Baschi's recipe for success? "Shyness combined with slight arrogance"

Baschi has been on stage for 20 years, delighting his fans. Now a TV documentary looks back on the life of the 38-year-old singer and shows how much energy it can take to fulfill a lifelong dream.

"Merci for the incredible evening. Thank you Gelterkinden ... Don't do shit and have God before your eyes." At the age of 17, Baschi, whose real name is Sebastian Bürgin, stood on a big stage for the first time in the casting show "Musicstar" on Swiss television SRF - and he has been rocking Switzerland ever since.

Now, 20 years later, on September 7, 2024, he experienced the "concert of his life", as he says himself: Baschi celebrated his stage anniversary in his home town of Gelterkinden with an open-air concert on the village square.

"Gelterkinden, how are you? Are you up for a two-hour party?", the musician asks the 4,000 people who have made the pilgrimage to the Basel village to see him at the start of the concert. This is followed by one heart-stopping moment after another on the crowded village square.

Baschi stood up with his left leg

The 38-year-old singer is the main character in the new documentary "Bring en hei - Baschi's emotional journey home". Filmmaker Raphael Diethelm follows the musician up close with his camera in the last twelve hours before the anniversary concert.

Unfortunately, there's a problem the morning before the gig: Baschi got up with his left leg. He feels unwell and his voice is scratchy. He has already taken an aspirin. Will that do any good?

But Baschi wouldn't be Baschi if he let this get him all worked up. His mother Monika Bürgin used to help him in such situations, but now his wife Alana Netzer stands by his side.

"I am the wife. I'm the supportive shoulder. I'm the amateur psychologist," says Netzer in the documentary. And continues: "I'm the person where he can let out his frustrations. I'm his outlet, but also his little sister who you can annoy."

That sounds really nice, but Baschi finds it difficult to accept this support at many times. The musician struggles with compliments and just before the "biggest concert of his life anyway".

Baschi keeps asking: "Was it really good?"

However,Baschi usually continues to annoy those around him for a long time after performances, as he admits towards the end of the documentary. Because instead of simply being happy about a success, he keeps asking: "Was it really good?"

Meanwhile, Baschi's mother Monika Bürgin recounts in the documentary how she used to sit in the audience on the TV show "Musicstar". "It wasn't always easy. Especially not when the people next to me were making fun of Baschi, my son."

But Mami Bürgin didn't put up with everything. Once, during a concert, she told the people next to her to be careful what they said about Baschi, because she was his mother.

At that moment, the mood around her suddenly turned positive. In the end, it even went so far that she had to give a fan an autograph.

Dabu Bucher: "That's typical Baschi again"

When asked about the secret of Baschi's success, Ivo Sacchi, Managing Director of Universal Music Switzerland, the musician's record company, says: "The shyness with the slight arrogance."

This statement fits well with the fact that Baschi did not rehearse before his anniversary concert in Gelterkinden BL with the invited guest singers such as Dabu Bucher and Beatrice Egli. "I just hope," says Baschi, visibly nervous, "they watched their shit."

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"That's typical Baschi again," explains singer Bucher from the band Dabu Fantastic with a laugh. "We didn't agree anything. But that's just the way Baschi is. Everything is already clear in his head, but he always forgets to communicate it to the outside world."

"Yes ... I'm not the greatest communicator," Baschi replies cheerfully. "I'm often already a bit further along in my thoughts, but I haven't even asked Dabu if he wants to perform a song on stage with me."

"No matter what we do, we do it together"

Shortly before the anniversary concert in Gelterkinden, Baschi's nerves are completely on edge: "It's too much, it's too much ... and then I also have a cold."

But as Raoul Hüppi, Baschi's manager, says at the beginning of the documentary: "No matter what we do, we do it together and we go all out."

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Half an hour before the concert, nothing works. Baschi needs time for himself. He stands in the backstage area and asks his team: "Ten minutes to myself."

The singer will later explain in the documentary that he has never been able to enjoy the hours before a concert, no matter how many people are in the audience. "I can talk myself into it as much as I want, I'm just never chilled then."

Suddenly there are only five minutes left until the show. The audience is already screaming: "Baschi! Baschi! Baschi!"

Then Baschi climbs the stairs to the stage and off he goes: "Gelterkinden, how are you? Are you up for two hours of partying?"

The documentary "Bring en hei - Baschi's emotional journey home" has been running on the streaming service oneplus andthe TV channel 3+since this week.

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