Jurgens, Udo (30th September 1934-21st December 2014)

Austrian singer-songwriter who put himself on the musical map by winning the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest with his own composition, “Merci Cherie”. It catapulted him to stardom among German-speaking peoples, although he has also recorded in English and Italian.

In 1978, he wrote a nationalist football anthem entitled “Buenos Dias, Argentina”which he recorded with the German football team.

His concerts were enormously popular and his 1992 concert in Vienna drew a crowd of over 220,000 fans, one of the biggest ever in Europe.

He wrote over 900 songs, including Shirley Bassey’s 1960 mega-smash “Reach for the Stars”, and has been covered by the likes of Bing Crosby, Brenda Lee, Matt Monro, and Sarah Vaughan. Some of his biggest hits include “Aber bitte mit Sahne” (“I’ll Have Whipped Cream With That”), “Griechischer Wein” (“Greek Wine”), and “Ich war noch niemals in New York” (“I’ve Never Been To New York”). This last turned out to be false when a tabloid newspaper uncovered that he had eloped with long-time girlfriend Corinna on 4^th July 1999.

He released his fiftieth album and continued to tour on a bi-annual basis. Michaela Moritz wrote a book about Jurgens’ life entitled The Man with the Bassoon. He has left a lasting impression at Munich’s Olympic Park, where he left his handprints on The Walk Of Stars in 2003.

From 1958 up until 2015 he held the world record as the artist with the longest presence in the charts for a staggering period of more than 57 years.

He died from acute heart failure in Munstrelingen, Switzerland in December 2014 when he was 80 years old.

David Rose recordings
Merci Cherie (Thomas Horbiger/Udo Jurgens)

Sources:

Jurgens, Udo (30th September 1934-21st December 2014)

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