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Sandra

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City Saarbruecken
Country Germany
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Name: Sandra Cretu
Birthname: Sandra Ann Lauer
Birthplace: Saarbruecken (Germany)
Birthdate: 18 may 1962
Married: 7 jan 1988 divorced in November 2007 Michael Cretu
2010, married Olaf Menges
Children: Nikita and Sebastian (twins)
Children Born: July 6th 1995
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
Height: 1.70 m


Sandra Lauer became in 1985 world known with "Maria Magdalena" though at that moment she had already in Japan a career as ´mega-star´ behind her !

Its may 18th 1962 in Saarbrücken Germany near the French border. From the German Karin and the french born Robert their 2nd child came to birth. A daughter which got the name "SANDRA".
As young girl Sandra shared a room with her 2 year older brother Gaston. On the walls were the posters from their stars David & Shaun Cassidy. With their about 5 US dollar of pocket money they bought singles which they enjoyed playing.
At the age of 10 Sandra did get a plain guitar and lessons from the music- teacher who was also her class teacher. He lived at the same road.
With 12 she knew it for sure, she wants to become a singer !
At a "children-song contest" she was the surprise act for the audience with a perfect rendering of a Olivia Newton-John song.

Producer George Roman discovered Sandra in 1976 and recorded her first single "Andy Mein Freund".
Beside the guitar lessons Sandra had also over a period of 10 years attended two times a week three hour long classical-ballet lessons. Wich also ment performances at the Saarbrücker city theater.

Her parents signed in 1979 the contract with which she as 16 year old girl could join the girl-trio "Arabesque" as lead singer. In Japan "Arabesque" was as famous as Abba was in Europe during that time. From 1979 until 1985 they had released in Japan 15 LP´s, 30 singles and a CD ! In spite of appearances in some big German tv-shows "Arabesque" didn´t break thru in Germany. Still there have been 6 LP´s several 12"records and 13 singles released in Germany.
Especially Sandra became the eye-catcher of "Arabesque" dressed in tide shirts and little skirts or wore typical 70´s erotic disco-lady´s suits.
Sandra said about that period: "Not one girl feels herself pleased to have to go dressed like that onto a stage but it belonged to the show-effect. Nowadays I won´t do that anymore !".


After the split of "Arabesque" there came begin 1985 a solo record on the market "Japan Ist Weit" (the German version of Alphaville´s "Big In Japan").
Not disappointed by the lack of success of this single takes her boyfriend Michael Cretu command, with whom she got acquainted during her time by Arabesque.
With the experience that Michael gained in the years, after leaving his native country Rumania, since 1977 in Germany i.a. as arranger & producer for Boney M.;Peter Kent;Peter Cornelius and many other artists, he constitute a solid team around her.


Summer 1985 appears then their first "SANDRA"-team-single. It´s the singer and songwriter Hubert Kemmler (from the band "Hubert KaH") who came up with the idea to name the song after the bible figure "Maria Magdalena". At the same time Hubert sings himself the male opponent on the song and performs at later on released records also the background vocals.
The record becomes a gigantic success. In 21 countries from South-America to Egypt it reaches the number 1 position of the record charts and obtains in 5 more countries a top 10 position.
In 1986 she obtained in Japan at the Tokyo Songcontest with "In The Heat Of The Night" the second place.

A year later she took part in the Tatort (German-TV-crime-serial) episode "Salü Palü", gave live concerts in Eastern-Europe and was on June 17th 1989 the center in the german TV game show "the Pyramid (die

Meanwhile she married at January 7th 1988 with Michael Cretu and went with complete recording studio and the whole team to live on the Spanish island Ibiza.
But success isn't over ! At July 6th 1995 Sandra gave birth to a twin. Two lovely children named Nikita and Sebastian.
Just before their birth she had released "Won´t Run Away" from her then 9th album "Fading Shades" and her voice appeared on Michaels "Enigma"-project albums.

 

At the end of 1997 came the first rumours in the open about a new album to be released in 1998 and a single at the end of that year. Finally in may 1999 a 2CD "My Favourites" has been released and a remix track has been brought out on single-CD, "Secret Land '99 remix" !

The first new SANDRA song was released on the 1st of October 2001 titled "Forever". Followed on 22 March 2002 by the uptempo "Such A Shame" for 29 April 2002 a whole new SANDRA album "The Wheel Of Time" is announced.

For September 2003 is a DVD release has been announced "The Complete History
Sandra's public appearances were few and far between when word got out in 2005 that the Swiss star 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 "Secrets of Love" in 2006. The dance anthem reached number five in Switzerland and number 13 in Germany. The music video was shot at 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 1980s look, with the signature long hair, were seen again.


