Sandra Cretu

Infobox musical artist
Name = Sandra

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Birth_name = Sandra Ann Lauer
Born = birth date and age|1962|5|18
Died =
Origin = Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany
Genre = Pop, Eurodisco
Occupation = Singer, songwriter
Years_active = 1970s-present
Label = Virgin
URL = [http://www.sandranet.com sandranet.com]

Sandra Ann Lauer (May 18, 1962, Saarbrücken, Germany), and professionally known as "Sandra", is a popular German singer/songwriter, currently living in Ibiza (Spain). After enjoying some success as lead singer of the disco trio Arabesque, Sandra began performing under her solo name in 1984. She can also be heard on her former husband Michael Cretu's project Enigma. They have two sons (twins), Nikita and Sebastian, born July 6, 1995. Sandra and Michael divorced in November 2007, citing 'personal and professional differences'.

Other members of her team include Hubert Kemmler (singer and song writer aka Hubert Kah), Markus Löhr, Klaus Hirschburger, Armand Volker, Frank Peterson, Peter Ries, Andy Jonas (singer) and Jens Gad (song writer, co-producer)..

Early history

Sandra Ann Lauer was born on May 18, 1962 in the German town of Saarbrücken, close to the French border. Sandra’s father, Robert Lauer is French and her mother, Karin Lauer is German. Sandra also had an older brother, Gaston (who died in 1995), who was paraplegic. Her father owned a wine shop in Saarbrücken and her mother worked in a shoe shop. Sandra showed an early interest in music and dancing. She started to learn classical ballet at age five and continued lessons for 10 years. At the age of 10, she received a guitar and took lessons from a school teacher on her street.

In 1975, at the age of thirteen, Sandra was visiting a competition in Saarbrücken, called "Young Star Festival", where new talents for the music industry were scouted. She was not actually in the competition, but was in the audience. When all the nominees finished their parts and the jury was discussing the results, she told her mother that she had to go to the bathroom, stood up, walked onto the stage, persuaded the DJ to put on the German cover version of a song from Olivia Newton-John, grabbed the microphone and started singing. Aided by newfound recognition, she released the single "Andy Mein Freund", a song about a pet dog. The single, however, performed poorly on the charts and she withdrew from the music scene for a few years.

Arabesque

Arabesque was a disco group consisting of Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter. Sandra joined the band and they recorded their second album with Sandra on lead vocals at "Europasound Studios" in Offenbach. The studio was owned by famous producer Frank Farian, creator of Boney M, and later Milli Vanilli. One of the musicians there was a keyboardist called Michael Cretu. Sandra and Michael found that they shared the same birthday, albeit five years apart, and became good friends.

With Arabesque a new period in Sandra’s life began. For the first time, she was away from her family, appearing on stage and TV in foreign countries, giving interviews, singing at concerts and performing promotion dates. Arabesque became successful, and by Sandra's sixteenth birthday she was a star.

Arabesque were particularly popular in Japan, and their outrageous, sometimes daring costumes, dance routines and cheerful music suggested ABBA and Boney M. They enjoyed success in several other countries and scored the top 10 hit "Marigot Bay" 1981 in Germany. After nine studio albums, however, differences in musical interests and the end of disco's popularity signalled the group's final breakup.

Influence of Michael Cretu

Sandra and Michael, now romantically involved, moved to Munich, where Michael soon brought his own studio, called "Data-Alpha", after a song from his solo album "Legionäre".

Their first single together 1984 was a cover of the Alphaville song "Japan ist weit" ("Big in Japan"), an appropriate way to describe Sandra's fame up to that point. Unfortunately the song failed to reach the charts. However, Sandra and her team persisted and finally found success.

Albums

"The Long Play" (1985)

Her first album, "The Long Play" (1985), reached the top 20 in her home country of Germany, while the single "Maria Magdalena" topped the charts in 21 countries worldwide, and reached the top 10 in further five countries. The song was aimed at the continental European market, so it never received a promotional video (in Europe, personal appearances remained the most effective method of record promotion until the early 90s, videoclips just starting to get popular).Fact|date=July 2007

Although "Maria Magdalena" had already gone number one in some European countries, it took some time to do so in Germany where it remained in the German top 20 for 16 weeks. In Sweden "Maria Magdalena" became the biggest selling single of all time.

