Die Udo Jürgens Fan-Site

Nicht nur die deutschsprachige Presse berichtete vor einigen Monaten über den Tod Udo Jürgens', sondern auch internationale, renommierte Medien veröffentlichen Artikel bzw. Nachrufe, was seine Bedeutung erneut eindrucksvoll unterstreicht. Folgend einige Beispiele (im Original):


The New York Times:

Udo Jürgens, Austrian Singer and Songwriter, Dies at 80

Udo Jürgens, an Austrian-born singer and songwriter who became known as Europe’s Frank Sinatra as he helped define postwar popular music in the German-speaking world, died on Sunday in Gottlieben, Switzerland. He was 80.

He collapsed while out walking and was taken to a hospital, where he had a heart attack, his management company, Freddy Burger Management, said in a statement.

Mr. Jürgens sold more than 100 million records over five decades. In 1961 he wrote “Reach for the Stars,” which became an international success as sung by Shirley Bassey. His own breakthrough came in 1966, when he won the Eurovision Song Contest on his third attempt with "Merci, Chérie", representing Austria. The next year he began his first international concert tour, through Germany and much of Eastern Europe, then still in the grip of Communism.

“His songs always accompanied us and made us happy but sometimes offered solace and caused us to reflect,” President Joachim Gauck of Germany, a former pastor in East Germany, wrote in a condolence note to Mr. Jürgens’s daughter, Jenny Jürgens.

In an interview with the weekly newspaper Die Zeit in honor of his 80th birthday this fall, Mr. Jürgens said his style of narrative songwriting had been influenced by the French chanson. The lyrics in songs like "I Was Never in New York" and “My Brother Is a Painter” told of longing for other places and a different life. Several of the more than 800 songs he wrote were translated into English, including "If I Never Sing Another Song", which was performed by Ms. Bassey and Sammy Davis Jr. Bing Crosby recorded an English-language version of Mr. Jürgens’s “Griechischer Wein” as “Come Share the Wine,” which Al Martino later made popular.

Udo Jürgens Bockelmann was born in Klagenfurt, Austria, on Sept. 30, 1934, and grew up with two brothers on his family’s estate during World War II. His father was a farmer, and his paternal grandfather had led the German Junker-Bank in Moscow until the Russian Revolution in 1917. The Dadaist artist Jean Arp was an uncle. Mr. Jürgens began his musical studies at the Conservatory of Klagenfurt.

As a child he had wanted to join the Nazi Jungvolk, a movement for boys too young for the Hitler Youth. But he quit the group after a youth leader, angered that Mr. Jürgens’s uniform was not properly adjusted, struck him in the head. The blow left him deaf in his left ear.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Jürgens is survived by a son, John Jürgens, and several grandchildren.


Correction: December 25, 2014

An obituary on Wednesday about the Austrian singer and songwriter Udo Jürgens misstated the name of the Nazi organization for boys too young for the Hitler youth, which Mr. Jürgens quit after being hit by a leader. It was the Jungvolk, not the Jugendvolk.


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Le Monde:

Disparitions: Udo Jürgens, chanteur et compositeur autrichien

Très populaire dans les pays germaniques grâce à des mélodies sentimentales qui ont marqué leur époque, le chanteur austro-helvétique Udo Jürgens est mort d’une crise cardiaque, dimanche 21 décembre, durant une promenade en Suisse, où il résidait depuis 1977.

Ce crooner octogénaire, aux allures d’éternel jeune homme, n’avait jamais renoncé à la scène, et fédérait, dans son vaste public, au moins trois générations. En soixante ans de carrière, il a composé un millier de chansons, vendant à travers le monde plus de 100 millions de disques et de CD. Né sous le nom d’Udo Bockelmann, le 30 septembre 1934, à Klagenfurt, capitale de la Carinthie, il est issu d’une famille d’industriels autrichiens et allemands, avec des racines alsaciennes. Son oncle maternel, le peintre Hans Arp, participa au mouvement dadaïste avant de rejoindre le surréalisme. Tandis que son frère cadet, Manfred Bockelmann, va choisir la voie de la peinture, le jeune Udo découvre le pouvoir de séduction de sa voix, en s’accompagnant au piano, qu’il a d’abord pratiqué en autodidacte.

Dès 1960, il s’impose aussi comme auteur-compositeur et donne à la chanteuse noire britannique Shirley Bassey l’un de ses plus grands succès, Reach for the Stars. Sur sa lancée, il compose pour Frank Sinatra (If I Never Sing Another Song) et Sammy Davies Jr. En 1964, le mélancolique Warum? (« Pourquoi ? » ) est numéro un des ventes en France, où il symbolise, vingt ans après la Libération, les retrouvailles avec l’Allemagne.


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