The ninth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar was broadcast on German channel RTL from 7 January to 27 April 2012.
Jury members Fernanda Brandão and Patrick Nuo left DSDS and were replaced by Bruce Darnell and Cascada's Natalie Horler.
As the winner, Luca Hänni received a recording contract with Universal Music Group and €500,000.
Changes include Fernanda Brandão and Patrick Nuo leaving the DSDS jury immediately after season 8 and were replaced by Bruce Darnell and Cascada's Natalie Horler.
[4] The audition cities were Soltau, Saarbrücken, Trier, Mannheim, Karlsdorf, Munich, Landshut, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Freiburg, Zurich, Bern, Graz, Salzburg, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Rostock, Bremen, Hamburg, Hanover, Osnabrück, Cologne, Dortmund, Koblenz, Aachen, Schüttorf, Vienna, Frankfurt, Kassel, Münster, Essen and a second time in Cologne.
[12] (Ages stated at time of contest) Luca Hänni was born on 8 October 1994 in Uetendorf, Switzerland.
[41] He took piano and singing lessons for five years in classical and pop and taught himself to play the guitar.
[41] He likes to relax with singing, listening to music, cooking, or for a cozy evening with his girlfriend in front of the television.
"[47] Joey called DSDS jury member Dieter Bohlen a "pussy" for the negative criticism he has given him.
[48] Joey also stated that his relationship in the long-term won't suffer because of this and he will forgive Dieter at some point.
[50] His favourite songs includes "Über 7 Brücken" by Peter Maffay and "I Sing A Lied Für Du" by Andreas Gabalier.
"[52] He believes fellow candidates Luca Hänni, Jesse Ritch and Fabienne Rothe are cold and calculating.
[53] suffered verbal and death threats during his participation during season 9 due to his homosexuality.
[22] People were writing stuff like "You are sooo gay to .."; "I'll cut your eggs"; "Get out of DSDS, if you value your life" and "I stab you up".
[18] Considered a frontrunner of her season, her early elimination shocked the judges and her fellow contestants.
[56][57][58] RTL stated that she won't return despite angry fans protesting.
[62] During the Top 16 show Marco Schreyl read out an incorrect phone number for Christian Schöne.
[64][65] On 25 April, three days before the final show was broadcast, Daniele Negroni was declared the winner on RTL's website.
[66] In the final TV show Luca Hänni was voted the winner of season 9, with Negroni finishing second.
[31][32][33] At the start of the theme shows, the Hamburger Morgenpost suggested that Thomas Pegram's elimination was expected because of some of his statistics on the DSDS Facebook pages.
[67] He had the fewest "likes" of all the contestants, with only 4,105 people having clicked the button, and received only 813 comments after the official DSDS Facebook fanpage put up his photo.
[67] The following week Hamburger Morgenpost again suggested that Silvia Amaru's elimination was expected as she had the lowest "like" total of the remaining contestants.
[68] The Morgenpost said that it should be "clear" to RTL that "Facebook is a power killer" for Deutschland sucht den Superstar.
The Cologne district government had concerns that the show was violating employment laws that protect children,[69] prohibiting minors from appearing on–stage after 10 PM.
[69] The issue had been raised the previous season when the appearance of Sebastian Wurth was judged to have contravened the law,[70] with RTL receiving a 15,000 Euro fine for the incident.
[70] The season nine contestants affected were Daniele Negroni (16), Luca Hänni (17), Vanessa Krasniqi (17) and Fabienne Rothe (16).
[71] Contestant Kristof Hering suffered abuse and death threats during his participation during season 9 due to being openly gay.
[22] Comments were posted on various websites making physical threats against Hering, including "I'll cut your balls"; "Get out of DSDS, if you value your life" and "I'll stab you up",[22][52] prompting RTL to file charges against various individuals for making the threats.
[73] The winner, Luca Hänni, received a recording contract with Universal Music Group and €500,000.
[11] Within days of being eliminated, Joey Heindle got a recording contract with music producer Mark Delgardo.