On the 10th anniversary of his death: Ten special stories about Udo Jürgens
Published: Sunday, Dec 15th 2024, 14:50
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Austrian musician Udo Jürgens was in the limelight for decades, but not everything about the pop singer and songwriter is as well known as his evergreens.
It was shock news that hit family, friends and pop fans out of the blue: on December 21, 2014, Udo Jürgens, who had just turned 80, suddenly collapsed and died during a walk near Zurich. Many lines from his songs have become catchphrases: "Aber bitte mit Sahne", "Mit 66 Jahren" or "Ich war noch niemals in New York". On the tenth anniversary of his death (21.12.), a selection of ten not-so-well-known facts about the Austrian entertainer:
"I love you" 1950
Udo Jürgens celebrated his first great success in 1950 when he was barely 16 years old: He won a competition organized by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation against 400 established composers. His song "Je t'aime" came in first place. After a few chart positions in the 1960s, his international breakthrough did not come until 1966, when he won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) at the third attempt with "Merci Chérie". At the time, he was already over 30 and the competition was still usually called the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson.
Udo Bolan 1951
With his real name Jürgen Udo Bockelmann, he saw few opportunities in show business. So he initially adopted the stage name Udo Bolan and toured pubs with his Udo Bolan Band. According to his own account, he received the equivalent of less than 50 cents for his first performance.
"17 or 18 years old, blond hair" 1965
With "17 Jahr, blondes Haar", Udo Jürgens made it to number 4 in the German charts in 1965. However, he was also trying to gain a foothold as a singer-songwriter in Italy at the time, for example at the San Remo pop festival. There he first performed the song in Italian, when the girl he was singing about was still a year older: "Diciotto Anni, capelli biondi" - i.e. 18 years old.
Sammy Davis Jr. 1978
At a concert in Munich in 1978, US entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. uses a song co-written by Udo Jürgens as his closing song: "If I Never Sing Another Song" - "That was the greatest," Jürgens told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper years later. "I was sure then that I had made it." From then on, Sammy Davis Jr (1925-1990) always performed the song as an encore at his concerts.
Bing Crosby 1980
Udo Jürgens landed the hit of the year in 1975 with "Griechischer Wein". A year later, the great US singer Bing Crosby (1903-1977) ennobled his fellow singer with a cover version of "Come Share the Wine" - it was his last studio recording.
"New York" 1982
Jürgens stormed the charts in 1982 with "Ich war noch niemals in New York". However, the song was already twelve years old at the time, as he told the magazine "Annabelle" in 2013. It had long been the unsuccessful B-side of a single. Someone then pulled it out at a ski hut in Tyrol. "People were blown away, went home and played it everywhere. The song became a wildfire," said Jürgens.
Women's stories 2002
Jürgens has often said that with his fame, his many female fans and his liberated sexuality in the 70s, he felt the pressure to perform. He was known as a heartthrob and bon vivant. But he had calmed down, he told the "Süddeutsche" newspaper in 2002 - when he was 66. Nowadays it is often quite harmless when he takes a female fan to a hotel room after a concert, he assured: "But it can happen that you just chat there. Tell each other bedtime stories. Holding each other in your arms."
Alice Schwarzer 2005
Women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer described Udo Jürgens as a "gigantic macho". Nevertheless, according to Jürgens, the two became friends and had fun making fun of people: "When we enter a restaurant together, we immediately put our heads together," he told the Austrian magazine "Profil" in 2005. "Recently, we even held hands in the Paris Bar in Berlin. (...) There was no end to the inkiness."
The fear of the grand piano 2008
It was hard to imagine Udo Jürgens without a grand piano; his encores on it in a white bathrobe were legendary. But it wasn't love at first sight with the grand piano, as he told TV presenter Susan Stahnke in 2008: "As a little boy, the grand piano had something menacing about it, it reminded me a bit of a coffin," he said. But when he was eleven, he secretly strummed the piano at home, "and I let the incredible fascination of sounds work its magic on me," he said.
Fire in the head 2014
In one of his last interviews, Udo Jürgens spoke about the possibility of retiring after the planned tour. "What comes in the future has to be organized in such a way that I really have time to think about it: Do I still want to do this?" he told Swiss broadcaster SRF in September 2014, three months before his death. "Of course it's exciting when you're an older person and still in the league of those who have fire in their heads, but it's not a quiet life," he said.
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