).[28]

Holofernes' stage name alludes to the Old Testament account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith given in the Book of Judith. As a young teenager, Holofernes frequently heard the story of Judith and Holofernes from her uncles and aunts. She later decided in her late teens to use the two names to create her stage name.[29] There is no historical evidence for the existence of a General Holofernes .

Holofernes was not only the lead singer and guitarist of Wir sind Helden,[30] but also the writer of the lyrics for the band's songs.[31] She conveys her political opinions in many of her lyrics. For example, she criticizes consumerism in the song "Guten Tag",[32] a performance-oriented society in "Müssen nur wollen",[32] the music industry in "Zuhälter",[33] and a dog-eat-dog society in "Konkurrenz".[34] However, she has stated that politics are only one aspect of Wir sind Helden and that she is primarily a songwriter, writing love songs and songs of a whimsical nature with the same commitment as political songs.[35] She is known for her playful use of words in the German language[1] and has been described as a wordsmith in the tradition of German writers Robert Gernhardt and Christian Morgenstern.[36] Songwriters that have had a major influence on Holofernes include Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Rio Reiser.[37]

Following the breakthrough of Wir sind Helden in 2002, the band received much attention from the media, including the quality newspapers, owing in part to Holofernes' sociocritical lyrics in songs such as "Guten Tag" and "Müssen nur wollen".[32][41] Holofernes subsequently became a much sought after personality for interviews[42] and has appeared on German talk shows such as Die Harald Schmidt Show.[43] In 2010, she made an appearance on political talk show Maybrit Illner, participating in a discussion titled "Bürgeraufstand 2010 – regiert die Politik am Volk vorbei?" ("Civil uprising 2010 – are the people being ignored by politics?").[44]

Holofernes lends her support to the Tibet Initiative, a German organization campaigning for human rights and self-determination in Tibet;[45][46] Attac, a global organization seeking an alternative to neo-liberal globalization;[47][48] and Viva con Agua, a German charity campaigning for clean drinking water worldwide.[49][50] She is also a supporter of green issues; in 2011, she performed with the other members of Wir sind Helden at an anti-nuclear power demonstration in Berlin following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.[51][52]

In 2011, Holofernes had a public argument with advertising agency Jung von Matt when it asked her if she could participate in an advertising campaign for Bild, Germany's most widely read tabloid, even though she had been critical of Bild in the past. She responded by posting an open letter on the Wir sind Helden website, where she criticized the campaign and Bild.[53] At the end of the letter, she stated: "The Bild newspaper is a dangerous political instrument: it's not only a telescope which strongly magnifies into the abyss, but also a malicious entity which is not describing Germany, but shaping it instead – with an agenda."[nb 1] The letter attracted much attention, causing the Wir sind Helden website to go down.[53] Bild subsequently reproduced the letter without Holofernes' consent in a single-page advertisement in German newspaper Die Tageszeitung, with a caption at the end thanking Holofernes for her honest and unpaid opinion.[55]