This term has other meanings, see Sandra.
Wikipedia has articles about other people with the surnames Cretu and Lauer.
| Sandra | |
| basic information | |
| Birth name | Sandra Ann Lauer |
| Full name | Sandra Lauer Cretu |
| Date of Birth | 18 May 1962(1962-05-18) (age 58) |
| Place of Birth | Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany |
| A country | Germany→ France |
| Professions | singer |
| Years of activity | 1976 - present time |
| Genres | synth-pop, dance music, Eurodisco, pop rock, Eurodance |
| Teams | Arabesque, Artists United for Nature, Enigma |
| Labels | Virgin Records |
| samoqi-music.com sandralauer.com | |
| Media files on Wikimedia Commons | |
Sandra Cretu
(German: Sandra Cretu);
nee Sandra Ann Lauer
(German Sandra Ann Lauer; born May 18, 1962, Saarbrücken) is a German pop singer.
After the collapse of the disco group Arabesque, in which Sandra was the lead vocalist from 1979-1984, the singer began a successful solo career, becoming one of the most popular singers on the European stage in the second half of the 1980s - early 1990s. In the 1990s, Sandra also took part in the Enigma project, created by her ex-husband Michael Cretu.
Biography[ | ]
Origin[ | ]
Sandra Lauer was born in the city of Saarbrücken on the border with France in the family of Robert and Karin Lauer. His father was the owner of a liquor store, his mother worked in a shoe store. The future singer also had an older brother, Gaston (died in 1995 from paralysis). Since childhood, Sandra showed great abilities for singing and dancing, so from the age of 7 she began to attend music school, dance school, and guitar courses. Already at the age of thirteen, Sandra attracted the attention of spectators and music critics during her performance at the Saarbrücken Young Stars Festival. Encouraged by the success, immediately after the festival in August 1976, she released a single called “Andy, Mein Freund” (“Andy, my friend”) about her beloved pet, the puppy Andy (the single also included the song “Ich Bin Noch Ein Kind
" ("I'm still a child")). However, the single did not gain wide popularity, and Sandra has been trying to get on stage again for several years.
"Arabesque"[ | ]
In 1979, Sandra accepted an invitation to join the Arabesque group, in which she soon occupied a leading position. The group becomes famous all over the world, but it gains the greatest popularity in Asian countries (especially Japan) and the USSR. While performing with Arabesque, Sandra meets the aspiring singer and musician Michael Cretu, who at that time works as a keyboard player at the band's concerts. A love relationship arises between them. At the insistence of Michael Cretu, Sandra left the group in 1984 to begin a solo career under his leadership.
Solo career[ | ]
In April 1984, Sandra and Michael released their first single, "Japan Ist Weit", a German-language cover of Alphaville's hit "Big In Japan". The single was a complete flop (reportedly only selling 125 copies). Then Sandra and Michael return to the English-language Eurodisco format. The result is Sandra’s first solo album, “The Long Play,” which was released in November 1985 and immediately rises to the top twenty of the charts in Germany and other countries of the world (for example, in France it takes 5th place).
Subsequent albums will also be successful, with the single “Everlasting Love” gaining particular popularity. In January 1988, Sandra and Michael got married.
In parallel with the appearance of songs under the direction of Michel, video clips for these compositions are released.
At the end of the 1980s, Sandra retired from her solo career for some time, helping her husband in his new project called Enigma, in which she recites lyrics in French. The return to her solo career turns out to be not very successful, and Sandra takes some time off to focus on her family. On July 6, 1995, her twins Nikita and Sebastian are born by Caesarean section.
In 2007, Sandra divorced her husband and lived with Olaf Menges on the island of Ibiza. Later, in 2010, she and Menges were legally married, but in August 2014 they separated.
In the 2000s, Sandra visited Moscow several times as part of various festivals, such as Legends of Retro FM. In October 2001, the single “Forever” was released, followed by the album “The Wheel of Time” in the spring of 2002.
Since the beginning of 2010, she has been actively touring and preparing for the release of a new album, which she is recording in America. In 2009, Sandra’s long-awaited new album “Back to Life” was released. According to the singer herself, the songs from the new album are dance music, but created without the participation of Michel Cretu. However, this fact does not exclude the possibility of further musical collaboration between the former spouses. Sandra's new album is being recorded by the end of August 2011, but the release is delayed due to disagreements with the label and Black & Jones are hired to record the disc. On April 27, 2012, under their curation, a collection with remastered hits of the 1980s was released, and on May 11, a new single “Maybe Tonight” was released.
