Lale Andersen

Lale Andersen, born Liese-Lotte Helene Berta Bunnenberg, was a prominent German chanson singer-songwriter. In 1922, she married painter Paul Ernst Wilke, with whom she had three children before their divorce in 1931. Throughout the 1930s, Andersen established her stage presence in various cabarets across Berlin and Zurich. While performing at Berlin's prestigious Kabarett der Komiker, she encountered Norbert Schultze, the composer of "Lili Marleen." Andersen recorded the song in 1939, but its widespread fame began in 1941 when Soldatensender Belgrad, a German armed forces radio station, started broadcasting it. The song became exceptionally popular among soldiers on both sides of World War II, earning Andersen a gold disc for over one million sales. However, Nazi officials, including Joseph Goebbels, disapproved of the song and prohibited its radio play. Andersen was subsequently banned from public performance for nine months, partly due to the song and her friendships with Jewish artists, leading to a reported suicide attempt. After World War II, Andersen's singing career initially waned. She married Swiss composer Artur Beul in 1949. Her comeback began in 1952 with "Die blaue Nacht am Hafen," a song for which she wrote the lyrics. In 1959, she achieved another hit with "Ein Schiff wird kommen...", a German cover of "Never on Sunday," which also earned her a gold album. In 1961, at 56 years old, she represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder," setting a record as the oldest participant until 2008. Andersen toured extensively throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada during the 1960s, concluding with her farewell tour, "Goodbye memories," in 1967. She died of a heart attack in Vienna on August 29, 1972, at the age of 67.