Nina Hagen
Encyclopedia
Nina Hagen is a German
singer and actress.
, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva-Hagen), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen
, an actress and singer. Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
(one of her great-grandparents was Jewish
). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet
, and was considered an opera
prodigy
by the time she was nine.
When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann
, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter
. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen.
Hagen left school at age sixteen, and went to Poland
, where she began her career. After that, she returned to Germany and joined the cover band Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band, together with Achim Mentzel and others). She added songs by Janis Joplin
and Tina Turner
to the "allowable" set lists during shows.
From 1972–73, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduation, she formed the band Automobil.
" ("You forgot the colour film") in 1974. However, her musical career in East Germany was cut short when she and her mother left the country in 1976, following the expulsion of her stepfather.
The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne
, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his home country. Hagen submitted an application to leave the country. In it, she claimed to be Biermann's biological daughter, and threatened to become the next Wolf Biermann if not allowed to rejoin her father. Just four days later her request was granted, and she settled in Hamburg
, where she was signed to a CBS
-affiliated record label. Her label advised her to acclimate herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock
movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits
and the Sex Pistols
; Johnny Rotten
was a particular admirer.
Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin
's Kreuzberg
district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, which included the single "TV-Glotzer" (a cover of "White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes
, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin
's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station
. The album also included a version of "Rangehn" ("Go For It"), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music.
According to reviewer Fritz Rumler:
The album gained significant attention throughout Germany and abroad, both for its hard rock
sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. However, relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour, and Hagen decided to leave the band in 1979, though she was still under contract to produce a second album. This LP
, Unbehagen (which in German also means discomfort or unease), was eventually produced with the band recording their tracks in Berlin and Hagen recording the vocals in Los Angeles, California. It included the single "African Reggae" and a cover of Lene Lovich
's "Lucky Number
". The other band members sans Hagen, soon developed a successful independent musical career as Spliff
.
Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She became infamous for an appearance on an Austrian evening talk show called Club 2, on 9 August 1979, on the topic of youth culture, when she demonstrated (while clothed, but explicitly) various female masturbation
positions and became embroiled in a heated argument with another panelist. The talk show host had to step down following this controversy.
She also acted with Dutch
rocker Herman Brood
and singer Lene Lovich
in the 1979 film Cha Cha
.
were on the A side, and two songs from her second album Unbehagen
were on the B-side. All four songs were sung in German.
In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be Ferdinand Karmelk, and moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen
, was born in Santa Monica
on 17 May 1981. In 1982, Hagen released her first English-language album: NunSexMonkRock
, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra.
In 1983, she released the album Angstlos
and a minor European tour. By this time, Hagen's public appearances were becoming stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. The English version of Angstlos, Fearless, generated two major club hits in America, "Zarah
" (a cover of the Zarah Leander
(#45 USA) song "Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen") and the disco/punk/opera song, "New York New York
" (#9 USA). During 1984 Hagen spent a lot of time in London and UK based MusicSzene magazine chief-editor Wilfried Rimensberger, in conjunction with Spree Film, produced a first TV feature on her and what was remaining from London's 70 Punk movement induced by artist and model Frankie Stein
.
Her 1985 album Nina Hagen In Ekstasy fared less well, but did generate club hits with "Universal Radio" (#39 USA) and a cover of "Spirit In The Sky
" and also featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Frank Sinatra
's My Way
, which had been one of her signature live tunes in previous years. She performed songs from this album during the 1985 version of Rock in Rio
. Wilfried Rimensberger and award-winning film director Lothar Spree produced a TV documentary for German Television ZDF. This was followed by a launch of Nina's UFO fashion underwear at anti-SAFT in Zurich, where again Rimensberger joined her up with New Romantic icon Steve Strange performing on stage. Simultaneously fashion photographer Hannes Schmid produced a Nina Hagen cover for German Cosmopolitan magazine. This also coincided with leading music publications like BRAVO and MusicSzene running cover stories that all put Hagen back on the forefront of something that in retrospective became a final highpoint of what the punk movement was all about. At the end of 1986, her contract with CBS
was over and she released the Punk Wedding EP independently in 1987, a celebration of her marriage to a 17-year-old-punk nicknamed 'Iroquois'. It followed an independent 1986 one-off single with Lene Lovich
, the anthemic Don't Kill The Animals. In 1989, Hagen released the album Nina Hagen which was backed up by another German tour.
