Jürgen Drews

Born on 2 April 1945 in Nauen, Germany, schlager star and actor Jürgen Drews cut his teeth as a banjo player with jazz band the Schnirpels before graduating to guitarist with The Monkeys and lead guitar with Kiel-based psychedelic-rocker Chimes of Freedom in the late-1960s. During the 1970s, he branched out into pop lending his voice to Les Humphries Singers as well as embarking on a solo career. He released his first album Zeit für meine Songs ("It's time for my songs") in 1974 and charted at number 43 in Germany with second release Ein Bett in Kornfeld. He achieved a number-one hit in Germany with 1976 track "Ein Bett im Kornfeld," an adaptation of the Bellamy Brothers' tune "Let Your Love Flow" and five years later scored a hit across the pond with "Don't Want No-Body"—credited to J.D. Drews—cracking the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1981. He won the silver Bravo Otto award three years in a row (1976, 1977, and 1978) and after breaking off to experiment with new wave in the 1980s, in the 1990s returned to the German music scene and went on to establish himself as a leading voice in schlager music with notable albums such as Wieder alles im Griff (number 58 in 1999), Schlossallee (number 20 in 2010) and Kornblumen (number 18 in 2013). He has also appeared in a number of movies over the years including 2011 comedy Agenten in Gummistiefeln – Jagd auf den Killerhasen and 2013 TV series Cash Crash. In 2016 he recorded duet with Mickie Krause, "Ich hab den Jürgen Drews gesehn" ("I saw Jürgen Drews") for the Mickie Krause Duette album. In May 2022, he announced his decision to cut back on his activity as a professional musician due to his polyneuropathy diagnosis, and played his last concert in October 2022 as part of the TV show Der Große Schlagerabschied. In 2023, the farewell album Geil war's... Danke Jürgen! compiled some of the greatest hits of Jürgen Drews.