Jetzt kannst du blue News als deine bevorzugte News-Quelle auf Google hinterlegen.
Klicke auf den Button, setze das Häkchen hinter blue News – fertig!
Swisscom Services
Swisscom Apps
Language
Pop star Gitte Haenning turns 80 "I'd rather drop dead during a concert than stop now"
Picture:
imago stock&people
Gitte Haenning shaped the German-language music scene for decades - first with pop hits, later with jazz and self-confident songs such as "Ich bin stark". Shortly before her 80th birthday, the Danish singer is far from thinking about retiring.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Child star, pop icon, jazz lover: Danish singer Gitte Haenning reinvented herself time and time again.
- With songs such as "Ich bin stark", she became the voice of self-confident women from the 1980s onwards.
- Shortly before her 80th birthday, the Danish singer is still performing on stage - out of passion.
- Gitte Hænning is not thinking about quitting: "I'd rather fall dead from a bar stool at a concert."
As a child, Gitte Haenning sang about wanting to marry her dad, later she wanted a cowboy for a husband and sang a duet with Rex Gildo.
At first, the Danish singer was successful with pop songs, but from her 40th birthday onwards she struck a new note - more self-confident, stronger and less sweet.
Starlet Gitte became singer Gitte Haenning.
This was in keeping with the times: the article on equality has been part of the Swiss constitution since 1981. A year later, Haenning released songs such as "Ich will alles" and "Ich bin stark".
Gitte Haenning: "We can do karaoke at home"
Gitte Haenning turns 80 on June 29. But she will be celebrating on stage before then - with three concerts this weekend at the Tipi am Kanzleramt in Berlin.
Haenning's new stage program is called "Ich bin stark" ("I am strong") in reference to one of her greatest hits.
"Together we create something completely unique on stage. Otherwise I would be bored to death," says the singer in an interview with the "Berliner Morgenpost". She continues: "We can do karaoke at home."
Haenning has known the stage since she was eight years old - but initially against her will. Her father, the Danish singer-songwriter Otto Haenning, took her on stage for a duet - on the advice of his producer.
"I refused at first, but then I was tempted: if it becomes a hit, there will be enough money for a new bike," says Haenning. The duet "Giftes med farmand" - which translates as "I'm marrying Daddy" - did indeed become a hit.
It was the beginning of a long career as a singer, which took her to German-speaking Europe early on - to a world of pop songs in which, in her own words, she had "always felt alien".
Gitte Hænning quickly became an audience favorite
With her Scandinavian accent, Gitte Haenning quickly became an audience favorite. The German-Danish connection even went so far that Gitte Hænning competed for Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973. She reached eighth place with "Junger Tag".
In the years that followed, Haenning repeatedly proved her versatility as an entertainer. She even interpreted her old hits in a more modern guise. The singer even accepted losing some old fans in order to gain new ones.
Image:
IMAGO/APress
Pop and above all jazz became increasingly more important to the Dane than classic pop. She demonstrated this with the German version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Take That Look Off Your Face" and with tributes to Ella Fitzgerald and Judy Garland.
Gitte Haenning moves to Berlin for love
In 1996, Gitte Haenning moved to Berlin "because of love". But the city never became her home: "My home is in my rucksack. Berlin is my station," she says in an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost.
The singer would rather celebrate her 80th birthday on a small scale. "Secretly. And improvised. I have no idea how yet." Just as she has always done so far.
Incidentally, Gitte Haenning is far from thinking about quitting: "I'd rather drop dead from a bar stool at a concert."
Bevorzugte Quelle