In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen.
and son Otis. In 1991 she toured Europe in support of her new album Street. In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus
. Also in the same year (1992) she collaborated with Adamski
on the European smash and minor UK hit single "Get Your Body". The following year, she released Revolution Ballroom
. In 1994 Laramy Smith recorded Nina at Ferber Studios in Paris, for the "Somebody Help Me" project, a song to aid the homeless worldwide available at laramysmith.com. In 1994, Nina starred in the acclaimed San Francisco Goethe Institut's "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber", playing the singer version of "Anita" alongside dancer Jennifer Pieren who portrayed the other "professions" of "Anita". Also, her voice was heard on the Freaky Fukin Weirdoz single "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
". 1995 brought the German-language album Freud Euch
appeared, recorded in English as BeeHappy
in 1996. Nina returned to San Francisco to star in another San Francisco Goethe Institut show, "Hannusen, Hitler's Jewish Clarvoyant." Hagen also collaborated with electronic music
composer Christopher Franke
, along with Rick Palombi (credited as Rick Jude) on "Alchemy of Love", the theme song for the film Tenchi Muyo! in Love
. In May 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1997 she collaborated with German hip hop
musician Thomas D
.
In 1998, Hagen became the host of a weekly science fiction
show on the British Sci-Fi Channel, in addition to embarking on another tour of Germany. In 1999, she released the devotional album Om Namah Shivay, which was distributed exclusively online and included an unadulterated musical version of the Hare Krishna mantra. She also provided vocals to "Witness" and "Bereit" on KMFDM
's Adios.
Also in 1998 she recorded the official club anthem (Eisern Union !) for FC Union Berlin and four versions were issued on a CD single by G.I.B Music and Distribution GmbH.
In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera
by Kurt Weill
and Berthold Brecht, alongside Max Raabe
. She also regularly performs songs by Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler and Paul Dessau
set to Brecht's texts.
. Another cover of a Zarah Leander
song "Der Wind hat mir ein Lied erzählt" was a minor hit the same year. The album The Return of the Mother was released in February 2001, accompanied by another German tour. In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz
and Marc Almond
on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached #22 in Germany. On 14 October 2002 Nina hit Moscow by coming there with her concert, while interviews with the eccentric singer were aired on many TV-channels.
Hagen dubbed
the voice of Sally in the German release of Tim Burton
's The Nightmare Before Christmas
, and she has also done voice work on the movie Hot Dogs by Michael Schoemann. Hagen has been featured on songs by other bands, for instance on Oomph!
's song "Fieber". She did a cover of Rammstein
's "Seemann
" with Apocalyptica. Later albums include Big Band Explosion
, in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. Her most recent album, Journey to The Snow Queen, is more of an audio book—she reads the Snow Queen
fairy tale
with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker
in the background. In 2005 Nina Hagen headlined the Drop Dead Festival
in New York City. Hagen has been an active protester against the war in Iraq. In 2006 she was a part of the Popstars
team. She is a vegetarian. In August 2009 she was baptized in the Protestant Reformed church of Schüttorf
. On October 21 after seven years passed she visited Moscow
again. Her latest album, Personal Jesus
was released July 16, 2010, after a four year lapse.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
singer and actress.
Early years
Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East BerlinEast Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva-Hagen), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen
Eva-Maria Hagen
Eva-Maria Hagen is a German actress and singer. She is the mother of Nina Hagen.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
, an actress and singer. Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen concentration camp
Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
(one of her great-grandparents was Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
). Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
, and was considered an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
prodigy
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
by the time she was nine.
When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann
Wolf Biermann
Karl Wolf Biermann is a German singer-songwriter and former East German dissident.-Early life:Biermann's father, who worked on the Hamburg docks, was a German Jew and a member of the German Resistance....
, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen.
Hagen left school at age sixteen, and went to Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, where she began her career. After that, she returned to Germany and joined the cover band Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band, together with Achim Mentzel and others). She added songs by Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
and Tina Turner
Tina Turner
Tina Turner is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards and her achievements in the rock music genre have led many to call her the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll".Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the...
to the "allowable" set lists during shows.
From 1972–73, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduation, she formed the band Automobil.
1970s
In East Germany, she performed with the band Automobil, becoming one of the country's best-known young stars. Her most famous song from the early part of her career was "Du hast den Farbfilm vergessenDu hast den Farbfilm vergessen
"Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen" is a single by German punk artist Nina Hagen and the band Automobil. It was released in 1974.-Cover versions:...
" ("You forgot the colour film") in 1974. However, her musical career in East Germany was cut short when she and her mother left the country in 1976, following the expulsion of her stepfather.
The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his home country. Hagen submitted an application to leave the country. In it, she claimed to be Biermann's biological daughter, and threatened to become the next Wolf Biermann if not allowed to rejoin her father. Just four days later her request was granted, and she settled in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, where she was signed to a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
-affiliated record label. Her label advised her to acclimate herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits
The Slits
The Slits were a British punk rock band. The quartet was formed in 1976 by members of the bands The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The members were Ari Up , who died of cancer in October 2010, and Palmolive , with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members, Kate Korus and...
and the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
; Johnny Rotten
John Lydon
John Joseph Lydon , also known by the former stage name Johnny Rotten, is a singer-songwriter and television presenter, best known as the lead singer of punk rock band the Sex Pistols from 1975 until 1978, and again for various revivals during the 1990s and 2000s...
was a particular admirer.
Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
's Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, which included the single "TV-Glotzer" (a cover of "White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes
The Tubes
The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band, whose 1975 debut album included the hit single, "White Punks on Dope". During its first fifteen years or so, the band's live performances combined quasi-pornography with wild satires of media, consumerism, and politics...
, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station was the central transport facility in West Berlin during the division of the city, and thereafter for the western central area of Berlin until opening of the new Berlin Central Station on 28 May 2006...
. The album also included a version of "Rangehn" ("Go For It"), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music.
According to reviewer Fritz Rumler:
… she thrusts herself into the music, aggressively, directly, furiously, roars in the most beautiful opera altoAltoAlto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" in Italian, that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano. Hence,...
, then, through shrieks and squeals, precipitates into luminous sopranoSopranoA soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
heights, she parodies, satirisesSatireSatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, and howls on stage like a dervish.
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. However, relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour, and Hagen decided to leave the band in 1979, though she was still under contract to produce a second album. This LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
, Unbehagen (which in German also means discomfort or unease), was eventually produced with the band recording their tracks in Berlin and Hagen recording the vocals in Los Angeles, California. It included the single "African Reggae" and a cover of Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
's "Lucky Number
Lucky Number (song)
Lucky Number was a hit single in the UK for Lene Lovich. Released in 1979, it was featured on the album Stateless, recorded for Stiff Records. It was also recorded by Nina Hagen in German on the album Unbehagen, also released in 1979....
". The other band members sans Hagen, soon developed a successful independent musical career as Spliff
Spliff (band)
Spliff was a Neue Deutsche Welle rock band, active in the 1980s. The members were already playing together before they were 'adopted' by Nina Hagen when she came to West Germany in 1977. They recorded two albums with her as the Nina Hagen Band before continuing under the name Spliff when Hagen...
.
Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She became infamous for an appearance on an Austrian evening talk show called Club 2, on 9 August 1979, on the topic of youth culture, when she demonstrated (while clothed, but explicitly) various female masturbation
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...
positions and became embroiled in a heated argument with another panelist. The talk show host had to step down following this controversy.
