Sandra   (Germany)

HiNRG group
Added : 11/05/2012
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Latest Sandra news

26/10/2022 : For the 10th anniversary of its release, Sandra's album Stay In Touch is available as limited double white vinyl edition

23/05/2022 : Sandra announced that she recovered from a breast cancer and that she was about to start working on a new album with record producer and composer Peter Ries (who composed for eurodance projects such as Construction and Matrix). A US tour is also planned.

15/11/2016 : DJ Crayfish gathered not less than 55 Sandra songs in this new video megamix.

29/05/2016 : MasQraider did a Tropical Future remix for Sandra's classic In The Heat Of The Night. A 2 CDs + DVD best of compilation entitled The Very Best Of Sandra (Deluxe Edition) will be out on June 3rd.

21/11/2015 : Sandra's hit Maria Magdalena was covered by Beata Fesser.

26/07/2014 : A new Facebook page about Sandra has just been published. It will be a community for every Sandra fan (thanks to DJ Crayfish).

18/01/2013 : Sandra is among the jury members for Top Model Germany Wahl. Event will take place in Club Diamonds in Cologne (Germany) on March 2nd.

More news

Sandra albums

	The Long Play	1985	BUY X
	Mirrors	1986	BUY X
	Ten On One	1987	BUY X
	Into A Secret Land	1987	BUY X
	Everlasting Love	1988	BUY X
	Paintings In Yellow	1990	BUY X
	Close To Seven	1992	BUY X
	18 Greatest Hits	1993	BUY X
	Fading Shades	1995	BUY X
	My Favourites 2 CDs	1999	BUY X
	The Wheel of Time	2002	BUY X
	The Essential	2003	BUY X
	Reflections	2006	BUY X
	The Art Of Love	2007	BUY X
	Platinum Collection 3 CDs	2009	BUY X
	Back To Life	27th Mar 2009	BUY X
	So80s 2 CDs	27th Apr 2012	BUY X
	Stay in Touch	26th Oct 2012	BUY X
	The Very Best Of Sandra (Deluxe Edition) 2 CDs	3rd Jun 2016	BUY X

Sandra DVDs and VHS

	Ten On One (The Singles)	1987	VHS
	18 Greatest Hits	1992	VHS
	The Complete History	8th Sep 2003	DVD

Sandra singles

	Andy mein Freund	1978	BUY X
	Japan ist weit	Apr 1984	BUY X
	Maria Magdalena	Mar 1985	BUY X
	In the Heat of the Night	Nov 1985	BUY X
	Little Girl	1986	BUY X
	Innocent Love	Jun 1986	BUY X
	Hi ! Hi ! Hi !	Sep 1986	BUY X
	Loreen	Nov 1986	BUY X
	Midnight Man	Feb 1987	BUY X
	Everlasting Love	Aug 1987	BUY X
	Sisters And Brothers (Japan only)	1988	BUY X
	La Vista De Luna Promo only	1988	BUY X
	Stop for a Minute	Jan 1988	BUY X
	Heaven Can Wait	May 1988	BUY X
	Secret Land	Sep 1988	BUY X
	We'll Be Together	Nov 1988	BUY X
	Around My Heart	Apr 1989	BUY X
	Hiroshima	Feb 1990	BUY X
	(Life May be) A Big Insanity	Apr 1990	BUY X
	One More Night	Sep 1990	BUY X
	Steady Me Promo only	1992	BUY X
	Don't Be Aggressive	Jan 1992	BUY X
	I Need Love	Apr 1992	BUY X
	Maria Magdalena '93	Mar 1993	BUY X
	Johnny Wanna Live	Oct 1993	BUY X
	Nights in White Satin	Mar 1995	BUY X
	Won't Run Away	Jul 1995	BUY X
	Secret Land '99	17th May 1999	BUY X
	Forever	2001	BUY X
	Such a Shame	2002	BUY X
	I Close my Eyes	2002	BUY X
	Forgive Me Promo only	3rd Jun 2002	BUY X
	The Way I Am	2007	BUY X
	In the Heat of the Night 2007	2007	BUY X
	What Is it About Me	2007	BUY X
	In A Heartbeat	Mar 2009	BUY X
	The Night Is Still Young	8th May 2009	BUY X
	Maybe Tonight	11th May 2012	BUY X
	Infinite Kiss	2nd Nov 2012	BUY X
	In the Heat of the Night 2k16	27th May 2016	BUY X

Featurings and collaborations

DJ Bobo - Secrets Of Love

3rd Mar 2006

BUY X

Sandra biography

Sandra 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, who was paraplegic. 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. Her brother Gaston died the same year.

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.

2013 : Sandra was among the jury members for Top Model Germany Wahl

2015 : Sandra's hit Maria Magdalena was covered by Beata Fesser

2022 : she revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2017 and won the battle

Sandra biography was last updated Fri, May 20th 2022

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