Born Cornelia Froboess in 1943, Conny Froboess grew up amid the recovery years in Germany and displayed an early gift for both singing and acting. She became the country's first child singing star and later emerged as a teen idol through the close of the 1950s and the start of the following decade. Recording primarily as Conny Froboess yet occasionally issuing material under her full name Cornelia Froboess, she scored her initial success in 1951 at the age of eight with the father's composition "Pack die Badehose Ein," also known as "Pack Your Swimsuit." The track turned into an enduring cultural catchphrase. She maintained her popularity throughout the decade while continuing to sing and occasionally switching between her two professional names.
When rock & roll reached Germany, the still-teenage performer began incorporating a brisker, rhythm-driven beat into select recordings, echoing the approach then being taken by Connie Francis in the United States and by Petula Clark across England and France. On screen she reinforced this transition through a series of teen musicals that paired her romantically with actor Peter Kraus; billed simply by their first names, the "Conny und Peter" films extended into the early 1960s and showcased both her acting and vocal skills. In this period she came to personify the quintessential Berlin girl, a German counterpart to the wholesome Southern California teenager embodied by Sandra Dee in the Gidget role.
Her musical career reached its height in 1962 when she finished sixth at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Zwei Kleine Italiener," known in English as "Two Little Italians," her sole number-one single on the German charts. Although her recording activity declined after that point, her film work continued for decades. By the mid-1960s she had moved beyond youthful musicals into operetta adaptations, including a screen version of Carl Zeller's Der Vogelhandler. She remained active in cinema well into her sixties, demonstrating both her range as an actress and the lasting strength of her abilities.