September 22, 2012 live on the Polish TV channel TVN
Sandra presents her new song “Infinite Kiss”. On the same day, filming takes place for a video clip for the new song presented to fans. A couple of weeks before the filming of the video, Sandra and her team invite fans from Warsaw and the surrounding area to take part in the filming.
On October 26, 2012, the worldwide release of her long-awaited 10th studio album, Stay In Touch, takes place. The album is presented in two versions - “normal” on 1 CD and “Deluxe Edition” on 2 CDs. There is a special release for Russia, which includes the bonus track “Russian Eyes”.
She performs songs in English, and in the songs “Moscow Nights” and “Russian Eyes” from the album “Stay In Touch” (2012), Sandra sang several phrases in Russian.
During the tour dedicated to the release of the album in 2013-2014, Sandra visited a number of cities in Russia and the former republics of the USSR: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Ukhta, Berezniki, Rostov-on-Don, Voronezh, Krasnodar, Sochi , Essentuki, Vologda, Vladivostok, Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan), Kapchagai (Kazakhstan), Tallinn, Pärnu (Estonia), Riga (Latvia) and others.[1]
Biography
Michel Cretu was born in Bucharest. His father was an engineer, his mother an economist. From 1965 to 1968 he studied piano at Music Lyceum No. 2 in his hometown. In 1968 he moved to Paris. There, his Romanian name and surname were Frenchized and took on their real form. From 1975 to 1978, Michel studied at the Frankfurt Academy of Music (Germany) from which he graduated with honors. There he began to work seriously in the field of popular music, helping some performers as a keyboard player.
In the 1980s, Cretu became a songwriter and producer for other artists. Thus, he became a co-producer of Mike Oldfield's 1987 album, Islands, taking part in the recording of the song "The Time Has Come".
While working as a keyboard player with the famous group Arabesque, he met his future wife, Sandra, who was a member of this group and a famous singer. They married on January 7, 1988 and soon after settled on the island of Ibiza (another established spelling of the island's name in Russian - Ibiza) (Spain), where Cretu lived until 2009. They have two children - twins Nikita and Sebastian, born in 1995. Cretu purchased two houses: an old farmhouse, which he converted into a villa, where he lived and worked, opening his own recording studio (ART Studios), and a house in the center of Ibiza, a historical monument of the 18th century. In this house, Cretu opened a restaurant, where he often invited various musicians and performers. For many years, Michel practically did not leave the island, except to pay taxes and film video clips.
In 1990, Michel Cretu's most popular album to date, MCMXC aD, was released as part of the Enigma project. Three years later, he created two compositions (“Carly's Song” and “Carly's Loneliness”) for the soundtrack of the Hollywood film Sliver.
In 2007, Cretu and Sandra officially divorced, although it is obvious that the breakup came earlier - Sandra did not take part in the work on Enigma's 2006 album "A Posteriori", and Michel had nothing to do with the recording of Sandra's last albums. Their musical collaboration effectively ended.
The Ibiza island authorities won a lawsuit against Cretu, accusing him of violating development regulations. In 2009, his villa was destroyed by court order. ART Studios has been discontinued. Michel Cretu moved to Germany. Michael's new creative laboratory is the mobile studio Merlin Records
Solo discography[ | ]
Albums[ | ]
| Name | Year | Highest chart position | ||||||||||||||
| "The Long Play" | 1985 | 12 | 18 | 4 | 25 | — | 1 | — | 2 | 8 | 43 | 6 | — | — | — | — |
| "Mirrors" | 1986 | 16 | — | 13 | — | — | 1 | — | 40 | 14 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "Into a Secret Land" | 1988 | 14 | 13 | 9 | — | — | 1 | 14 | 22 | 18 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "Paintings in Yellow" | 1990 | 4 | 14 | 8 | — | — | 7 | 13 | 30 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "Close to Seven" | 1992 | 7 | 26 | 13 | — | — | 11 | 18 | 27 | 20 | 87 | 11 | — | — | — | — |
| "Fading Shades" | 1995 | 42 | — | 37 | — | — | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| "The Wheel of Time" | 2002 | 8 | 63 | 68 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 17 | — | — |
| "The Art of Love" | 2007 | 16 | — | 88 | — | — | — | 159 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 26 |
| "Back to Life" | 2009 | 26 | — | 83 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 47 | — | — |
| "Stay in Touch" | 2012 | 20 | 60 | 51 | — | — | 28 | 119 | — | — | — | 174 | 18 | 40 | 11 | 37 |
Collections[ | ]
- 1987 - “Ten on One (The Singles)”
(Switzerland - No. 14, Germany - No. 19, Austria - No. 28) - 1988 — "Everlasting Love"
- 1992 - “18 Greatest Hits”
(Germany - No. 10, Switzerland - No. 27, Sweden - No. 36) - 1999 - “My Favorites”
(Norway - No. 15, Germany - No. 16, France No. 16 Switzerland - No. 43) - 2003 - “The Essential”