She also acted with Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
rocker Herman Brood
Herman Brood
Hermanus "Herman" Brood was a Dutch musician, painter and media personality. Initially a musician who achieved artistic and commercial success in the 1970s and 1980s, and called "the Netherlands' greatest and only rock 'n' roll star," later in life he became a well-known painter.Known for his...
and singer Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
in the 1979 film Cha Cha
Cha Cha (film)
Cha Cha is a 1979 Dutch film directed by Herbert Curiel. It stars Herman Brood, and contains appearances from New Wave musicians Lene Lovich and Nina Hagen....
.
1980s
A European tour with a new band in 1980 was cancelled, and Hagen turned to the United States. A limited-edition 10-inch EP was released on vinyl that summer in the U.S. Two songs from her first album Nina Hagen BandNina Hagen Band (album)
- Track listing :All lyrics by Nina Hagen; except "Pank" by Hagen and Ariane Forster Music as indicated# "TV-Glotzer" — 5:15# "Rangehn" — 3:27...
were on the A side, and two songs from her second album Unbehagen
Unbehagen
Unbehagen is the second and last album by the Nina Hagen Band before the solo career of singer Nina Hagen. The German title translates to Discomfort but can be seen as a pun on the band name...
were on the B-side. All four songs were sung in German.
In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be Ferdinand Karmelk, and moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen
Cosma Shiva Hagen
Cosma Shiva Hagen is a German actress and the daughter of New Wave/punk singer Nina Hagen and the late musician Ferdinand Karmelk. Her grandmother is actress Eva-Maria Hagen, and her step-grandfather is the East German dissident writer Wolf Biermann. Eva-Maria Hagen was allowed to emigrate to West...
, was born in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
on 17 May 1981. In 1982, Hagen released her first English-language album: NunSexMonkRock
NunSexMonkRock
NunSexMonkRock is the first solo album by punk singer-songwriter Nina Hagen after the two albums she made with the Nina Hagen Band.-Track listing:All tracks written by Nina Hagen, except where indicated.# "Antiworld" 4:41...
, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra.
In 1983, she released the album Angstlos
Angstlos
Angstlos is the fourth studio album from the artist Nina Hagen, released in 1983, with an English version in 1984, Fearless...
and a minor European tour. By this time, Hagen's public appearances were becoming stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. The English version of Angstlos, Fearless, generated two major club hits in America, "Zarah
Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen
"Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen" is a song composed by Bruno Balz and Michael Jary, which was originally recorded by Swedish actress and singer Zarah Leander.-Nina Hagen cover:...
" (a cover of the Zarah Leander
Zarah Leander
Zarah Leander was a Swedish actress and singer.Leander began her career in the late 1920s, and by the mid 1930s her success in Europe, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, led to invitations to work in the United States...
(#45 USA) song "Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen") and the disco/punk/opera song, "New York New York
New York / N.Y.
"New York / N.Y." is a song by German recording artist Nina Hagen from her album Angstlos. Co-written by Hagen, Karl Rucker and Steve Schiff, it was released as the album's lead single in 1983...
" (#9 USA). During 1984 Hagen spent a lot of time in London and UK based MusicSzene magazine chief-editor Wilfried Rimensberger, in conjunction with Spree Film, produced a first TV feature on her and what was remaining from London's 70 Punk movement induced by artist and model Frankie Stein
Frankie Stein
Frankie Stein is one of the fictional characters in Monster High. She is also one of the Monster High fashion dolls. Frankie is related to the monster Frankenstein and is the daughter of Vicktor and Viveka Stein.-Personality:...
.
Her 1985 album Nina Hagen In Ekstasy fared less well, but did generate club hits with "Universal Radio" (#39 USA) and a cover of "Spirit In The Sky
Spirit in the Sky
"Spirit in the Sky" is a song written and originally recorded by Norman Greenbaum and released in 1969. The single sold two million copies in 1969 and 1970 and reached number three in the U.S. Billboard chart, as well as number one on the UK, Australian and Canadian charts in 1970. Rolling Stone...
" and also featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
's My Way
My Way (song)
"My Way" is a song popularized by Frank Sinatra. Its lyrics were written by Paul Anka and set to music based on the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed in 1967 by Claude François and Jacques Revaux, with lyrics by Claude François and Gilles Thibault. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the...
