Germán Garmendia

Germán Alejandro Garmendia Aranis (born April 25, 1990) is a Chilean YouTuber, singer-songwriter, comedian and writer. He became famous for his YouTube channel HolaSoyGerman, which uploaded humorous videos about everyday situations. In 2013, he created his gameplay channel, JuegaGerman which, over time, would surpass his previous channel in subscribers. It also is the second-most subscribed channel in the Spanish language, behind Argentine channel El Reino Infantil. He is the most-subscribed YouTuber in Chile.

In 2016, he became the first YouTuber to receive two Diamond plates, and outside his YouTube career, he formed a musical career with bands like Zudex, Feeling Every Sunset, and Ancud; he also released several songs in his solo career. In April 2016, he released his first book, #ChupaElPerro. Another book, Di Hola, was released in 2018. He has received praise for his YouTube channels. In the MTV Millennial Awards, he won the Digital Icon and Master Gamer categories in 2014 and 2015, respectively. He was listed as one of the biggest YouTube stars by The Washington Post, one of the most popular by BBC, and one of the most influential in Time magazine.

Early life
Germán Alejandro Garmendia Aranis was born on April 25, 1990, in Copiapó, Chile, and lived there until he was 12 years old. In 1993, when he was three, his father, Germán Luis Garmendia, died in a car crash on Christmas Eve. After the death of his father, he, his mother Cecilia del Carmen Aranis, and his brother Diego Garmendia traveled across the country until they settled in Los Vilos, a coastal city located to the north of Santiago, where he lived much of his adolescent life. In that town he met his first love, to whom he dedicated a song called "Para Ti". He had originally planned to study civil engineering, however he never carried it out.

At 13, he and his brother and some friends formed a Pop rock band called Zudex. In 2006, he would start his career as a YouTuber by uploading videos of his band. They made several presentations in youth festivals and schools, achieving some renown in that field. Individual obligations and responsibilities precipitated the end of the band. In the early 2010s, he was the vocalist of his next group Feeling Every Sunset.

Internet career
On September 9, 2011, he uploaded HolaSoyGerman's first video titled Las cosas obvias de la vida (lit. "The obvious things in life"). The videos on the channel consisted of humorous monologues talking about everyday life situations. In an interview with BBC Mundo, he stated that "The humor I do on YouTube is quite innocent. I've always liked making people laugh by making fun of myself, never of others." In 2013, he created another YouTube channel called JuegaGerman, where he mainly uploads gameplay videos and other content.

A Spanish YouTuber named YoLordestructor uploaded a video accusing him of using bots to artificially boost his subs. He cite a deleted video from HolaSoyGerman, Internet y Redes Sociales, in which it displayed various websites marked as AddSocials, YouLikeHits and SocialClump, which are allegedly for using bots. Days later, he uploaded another video in which he accused Germán of having deleted his previous video due to copyright claims. Later, other YouTubers such as the Mexican Diego de La Mattaz known as Diego Mexivergas and the Chilean Xodaaa uploaded videos giving the accusations as true. On August 24, 2013, he uploaded a video responding to these accusations, claiming they were false, which racked up over four million views before being removed. In that same year, he uploaded the HolaSoyGerman most popular video titled Los Hermanos. At the end of 2013, through his channel HolaSoyGerman, which by then had 12 million subscribers, he became the YouTuber with the second most subscribers, only behind PewDiePie, according to data provided by YouTube Rewind. In August 2014 he won the "Digital Icon" category from MTV Millennial Awards.

In April 2014, he was scheduled to appear at the Telmex Aldea Digital in Zócalo, Mexico City. The event had many problems, the talk he gave did not have a good sound, the tent was filled with many more people than it could bear. People pushed each other and those who tried to enter were injured. After the Secretary of Public Security of the Government of the Federal District regained control of the situation, the crowd dispersed and the event was cancelled.

In 2015 he went together with El Rubius and other YouTubers to the Club Media Fest. In October 2015, Jack Black appeared in a video titled Tipos de alumnos  to publicize the movie Goosebumps. In March 2016, the Canadian rock band, Simple Plan was featured in the intro of a video entitled La Comida. In April 2016, he would reach 10 million subscribers in his two main channels HolaSoyGerman and JuegaGerman, which led him to be the first YouTuber to obtain two Diamond plates. In June 2016, he won the category "Master Gamer" from MTV Millennial Awards, at the Pepsi Center WTC in Mexico City.

