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Sandra biographySandra Ann Lauer was born in Saarbrücken on May 18th 1962, from a French father, Robert, who owned a wine store in Saarbrücken, and a German mother, Karin, who worked in a shoe store. Sandra also had an older brother, Gaston, a paraplegic who died in 1995. Showing an early interest in music and dancing, she started to learn classical ballet at the age of 5 and had continued lessons for ten years. When she was 10 years old, she was offered a guitar and took lessons from a school teacher. In 1975, at the age of thirteen, Sandra attended talent competition "Young Star Festival" with her mum, as a member of the audience. While the jury was discussing the results, she walked onto the stage, persuaded the DJ to put on the German cover version of a song made famous by Olivia Newton-John, grabbed the microphone and started singing. She got spotted by George Roman, which enabled her to gain a professional release for the children's song about a pet dog, Andy Mein Freund. The single, however, performed poorly on charts dominated by disco mania and she received no other recording offers. In 1979, Sandra joined Arabesque, a disco trio consisting of Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter, becoming the lead singer. This is how she met keyboardist Michael Cretu, during a recording session in Frank Farian's Europasound Studios in Offenbach. They found that they shared the same birthday, and became good friends. Arabesque had a massive following in Japan and Russia. After 9 albums, differences in musical interests and the end of disco's popularity signalled the group's final break-up. Michael Cretu, now her boyfriend, had created his own studio, Data-Alpha (named after a song from his solo album Legionäre). Their first single together was 1984's Japan ist weit, a German cover of the Alphaville song Big in Japan. However, the song failed to enter any of the charts and only 125 copies of the single were sold In 1985, she had her first international hit-single with (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena, which went #1 in 21 countries worldwide, from South-America to Egypt. It was followed by In the Heat of the Night, which continued her success all over Europe and internationally. Her first album, The Long Play, reached number 12 in her home country of Germany. Little Girl became the third single with the music video being filmed in Venice. Shortly after the release of The Long Play, Sandra spent six months in London to take singing lessons with instructor Helena Shelen and to attend the London Berlitz School for Languages to improve her English abilities. She also 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. In 1986 came Innocent Love (top 10 in France), Hi! Hi! Hi! (top 10 in Germany), the ballad Loreen, then Midnight Man. For the release of her first greatest hits compilation Ten on One in 1987, she covered Everlasting Love. 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 (in the episode Salü Palü), where she is found singing the song during a club scene. On 7th January 1988, Sandra married Michael Cretu and moved from Munich to the Spanish island of Ibiza. In the same year they released the album Into a Secret Land. Single Heaven Can Wait went top 10 in France. Second single Secret Land was a cover version of the track Trenchcoat Man by German synth pop project Fabrique, entering the German Top 10. We'll Be Together (co-written by Sandra herself) was another German Top 10 hit. Around My Heart was the fourth single to be released from the album. Sandra took part in the project Artists United for Nature in 1989 (she has always been concerned about animal rights and nature conservation). Sandra had become a cult star with a devoted fan base, and had established her position as the most successful German pop female vocalist. Her album Paintings in Yellow, released in March 1990, gave her another Top 10 hit with her cover version of Wishful Thinking's Hiroshima. This was also the year when Enigma project started. Sadeness scored a huge hit (and controversy among the catholics) worldwide. Sandra was awarded Best Selling German Artist at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo and performed the second single off her solo album (Life May Be) A Big Insanity. The ballad One More Night was the third and final single released from Paintings in Yellow. In 1992, album Close to Seven was released, with a more more meditative, less dance-oriented musical style. The single Don't Be Aggressive entered the European Top 20, but follow-up I Need Love flopped. Anyway, Sandra and Michael were awarded with the Golden Europe Award in 1992. In the fall of 1992 a new compilation was released, entitled 18 Greatest Hits. Sandra recorded a new version of Johnny Wanna Live. The song, co-written by Frank Peterson was later redone by his then-girlfriend Sarah Brightman for her album Dive. In 1993 Sandra released a new version of Maria Magdalena with a futuristic music video, which wasn't a success, apart from Finland. In 1995, while pregnant with twins, Sandra recorded and released album Fading Shades. Her cover version of Nights in White Satin by The Moody Blues went #1 in Israel and Top 20 in Finland and Australia. Won't Run Away unfortunately did not chart. On 6 July 1995, she gave birth to twin sons Nikita and Sebastian and decided to put her career on hold to raise her children. 