Thursday 5 August 2010

Cindy & Bert

Cindy & Bert are a German schlager vocal duo from Völklingen, Saarland and consists of Jutta Gusenberger and Norbert Berger. They were most successful in the 1970s, and are known for their participation in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.

Cindy & Bert started singing together in 1965, and married in 1967. They signed a recording contract in 1969, with singles being regularly issued, notably Der Hund Von Baskerville, an unlikely cover version of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" which has become a collector's curiosity. Their most successful period came between 1972 and 1975 when they placed eight singles on the German chart, including their biggest hit Immer Wieder Sonntags.

Cindy & Bert's first attempt to represent Germany at Eurovision came in 1972, when Geh' Die Straße finished in second place in the German national final. The following year they performed two songs in the German national final, but could only manage 8th and 9th place. They got their chance in 1974 when their song Die Sommermelodie was chosen as the German entry for the 19th Eurovision Song Contest, held in Brighton. Die Sommermelodie had been considered a particularly weak song choice by German observers. It also happened to have been chosen for a contest which featured a number of already internationally-established performers (Olivia Newton-John, Gigliola Cinquetti, Mouth & MacNeal), and launched the winning group ABBA into global superstardom, so its poor showing, one of four songs to share last place, did not come as a surprise. Cindy & Bert entered the German selection again in 1978 with two songs, Chanson D 'Été came 4th and Was Die Sterne Lenkt came 5th.

Cindy & Bert divorced in 1988, with Cindy starting a solo career as Cindy Berger while Bert moved into production. As a soloist, Cindy participated in two German pre-selections, in 1988 she came 2nd with Und Leben Will Ich Auch and in 1991 she came 7th with Nie Allein. The couple reunited in the mid 1990s and began performing on the nostalgia circuit in addition to releasing new material. Cindy continues to release solo material, her latest album being Von Zeit Zu Zeit in 2008.

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