The pictures should hardly come as a surprise: if it is certain at some point around midnight this Thursday who “Germany’s Next Top Model” number 18 is, then it will probably rain confetti, then a young or slightly older, very pretty woman will scream and maybe that one or other tears are squashed. Cheers, joy, kisses from Heidi Klum – “mwah, mwah”. The processes have been practiced for almost two decades.
Broadcast as a model platform
And as unexciting as the eternally same staging of the jubilation scene should also be which of the five finalists can finally call themselves beauty queen by Klum’s grace. This is not because the race between Selma (19, from Berlin), Nicole (49, from Offenbach), Olivia (22, from Hamburg), Somajia (21, from Bielefeld) and Vivien (23, from Koblenz) already somehow agreed – quite the opposite. Rather, it is because the crown itself among the candidates no longer seems to be what it used to be.
“For me, the finale – no matter how it ends – is definitely not the end of something,” says Selma in an interview with the German Press Agency. Her sadness at not having gone to celebrate with Klum and her competitors in Las Vegas , because she was simply not yet 21 years old, she seems to have overcome it in the meantime.
“The show gave us all a mega platform that hopefully customers saw me and I want to use it,” says the 19-year-old, who has had pink hair since the obligatory “big makeover”. Candidate Vivien also says that she wants to use “the push” from GNTM for her career.
“I’m the only one of the five of us still working at the moment. I’m just finishing my training,” she says in the dpa interview. “But I plan to continue modeling and use this push from the show.”
From childhood dream to career springboard
“Germany’s Next Top Model” doesn’t seem to be what it used to be for the candidates of the show for a long time – no longer the goal of childhood dreams, but a springboard into a (social media) career. The 49-year-old Nicole, who initially lived with Klum in a model flat share, also notices this. “I have a family and help out in my husband’s office, but now I work more for myself,” she says. “The whole thing with social media and everything – it takes a lot of time.”
Before the candidates can devote themselves entirely to their influencer career on Instagram and Co., they still have to get through the “GNTM” finale – and possibly dance with the Scorpions. “It has already been published what kind of acts are included and what you can say is that we will perform quite well with them,” says Vivien.
Whether she meant the Scorpions or rather Grammy winner Kim Petras, choreographer and dancer Mecnun Giasar (Majnoon), or ESC winner Loreen – the candidates left that open. Something should still surprise on the final evening. (dpa)