Sandra

Her French-born father, Robert Lauer (1937-2021), owned a wine store in Saarbrücken, and German-born mother, Karin (née Eltern) (1939–2020), worked in a shoe store.

Sandra Ann Lauer (born 18 May 1962), later Sandra Cretu, commonly known mononymously as Sandra, is a German pop singer who enjoyed mainstream popularity in the 1980s and early 1990s with a string of European hit singles, produced by her then-husband and musical partner, Michael Cretu, most notably "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena" (1985), "In the Heat of the Night" (1985), "Everlasting Love" (1987), "Secret Land" (1988), "Hiroshima" (1990), and "Don't Be Aggressive" (1992).

Sandra Ann Lauer was born on 18 May 1962 in the German town of Saarbrücken, close to the French border.

In 1975, at the age of 13, Sandra went with her mother to see Young Star Festival, a Saarbrücken talent competition.

She was only a member of the audience, but when the participants had finished performing and the jury was discussing the results, Sandra walked onto the stage and persuaded the DJ to put on the German version of an Olivia Newton-John song.

The impromptu performance gained considerable recognition and led to the release of her first single, a song about a pet dog, "Andy mein Freund".

The single, however, performed poorly.

In 1979, now 17, Sandra joined Arabesque, a disco group consisting of Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter, and would become the band's lead singer.

At that time, Sandra met keyboardist Michael Cretu.

They found that they shared the same birthday, albeit five years apart, and became good friends.

A cult star with a devoted fan base, Sandra remains one of the most popular singers of the 1980s in Continental Europe.

During the height of her popularity, she even managed to outsell Madonna in a number of countries around the world.

With sales in excess of 33 million records worldwide, Sandra has established her position as the most successful German female vocalist.

Arabesque became successful with their cheerful music and flamboyant costumes, winning a massive following in Japan and scoring a top 10 hit in Germany in 1981 with "Marigot Bay".

After nine albums, emerging differences in musical interests of group members and decreasing popularity of disco music signalled the group's break-up.

Sandra and Michael Cretu, by then romantically involved, moved to Munich where Michael created his own studio, Data-Alpha, named after a song from his solo album Legionäre.

Their first single together was 1984's "Japan ist weit", a German cover of the Alphaville song "Big in Japan".

However, the song failed to chart with only 125 copies sold.

Sandra gained international success in 1985 with the song "(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena", which topped the charts in 21 countries and reached the top 10 in another five.

Her first album, The Long Play (1985), reached number 12 in Germany and number 2 in Sweden.

The follow-up single, "In the Heat of the Night", reached number two in Germany and the top 10 in many European countries.

The song also earned Sandra second place at the Tokyo Music Festival in 1986.

"Little Girl", accompanied by a music video filmed in Venice, became the third single from the album in 1986, but was met with moderate success.

Shortly after the release of The Long Play, Sandra moved to London for six months to work with singing teacher Helena Shelen and take drum lessons.

She also enrolled at the London Berlitz School of Languages to improve her English, returning to Germany at weekends to record new songs.

Sandra's second studio album, Mirrors, was released in October 1986 with "Innocent Love" chosen as the first single, followed by "Hi! Hi! Hi!".

Both of these up-tempo synth-pop offerings achieved success in continental Europe.

Two further singles from the album, the ballad "Loreen" and "Midnight Man", were only moderate successes.

In 1987, Sandra released a cover version of "Everlasting Love", her favourite song since childhood, to great international success.

The single was a top 10 hit in German-speaking countries and charted within the top 20 internationally.

The song was included on Sandra's first greatest hits compilation, Ten on One (The Singles).

Her albums Into a Secret Land (1988) and Close to Seven (1992) have won Sandra high critical acclaim.

Prior to embarking on a solo career, Sandra was the lead singer of the all-female disco trio Arabesque, which had a massive following in Japan and the Soviet Union.

Sandra and Michael Cretu married in January 1988 and moved to the Spanish island of Ibiza to work on what would be Sandra's third studio album.

Into a Secret Land moved from electro-pop to more sophisticated areas of pop, showcased by the first single, "Heaven Can Wait".

The second single, "Secret Land", met with even greater success, is considered one of her biggest solo hits while "We'll Be Together", released as the third single, was the first song she co-wrote.

In order to promote her music in the English-speaking world, another compilation was released at the end of 1988, Everlasting Love.

Also, between 1990 and 2001, she provided vocals on album releases of the very successful musical project Enigma, which had top 10 hits in North America and the United Kingdom.

Sandra had an older brother, Gaston, a paraplegic who died in 1995.

She showed an early interest in music and dancing, taking classical ballet at the age of five and guitar lessons when she was 10.