(Poland No. 39) - 2006 - “Reflections”
(Germany - No. 44, France - No. 145) - 2009 — "The Platinum Collection"
- 2012 - “So 80s”
(Germany No. 50) - 2016 — "The Very Best Of"
Singles[ | ]
| Name | Year | Highest chart position | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Andy Mein Freund | 1976 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Japan East Weight | 1984 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| (I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena | 1985 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 87 | 1 | 1 | 5[2] | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | 1 | — | — | — |
| In the Heat of the Night | 2 | 6 | 2 | — | 4 | 1 | 5 | 2 | — | 15 | 3 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| Little Girl | 1986 | 14 | 27 | 18 | — | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | 38 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Innocent Love | 11 | — | 14 | — | 7 | 4 | 10 | 18 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Hi! Hi! Hi! | 7 | 12 | 20 | — | 8 | 5 | 13 | — | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Loreen | 23 | — | 29 | — | — | 8 | — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Midnight Man | 1987 | 24 | — | — | — | 33 | 12 | — | 13 | — | 8 | 34 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Everlasting Love | 5 | 6 | 5 | 45 | 11 | 2 | 12 | 13 | — | 8 | 14 | 4 | 22 | 13 | 72 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Stop for a Minute | 1988 | 9 | — | 14 | — | — | — | — | 19 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Heaven Can Wait | 12 | 4 | 16 | 97 | — | 2 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Secret Land | 7 | 17 | 9 | — | 32 | 1 | 26 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| We'll Be Together ('89er Remix) | 9 | 16 | 22 | — | — | 3 | 13 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Around My Heart | 1989 | 11 | 23 | 19 | — | — | 6 | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 5[3] | — | — |
| Hiroshima | 1990 | 4 | — | 4 | — | — | 4 | 16 | 21 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| (Life May Be) A Big Insanity | 27 | — | — | — | — | 18 | 41 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| One More Night | 31 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Don't Be Aggressive | 1992 | 17 | 30 | 24 | — | — | 11 | 39 | 27 | 7 | 51 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — | — | — |
| I Need Love | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Johnny Wanna Live | 37 | — | — | — | — | 9 | — | — | — | 67 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Maria Magdalena ('93er Remix) | 1993 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Nights in White Satin | 1995 | 86 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 34 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Won't Run Away | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Secret Land ('99er Remix) | 1999 | 69 | — | — | — | — | 19 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 61 | — | — | — | — |
| Forever | 2001 | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 30 | 74 | — |
| Such a Shame | 2002 | 76 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 21 | — | — | — | 19 |
| I Close My Eyes | 93 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Secrets of Love (duet with DJ BoBo) | 2006 | 11 | 39 | 5 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 59 | — | — | — | — |
| The Way I Am | 2007 | 50 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 38 | — | — |
| What is it About Me? | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| In a Hearbeat | 2009 | 59 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| The Night is still Young (duet with Thomas Anders) | 46 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Maybe Tonight | 2012 | 77 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Infinite Kiss | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Sandra Cretu
Biography
On May 18, 1962, a daughter, Sandra, was born to a German woman, Karin, and a Frenchman, Robert Lauer, in the town of Saarbrucken.
As a child, she shared a room with her older (by two years) brother Gaston. The walls were covered with their stars David & Shaun Cassidy, as well as a ton of their albums. At age ten, she received guitar lessons from her school's music teacher, who lived on the same street as her family. Already at the age of 12 she was sure that she would be a singer.
At the "children's song competition" she surprised everyone with a wonderful performance of Olivia Newton-John's song. Producer George Roman “discovered” Sandra in 1976 and recorded her first single, “Andy main freund” (“Andy is my friend”). By this time, Sandra already had four years of experience playing the guitar and classical ballet school with practical performances at the city theater of Saarbrücken.
Arabesque
In 1979, her parents signed a contract under which she, a 16-year-old girl, was to join the female trio “Arabesques” as a soloist. From 1979 to 1985, performing in Japan, they were as famous in East Asia as ABBA was in Europe.
