25. March 2025
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Media Review

Vanessa Mai – Mai Tai

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Vanessa Mai - Mai Tai

Vanessa Mai - Mai Tai
2.6

Rating

 2.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Good start of the album
  • Nice closing track

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Average to really thin middle section of the album

New stuff from Vanessa Mai: just about a year after the German Schlager star released her album Für Immer (“Forever”), she is back in the record stores with Mai Tai. At least there is no need to translate the album title to you – let’s see if that music cocktail is rather a tasty drink or a dishwasher. Release date has been 26th March 2021. Cheers!

 

Vanessa Mai – About The Artist

You find quite some bio about Vanessa Mai, whose civil name is Vanessa Marija Else Mandekic, in my review of Für Immer. The album also contains the catchy Venedig (Love Is In the Air), which I selected as one of my favorite songs in 2019. In the meantime, Vanessa Mai branded even stronger, especially on the social media side. Her Instagram account, for example, is subscribed by over 800,000 people.

 

Vanessa Mai – Mai Tai – Track by Track

The fourteen song album lasts 41 mintues.

1. Sommerwind

2.2 million streams on YouTube only. The opener to Mai Tai was a massive success when Vanessa Mai released Sommerwind (“Summer Wind”) in September 2020. A very modern and catchy schlager-pop track.

2. Leichter

Leichter (“Easier”) feels to start with a sample of Sommerwind. Vanessa Mai is going a bit back to her dancing roots, the verses have a strong touch of hip hop.

Ich will nur, dass du weißt
Ich steh vor deiner Wohnungstür
Würd so gerne hoch zu dir
Sag mir, wann wird’s leichter?

(“I just want that you know
I am standing in front of the door to your flat
Would love to go upstairs to you
Tell me, when will it be easier?”)

It is not the deepest song ever, but it is schlager-pop. It cannot connect to the opening track in quality, but it is a nice track.

3. Morgenlicht

Morgenlicht is a very characteristic Vanessa Mai song: a schlager-pop with a present rhythm and a high potential to move to the beat on the dancefloor. The lyrics are some thin love story and her vocal performance is about sufficient for this track. Might sound a bit of negative – but overall, she is delivering music which is fun and makes you smile – Morgenlicht (“Morning Light”) even comes with panpipes sounds. So it is not bad at all.

4. Mitternacht (feat. FOURTY)

The third single on the album is Mitternacht (“Midnight”) recorded together with the German rapper FOURTY. I feel the song comes with a cool and catchy melody. The vocal performance of both artists is rather thin, though. I have to clearly state that many people love this song – it has been quite successful.

5. Augenblick

Augenblick (“Moment”) is the first ballad on the album. I feel it is nice songwriting, but I really struggle with this track. I feel that the song simply does not fit to her voice. Would love to have this track with another vocalist to compare. The substance of the song itself, however, is great.

6. Der Eine

Der Eine (“The One”) is a love letter to her husband. I feel this song illustrates the struggle about Vanessa Mai: she is not the strongest vocalist. I am sure that this song will feel much better on stage, when Mai can use her enormous talent to present her stories and interact with her fans. In the studio, the song is rather thin.

7. Mai Tai

Cheers! We made it to the title track. If you want to drink a proper Mai Tai cocktail to this song, you have to be really quick – the song just lasts 2:24 minutes. I really love Vanessa Mai – the more I struggle with Mai Tai. The song is terribly thin. Nice word play, also with her surname, but this is definitely rather an especially bad track than an outstanding one.

8. Ruf nicht mehr an

The fourth single release on the album is hopefully improving my mood after the disappointment about the seventh song. The most remarkable thing about this song, though, is that Mai is stating that in case of unlucky love, she might be driving with blurred cayal at a speed of 180 kph. She’s got so many young fans. She is not just a much better artist in other songs – she is also a better idol to them.

9. Eine Sekunde

The rhythmic Eine Sekunde again comes with a slight hip hop touch. This song is not that bad – but there have been much better songs at the beginning of the album.

10. Gib nie auf

Gib nie auf (“Never give up”) definitely adds a positive feeling while listening to Mai Tai again. The storytelling is much more complex than in many other songs of album – and I feel that Vanessa Mai is great in them. Bad luck that she and her team is not daring to do more of these kind of tracks.

11. Landebahn (feat. Ardian Bujupi)

For Landebahn (“Runway”), Vanessa Mai is joined by the German R%B singer Ardian Bujupi, who was born in Pristina, Kosovo.

Landеbahn, wir heben ab
Du machst mich high, Babe, und wir fliegen durch die Nacht
Flugmodus an, komm’ nicht mehr klar
Viertausend Meilen von Paris bis nach Katar
Gegen die Schwerkraft, ohne Schlaf
Champagne in der Business-Class
Mach’ kein Auge zu, mit dir bleib’ ich wach

(“Runway, we are taking off
You turn me high, Babe, and we fly through the night
Flight mode on, I don’t manage it any more
Four thousand miles from Paris to Qatar.
Against gravity, without sleep
Champagne in Business Class
I can’t close my eyes, I stay awake with you”)

The song is very pop-ish. Of course, I should praise Vanessa for aviation-themed songs. But overall, the song just reminds me too much of the extremely thin Du gewinnst on Maite Kelly’s recent new album release Hello. One of these songs where you somehow push a thin song into a certain topic. I just don’t like one – not only because it is ridiculous to have a “First Class flight in a Cessna around the globe”. Yeah, I am a nerd.

12. Safe Du

Safe Du is not even proper German – so if you are not a German mother tongue and feel that the title is somehow strange, you are right. There is not too much more worth mentioning about this song.

13. Auf anderen Wegen (2021 version)

This song has been quite a success for the German artist Andreas Bourani in 2014. Vanessa Mai tries to interpret Auf anderen Wegen (“On other paths”) in a very intimate and quiet style. The song is having more and more power over the curse of the playtime. I struggled at the very beginning of the song – but overall, I feel that this new version has a nice touch. I would still rather go with the original.

14. Fort von hier

The album closes with Fort von hier (“Away from here”), which was part of the German soundtrack of the Netflix movie Over The Moon. I really like Vanessa’s voice as part of the Disney-alike sound of song. A pleasing finish of the album.

 

Vanessa Mai – Mai Tai – Spotify

Here is Mai Tai on Spotify:

 

Vanessa Mai – Mai Tai – My View

Mai Tai was in fact an album I was looking forward to that much. I had it in my review planning for months. I really like Vanessa Mai and her music – but this album is too thin. It is hard to believe that such a catchy blast like Sommerwind is one the same record like Landebahn. The good songs on the album prevent a rating I would really feel sorry for.

 

German Schlager

Easy, German language pop – here are all postings about German Schlager on Flyctory.com:

 

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