The drupa song is a fixed part of drupa and captures the unique atmosphere at the world’s largest trade fair for printing technologies, which will again bring the industry together from 28 May to 7 June this year. In 2024, this tradition successfully continues with the theme song “Let us Create the Future”.
Emotions run high at trade fairs. This is where people come together, where existing business relations grow stronger and where new connections are forged. What could communicate this mixture of emotion and business better than a shared song? With “Let us Create the Future” by Hamburg-based producer and songwriter Julius Trautvetter and singers Gerald Oppong and Maria Nicolaides, drupa once again underscores its uniqueness and importance for the global printing industry.
The sector’s sense of community, joy in reunions, creativity, colours, future, and innovation are some of the key themes in the song that symbolises the attendees’ great anticipation of drupa after eight years of absence. With its catchy beat, the pop song invites exhibitors and visitors to shape the future of the industry together.
The catchy tune composed by Trautvetter was an instant hit. He wrote and produced the song together with Hallgrimson Entertainment Group (The HEG). Trautvetter is the song writer, beat doctor, multi-instrumentalist, and mastermind behind NAKED CAT – a colourful combination of noise, samples, and real instruments. Together with The HEG, NAKED CAT has already acted as a writer and producer for popular band Fresh Music Live, and singers Daniel Hall and Jessica Haller. He has also worked for hip hop group Fettes Brot, singer and rapper Clueso, music band Hundreds, and singer and songwriter Leslie Clio, both in the studio and on stage.
NAKED CAT isn’t one for hogging the limelight. But he has a feeling for the right vibe, the right beat, and sometimes for the right words or even feelings that are all but impossible to describe. Such is the case for the drupa song 2024, where NAKED CAT and The HEG aimed to create a modern, fresh sound that would, in combination with the lyrics, make attendees look forward to the coming trade fair, create a positive atmosphere, and give off early summer vibes. Singers Gerald Oppong and Maria Nicolaides lend the song their distinct voices.
Besides listening to it on YouTube, the drupa theme song “Let us Create the Future” can also be heard every day at the start and end of the visiting times in the trade fair halls at drupa 2024.
The drupa song tradition
The first drupa song came out in 1986, performed and composed by American country music songwriter Dave Gibson, was used until 1995 and, like all its successors, was played in the halls every morning at the opening of the trade fair. The millennium drupa featured an exciting new song for the community, performed by Lucy Wende, produced by Rolf Lammers and American DJ Mal Sondock. In 2004, Elke Diepenbeck (licensed by Stephen Großer) greeted visitors and exhibitors with a song, in 2008 it was Ladag Medien, and in 2012 it was the song “Get Ready to Succeed” by Messe Düsseldorf employee Dirk Zeisler. At the last drupa in 2016, “drupa is in Town Again” by Düsseldorf musician and composer Dieter Falk and soul singer Bonita Niessen was released. In 2021, for virtual.drupa, the featured song was “We Embrace the Future” by Dieter Falk, professor at the academy of music Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, who worked on the song together with his son Paul Falk and BB Thomaz, a finalist of The Voice of Germany 2017.
