Heidi Klum put the 17th season of her model show under the motto diversity. The top three places are still occupied by three blondes – one falls out of the typical age group.

All sizes, figures and age groups allowed: With the live finale in Cologne on Thursday evening, the most diverse season of “Germany’s Next Top Model” came to an end.

After about three hours, the 18-year-old Austrian Lou-Anne was the winner. The 1.83 meter tall blonde prevailed against four other finalists from Heidi Klum’s talent show.

Luca (20), who was also blonde, came in second, third place went to Lou-Anne’s mother and “Best-Ager-Model” Martina (50) – who, like her daughter, wears a light blonde short hairstyle. The Berliner Noella (25, fourth place) and Anita from Neustadt an der Donau (21, fifth place) ended up on the other side of the podium. This time, the Personality Award was given to candidate Sophie (19).

Proud mother begrudges daughter victory

“I treat her more than me,” said third-placed Martina after the decision and spoke proudly of her “mother’s heart”. She is very proud of her daughter. “I got everything I wanted.” In the last show of the season, the mother-daughter duo and their competitors had to do several walks and a photo shoot.

A designer sponsored each walk and provided the outfits. The candidates walked across the stage in designs by Jeremy Scott as opulent pieces of furniture and were transformed into a colorful alphabet soup by Marina Hoermanseder. Julien MacDonald dressed the Top 20’s walk, which took place at a New York City intersection complete with yellow cabs.

Heidi Klum as a musical act

The Italian ESC winners Måneskin were there as star guests this year. Klum made the second musical contribution of the evening himself: supported by her husband Tom Kaulitz, she sang “Chai Tea with Heidi”, the title song of the season. Rapper Snoop Dogg, who recorded the song with Klum, was recorded as a hologram. “I’m sorry if it went wrong and your ears hurt now,” said Klum after the performance. “I tried.”

For the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, the families and friends of the candidates were able to cheer on the decision live in the studio – however, masks were compulsory in the audience. “I can’t believe it,” said winner Lou-Anne after the decision. You still have the feeling that you are in a rehearsal and that the actual finale is still ahead of you.

17th season with “Diversity” focus

The ProSieben show started its 17th season this year with a special focus on “diversity”. After Alex Mariah Peter won the first transgender model in 2021, this time the top 20 were actually more different than ever. With Martina, an older model finally made it into the final for the first time.

This season there has been repeated criticism of her models, Klum said on the show, explaining that the fashion industry is just about to change. “Dear critics, I have to disappoint you: we’re going to continue as before!” shouted the “model mom” into the cameras.

In fact, in the past few weeks, the annual criticism of the show has become louder again. The focus was also on the diversity motto – although the point of criticism was usually not the participation of women who represent new model types, but the contradiction between the new image of the show and previous seasons in which Klum and her co-jurors always had again spoken critically to pejoratively about the appearance of some underage models.

criticism on Twitter

This reversal was also picked up on Twitter during the finale. “Stop talking like you invented diversity,” someone tweeted. “Does GNTM really want to pretend that they are saving the world and promoting diversity? Yes Heidi, you are revolutionizing the model world. A few years ago, 60kg was too fat,” read another tweet.

Most recently, several former candidates and YouTuber Rezo had criticized the show concept and the production conditions on social media.