Peter Maffay

Known professionally as Peter Maffay, Peter Alexander Makkay was born on 30 August 1949 in Brasov, Romania and built a musical career in Germany after moving there as a teenager, going on to claim the German record for the most number-one ranked album sales charts, and impressively topping the charts for album studio album he released since 1979. He formed his first band, The Dukes, in 1983 and made himself known on the local club circuit before launching his solo career with debut single "Du" ("You") in 1970, which was a huge hit in Germany. He put out a string of popular releases in the '70s, charting in the German top ten with 1972 double-LP Omen, 1974's Samstagabend in unserer Straße and 1977's Dein Gesicht. The success of his career-defining 1979 album Steppenwolf propelled Peter Maffay to the top tier of national stardom with one of the best-selling albums of the era, and he managed to surpass himself with the follow-up in 1980, selling 2.1 million copies of the Revanche LP. He spent the '80s building on this success while strengthening his peace-minded political activism, receiving the Order of Merit for his social commitment in 1996 and in 2005 performing for German troops stationed in Afghanistan. He has consistently released records since the late '70s, including Ewig in 2008, 2010's Tattoos, and a 40th-anniversary collection comprising re-recorded versions of all his biggest hits. New album Tabaluga – Die Welt ist wunderbar! (CD) (Tabaluga – The world is wonderful!) arrived in 2022 and that same year he appeared as a judge on The Voice of Germany.