Who is Sandra: interesting facts about creativity, biography and best songs

Many people know Sandra – she became famous back in the 80s, performing with the group Arabesque, which in the USSR were nicknamed in a simple way - Arabesques. Sandra came to this team as a young girl, at that time she was only 17 yearsand no one knew anything about her. But her angelic appearance and voice brought her great fame in Japan, Korea and the USSR.

Sandra herself, a German by nationality, for a long time could not understand why she was so loved in Asia and Soviet Union. She did not believe in the love of listeners from the USSR until the last. Even when she came to perform in Moscow in 1989, she did not expect to be so warmly welcomed.

And we still love her, even after more than 30 years. The singer visited here already when she became popular, but they have been listening to her since she got into the Arabesque team. In this article, we decided to recall how the fate Sandra, about interesting moments her work and about the most popular hits of the singer Sandra.

Sandra's early work: Arabesque period

Group Arabesque formed more in 1977. Sandra was not in the original line-up of the group. The first album of Arabesques was recorded without her participation. But then the team began to disintegrate - the girls left it one after another. Someone got pregnant, someone left for family reasons. As a result, only Michaela Rose.

The producers decided to save the team and called the young and talented Sandra Ann Lauer and another singer Yasmine Elizabeth Vetter. The girls immediately signed a contract for 5 years and began to record songs. They had a very tight schedule, frequent tours, filming, recording. For 5 years, the group managed to record 8 studios.

In 1982 it became clear that the High Energy style, in which the girls performed their music, was losing popularity. Because of this, the producers decided to slightly change the style of the group and invite a keyboard player into it. They found a very talented musician - Michael Cretu. In fact, he was Romanian, and his real name was Mihai. In addition to playing keyboards, Mihai was an excellent arranger, he helped create songs for the band Boney M.

Between him and Sandra immediately arose spark They fell in love with each other despite being colleagues. Shortly after Michael Cretu joined the team, Sandra wrote a letter to her family:

"I met the man of my dreams and we love each other"

The singer's parents did not mind: the son-in-law was at least somewhere - a young, successful, rich and talented guy. But the musicians have not yet been in a hurry to formalize their relationship.

Solo career: SANDRA project and Sandra's most popular songs

In 1984, when the five-year contract expired, at the insistence of Michael, Sandra decided to start a solo career. Michael Cretu, who was her boyfriend at the time, saw great potential in Sandra and helped her realize it. He became her producer and together they started creating the first compositions.

In the same year, Sandra's first song was released - "Japan East Week". It was a cover of the song "Big in Japan" by Alphaville, performed in German and with a changed meaning. The single failed miserably, it was sold less than 1000 copies, but Sandra and Michael were in no hurry to be upset. Sandra just stopped singing in German for a while, and together with Michael they composed several compositions in English.

As a result, they released a hit album - "The Long Play". The disc flew into the charts of almost all European countries, in some the album even hit the Top 5. On this record, there were such sensational hits as "In the Heat of the Night"and "Maria Magdalena".

The couple recorded music videos for both songs. By the way, the text "Maria Magdalena" was written Humert Kemmler - a German musician who sang this song with Sandra. He also provided backing vocals on several other songs. And Sandra's boyfriend, Michael Cretu, sometimes performed with Sandra - he periodically appeared as a vocalist.

In 1986 second album releasedMirrors", which also became a breakthrough. This record had the hits "Hi! Hi! Hi!», «Innocent Love», «Loreen" and others. Like the last album, the songs were written by Michael Cretu and Humert Kemmler.

Song "Don't Cry (The Breakup of the World)" from the same album was inspired by the Chernobyl accident. Throughout the song, there is a countdown after which Sandra sings that the world is destroyed:

After that, the singer released several more solo albums. All of them were popular in Japan, Israel, Korea, the USSR, and then in Russia. Sandra's single called "everlasting love". A very beautiful video was shot for the song, which shows how people love each other throughout the existence of mankind:

Another project of Michael Cretu is the Enigma project

In 1990. Michael Cretu created the project Enigma. He asked Sandra, who by that time had already become his wife, to perform vocal parts for him. Sandra read the text in French. The Cretu project became quite successful and the first album MCMXC AD has been in the top of the Billboard 200 for a long time.

After the successful launch of the Cretu project, in 1992, Sandra takes pause in a creative career. She was born two sons – Nikita and Sebastian and until 1995 the singer spent most of her time with them. After that, she returned to the stage and continued her career. She was as successful as before, but in 2007 she divorced Cretu. Sandra married someone else in 2010 and divorced again in 2014.

Sandra's performances in the USSR

The singer has repeatedly visited Russia. She visited us for the first time in 1989. Then she came to Moscow. She did not believe that I was waiting for her here, but the Muscovites greeted her very warmly.

Sandra herself, talking about how it was, noted that it was quite cold in Russia at that time. She lived in a cold room in a hotel and even caught a cold. But the kind woman who worked at the hotel brought her heater. Sandra was so touched that she decided to give the kind woman all sorts of gifts: she offered her her dresses and shoes, but she refused.

Sandra was struck by the kindness of this woman, after which she always said that she had many friends in Russia. In fact, for someone as talented and charming as Sandra, any Russian (and not only) will always be a friend.

After that, the singer came to Russia almost every year. She even wrote several songs in which she sang in Russian. These songs becameMoscow Nights"and "Russian Eyes»:

And this is how the song soundsMoscow Nights»:

The singer continues to perform today. Very often she comes on tour to Russia. Tickets usually sell out in a couple of hours - everyone wants to see the woman who became their musical idol back in the distant 80s ... Now her voice brings back memories of her youth.

What do you think of this singer? Share your opinion in the comments.