On November 20, 2016, he uploaded their last HolaSoyGerman video, Como Encontrar Trabajo. In a JuegaGerman video titled Esto pasa si busco mi nombre en YouTube, he explained that the reason for this decision was due to the extensive process that each video on that channel required for him to create, stating that sometimes it took more than 22 hours. This statement was in response to a Spanish YouTuber who accused him of taking drugs to make his videos. By 2018, he was the fifth most popular YouTuber on the platform. In August 2018 he won in the Favorite Gamer category of the Mexico Kids' Choice Awards.

In September 2018, the Facebook page Paradero UAH posted a two-minute excerpt from a JuegaGerman video from August 30, 2014, titled OH POR DIOS, SOY EMO, in which while playing Beyond: Two Souls, he begins to say comments that were branded as misogynistic, disgusting and sexist. The clip became viral through social networks. Several days later, he uploaded a video entitled Una Disculpa Y Reflexión Para Seguir Avanzando, in which he apologized for comments made in the 2014 video. Alex Christiansen from La Tercera criticized the video.

In 2019, his HolaSoyGerman channel, which until then had thirty seven million, was in a confrontation for being the Spanish-speaking channel with the most subscribers worldwide with the Mexican company Badabun, who would end up surpassing him in subscribers that same year, but over time their other channel JuegaGerman would end up surpassing them in subscribers. In October 2021 he won the Leyend Award at the Eliot Awards, due to his long career on YouTube. In 2023 he won the category of Best Trajectory in the ESLAND Awards of the Spanish YouTuber TheGrefg.

Writing career
On April 5, 2016, he uploaded a promotional video of his book #ChupaElPerro: Uno que otro consejo, which would not be officially released until April 28 of that same year, edited by Penguin Random House, Altea and Alfaguara publishers. His book is a self-help manual where he gives "Germansejos", jokes and anecdotes. The title phrase "Chupa el perro" (lit. 'suck the dog') is of Chilean origin and refers to oral sex. Under the slang used in HolaSoyGerman it means "¡vete al carajo!" (lit. 'go to hell!'). He later toured Latin America to promote it; On April 23, he participated in the Bogotá International Book Fair, in Colombia,  signing more than 100,000 copies during twelve hours, in which more than 50,000 people attended. What caused him a health decompensation, being transferred to a care center to recover. During his visit to the forty-two edition of the Buenos Aires International Book Fair on May 7 in La Rural, he sold more than 8,000 copies.

The first print run consisted of 170,000 copies and by mid-May it was practically exhausted in Spain, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina. In Chile, 30,000 copies were sold, for which a second edition of 20,000 was ordered. By February 2017, it sold more than 43,000 copies in that country. On May 14, he held a book signing day at the La Cúpula Theater, located inside O'Higgins Park, in which 3,000 people registered for that event. On May 16, it became the best-selling Chilean non-fiction book. On June 11, he made a promotional visit in Bicentennial Park, Mexico, in which more than 7 thousand people attended, of which 4,500 acquired signed copies of the book.

In December 2017 he announced that he would write a second book and in the second half of 2018 he wrote a contract with Planeta Group. In September 2018, he announced the release of his fictional novel, Di Hola, which is "a moving story about loyalty, love and friendship" starring Oscar and Natalie. It was released on October 9, 2018, in Ibero-America. Later he made promotional visits in Bogota on October 26 and Lima on November 2.

Music career
He was vocalist for the band Ancud, made up of both him and his brother Diego. whose name was given in honor of the namesake city of Chiloé. On April 5, 2016, they released a four-track EP, Así es Normal. On November 12, 2016, he announced via Twitter that he would be present at the third Club Media Fest that would take place on December 10 of that year, in Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima de Buenos Aires. On November 22, they posted on his band's official account the music video for "Cambia", a song with "quite soft guitars and melodies with German on the microphone."

In March 2017, Ancud was nominated in Best South Region Artist and Revelation Artist categories in the third edition of the Heat Latin Music Awards. In April, they released the studio album, Se hacen realidad, which contains 4 songs from the previous EP, Así es normal plus another 3 new songs, including the homonymous single that, like "Cambia", had a promotional video clip.

They also announced a live concert at the Caupolicán Theatre on November 4, 2017, as part of the Latin American tour Se hacen realidad Tour, charging 40,000 pesos per court, 28,000 for the lower stalls and 15,000 for the upper stalls. In La Tercera, Paul Quinteros criticized the admission prices stating that charging for 40 thousand pesos was a "massive impudence". Later, due to logistical issues, the concert was moved to the Colosseum Theater, keeping the same date, and charging the same prices as before.

"Plan B" was released in September 2020, reaching position 123 on the Puerto Rican charts. At the end of December 2021, he announced the release of his new song, "Titán", being released on January 6, 2022, on their official music accounts, reaching number six in the Chilean charts for four weeks.

