Aguilé, Luis. (1936-2009) was an Argentinian singer, songwriter and actor. He became famous for his hit ‘Cuando salí de Cuba’ (‘When I Left Cuba’), which became a kind of unofficial anthem of Cuban exiles.
Bausch, Pina (1940-2009) was a German dancer and choreographer. She was the director of the dance theatre named after her in Wuppertal. Her choreographic practice was characterised by the fact that she asked her dancers questions, which they answered with scenic sketches or dances. For example, she asked about a gesture for hygiene on the street or a situation in which something changes due to the weather. Old pop songs were used in many of her pieces. Ich bring dich um die Ecke - Ein Schlagerballett is one of her early, little-known works from 1974. In a kind of revue, the ensemble sings and dances hits such as ‘Egon’ by Evelyn Künneke, ‘Die Männer sind alle Verbrecher’ by Brigitte Mira, ‘Machen Sie doch bitte kein so böses Gesicht’ by Renée Franke and the title song ‘Ich bring dich um die Ecke zum Autobus’ by Peter Igelhoff.
Blanco, Roberto. Born in Tunis in 1937 as the son of Cuban variety artists. He came to Germany with his family in 1956. After his first EPs had a more serious tone, albeit often with exoticising content, he fully entered the pop music business in 1972 at the latest with his big breakthrough with Ein bisschen Spaß muss sein. His image of fun, partying and light-heartedness brought him decades of success. This included songs such as ‘Samba Si, Arbeit No’ (1979) and ‘Zuviel Pina Colada’ (1983). His repertoire also included love songs Jeder kommt einmal wieder (1968), a German-language reformulation of Cuando Sali De Cuba by Aguilé. On closer inspection, it is noticeable that many of his songs are cover versions of successful songs from Latin America, including songs such as Schwarze Engel (1968), a translation of the frequently covered Spanish ‘Angelitos Negros’ or Jesus Christo (1972), a German copy of the Brazilian ‘Jesus Cristo’ by Roberto Carlos, both of which can be understood as a kind of Christian social criticism. Blanco became one of the most successful German entertainers ever, appearing in various films, adverts, radio formats and TV shows and hosting the ‘Roberto Blanco Show’ in 1976, which was discontinued despite high viewing figures, allegedly because of his accent. He continued to release new music until the late 90s and still performs his songs.
Black, Roy. Born Gerhard Höllerich near Augsburg in 1943, was a white pop singer and actor. He started his career with a rock “n” roll band: ‘Roy Black and his Cannons’. According to his own statement, the name ‘Roy Black’ was invented for the Americans stationed in Augsburg, where he made music. ‘Black’ refers to his black hair, which is why he allegedly went by the nickname “Blacky”, while ‘Roy’ comes from his personal idol, Roy Orbison. His song ‘Ganz in Weiß’ made him a pop star in 1966. According to some of his companions, Höllerich suffered from his image as a soft-spoken crooner as he would have much preferred to stick to rock music instead of singing pop songs. There are therefore many myths surrounding his death, and a suicide is also suspected.
Cracy Coconuts. Judi and Nicola Hauenstein sang ‘Rubberdab Dance’ as children, published in 1983. The reggae-pop song was produced by their white father, the Austrian producer and musician Kurt Hauenstein. He was behind the successful bands Supermax and London Aircraaft, capitalising on racist visual structures and making a lot of money from it.
Daute, Tina. Born in the 1960s in Karl-Marx-Stadt, GDR. Studied singing, clarinet and saxophone at the conservatory, then worked as a singer and saxophonist. Her solo career began in 1983 with the song Urlaub auf dem Meeresgrund, which was written for her by the white Puhdys composer Harry Jeske. It won several prizes in the GDR and remained her most successful hit. From 1985 onwards, she wrote most of her own lyrics, mostly love songs. At the end of the 1980s, she had her own TV show, Tina, in which she sang and played half-playback. Her music career ended with the fall of communism and she worked as a radio presenter.
Haftbefehl. Aykut Anhan, born in 1985, is a rapper from Offenbach who is shaping the German rap scene with his hard beats and rough lyrics. His unique flow, creative incorporation of multilingualism and the resulting wordplay have made it from the street to the feature pages. The track Ich nehm dir alles weg (2013) deliberately plays on the right-wing populist fear that migrants are ‘taking something away’ and provokes a change of perspective: who actually has control over resources and access and who is really being ‘taken away’?
Jimmy Hartwig. Born in 1954, former German footballer and current coach. From 1985-1986 he played for SV Austria Salzburg. In addition to his football career, he was a theatre and television actor, presenter and pop singer. Ich bin immer zu früh (I'm always too early) is an example of his easy-going songs, which, however, could not match his sporting success.
Heino. Born Heinz Georg Kramm in 1938, is a white pop singer who became famous for his distinctive deep voice, his dark sunglasses and his fondness for traditional folk songs. In the 2010s, Heino surprised everyone with a change of image and released a cover album of well-known rock songs in the Schlager style. In recent years, Heino has increasingly attracted attention due to his right-wing populist statements and his benevolence towards the AfD and Donald Trump.