VIRGIN RECORDS 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 eighth studio album and wished to move forward in a new musical direction. Nevertheless, Christian Geller, Schallbau, Felix J. Gauder, Matthias Menck, Ivo Moring and Mirko von Schlieffen delivered a successful result. In late 2006, Reflections was issued. Sandra's 1987 dance hit "Everlasting Love" even got a new vocal and was redone as a powerful ballad and distributed to the radio stations in Germany as a promotional single. Although the album reached the Top 10 of many online stores worldwide, no commercial single was released and not much more 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 it 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 digital single containing four new versions of the song.
The highly anticipated studio album, The Art of Love was released in February 2007, entering the 16th position on the German charts.[19] For the first time, Michael Cretu did not 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 the 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. Therefore, the lyrics of the songs are more personal, with Sandra revisiting her childhood and all her sad experiences in them. She worked at Gad's studio at nights, returning home to prepare breakfast for her twins, and then sleeping until they would come home from 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 taken from the album, "The Way I Am", was released in January 2007, and it gained the 50th chart position in Germany, hardly having any promotion. 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. EMI Music in Poland decided to release her cover version of The Hooters' "All You Zombies" as a radio single instead of "What Is It About Me", and it became a big hit in Poland. Fans were campaigning to get the song released as a commercial single, while Sandra revealed in an interview that "Put Your Arms Around Me" (written by Sinéad O'Connor) was planned as a single, with an unreleased duet with DJ BoBo as a B-side. However, in a subsequent interview Sandra said that there would be no more singles released from the album.
In November 2007 it was announced that Sandra and Michael were divorced, citing "personal and professional differences". During all of 2007 and early 2008 Sandra has been busy touring around Eastern Europe and Germany. She decided to return to the busy schedule of concerts from the past, and even gave a performance in the spectacular Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia. Sandra also visited countries such as Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Lithuania for the very first time. On 23 July 2008, she performed in Athens, Greece. On 24 August 2008, Sandra performed in Poland during a concert dedicated to 1980s music, together with Kim Wilde, Samantha Fox, Sabrina, Thomas Anders (ex-Modern Talking), Limahl and Shakin' Stevens. The concert was a part of Sopot International Song Festival 2008 and was broadcast live on Polish channel TVN. Sandra performed three songs: "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena", "In the Heat of the Night" and "Hiroshima".A new Sandra album, entitled Back to Life, was released on 27 March 2009. Sandra revealed it was going to be an up-tempo, pop album, with influences of Latin pop, dance and R&B. The first single, "In a Heartbeat" was released on 6 March 2009. The album was and her husband-to-be, Olaf Menges. Another standout track is "Tête à tête", written and composed by Sandra and sung in French language.recorded in New York with the help of Jens Gad, and his brother Toby Gad (famous for his work with Beyoncé Knowles and Fergie). The second single, released on 8 May 2009, was "The Night Is Still Young", a duet with Thomas Anders, former member of Modern Talking. Also included on the album is the duet, "I Want You" sung by Sandra
On 1 August 2009, Sandra was one of the main acts on the DJ BoBo & Friends festival, held in Engelberg, Switzerland. Sandra rocked fans with a superb live performance featuring her own band, a onstage DJ, plus complete new interpretations of her songs.
On 6 November 2009, a 3-disc greatest hits compilation album entitled The Platinum Collection was released, featuring 51 song including all of her hit singles from "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" to "The Night Is Still Young", as well as some non-released tracks from her albums Into a Secret Land, Paintings in Yellow, Close to Seven, The Art of Love and Back to Life. The third disc includes eleven extended versions of her greatest hits.
Sandra Ann Lauer ( ex Cretu ) was in Athens for a concert on 23-07-2008 at Technopolis (Gazi) as well as in Patra, in Disco Room club on 25-01-2011.


SANDRA ( Greek Fan Club )
http://www.youtube.com/user/SandraGreekFanClub
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45245195131#!/group.php?gid=45245195131&v=wall
 

Albums (4)
Songs (34)
Vinyl Vinyl
The Long Play
Sandra
Songs 8 Comments 0
0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 / 5 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 5 Added on 26 June 2011
Released 1985
Format Vinyl
Type
Length 0:00
N discs 1
Label Sonocord
Genre All Genres
Price 0.00 €
Cat N 36 085-9
Mirrors
Sandra
Songs 9 Comments 0
0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 / 0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 Added on 26 June 2011
Released 1986
Format Vinyl
Type
Length 0:00
N discs 1
Label Virgin
Genre All Genres
Price 0.00 €
Cat N 207 915
Into A Secret Land
Sandra
Songs 9 Comments 0
0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 / 0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 Added on 26 June 2011
Released 1988
Format Vinyl
Type
Length 0:00
N discs 1
Label Virgin
Genre All Genres
Price 0.00 €
Cat N 209 371-630
Paintings In Yellow
Sandra
Songs 8 Comments 0
0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 / 0 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 50 out of 5 Added on 26 June 2011
Released 1990
Format Vinyl
Type
Length 0:00
N discs 1
Label Virgin
Genre All Genres
Price 0.00 €
Cat N 210 518-630

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