During this time the following were released:
15 audio tapes
30 singles
1 CD! (remember that back then CDs were not as widespread as they are now)
Despite private appearances on German television, Arabesque did not achieve the same success as in Japan. However, in Germany it was released:
6 LP's
12 serious entries (?)
13 singles
Sandra especially stood out in the trio thanks to her tight shorts and mini skirts, as well as erotic women's costumes. Sandra said about this period: “Not a single girl felt grateful that she had to dress like that when going on stage, but it was necessary for the performance. I will never do this again!”
Solo career
After Arabesques disbanded, she started in 1985 with the song "Japan ist weit" (German version of Alphaville's "Big in Japan"). Not disappointed by the small success of this single, Sandra began a creative collaboration with her friend Michael Cretu, whom she met while she was in Arabesques. Since 1977, Michael Cretu has been an arranger and composer for the group Boney M. Gradually, a fairly experienced team gathered around this couple in the person of Peter Kent, Peter Cornelius and other artists.
In the summer of 1985, SANDRA's first single appeared - "Maria Magdalena", written by Hubert Kemmler. Hubert Kemmler also sang the second voice and background voices on this single. The title of the song was also his idea. The recording was a huge success, in 21 countries around the world, from South America to Egypt, it took first place in the charts of the time, and was in the top ten in another five countries. Also, in 1985, her first solo album, “The Long Play,” was released.
The next album was released in 1986 and was called “Mirrors”. It included five of her singles - Innocent Love, Don't Cry (the Breakup of the World), Hi! Hi! Hi!, Loreen, and Midnight Man. In the same year, Sandra presented “In the heat of the night” at a song competition in Japan and took second place.
The year 1987 was marked by the release of the first collection, called “Ten on one”. In Germany, this collection was released in 1988 as “Everlasting love”, so the discs with different titles are almost identical in content. Between the release of these albums, she joined the ranks of the Artists United for Nature organization and on this occasion, the single “Yes we can” was released in 1989 (quite a long time interval).
Also in 1989, she appeared in the German crime series Tatort (episode Salu Palu), where she performed the song "Stop for a minute", gave concerts in Western Europe, and participated in the television show "die Pyramide".
In 1988, she came to Russia with a concert. One can only bitterly regret that none of the compilers of this FAQ were in Moscow at that moment. Judging by the photographs and the number of people who came, the people were simply crazy about the concert.
1990 The album “Paintings in Yellow” was released, in my opinion - one of Sandra’s best albums. Three singles were also released from this album - "Hiroshima", "(Life may be) a Big Insanity", and "One More Night".
1991 Sandra took part in her husband's project, ENIGMA (MYSTERY). Richard Branson, the boss of the Virgin record company, insisted that the female vocals be performed by Sandra. No sooner said than done! Rest, as he said, is a thing of the past.
1992 After the success of “RIDDLE”, “Close to seven” was released, which attracted the attention of many fans of the ENIGMA project, because everyone knew that it was created by the same people as ENIGMA. Recorded at his home studio, the album also contained three singles, "Don't Be Aggressive", "I Need Love", and "Johnny Wanna Live". In the same year, another collection was released, called “18 Greatest Hits”. That same year, in an interview, she stated that the music of her style now attracts little young people, and she does not want to sing without an audience. In the same interview, she said that she wanted to take a break and take care of her family and her personal life. It looked like she was going to end her music career. As it turned out later, such expectations were not met, although the next solo concert was released only in 1995.
1993 Sandra again participates in the second project ENIGMA, providing female vocals. One of the compositions on this album, “Dream of dolphin”, was dedicated by Michael Cretu to “his beloved wife” (“This song dedicated to my beloved wife Sandra”, M.Cretu)
After a noticeable delay, Sandra's last album, Fading Shades, was released in 1995.
Family life
On January 7, 1988, Sandra married Michael Cretu, as expected. Later, he and his team plunged into creating music in a recording studio in Spain, on the island of Ibiza. They still live there and have two houses - an old farm, which is their home and studio (ART studio), as well as an old restored house in the city center, which is a historical monument of the 18th century. At the base of this house, Cretu organized a restaurant, and often invites various musicians and performers there.
On July 6, 1995, Sandra gave birth to twins. The children were named Nikita and Sebastian. Just before her children were born, she released her last (to date) single, "Won't run away", which was included on the 1995 album Fading Shades.
