Singer Sandra Ann Lauer, better known as Sandra or Sandra Cretu was born 60 years ago in Saarland, Germany. She was married twice and has twin sons.
When she was 5, Sandra started taking classic ballet lessons and 5 years after, learnt the guitar. In 1979, she joined the group ‘Arabesque’ and met her then husband Michael Cretu, who was a keyboardist. The band released 9 albums in all and were very successful, particularly in Japan and the Soviet Union. However, things did not work well after that and so the group split.
International fame arrived in 1985 when Sandra released ‘(I’ll never be) Maria Magdalena’. It was a huge hit and her only song which peaked to number one in 21 countries’ music charts. Her next song ‘In the heat of the Night’ was also successful, a number 2 hit in Germany and placing with the Top 10 in several countries around Europe. Then in 1987, Sandra recorded a cover version of her childhood favourite: the 1967 song by Robert Knight ‘Everlasting Love’ and again was very successful.
In 1990, her then-husband Michael Cretu, had created a group named ‘Enigma’ and Sandra contributed vocals to several of their songs, including ‘Sadeness Part I’ and ‘Return to Innocence’, which were both international hits.
During her long career, Sandra released 10 studio, 8 compilation and 3 video albums, plus 26 music videos, 47 singles and 6 Box Sets. Her records sold over 33 million copies globally and she is considered as the best German female vocalist ever.