Sandra (singer)

Sandra, 2007

Sandra (* 18th May 1962 as Sandra Ann Lauer in Saarbrücken , later Sandra Cretu and Sandra Menges ) is a Franco-German pop singer . With over 30 million records sold, mainly between 1985 and 1992, she is one of the most successful artists in Germany.

biography

1974–1984: initial phase

Sandra was discovered in 1974 by music producer George Roman , who recorded and released the single Andy, my friend with her in 1976 . In 1973, at the age of eleven, she took part in a talent competition. However, it was initially unsuccessful, and Sandra joined the girls' trio Arabesque as lead singer in August 1978 .

While Arabesque achieved only respectable successes in Europe, they achieved great popularity in Japan . The trio released 13 albums and 30 singles in Japan. During this time, Sandra got to know the then tour keyboardist and later composer and producer Michael Cretu . They first became a couple on business and then from 1984 onwards also privately.

1985–1992: Success as a solo artist

After leaving Arabesque, Sandra recorded her second solo single in 1984: Japan ist weit , a German version of the Alphaville hit Big in Japan ; produced by Michael Cretu.

But it wasn't until the summer of 1985 that she achieved a hit with the title (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena . This single, for which Hubert Kah wrote the chorus and contributed the background vocals , was an international success. In live performances and videos Kah did not take action, instead, offered the band members ( Steve Hall alias Peter Ries on bass and Frank Peterson on keyboards, Wolfgang felt on drums), the title for playback . The song reached in Germany and 20 other countries First place and made it into the top ten in five other countries. Sandra was successful worldwide with it, in Sweden the single set a sales record.

The follow-up title In the Heat of the Night , which was released in autumn 1985 like the associated album The Long Play , took second place in the 1986 Tokyo Song Contest and continued its commercial success in Europe, Asia and South America. Mostly written and produced by the Michael Cretu / Hubert Kah team, Sandra developed into one of the most successful singers of the 1980s and landed eight top ten hits in Germany alone. In the summer of 1986, the second long-playing record, Mirrors , followed , from which the tracks Innocent Love , Hi! Hi! Hi! , Loreen and Midnight Man were released as singles.

With Ten on One (The Singles) , Sandra's first best-of album came out in the fall of 1987. With the single Stop for a Minute , which was released in early 1988 , she had a cameo in the Saarland crime scene Salü Palu , in which she portrayed herself. Another album was released in October 1988, Into a Secret Land . The singles Secret Land and We'll Be Together reached the top ten of the German charts.

Also in 1988 she and Kim Wilde received an award for most records sold by women in Europe. Sandra was also popular with the readers of the largest German youth magazine Bravo and received a total of nine Bravo Otto's in the annual readers' polls between 1985 and 1993 , including five golds in a row (1988 to 1992). Their 1989 single Hiroshima is a cover of a song of the same name by the band Wishful Thinking from 1969. The album Paintings in Yellow followed shortly afterwards . From 1990 she was also involved as a singer in Cretus project Enigma . Close to Seven became a top ten album in Germany in early 1992. With 18 Greatest Hits, the second compilation was in the record stores for Christmas business of the year .

1993–2002: Waning success and attempted comeback

After 1992 she was unable to build on her earlier successes. In particular, the sixth studio album Fading Shades from 1995 fell short of the usual sales figures. With her third hot compilation My Favorites from mid-1999, which came up with partly remixed versions of her hits, she achieved a top 20 chart placement.

In October 2001, Forever, the first new single since 1995, was released. While Forever was still in the top 50 of the German single charts, the successors Such a Shame (a cover of Talk Talk ) and I Close My Eyes remained unsuccessful . In the spring of 2002, Sandra reached the top ten in Germany for one week (eighth place) with the accompanying seventh studio album The Wheel of Time , which contained new material for the first time in seven years.

Since 2004: return to the stage and with new records

After several years of abstinence from the stage, Sandra gave a concert in Dresden in October 2004 as part of a 1980 revival event . In 2006 she had several appearances again, in addition to Germany, increasingly in Eastern European countries, where the music of the 1980s is still very successful. The duet with DJ BoBo Secrets of Love was placed in the German charts at the beginning of 2006 and stayed in the German top 20 for five weeks and climbed to 13th place.

To promote new material that was to appear later, Reflections was released in September 2006 , an album with remixes of the greatest hits. Another new album, The Art of Love (produced by Jens Gad ), was released in February 2007 and became another top 20 chart hit. After The Way I Am , the second single from The Art of Love was the song What Is It About Me , which was the first song since Won't Run Away (1995) to fail to score in the German single charts. The planned release of the song Put Your Arms Around Me , written by Sinéad O'Connor , was discarded.

In 2008 Sandra worked on new material in addition to other appearances in Germany and Eastern Europe, which was released in March 2009 on her album Back to Life . In a Heartbeat and The Night Is Still Young , a duet with Thomas Anders that reached number 46, were released as singles from the album . At the end of 2009, The Platinum Collection was released, a three-CD collection of all singles and promo singles released to date as well as some unreleased album tracks and remixes of their greatest hits.

