Abgewählt literally means "voted out" or "deselected." It's an interesting word choice in a romantic context, as it's typically used in politics or for formal appointments.
In this song, it's used metaphorically to describe a past relationship or life path that the person has consciously rejected or moved on from. The line "Das hattest du doch abgewählt" (You had deselected that, hadn't you?) implies a deliberate decision to leave something behind, making it a unique and thought-provoking word in a love song.
Tim Bendzko's
Tim Bendzko is a German pop singer-songwriter, born in East Berlin in 1985. He started playing guitar as a boy and was writing his own songs by his mid-teens, later leaving a theology degree behind to chase music full time.
His breakthrough came in 2011 with the catchy, big-hearted hit "Nur noch kurz die Welt retten" ("Just gonna save the world real quick"), which topped the German charts for months and won that year's Bundesvision Song Contest. Since then he has become one of Germany's best-loved homegrown pop artists, known for warm, radio-friendly songs about friendship, everyday life, and finding meaning in the ordinary. In "Das Leben wieder lieben" he even nods back to that early hit, insisting that saving the world is "still the plan."