, which had been one of her signature live tunes in previous years. She performed songs from this album during the 1985 version of Rock in Rio
Rock in Rio
Rock in Rio is a series of music festivals held in three cities: Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Lisbon in Portugal and Madrid in Spain.Four incarnations of the festival were in Rio de Janeiro, in 1985, 1991, 2001 and 2011, four in Lisbon, in 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010, and two in Madrid in 2008 and 2010....
. Wilfried Rimensberger and award-winning film director Lothar Spree produced a TV documentary for German Television ZDF. This was followed by a launch of Nina's UFO fashion underwear at anti-SAFT in Zurich, where again Rimensberger joined her up with New Romantic icon Steve Strange performing on stage. Simultaneously fashion photographer Hannes Schmid produced a Nina Hagen cover for German Cosmopolitan magazine. This also coincided with leading music publications like BRAVO and MusicSzene running cover stories that all put Hagen back on the forefront of something that in retrospective became a final highpoint of what the punk movement was all about. At the end of 1986, her contract with CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
was over and she released the Punk Wedding EP independently in 1987, a celebration of her marriage to a 17-year-old-punk nicknamed 'Iroquois'. It followed an independent 1986 one-off single with Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
, the anthemic Don't Kill The Animals. In 1989, Hagen released the album Nina Hagen which was backed up by another German tour.
In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen.
1990s
In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma ShivaCosma Shiva Hagen
Cosma Shiva Hagen is a German actress and the daughter of New Wave/punk singer Nina Hagen and the late musician Ferdinand Karmelk. Her grandmother is actress Eva-Maria Hagen, and her step-grandfather is the East German dissident writer Wolf Biermann. Eva-Maria Hagen was allowed to emigrate to West...
and son Otis. In 1991 she toured Europe in support of her new album Street. In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus
RTL Television
Rtl.de' redirects here. For other uses, see RTL.RTL Television , or simply RTL, is a German commercial television station distributed via cable and satellite along with DVB-T , in larger population centres...
. Also in the same year (1992) she collaborated with Adamski
Adamski
Adamski is an English dance music producer, prominent at the time of acid house for his tracks "N-R-G" and "Killer" .-Career:...
on the European smash and minor UK hit single "Get Your Body". The following year, she released Revolution Ballroom
Revolution Ballroom
Revolution Ballroom is the eighth studio album by Nina Hagen, released in 1993.- Track listing :All tracks composed by Nina Hagen; except where indicated# "So Bad" # "Revolution Ballroom"...
. In 1994 Laramy Smith recorded Nina at Ferber Studios in Paris, for the "Somebody Help Me" project, a song to aid the homeless worldwide available at laramysmith.com. In 1994, Nina starred in the acclaimed San Francisco Goethe Institut's "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber", playing the singer version of "Anita" alongside dancer Jennifer Pieren who portrayed the other "professions" of "Anita". Also, her voice was heard on the Freaky Fukin Weirdoz single "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song and single by Ian Dury & The Blockheads, first released 23 November 1978 and was first released on the 7" single BUY 38 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick / There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Stiff Records. It went to number one on the UK Singles...
". 1995 brought the German-language album Freud Euch
FreuD euch
- Track listing :All tracks composed by Nina Hagen; except where indicated# " Einfach Nina" 1:20# "Lass Mich in Ruhe!" 1:48# "Stacheldraht" 2:50# "Tiere" 3:27...
appeared, recorded in English as BeeHappy
BeeHappy
- Track listing :All tracks composed by Nina Hagen; except where indicated# "Runaway" – 3:51# "Giant Step" – 3:04# "Born to Die in Berlin" – 3:14# "Sunday Morning" – 3:27...
in 1996. Nina returned to San Francisco to star in another San Francisco Goethe Institut show, "Hannusen, Hitler's Jewish Clarvoyant." Hagen also collaborated with electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
composer Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke
Christopher Franke is a German musician and composer. From 1971 to 1988 he was a member of the electronic group Tangerine Dream. Initially a drummer with The Agitation, later renamed Agitation Free, his primary focus eventually shifted to keyboards and synthesizers as the group moved away from its...
