Born in Klagenfurt, Austria, on September 30, 1934, the Austrian singer Udo Jürgens first drew widespread attention by capturing the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest. Over a performing span exceeding four decades he has become one of the most enduringly popular artists on the European mainland, with combined record sales worldwide surpassing 100 million copies. At sixteen he claimed victory in an Austrian radio songwriting contest with the composition “Je T’Aime,” and momentum carried forward until 1961, when Shirley Bassey turned his song “Reach for the Stars” into his first international hit.
Three years afterward Matt Monro enjoyed comparable success with Jürgens’ “Walk Away,” a number the English vocalist had originally heard at the 1964 Eurovision Song Contest, where the Austrian entrant performed the German-language original “Warum Nur Waru.” Jürgens placed fifth that year; the next year he improved to fourth place with “Sag Ihr, Ich Lass Sie Grüben.” On his third attempt he secured victory in 1966 by delivering “Merci Chérie,” a triumph quickly followed by an English-language hit for Vince Hill.
European acclaim continued without interruption, marked by a succession of chart singles and best-selling albums such as Siebzehn Jahr, Blondes Haar (1965), Was Ich Dir Sagen Will (1967), Mein Lied für Dich (1968), Zeig Mir Den Platz an der Sonne (1971), Ich Bin Wieder Da (1972), Nur ein Lächeln (1980), Willkommen in Meinem Leben (1981), Das Blaue Album (1988), and Gestern-Heute-Morgen (1996). He also wrote several of Germany’s most cherished pop standards; “Griechischer Wein” remains a perennial favorite, while “Aber Bitte Mit Sahne” later received a heavy-metal treatment from the band Sodom.
In 1978 one of his largest successes arrived when he collaborated with the German World Cup soccer squad on “Buenos Días, Argentina”; the partnership yielded a full-length album of the same title. Jürgens returned to the tournament in 1990 with the release Sempre Roma. Among his signature recordings, however, stands “Mit 66 Jahren” (“Life Begins at 66”). When he reached that age in 2000, press coverage echoed the attention Paul McCartney had received at sixty-four in connection with “When I’m 64.” Although his release schedule moderated during the 2000s, he still issued Es Werde Licht in 2003, Jetzt Oder Nie in 2005, and Der Ganz Normale Wahnsinn in 2011, the latter featuring an ensemble of more than one hundred musicians.