The follow-up single was called "In the Heat of the Night". In her first proper music video, Sandra was featured in a steaming sauna filled with bare-chested men. The song continued success all over Europa, reached number two in Germany and the french Top five. The song also earned Sandra the second place at the Tokyo Music Festival later in 1986.

"Little Girl" was the third single with the music video filmed on location in Venice.

Shortly after the release of "The Long Play", Sandra moved to London for six months. Helena Shelen, a singing therapist who had worked with artists like George Michael and Paul Young took her under her wing. She also joined the London Berlitz School for Languages, where she improved her English abilities and took drumming lessons to get a better feeling for rhythm and timing. Over weekends she went back to Munich to work on her new album.

"Mirrors" (1986)

Sandra's second studio album "Mirrors" (October 1986) reflected the continuous musical development of Michael Cretu. On this album, he used more of the writing and singing talents of Hubert Kemmler (who was already a popular singer in Germany aka Hubert Kah. "(Don't Cry) The Breakup of the World" was the first track on the album, written in reaction to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The album continued the success all over Europe.

"Innocent Love" (written by Müller, Hubert Kemmler, Ulrich Herter and Klaus Hirschburger) was the first of four successful singles from the album, entering the Top 10 in France whereas the second single "Hi! Hi! Hi!" was another Top 10 hit in her homecountry Germany.

"Ten on One" (1987)

Two years after her debut album, in 1987, Sandra released the greatest hits compilation "Ten on One". Accompanied with it was the video collection of the album giving fans a glimpse inside her private life and day-to-day routine. Her version of "Everlasting Love", a favourite song since her childhood, went to number five on the German and the European charts. The music video showed Sandra and a male model depicting scenes of various lovers through the ages, with Adam and Eve, Bonnie and Clyde, Cleopatra and Marc Anthony, and a colorful 80s punk couple.

The British team, Stock Aitken Waterman tried to cash in on the success of "Everlasting Love" by releasing a remix of the song in 1988 for the British market. The song was a moderate hit on the UK charts (reaching #45), and did well in Sweden, The Philippines and South Africa. The second single from the album "Stop for a Minute" became another German Top 10 hit and was written especially for the German TV crime series "Tatort"; she sang the song during a scene in a club in one of the episodes. The music video was controversial as it included a rape scene.

At this stage Sandra was already known as the "European queen of pop" and rivaled Madonna in terms of her popularity and top 10 hits.

On January 7, 1988, Sandra married Michael Cretu and relocated from Munich to the Spanish island of Ibiza.

"Into a Secret Land" (1988)

In 1988 Sandra recorded the album "Into a Secret Land" (1988), moving away somewhat from electro-pop to a more mysterious and seductive sound. This proved to be a huge success and the album delivered four hit singles.

The first single "Heaven Can Wait" became another Top 10 smash in France and number 12 in Germany, accompanied by a video featuring Sandra dancing and singing on a Mediterranean beach. The title track, "Secret Land", a cover version of the track "Trenchcoat Man" by the short-lived German synth pop project "Fabrique", entered the German Top 10 and went to number one in Lebanon and Israel.

The third single "We'll be together" was another German Top 10 hit and the fourth "Around my heart" peaked at number 11. With animal rights and nature conservation high on her personal agenda, she took part in the project Artists United for Nature in 1989. The song "Yes We Can" featured, amongst others, Brian May, Harold Faltermeyer and Chaka Khan.

Sandra ended the 1980s as one of the most popular female performers in Europe, and had sold out concerts in Moscow.

"Paintings in Yellow" (1990)

Sandra's album "Paintings in Yellow" (1990) gave her another top 10 hit with a surprising cover version of Wishful Thinking's "Hiroshima". Elements of this song foreshadowed the Enigma sound, which was particularly evident on the album track "The Journey". Frank Peterson, long-time band member, took up the role of writing and producing some of the tracks with Michael. Frank was also the co-producer (alias "F. Gregorian") on the Enigma project. The influence was clearly audible.