, along with Rick Palombi (credited as Rick Jude) on "Alchemy of Love", the theme song for the film Tenchi Muyo! in Love
Tenchi Muyo! in Love
is the first of three movies set in the Tenchi Muyo! multi-verse.The film takes place after the conclusion of Tenchi Universe, and so varies from the original OVAs at several points...
. In May 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1997 she collaborated with German hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
musician Thomas D
Thomas D
Thomas D. is a rapper in the German hip hop group Die Fantastischen Vier. He frequently works on solo projects.- Life :...
.
In 1998, Hagen became the host of a weekly science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
show on the British Sci-Fi Channel, in addition to embarking on another tour of Germany. In 1999, she released the devotional album Om Namah Shivay, which was distributed exclusively online and included an unadulterated musical version of the Hare Krishna mantra. She also provided vocals to "Witness" and "Bereit" on KMFDM
KMFDM
KMFDM is an industrial band led by German multi-instrumentalist Sascha Konietzko, who founded the group in 1984 as a performance art project...
's Adios.
Also in 1998 she recorded the official club anthem (Eisern Union !) for FC Union Berlin and four versions were issued on a CD single by G.I.B Music and Distribution GmbH.
In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
by Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Berthold Brecht, alongside Max Raabe
Max Raabe
Max Raabe is a German singer. He is particularly noted as the founder and leader of the Palast Orchester....
. She also regularly performs songs by Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler and Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau was a German composer and conductor.- Biography :Dessau was born in Hamburg into a musical family...
set to Brecht's texts.
2000s
In 2000, her song Schön ist die Welt became the official song of Expo 2000Expo 2000
Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...
. Another cover of a Zarah Leander
Zarah Leander
Zarah Leander was a Swedish actress and singer.Leander began her career in the late 1920s, and by the mid 1930s her success in Europe, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, led to invitations to work in the United States...
song "Der Wind hat mir ein Lied erzählt" was a minor hit the same year. The album The Return of the Mother was released in February 2001, accompanied by another German tour. In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz
Rosenstolz
Rosenstolz is a German music band from Berlin. Their music combines several styles including rock, pop and ballads. AnNa R. and Peter Plate form the duo. They had their breakthrough in 1998 with the song Herzensschöner...
and Marc Almond
Marc Almond
Marc Almond is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who originally found fame as half of the seminal synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell...
on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached #22 in Germany. On 14 October 2002 Nina hit Moscow by coming there with her concert, while interviews with the eccentric singer were aired on many TV-channels.
Hagen dubbed
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...
the voice of Sally in the German release of Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
's The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
, and she has also done voice work on the movie Hot Dogs by Michael Schoemann. Hagen has been featured on songs by other bands, for instance on Oomph!
Oomph!
Oomph! is a German rock band that was formed in Wolfsburg, Germany in 1989. The band is considered to be the original Neue Deutsche Härte musical group. In the 22-year history of the band, there have been no line-up changes.-Early years :...
's song "Fieber". She did a cover of Rammstein
Rammstein
Rammstein is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band from Berlin, formed in 1994. The band consists of members Till Lindemann , Richard Z. Kruspe , Paul H. Landers , Oliver "Ollie" Riedel , Christoph "Doom" Schneider and Christian "Flake" Lorenz...
's "Seemann
Seemann (song)
"Seemann" was covered by Finnish cello metal band Apocalyptica and featured Nina Hagen on the band's album, Reflections. It was released as a single on October 6, 2003. It was mixed and recorded by Mikko Raita.-Track listing:# "Seemann" – 4:03...
" with Apocalyptica. Later albums include Big Band Explosion
Big Band Explosion
Big Band Explosion is the thirteenth albumby Nina Hagen, released in 2003, featuring the Leipzig Big Band.- Track listing :# "Let Me Entertain You" 2:47...