Other works
In August 2014, he uploaded in HolaSoyGerman, Agua para Africa (lit. 'Water for Africa'), in which he shows his support for a non-profit campaign known as Agua Mi Caridad, whose main objective was to raise $100,000 to help the northern region of Sahel. In September of that year $72,000 was raised. In June 2015, he was the protagonist in an advertisement for the Mexican snack brand Crujitos. In 2016 he dubbed Julian's voice in Ice Age: Collision Course in Latin Spanish,  whose character was described by Garmendia himself as "loud and scandalous".

In June 2016, he attended the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, running for more than 200 meters holding the Olympic flame at Foz do Iguaçu, before passing it to Calu Rivero. The inclusion of both in the 2016 Olympic Games generated quite a bit of controversy, and also received a lot of criticism. Chilean digital newspaper El Dínamo questioned the inclusion of Garmendia in said tour, wondering if "there was no one else in Chile." In January 2017, he and the developer HsG Games published German Quest, an exclusive video game for Smartphones with Android operating system. The game initially garnered between 17,000 and 100,000 downloads.

In March 2017, he and his brother boarded the Rainbow Warrior III ship and visited the communes of Ancud, Chiloé and Pudeto to support Greenpeace's campaign, "Salvemos los mares del fin del mundo",  whose objective was the protection of the oceans of the southern area of the Americas.

Since April 9, 2018, he was Chilean ambassador of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In December 2021, he made an appearance in the Digital Table of the Teletón,  in which he donated 30,000,000 Chilean pesos   on behalf of the Antofagasta region. He also participated in an episode of the show Socios de la Hamburguesa, directed by Pancho Saavedra. In it, he dedicated himself to chatting with Saavedra, Jorge Zabaleta and Pedro Ruminot, the latter stated that he contacted Germán to appear in an old CHV program, El club de comedia. In 2023 he was invited to participate in La Velada del Año 3 of the Spanish streamer Ibai Llanos, where he would face off against the Argentine streamer Coscu in a boxing match on July 1. During the boxing match, he lost by knockout to Coscu.

Personal life
In November 2015, he uploaded a twenty-minute video to JuegaGerman in which he talked about how an alleged "obsessed fan" had threatened to kill people close to him. In 2015, he ended his relationship with Mexican YouTuber Allison Smith and returned to Chile. On May 29, 2016, he uploaded a video entitled Mi novia (lit. 'My Girlfriend'), in which he reveals his relationship with Lenay Chantelle Olsen, also known as Lele.

In a video from November 21, 2016, titled Mi Historia de Bullying (lit. 'My Bullying Story'), he spoke about the bullying that he suffered because of his thinness. In March 2017, during his stay in Chile, he uploaded the video This has to stop... please, in which he talks about all the harassment he and his girlfriend had received from some fans.

Public image
He has been considered the most important YouTuber in Latin America. Notimérica explained that in its content it uses the performance of various characters in some scenes as a "characteristic resource" to give the videos "great dynamism." In April 2013, he was listed in a New York Times article, and in July 2015, he was chosen as the second YouTube's biggest star from the Washington Post, both claiming that their earnings were 1.3 million dollars per year. Business Insider also estimated that he earned $2 million. He denied being a millionaire in an exclusive interview with the Informe Especial program: "People rely a lot on the CPM in the United States, which is the cost per thousand visits, something that we don't have. If in the United States and United Kingdom it's 14 dollars, we have 0.5 dollars."

In December 2016, he was listed as one of the highest-paid YouTube stars by Forbes, stating that he earned 5.5 million and being the only Latin American YouTuber on the list. In January 2018, the BBC chose him as the second most popular YouTuber,  and in June 2018, Wired highlighted his aspirations to act, write, and direct in Hollywood during his stay in Los Angeles in 2017. On July 16, 2019, he was listed as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Internet by Time. In September 2020, the Monitor Information Agency listed him as one of the most profitable vloggers. In 2022, a CashNetUSA study noted that he would have an estimated income of $28,761,924.

Studio albums and EPs

 * 2006: Hecho en Casa (EP as Zudex)
 * 2007: Punto De Partida (EP as Zudex)
 * 2008: Mil Sueño (EP as Zudex)
 * 2009: Rande Rande (EP as Zudex)
 * 2011: Homemade (EP as German Garmendia)
 * 2011: Die Trying (EP as Feeling Every Sunset)
 * 2014: Cuando Desees Recordar Mi Voz (EP as Feeling Every Sunset)
 * 2016: Así Es Normal (EP as Ancud)
 * 2017: Se Hacen Realidad (Studio album as Ancud)

Works

 * (2016) #ChupaElPerro: Uno que otro consejo. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-956-958-365-0.
 * (2018) Di Hola. Planeta. ISBN 978-956-360-492-4.