Jürgens, Jürgen. A fictional hybrid of the white pop singers Udo Jürgens and Jürgen Drews. The Austrian Udo Jürgens (1934-2014) is one of the most successful singers and entertainers in the German-speaking world. He won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1966. His song ‘Griechischer Wein’ addressed the homesickness of migrant workers, but remained very superficial in its romanticised external perspective. Jürgen Drews (*1945) became known as the ‘King of Mallorca’. He began his career as a member of the band The Les Humphries Singers before establishing himself as a solo artist in the 1970s. From the 1990s onwards, he became a cult figure of the party hit, especially through his performances on Mallorca, which earned him the nickname ‘King of Mallorca’.
Milton, Beauty. Born in 1942 in Alabama, USA, she had a career as a singer and actress in Germany in the 1960s and 70s. Her singing career began in the church. The stories about how she came to Germany are contradictory and originate from various marketing strategies. The playful song Es liegt an dir (1968) is a German pop version of Barbara Ruskin's ‘Song Without End / Love Came Too Late’. In 1966, she sang ‘Angelitos Negros’ before Blanco.
Mo, Billy. Peter Mico Joachim (1923-2004) came to Germany from Trinidad via England in the 1950s. Originally a jazz trumpeter, he became a pop star in Germany, taking up many folk songs (such as Schwarzbraun ist die Haselnuss) as well as particularly silly and absurd songs such as Mein Papagei frisst keine harten Eier (1962) or Ausgerechnet Bananen (1969). His ironic appropriation of Bavarian-German folklore is particularly interesting, as in the songs ‘Ich kauf mir lieber einen Tirolerhut’ and Ich bin der Schwärzeste Bayer der Welt (1973). For two years he had his own entertainment show ‘Cafe Mo’ at Hagenbeck Zoo on ARD. It was not until the end of the 1960s that he was granted German citizenship after publicly complaining about the slow process.
Moorefield, Olive. Born in 1929 in Pittsburgh, USA. She studied classical singing and acting and made her debut on Broadway. She moved to Vienna in 1953. In the years that followed, the operetta singer made her mark at the Volksoper, where she helped the musical genre make its breakthrough. She appeared in 16 cinema and television films and recorded various pop songs. Many of these show the white producers' exoticising view of the singer. In 1966, she sang Mañana, a German cover version of Peggy Lee's US hit, in a New Year's Eve gala on ZDF-Kultur.
Nejar, Marie. Born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1930. She survived National Socialism as an actress in UFA propaganda films and in forced labour in a biscuit factory. After the war, she was discovered in a bar. Despite her real age, she became a child star in the 50s as ‘Leila Negra’. This infantilisation lasted a long time, she sang many children's and fairytale songs and toured with a teddy bear, which became a kind of trademark. Many of the songs actually deal with the subject of race and marginalisation, but also reproduce racism, such as Mach nicht so traurige Augen (1952). She appeared in various films into the 1950s and sang the title song of the film of the same name, Toxi-Lied (1953). In 1957, she began training as a nurse and made a conscious decision to end her music career. The song “Mein Teddybär” by Marie Nejar was sung and danced by Elisabeth Clarke Hasters in Pina Bausch's play Ich bring dich um die Ecke - Ein Schlagerballett (1974) with the original cast.
Ramona. Born in Hanau in 1954, she launched her pop career in 1970 at the age of just 16. Her image, costumes, songs and voice are an unpleasant mixture of childisation and sexualisation. Her greatest success came in '71 with Alles was wir wollen auf Erden, which was unusually thoughtful for a pop song. She later became part of the successful disco group Silver Convention, who achieved international success with their hit ‘Fly Robin Fly’. After a brief solo disco career, she retired from the music industry at the end of the 80s
Rose, Randolph. Born in Bamberg in 1954, cousin of Marianne Rosenberg. He also began his pop career at the age of 16. He sang many German translations of English songs, some of which he chose himself or co-wrote. Most of these were love songs. These include the song Silvia's Mother, which deals with the devaluation and rejection of the mother of a love interest. Rose has also appeared in numerous television series, including Tanz-Café and Tommy Tulpe. He still makes music in his spare time and publishes it online.
Rodriguez, Antonia. Born Zerquera, she is the younger half-sister of Roberto Blanco. Like her brother, she is fluent in several languages, which is why her main profession remained interpreting. However, she released several songs in the 70s and 80s and landed a major hit with ‘La Bamba’. She sang in German, English and Spanish, sometimes more pop, sometimes clearly in the disco genre, mixed with ‘Latin’/Lambada. Valentino (1975) is a humorous criticism of a white man who tries to make himself more interesting by lying about being a ‘boring’ Hubert Schmidt to become a ‘Valentino’.
Summer, Donna. LaDonna Adrian Gaines (1948-2012), was an American singer and songwriter who became known as the ‘Queen of Disco’. Before her great successes, she lived in Germany and Austria for 12 years and, together with the white producer Giorgio Moroder from Munich, continued to shape modern dance music into a new idea of international pop. In the 1960s, she was part of the German adaptation of the musical ‘Hair’, for which she sang a translation of the song White Boys, which idealises and sexualises white men in an exaggerated way. She owes her stage name in part to her marriage to the Austrian dentist Helmuth Sommer.
Parra, Violeta. Parra (1917-1967) was a Chilean folk musician and visual artist. Her song ‘Gracias a la vida’ is one of the best-known songs in Latin America and a song of thanks to life that has been covered by numerous artists worldwide.
White, Jack. Born Horst Nußbaum in 1940, is a white German music producer, composer and former footballer. He produced numerous hits for artists such as Tony Marshall and Roberto Blanco and had a major influence on the German pop scene of the 1970s and 1980s. His stage name is a direct reference to Roy Black.