1999 double disc album My Favourites was released. It featuring remixes of her hits by Peter Ries, as well as some of Sandra's personal favourite ballads. It reached Top 20 of the German album charts. Secret Land '99 was taken as the single. 2000 : Sandra did background vocals on Andru Donalds' single release Precious Little Diamond. 2001 : Sandra's new single Forever had a moderate success. 2002 : Sandra's first studio album in seven years came with The Wheel of Time, reaching #8 on the German album charts. Sandra released the Talk Talk cover Such a Shame. The third single to be released was the ballad I Close My Eyes. Forgive Me was only a promo single. 2003 : the DVD The Complete History was released, featuring all of her music videos. 2006 : Sandra recorded a duet with DJ Bobo's, Secrets of Love. Album Reflections was a collection of her biggest hits completely revamped by producers/remixers, including Felix J. Gauder. Although the album reached the Top 10 of many online stores worldwide, no commercial single was released. 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 digital single containing four new versions of the song. The single The Way I Am was released in January, and it gained the 50th chart position in Germany, hardly having any promotion. Studio album The Art of Love was released in February, reaching #16 on the German charts. This was the first album not produced by Michael Cretu, who was busy with Enigma at this time. The second single What Is It About Me, was released in May 2007 but failed to chart. The album also included a duet with DJ BoBo, with Sandra's sons, Nikita and Sebastian, singing choirs in three songs. In November, it was announced that Sandra and Michael were divorced. 2009 : a new Sandra album, recorded in New York and entitled Back to Life, was released on 27 March. It was preceeded by single In a Heartbeat. The second single, released on 8 May, was The Night Is Still Young, a duet with Thomas Anders. On August 1st, Sandra was one of the main acts on the DJ BoBo & Friends festival, held in Engelberg (Switzerland). On November 6th, a 3-disc greatest hits compilation album entitled The Platinum Collection was released. 2010 : she married Olaf Menges. She took part in the rock-anthem project, Rock for Your Children , a Charity-Song-Initiative of Conny Conrad against child poverty. 2012 : Blank and Jones produced Sandra's new single Maybe Tonight, from her forthcoming studio album Stay in Touch. There was also an exclusive compilation album under the So80s series. Nex single was entitled Infinite Kiss. The biography was last updated Sun, October 28th 2012 Did you like this article ? 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Latest Sandra news18/01/2013 : Sandra is among the jury members for Top Model Germany Wahl. Event will take place in Club Diamonds in Cologne (Germany) on March 2nd. 24/10/2012 : Sandra's forthcoming single Infinite Kiss will be digitally released on November 2nd. Discover the videoclip... 01/10/2012 : Sandra's new single will be entitled Infinite Kiss. She performed it for the first time on TVN's morning show Dzien Dobry. Videoclip was shot before her evening concert in Halle Torwar, Warsaw, the same day. Sandra was invited by DJ Bobo as Very Special Guest for two of his "Dancing Las Vegas" shows in Germany this October (Leipzig and Cologne) 07/09/2012 : Sandra's new album will be entitled Stay in Touch. Produced by Blank & Jones, it will be available in 2 different versions (standard and deluxe), and it is planned for October 26th. And original background vocalist Hubert Kah will be back in the team... Links to SandraOfficial websites Sandra at EMI Fansites Sandra French fanblog
DISCLAIMER : unless you see the artist's name among the credits of this biography, it was only created by gathering infos from the web and from fan sources. Sorry if, even if I did all verifications I could, some parts of the biography are false or lack accuracy. If you are the artist himself or contributed to the project, please wait till I come back from holidays.
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