Peter Maffay

Rocker Peter Maffay emerged as the top-selling German pop artist of his era while channeling his fame into vigorous campaigns against war and vocal opposition to domestic violence. Born Peter Alexander Makkay on August 30, 1949, in Brasov, Romania, he moved with his family at age fourteen to the country of his parents’ birth. There he promptly assembled his first rock outfit, the Dukes. After a brief period employed by the art manufacturer Chemigraphics and performing evenings in neighborhood clubs, he committed himself entirely to music. His debut single “Du,” issued in 1969, became an instant phenomenon that sold more than a million units and paved the way for the album Für das Mädchen, Das Ich Liebe. Tragedy nearly halted his progress in 1972 when a motorcycle crash left him critically injured, yet he recovered and went on to achieve still greater commercial success. The double album Omen, 1974’s Samstag Abend in Unserer Straße, and 1977’s Dein Gesicht each reached the German Top Ten. With 1979’s Steppenwolf he shattered domestic sales records by moving more than 1.6 million copies; the following year Revanche surpassed that figure with 2.1 million units sold, while his concerts drew capacity crowds. Shifting direction in 1983, Maffay joined children’s musician Rolf Zuckowski and writer Gregor Rottschalk to launch the fantasy universe of the dragon Tabaluga in the album Tabaluga oder die Reise zur Vernunft. The project grew to encompass books, an animated series, a theatrical production, and further recordings. In 1986 he ventured into cinema, appearing alongside the cast of director Peter Patzak’s The Joker. Subsequent work increasingly reflected his political engagement; in 1996 he was awarded the Order of Merit in recognition of his social activism, and in 2005 he performed for German soldiers based in Afghanistan. The children’s charity initiative Begegnungen: Eine Allianz für Kinder appeared the next year. Tabaluga resurfaced for the 2007 holiday release Frohe Weihnachten mit Tabaluga and again in 2011 with Tabaluga und die Zeichen der Zeit. Maffay returned to recording under his own name with the 2008 album Ewig, then issued Tattoos in 2010, a fortieth-anniversary retrospective that presented newly recorded versions of his signature hits. February 2014 brought Wenn Das So Ist, which topped the German chart and remained on the listing for more than twelve months. In 2017 he delivered the live acoustic set MTV Unplugged, revisiting many of his best-known songs with the participation of invited performers.