Sandra

There were few artists in Germany's music landscape of the 1980s that could do what they wanted and it turned to Gold:
One of them is Sandra - born Sandra Ann Lauer, on 18 May 1962 in Saarbrücken, Germany, she dominated the European charts with 18 Top20 hits in that decade with the help of her former husband and musical partner, Michael Cretu. For a brief period Sandra even outsold Madonna in certain countries worldwide!

Prior to her solo career, Sandra was also the lead singer of the female disco/dance trio Arabesque(1979–1984), which had a massive following in Japan & Russia. The group recorded their second album at Europasound Studios in Offenbach, which was owned by producer Frank Farian, the creator of Boney M. and Milli Vanilli. One of the musicians there was a keyboardist named Michael Cretu. Sandra and Michael became good friends. Arabesque became successful, and by Sandra's 19th birthday, she was a star. Arabesque were particularly popular in Japan dominating the charts, and their outrageous, sometimes daring costumes, dance routines and cheerful music suggested a fun alternative to ABBA and Boney M. They enjoyed success in several other countries and scored a Top 10 hit in Germany with "Marigot Bay" in 1981. After nine albums, differences in musical interests and the end of disco's popularity signalled the group's final break-up.

Sandra and Michael Cretu, romantically involved, moved to Munich, where Michael soon created his own Data-Alpha studio. Their first single together was 1984's 'Japan ist weit', a German cover of the Alphaville song 'Big in Japan', an appropriate way to describe Sandra's fame up to that point. However, the song failed to enter any of the charts and only 125 copies of the singe were sold.
Her single 'Maria Magdalena' which topped the charts in 21 countries worldwide and reached the Top10 in a further five countries opened up the world for her solo career. At that time Sandra was acclaimed the 'Pop Princess'.

Following the peak of her solo career, she also provided vocals on the album releases of the very successful group Enigma (1990–2001), for which she as part of the project, obtained #1s in no less than 15 countries worldwide, amongst them now also the US, the UK and Japan!
Today Sandra lives in Ibiza, Spain, with her husband Olaf Mengez, and has two children from her marriage to Michael Cretu, the twins Nikita and Sebastian.

Sandra - Maria Magdalena (1985)
DE#1, AT#1, CH#1, SWE#1, NOR#1, ISR#1, RSA#2, GR#1, NL#2, IT#3, FR#5, FIN#8, UK#87



Sandra - In The Heat Of The Night (1985)
ISR#1, DE#2, CH#2, SWE#2, FR#5, AT#6, RSA#8, IT#9, NL#13



Sandra - Hey Little Girl (1986)
ISR#2, IT#11, DE#14, CH#18, AT#27



Sandra - Innocent Love (1986)
ISR#4, NOR#6, IT#9, FR#10, DE#11, CH#14



Sandra - Hi! Hi! Hi! (1986)
RSA#4, ISR#5, DE#7, IT#8, AT#12, FR#13, CH#20, NL#47



Sandra - Loreen (1986)
ISR#8, DE#23, CH#29



Sandra - Midnight Man (1987)
ISR#12, DE#24, IT#36



Sandra - Everlasting Love (1987)
IR#2, RSA#4, DE#5, CH#5, AT#6, FR#12, NL#12, IT#19, US#22, AUS#72, UK#88



Sandra - Stop For A Minute (1988)
ISR#5, DE#9, CH#14



Sandra - Heaven Can Wait (1988)
ISR#2, AT#4, FR#6, DE#12, CH#16, UK#97



Sandra - Secret Land (1988)
ISR#1, DE#7, RSA#8, CH9, SWE#15, AT#17, FR#26, IT#32, NL#81



Sandra - We'll Be Together (1988)
ISR#3, DE#9, FR#13, AT#16, CH#22



Sandra - Around My Heart (1989)
ISR#6, DE#11, CH#19, AT#23, FR#28



Sandra - Hiroshima (1990)
ISR#4, DE#4, CH#4, FR#16



Enigma - Sadness (1990) - with vocal contributions by Sandra
DE#1, AT#1, FR#1, BE#1, DK#1, US#1, UK#1, CH#1, SWE#1, ES#1, NOR#1, JPN#1, IT#1, IRL#1, GR#1, CAN#2, AUS#2, NZ#2, NL#2, FIN#6,