In 1991, the song "Sadeness" became a huge hit in many countries all over the world. At first nobody knew who was hiding behind the alias Enigma, but Sandra fans quickly identified her voice; when the song became a top 10 hit in the United States, it marked Sandra's first successful venture into the U.S. market. Sandra performed the second single of the album "(Life May Be) A Big Insanity" at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo when she accepted the prize for Best Selling German Artist at the end of 1990.

Because of the overwhelming success of Enigma, and the more than two years break after "Paintings in Yellow", there was a gap in Sandra’s career, which was finally closed with the album "Close to Seven".

"Close to Seven" (1992)

"Close to Seven" (1992) continued a development towards a more meditative, less dance-oriented musical style. Sandra wanted to get rid of her teen idol image and perform for a more mature audience. This was her first album produced almost completely by Michael Cretu. "Close to seven" became another German Top 10 album. The male vocals were sung by Andy Jonas, a German singer who chose the artist name Andy "Angel" Hart. Although the first single "Don't Be Aggressive" entered the European top 20, subsequent singles failed to achieve the same success. The music video for "Don't Be Aggressive" was directed by Howard Greenhalgh.

The second single "I Need Love" was the first single after "Japan ist weit" for Sandra to flop. Nevertheless, Sandra and Michael were recognized as the most successful married couple and were awarded with the Golden Europe Award in 1992.

"18 Greatest Hits" (1992)

The compilation "18 Greatest Hits" from 1992 marked the end of Sandra's successful solo career up to that point. She recorded a new version of "Johnny Wanna Live", previously off the "Paintings in Yellow" album. The song, co-written by Frank Peterson and later redone by his then-girlfriend Sarah Brightman on her album "Dive", was an anthem against cruelty to animals. "18 Greatest Hits" reached the Top 10 in both, Germany and France and was awarded gold.

The music video was once again directed by Howard Greenhalgh and showed shocking scenes of cruelty to animals. In 1993 she released a new techno version of "Maria Magdalena" with a futuristic music video, but it was not a success. It only reached at number 8 on the charts in Finland

"Fading Shades" (1995)

In 1995, while pregnant with twins, Sandra recorded and released "Fading Shades". The album saw a new writer/producer Jens Gad working alongside Michael. The album featured a powerful cover version of "Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues. The song went to number one in Israel and entered the TOP20 in Finland. The music video showed only close ups of Sandra's face as she was heavily pregnant at the time. She even had to sit during the recording sessions of the album. Again Andy "Angel" Hart performed all the male vocals on "Fading Shades". The second single release "Won’t Run Away" was Sandra's first in a long time without a video clip, but it did not chart.

Sandra decided to put her career on hold to raise her children. On July 6 1995, she gave birth to twin sons Nikita and Sebastian in a Munich hospital through Caesarean section.

"My Favourites" (1999)

In 1999 a double disc album was released. As the trend began with artists like Modern Talking to remix old material, "My Favourites" was released featuring remixes of her hits by long-time band companion Peter Ries, featuring also some of Sandra's personal favourite ballads. It quickly made its way into the top 20 of the German album charts. "Secret Land '99" was taken as the single and showed Sandra sporting a short hairstyle in the music video. In 2000, Sandra did background vocals on Andru Donald's single release "Precious Little Diamond".

"The Wheel of Time" (2002)

Sandra's first studio album in seven years came with "The Wheel of Time" in 2002, reaching number eight on the German album charts. The first single "Forever" had moderate success and showed a new mature, more natural-looking Sandra, still sporting short hair. Although some criticised the fact that "The Wheel of Time" contained no less than five cover versions of 80s songs, including the second single release "Such a Shame" by Talk Talk, the album was received well by her fans. Michael Cretu convinced Sandra to cover a Depeche Mode song, which she did in one take - "Freelove". However, "The Wheel of Time" faded away quickly.

In 2003, the DVD "The Complete History" was released.

Sandra's public appearances were few and far between when word got out in 2005 that the Swiss superstar DJ Bobo was planning a duet with her. She met DJ Bobo during the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo in 2002, when her husband accepted the prize for best-selling German artist. That meeting led to the single "The Secrets of Love" in 2006. The dance anthem reached number five in Switzerland and 13 in Germany. The music video was shot in Disneyland Park in Paris with Sandra and DJ Bobo being the only artists ever allowed to film inside the Cinderella castle. During this time Sandra took up performing live again and signs of her retro 80s look, with the signature long hair, were seen again.