In April 2012, Blank & Jones released a double CD from the successful So80's remix series (so eighties) with the maxi versions of all singles published by Sandra in the 1980s as well as B-sides and remixes. In May 2012 a new single was released, produced by Blank & Jones and written by Jens Gad, entitled Maybe Tonight . However, the song did not appear on the So80's compilation, but only on the album Stay in Touch , which was released in October 2012 and which was again produced entirely by Blank & Jones. The texts were also written by Gad throughout. In addition to Sandra as the lead singer, Hubert Kah was heard again as her male counterpart for the first time since the 1980s. For the release Infinite Kiss , which was released in November 2012, Sandra produced an official video for the first time since Secrets of Love . Stay in Touch reached number 20 in the German album charts and positions in the hit lists of Switzerland, France, Poland, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

In June 2016, Sandra released the album The Very Best of Sandra . In April 2016, the singer called on her fans to vote online for their favorite songs in order to determine the track list. In addition to the 30 greatest hits and two new remixes of In the Heat of the Night and Secrets of Love , the album also contains the German-language songs Japan ist weit und seconds . The compilation entered the German album charts at number 50. Sandra's management was taken over by Alexei Perzhukevich in 2016.

Private life

In January 1988, Sandra married her producer Michael Cretu . After the release of the album Fading Shades in the summer of 1995, Sandra retired into private life and gave birth to twins. In October 2008, the couple announced their separation.

In spring 2010, Sandra married Olaf Menges, whom she met in Ibiza at the end of 2007 . In 2014 there was a separation. Sandra lives in Ibiza and Munich.

In an interview with Markus Lanz in 2012, Sandra confirmed that she was a French citizen. Her father is French, and according to the citizenship law applicable at the time, the children automatically received the father’s citizenship.

Discography

→ Main article : Sandra (singer) / discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	FR
1985	The Long Play Virgin Records	DE12 gold (20 weeks)DE	AT18 (12 weeks) AT	CH4 (13 weeks) CH	-	FR- gold FR	First published: November 11, 1985 Sales: + 409,176
1986	Mirrors Virgin Records	DE16 (14 weeks) DE	-	CH13 (12 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: October 13, 1986
1988	Into a Secret Land Virgin Records	DE14th gold (34 weeks)DE	AT13 (14 weeks) AT	CH9 platinum (11 weeks)CH	-	FR14th platinum (… Where.)FR	First published: October 24th, 1988 Sales: + 600,000
1990	Paintings in Yellow Virgin Records	DE4th gold (22 weeks)DE	AT14 (11 weeks) AT	CH8th platinum (12 weeks)CH	-	FR13 gold (… Where.)FR	First published: March 26, 1990 Sales: + 400,000
1992	Close to Seven Virgin Records	DE7 (14 weeks) DE	AT26 (5 weeks) AT	CH13 (7 weeks) CH	-	FR18 (... weeks) FR	First published: February 17, 1992
1995	Fading Shades Virgin Records	DE42 (9 weeks) DE	-	CH37 (2 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: June 12, 1995
2002	The Wheel of Time Virgin Records	DE8 (8 weeks) DE	AT63 (1 week) AT	CH68 (3 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: May 17, 2002
2007	The Art of Love Electrola	DE16 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH88 (2 weeks) CH	-	FR159 (1 week) FR	First published: February 23, 2007
2009	Back to Life Virgin Records	DE26 (3 weeks) DE	-	CH83 (1 week) CH	-	-	First published: March 27, 2009
2012	Stay in Touch Virgin Records	DE20 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH51 (1 week) CH	-	FR119 (1 week) FR	First published: October 26, 2012

Awards

Bravo Otto

• 1985: "Silver" in the "Singer" category
• 1986: "Bronze" in the "Singer" category
• 1987: "Silver" in the "Singer" category
• 1988: "Gold" in the "Singer" category
• 1989: "Gold" in the "Singer" category
• 1990: "Gold" in the "Singer" category
• 1991: "Gold" in the "Singer" category
• 1992: "Gold" in the "Singer" category
• 1993: "Bronze" in the "Singer" category

echo

• 1993: in the category "Artist National"

Golden Europe

• 1986, 1992

Lion from Radio Luxembourg

• 1988: "Bronze" (Everlasting Love)

RSH gold

• 1989
• 1991: in the category "German Production Female"

World Music Award

• 1990: in the category "Best Selling German Artist"

Web links

Commons : Sandra  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Sandra in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sandra in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Sandra at Discogs (English)
• Official website of the singer (accessed February 26, 2015)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ What happened to Sandra? . Rsh.de. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Nadine Bauer: What is…… Sandra doing? In: Schweizer Illustrierte . May 10, 2012, accessed April 14, 2018 . 
3. ↑ Sandra at Markus Lanz, ZDF, July 3, 2012
4. ↑ http://www.sandra-music.com/de/kontakt.html
5. ↑ https://www.crocodile-music.de/sandra/
6. ↑ http://www.schweizer-illustrierte.ch/stars/sandra-cretu-menges-80er-jahre-pop-ikone-maria-magdalena-hiroshima-hubert-kah-comeback
7. ^ "Maria Magdalena" singer: What is Sandra doing? , stern.de , September 15, 2018
8. ↑ [1] Sandra - Interview with Markus Lanz, July 3, 2012