The Makemakes

The Makemakes were an Austrian rock music group consisting of Dominic “Dodo” Muhrer and musicians Florian Meindl and Markus Christ. The name is derived from the dwarf planet Makemake, which in turn was named after the creator deity Makemake in the culture of Easter Island.

The band gained recognition in 2013 when they performed as the opening act for Bon Jovi. The band’s popularity was also fueled by a widely quoted rumor in the press that the group’s singer, Dodo Muhrer, could be an illegitimate son of actor Christoph Waltz.

They were chosen as Austria’s candidate for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Their song “I Am Yours” faced plagiarism allegations, claiming similarities to the song “The Scientist” by the British band Coldplay. An official examination concluded that no plagiarism had occurred.

Their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Vienna on May 23, 2015, was not successful, as they received zero points. They finished last out of 27 participating countries. In reference to the successful Swedish winning song, The Makemakes released a satirical video titled “We are the Zeroes of our Time” on Facebook on the night of the contest. The video received over half a million views in a few days and was interpreted by the media as a fitting gesture. In response, German particpant Ann Sophie, inspired by The Makemakes, released her own version of the Austrian parody the following day.

For the reimagined version of the song “Climb Every Mountain” from the musical The Sound Of Music, the US producer Humberto Gatica enlisted The Makemakes as duet partners for American Idol finalist Joshua Ledet.

In 2017, they filmed the ServusTV documentary The Makemakes in Hollywood – In the Footsteps of The Sound of Music.

In March 2018, The Makemakes released their official comeback single “Keep On Moving” in Austria, in which they claimed to return to their musical roots.

In December, The Makemakes participated in the production of the third episode of the first season of “My Hit Your Song” on ProSieben. With their rock arrangements of the songs “Love Is All Around” and “Freedom” by DJ BoBo, they emerged as winners, earning a prize of 25,000 euros. The German audience responded positively to the band, who were relatively unknown in Germany at the time.

In 2019, two singles of the band, “The Beach” and “Heyo”, became successes in the United Kingdom. In 2020, the band released their version of “Vivo Per Lei”. That was the last time The Makemakes released music together.

Currently, Dodo Muhrer is using the social media of The Makemakes to publish his own music.