Many of Udo Jürgens’ songs became cult during his lifetime. “But Please, with Cream” was a popular hit; in “I Never Been to New York,” he depicts the bourgeois life of the lower middle class; and in “Greek Wine,” he sang of the loneliness of immigrants in a foreign land. His recipe for success: he took the daily worries of “the little people” and dressed them up with pleasant melodies.
Intelligent and often ironic lyrics
Despite the sweetness of his melodies, his lyrics were mostly clever and often ironic. Topics such as environmental exploitation appeared early in his songs.
In the later years of his career he also used the “softener” which he was accused of using more sparingly and some songs sounded louder. He strongly criticized social and political demands. “When you’re of a certain age, you have to say what you think,” he said during his last concert in early December 2014 at the Hallenstadion in Zurich.
Udo Jürgen’s career began in the 1950s. His breakthrough came with the song “Merci Chérie”, with which he won the Eurovision Song Contest (today: European Eurovision Song Contest) in 1966.
More than 1000 songs, more than 50 albums
He composed more than 1000 songs and a symphonic poem. He has released more than 50 albums. In total, Jürgens has sold a good hundred million records. He has also composed for international stars such as Shirley Bassey and Frank Sinatra.
He was born Udo Jürgen Bockelmann on September 30, 1934 in Klagenfurt, Austria. He grew up in the upper middle class, on a country estate. He taught himself to play the piano when he was a child. As a child, he had to join the Hitler Youth. There he received a slap which permanently affected his hearing in one ear. Jürgens describes his family history and the beginnings of his career in the book “The Man with the Bassoon”, which was also made into a film.
Udo Jürgens was also known as a womanizer. Jürgens’ first marriage was to former model Panja from 1964 to 1989. With her he had son John in 1964 and daughter Jenny in 1967. He also has two illegitimate daughters. In 1999, he married his longtime girlfriend, Corinna Reinhold. The two divorced in 2006.
The show must go on
Instead of talking about controversy, the siblings prefer to talk about the rediscovered and now released Jürgens song “As I went away”. “It’s a beautiful ballad,” John says of the song, which has been viewed more than 300,000 times on YouTube in just a few days. The song had been gathering dust in the archives in demo tape form for decades. Using artificial intelligence, Jürgens’ voice was filtered from the old recording and recorded with new instrumental accompaniment.
Posthumously, the artist continues to live on stage. The “Da Capo Udo Jürgens” tour begins at the beginning of November. During the shows, recordings of the singer’s concerts can be seen and heard on an LED wall, while a live band accompanies the songs. However, John does not want to see his father on stage as a digital avatar in the future, even if the cult band Abba now appears in the form of such 3D holograms. “I find it scary,” John said.
Adopted hometown of Zurich
At the end of the 1970s, Jürgens made Switzerland his adopted home. He lived for many years in an apartment in Bellevue in Zurich, then moved to Zumikon and, shortly before his death, to a villa in Meilen on Zurich’s Gold Coast. In February 2007, he acquired Swiss nationality, but also remained Austrian.
On December 21, 2014, he collapsed while walking in Gottlieben, Thurgau, and died a few hours later from acute heart failure. His unexpected death shocked his family, colleagues such as director Freddy Burger and conductor Pepe Lienhard as well as the public.
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