Lale Andersen

German chanson singer-songwriter, best known for her interpretation of the song "Lili Marleen" in 1939, which became tremendously popular on both sides during the Second World War.

In 1922, she married Paul Ernst Wilke (1894–1971), a local painter. They had three children together, then the marriage broke up. In 1931, her marriage ended in divorce.

Through the 1930s she appeared on stage in various cabarets in Berlin and Zurich.

While at the prestigious Kabarett der Komiker (Comedians Cabaret) in Berlin, she met Norbert Schultze, who had composed the music for "Lili Marleen". Lale recorded the song in 1939, but it would only become a hit when the Soldatensender Belgrad (Belgrade Soldier's Radio), the radio station of the German armed forces in occupied Yugoslavia, began broadcasting it in 1941. Andersen was awarded a gold disc for over one million sales of "Lili Marleen".

Nazi officials did not approve the song and Joseph Goebbels prohibited it from being played on the radio. Andersen was not allowed to perform publicly for nine months, not just because of the song but because of her friendship with Rolf Liebermann and other Jewish artists she had met in Zurich. In desperation, she reportedly attempted suicide.

After the war, Andersen all but disappeared as a singer. In 1949, she married Swiss composer Artur Beul. In 1952 she made a comeback with the song "Die blaue Nacht am Hafen", which she had written the lyrics for herself. In 1959 she had another hit "Ein Schiff wird kommen...", a cover version of "Never on Sunday", the title song from the movie of the same name, originally sung in Greek by Melina Mercouri. Both songs won her a gold album in Germany.

In 1961, she participated as the representative of Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Einmal sehen wir uns wieder", which only reached 13th place with three points. Fifty-six years old at the time, she held the record of the oldest participant at Eurovision until 2008.