Christiane “Bobo(lina)” Hebold is a German singer who co-founded the band Bobo in White Wooden Houses. She also contributed backing vocals to selected Rammstein songs. In 1990, Bobo formed the band Bobo in White Wooden Houses with Frank Heise, who became the band’s guitarist. The band’s original line-up included Axel “Lexa” Schäfer on bass (until 1995 and again since 2007) and Ulli Lange on drums (until 1992). In 1995, Heise’s suicide caused the band to call a hiatus, which lasted until 2004.
Bobo provides backing vocals for several Rammstein songs. Her contributions started with Sehnsucht‘s “Engel”, which she has also performed with the band live, as can be seen in Live aus Berlin. She can also be heard on the alternative mix from “Alter Mann” which appeared on the single for “Das Modell” and in the song “Nebel”, from 2001 album Mutter. In 2005’s, Rosenrot she sang on “Stirb nicht vor mir” in the German version of the song, which did not make the final cut, but she can be heard in the backing vocals of the English version, where the female lead was provided by Sharleen Spiteri. However, Rammstein keyboardist Flake Lorenz has claimed he preferred the German version with Bobo’s vocals.
Christiane Hebold (* 1967), known as “Bobo” (also “Bobolina”), a pastor’s daughter from Gräfenhainichen , founded a girl band at the age of 13. She later studied singing at the Weimar University of Music and wrote her first own songs. In 1990 she met guitarist Frank Heise in Berlin and founded the band Bobo in White Wooden Houses with him . Not only was their first single, “Hole in Heaven” , a success, but the song “Wide Awake ” also helped the band win the 1990 Leipzig Rock Competition, which made them the first band to gain a foothold in the East German indie scene after reunification. The three recordings Bobo in White Wooden Houses (1992), Passing Stranger (1993) and Cosmic Ceiling (1995) were released. The band not only achieved high sales figures, but also a nomination as the German entry (video Travel in My Mind ) at the MTV Euro-Video-Grand Prix 1995 – a kind of counter-event to the Eurovision Song Contest taking place at the same time .
Following Frank Heise’s suicide in 1995, the original lineup disbanded, and Bobolina devoted herself primarily to her daughter Flora Camille and several solo projects. In 2004, Bobolina reunited with a new lineup as White Wooden Houses. In 2010, Bobolina, Axel “Lexa” Schäfer, new guitarist and producer Jan Stolterfoht, and new drummer Christian Kohler recorded the new album Transparent . Former member Andrew McGuiness guested on drums on one song.
From 1996 onwards, Christiane Hebold continued to work as a soloist and as part of other bands and projects. In 1996, the single Black Hole Sun was released with the London Session Orchestra , and the album Glow followed shortly afterwards. She then went on to be a guest singer for the band Rammstein and their hit Engel , and was part of the group Alaska, with whom she worked on songs for three years. They even produced a full album, which was ultimately never released. This led to the band splitting up, and the musicians went their separate ways in 2001. In the same year, she collaborated with the group Saal Drei, who improvised ambient music in churches. Bobo worked on radio plays with pianist Ulrike Haage (formerly of Rainbirds ), recording songs for them. In 2004, she also collaborated with the DJ duo Blank & Jones. The single Perfect Silence reached number 46 and stayed in the German charts for seven weeks .
The group Bobo in White Wooden Houses has also been revived since 2004. Initially with a completely different lineup, from 2007 onward with Lexa Schäfer and initially Andrew McGuiness on drums, the band has resumed live performances and released three more albums: a self-distributed tour CD (2004) and the studio albums Mental Radio (2007) and Transparent (2010). Since 2004, the artist has also been collaborating with composer and pianist Sebastian Herzfeld under the moniker Bobo + Herzfeld. The two perform in the fields of experimental, folk, and world music and have released several studio and live albums. The album ” Blick in den Strom” was released in September 2018.