, in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. Her most recent album, Journey to The Snow Queen, is more of an audio book—she reads the Snow Queen
The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is a fairy tale by author Hans Christian Andersen . The tale was first published in 1845, and centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda....
fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
in the background. In 2005 Nina Hagen headlined the Drop Dead Festival
Drop Dead Festival
The Drop Dead Festival is the largest DIY festival for art-damaged music. It books as many as sixty five bands per event, and has been known to attract attendees from over 30+ countries...
in New York City. Hagen has been an active protester against the war in Iraq. In 2006 she was a part of the Popstars
Popstars
Popstars is an international reality television franchise and a precursor to the Idol series. The series first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the five member all-girl group TrueBliss...
team. She is a vegetarian. In August 2009 she was baptized in the Protestant Reformed church of Schüttorf
Schüttorf
Schüttorf is a town in the district of Grafschaft Bentheim in southwesternmost Lower Saxony near the Dutch border and the boundary with Westphalia . The town of Schüttorf forms with the surrounding communities the Joint Community of Schüttorf. It is the district’s oldest town...
. On October 21 after seven years passed she visited Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
again. Her latest album, Personal Jesus
Personal Jesus (Nina Hagen album)
Personal Jesus is the fifteenth studio album by Nina Hagen, released on July 16, 2010 in Germany and on July 27, 2010 in the U.S.- Track listing :# "God's Radar" – 3:58# "I'll Live Again" – 2:48# "Personal Jesus" – 4:01...
was released July 16, 2010, after a four year lapse.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Liebesfallen | Liane Brückner | |
| 1976 | Unser stiller Mann | Regina | |
| 1979 | Bildnis einer Trinkerin | Singer in a taxi drivers' bar | |
| 1979 | Cha-Cha Cha Cha (film) Cha Cha is a 1979 Dutch film directed by Herbert Curiel. It stars Herman Brood, and contains appearances from New Wave musicians Lene Lovich and Nina Hagen.... |
||
| 1983 | Pankow '95 | Jungfrau Maria | |
| 1996 | Lilien in der Bank | Suzanne | |
| 2000 | Vasilisa | The Witch | |
| 2004 | 7 Zwerge | The Evil Queen | Hagen's daughter Cosma Cosma Shiva Hagen Cosma Shiva Hagen is a German actress and the daughter of New Wave/punk singer Nina Hagen and the late musician Ferdinand Karmelk. Her grandmother is actress Eva-Maria Hagen, and her step-grandfather is the East German dissident writer Wolf Biermann. Eva-Maria Hagen was allowed to emigrate to West... played Snow White |
| 2006 | 7 Zwerge - Der Wald ist nicht genug | The Evil Queen | Hagen's daughter Cosma Cosma Shiva Hagen Cosma Shiva Hagen is a German actress and the daughter of New Wave/punk singer Nina Hagen and the late musician Ferdinand Karmelk. Her grandmother is actress Eva-Maria Hagen, and her step-grandfather is the East German dissident writer Wolf Biermann. Eva-Maria Hagen was allowed to emigrate to West... played Snow White |
Quotations
- Both of my parents were atheists, and I found the way to God all alone on my own. You have to invite him, so that he shows up.
- Asked if she was happy, she replied: Of course, I'm a family member of Christ and I have a Lord. He marched ahead of me and showed me the way.
External links
- Nina Hagen Mother Of Punk (Russian-English)
- Seltene Live/Video Aufnahmen von Nina Hagen
- Nina Hagen discography
- Nina Hagen Electronic Shrine
- Trouser Press Nina Hagen Discography
- Nina Hagen - MySpace page
- Nina Hagen on Europopmusic.eu (English)
- Nina Hagen: Interview (German)
- Nina Hagen vertreibt Wissenschaftler aus Talkshow Maischberger (German)
- http://www.schwarzkopf-schwarzkopf.de/sachbuch/handsigniertebuecher/ninahagen/ninahagenhandsigniert.php
- Drop Dead Magazine with issue 0 with Nina Hagen on the cover as well as a large interview inside
- 1979 Club 2 talk show with loose translation in More info
- Nina Hagen interviewed on Swedish TV during the 80s (English with Swedish subtitles)