Udo Jürgens

Udo Jürgens was born Jürgen Udo Bockelmann on 30 September 1934 and died on 21 December 2014 at age 80. An Austrian composer and singer of popular music, he worked in the industry for more than five decades. In 1966, he won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria, wrote nearly 1,000 songs, and moved over 104 million records.

In 2007, he also became a Swiss citizen. He is known for pushing German-language pop beyond the traditional post-war schlager style by mixing in modern pop and French chanson influences. His music attracted listeners of all ages, and he kept drawing large crowds in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland until his death.

In 1952, performing as Udo Bolan, he started the Udo Bolan Quartet in Klagenfurt, Austria. The group—with Johnny Richards on drums, Klaus Behmel on guitar, and Bruno Geiger on bass—played regularly at dance and jazz spots and appeared on Radio Alpenland and British Forces Radio.

He wrote the 1961 worldwide hit "Reach for the Stars" for Shirley Bassey. In 1964, Jürgens entered the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time, representing Austria with "Warum nur, warum?" and finishing sixth. The UK contestant Matt Monro liked the tune and covered it as "Walk Away" (with English lyrics by his manager Don Black), which reached number four in the UK and number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The next year, his song "Sag ihr, ich lass sie grüßen" came fourth. On his third attempt, in 1966 in Luxembourg, he won with "Merci, Chérie". That track became an English-language hit for Vince Hill and another cover by Monro, and it remains one of Jürgens' best-known works. His own version sold over a million copies, earning him a gold disc from Deutsche Vogue in 1966.

Over the following years, he wrote songs like "Griechischer Wein", "Aber bitte mit Sahne", "Mit 66 Jahren", and one of his biggest successes, "Buenos Días, Argentina", which he performed with the Germany national football team in 1978 in Argentina. In 1977, he brought The Supremes (Mary Wilson, Scherrie Payne, and Susaye Greene) onto his televised gala concert. They performed two of their own hits and a duet with Jürgens of "Walk Away".