"Reflections - The Reproduced Hits" (2006)

Virgin Music France suggested that vocal recordings of Sandra's biggest hits be sent to different teams of producers/remixers so that they could produce entirely new music. Sandra hesitated at first because she had already put out a remix collection in 1999 and did not want to promote all of her former hits once again. She had already finished her ninth studio album and wished to move forward in a new musical direction. Nevertheless, five teams from Germany - Christian Geller, Schallbau, Felix J. Gauder, Matthias Menck, Ivo Moring and Mirko on Schlieffen - delivered a successful result. Sandra's 1987 dance hit "Everlasting Love" even got new vocals and was redone as a powerful ballad and distributed to the radio stations as a promotional single. Although the album reached the top 10 of many online stores worldwide, no commercial single was released and as far as publicity goes not much was done to promote this album. However, the radio single "Around my heart 2006" became a huge hit in Poland, where the record company decided to promote on the radio stations.

In 2007 Virgin Music France decided to release a special version of "Reflections", containing three new remixes made by French DJs. "In the Heat of the Night" was released online as a single containing four new versions of the song.

"The Art of Love" (2007)

A highly anticipated new studio album, "The Art of Love" was released in February 2007, entering the 16th position in the German charts. For the first time, Michael Cretu didn't work as a producer for the album, as he was reportedly busy producing his new Enigma album "A Posteriori". Sandra's management first tried to find producers from United Kingdom, but Sandra didn't like the idea of leaving her family for a long period of time. Finally, Sandra contacted Michael Cretu's "right hand", Jens Gad who produced the entire album. Sandra, for the first time during her career, now participated actively in composing and writing the album. She would work at Gad's studio at nights, returning home to prepare breakfast for her twins, and then sleeping until they would come home from the school. Also, for the first time, Sandra revealed her new, sexier look in the promotional pictures shot in New York by Bärbel Miebach.

The first single release of the album, "The Way I Am", was released in January 2007, and it gained the 50th chart position in Germany, even if it didn't have any music video and hardly any promotion. The second single, "What is it about me", was released in May 2007. The fans were delighted for the fact that the both singles contained unreleased songs and versions in other languages, such as Spanish and French. The album also includes a duet with the Swiss superstar DJ Bobo, and both sons of Sandra, Nikita and Sebastian, are singing choirs in three songs.

EMI Music in Poland decided to release the song "All you Zombies" as a radio single instead of "What is it about me", and it has become a big hit in Poland. Fans were campaigning to get the song released as a single, while Sandra revealed in an interview that "Put your arms around me" was planned as a single, with an unreleased duet with DJ BoBo as a b-side. However, in a recent interview Sandra said that there will be no more singles released from the album. In a press conference of a concert Sandra said that the preparations for a new album, possibly released in late 2008, will start in March-April.

During all year 2007 and the beginning of 2008 Sandra has been busy touring around the Eastern Europe and Germany. Sandra has returned to the busy schedule of concerts of the past, and even gave a performance in the spectacular Kremlin palace in Russia. Sandra also visited countries such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Lithuania for the first time. On July 23, 2008 she performed in Athens, Greece.

On August 24, 2008 Sandra performed in Poland in concert of stars of the 80's, together with Kim Wilde, Samantha Fox, Sabrina, Modern Talking, Limahl and Shakin' Stevens. The concert was a part of Sopot Festival 2008 and was presented live on Polish channel TVN.

Discography

Videography

* 1987: "Ten On One" (VHS)
* 1992: "18 Greatest Hits" (VHS)
* 2003: "The Complete History" (DVD)

Audio sample

References

* [http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:3-UOpZyj1sMJ:www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/drake/193/m_chart.htm+sandra+longplay+chart&hl=en Chart positions]
* [http://www.enigma-fanclub.com/max.htm Chart positions]

External links

* [http://www.sandranet.com Sandra's official web site]
* [http://sandra.bewithmusic.com/ Sandra's photos and videos]