Sandra

magic · August 17, 2008

SANDRA

Name: Sandra Cretu

Birthname: Sandra Ann Lauer

Birthplace: Saarbruecken (Germany)

Birthdate: 18 may 1962

Married: 7 jan 1988

Husband: Michael Cretu

Children: Nikita and Sebastian (twins)

ChildreBorn: July 6th 1995

Hair: brown

Eyes: brown

Height: 1.70 m

Sandra Lauer became in 1985 world known with "Maria Magdalena" though at that moment she had already in Japan a career as ´mega-star´ behind her !

Its may 18th 1962 in Saarbrücken Germany near the French border. From the German Karin and the french born Robert their 2nd child came to birth. A daughter which got the name "SANDRA".

As young girl Sandra shared a room with her 2 year older brother Gaston. On the walls were the posters from their stars David & Shaun Cassidy. With their about 5 US dollar of pocket money they bought singles which they enjoyed playing.

At the age of 10 Sandra did get a plain guitar and lessons from the music- teacher who was also her class teacher. He lived at the same road.

With 12 she knew it for sure, she wants to become a singer !

At a "children-song contest" she was the surprise act for the audience with a perfect rendering of a Olivia Newton-John song.

Producer George Roman discovered Sandra in 1976 and recorded her first single "Andy Mein Freund".

Beside the guitar lessons Sandra had also over a period of 10 years attended two times a week three hour long classical-ballet lessons. Wich also ment performances at the Saarbrücker city theater.

Her parents signed in 1979 the contract with which she as 16 year old girl could join the girl-trio "Arabesque" as lead singer. In Japan "Arabesque" was as famous as Abba was in Europe during that time. From 1979 until 1985 they had released in Japan 15 LP´s, 30 singles and a CD !

In spite of appearances in some big German tv-shows "Arabesque" didn´t break thru in Germany. Still there have been 6 LP´s several 12"records and 13 singles released in Germany.

Especially Sandra became the eye-catcher of "Arabesque" dressed in tide shirts and little skirts or wore typical 70´s erotic disco-lady´s suits.

Sandra said about that period: "Not one girl feels herself pleased to have to go dressed like that onto a stage but it belonged to the show-effect. Nowadays I won´t do that anymore !".

After the split of "Arabesque" there came begin 1985 a solo record on the market "Japan Ist Weit" (the German version of Alphaville´s "Big In Japan").

Not disappointed by the lack of success of this single takes her boyfriend Michael Cretu command, with whom she got acquainted during her time by Arabesque.

With the experience that Michael gained in the years, after leaving his native country Rumania, since 1977 in Germany i.a. as arranger & producer for Boney M.;Peter Kent;Peter Cornelius and many other artists, he constitute a solid team around her.

Summer 1985 appears then their first "SANDRA"-team-single. It´s the singer and songwriter Hubert Kemmler (from the band "Hubert KaH") who came up with the idea to name the song after the bible figure "Maria Magdalena".

At the same time Hubert sings himself the male opponent on the song and performs at later on released records also the background vocals.

The record becomes a gigantic success. In 21 countries from South-America to Egypt it reaches the number 1 position of the record charts and obtains in 5 more countries a top 10 position.

In 1986 she obtained in Japan at the Tokyo Songcontest with "In The Heat Of The Night" the second place.

A year later she took part in the Tatort (German-TV-crime-serial) episode "Salü Palü", gave live concerts in Eastern-Europe and was on June 17th 1989 the center in the german TV game show "the Pyramid (die Pyramide)".

Meanwhile she married at January 7th 1988 with Michael Cretu and went with complete recording studio and the whole team to live on the Spanish island Ibiza.

But success isn't over ! At July 6th 1995 Sandra gave birth to a twin. Two lovely children named Nikita and Sebastian.

Just before their birth she had released "Won´t Run Away" from her then 9th album "Fading Shades" and her voice appeared on Michaels "Enigma"-project albums.

At the end of 1997 came the first rumours in the open about a new album to be released in 1998 and a single at the end of that year. Finally in may 1999 a 2CD "My Favourites" has been released and a remix track has been brought out on single-CD, "Secret Land '99 remix" !

The first new SANDRA song was released on the 1st of October 2001 titled "Forever". Followed on 22 March 2002 by the uptempo "Such A Shame" for 29 April 2002 a whole new SANDRA album "The Wheel Of Time" is announced.