This Saturday, September 26, at 5.10 PM (CET), Franco-German TV channel ARTE will broadcast a 50-minutes special on Udo Jurgens, who will turn 75 next week, more precisely on Wednesday.
Born in Klagenfurt in 1934, Udo Jürgens (real name Udo Jürgen Bockelmann) is the only Austrian singer to have won the Eurovision Song Contest, back in 1966. The man won his very first award when still a teenager, in 1950, and scored his first big hit in 1959.
Writing about his career would be too long as he never stopped recording and touring, still having thousands of fans along the years. Wikipedia writes that the man composed almost 900 songs.Next October 22, in Aachen (Germany), the artist will start the second part of his 2009 Tour, entitled Einfach Ich (Simply me), taken from the title of his latest studio album, which reached gold status. The 31 dates to come added to the 32 which took place last Spring make a grand total of 300,000 people coming to see him live, the singer's website says.
A new Best Of double CD has been released this September 25 on Ariola label, and the DVD of his present tour is available since a week now.Besides, National TV channel ZDF will celebrate Udo's 75th anniversary new Wednesday.Udo singing his winning song at the Eurovision winners gala in Mysen, Norway, 1981.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeIoCC_x9pY
1966 video of the French version by Udo himself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xErZEX8Nwu0
Udo Jürgens represented Austria three years in a row. First in 1964 with Warum, Nur Warum, which placed only 6th, but was an international hit and had been covered by many. Udo's second try was in 1965, with Sag Ihr, Ich Laß Sie Grüßen, which came 4th. At last, the man reached his goal in 1966 with Merci Chérie, which scored 31 points… 15 more than the song placed second.Udo's 4th Eurovision
entry was not performed by him, but by Karel Gott, in 1968, under the title Tausend Fenster.
Special thanks to Jean-Francois
