Zarah
Zarah at an event in 2010
Born	Manila, Philippines
Other names	Z
Occupation	Television personality, television producer, singer-songwriter, recording artist, screenwriter, actress, record producer, model, entrepreneur
Years active	2000–present
Website
www.thezarah.com

Zarah originally (born in Manila, Philippines) then came to Los Angeles during her early years, is an American television personality, television producer, singer-songwriter, recording artist, actress and entrepreneur who has been popularized for inspiring youth. She is a mix of Filipino, Spaniard and Chinese^[1] and presently hosts the popular music-based teen show B InTune TV, achieving a global success of 200 million homes in the United States with broadcast affiliates of 54 countries worldwide^[2] including Canada, Europe and Asia^[3] since 2005. In 2011, the show renewed its seventh season syndicating nationally, reaching over 90 million television households on broadcast television in America and maintaining its international countries around the world.^[4]

Zarah has dedicated her work into advancing children’s Music and Arts Education and its missions, lending her talents and skills that led to many influential figures through various avenues in her career in the television, music and entertainment industries and was honored as top women executives and professionals in the United States and around the globe by the Cambridge Who's Who among the nominees.^[5][6]

Television career[link]

B InTune TV at the sound stage with the Goo Goo Dolls for upcoming episodes: Zarah behind the scenes with her make-up artist in between interviews.

B InTune TV (TV series)[link]

Zarah is best known for her role as the host^[7] of a nationally syndicated daytime television show B InTune TV, which premiered on September 10, 2005 on Viacom and CBS Television Group and UPN Network stations in the United States.^[8]

Though many years active in the music industry as a musician^[9] before she played the face of the popular television series as a TV personality, Zarah was working on different music projects when she was approached to host and join the B InTune TV team^[10] for a half-hour (26 episode) weekly show to help advance children's music education through an educational excellence program. Zarah’s musical background and heavy involvements with both 501(c) 3 non-profit and for-profit sectors^[11] on Music and Arts Education for children like the B InTune Foundation and the GRAMMY Foundation over the years, led to projects that fulfilled her interest in educating youth while entertaining simultaneously as an artist. These events included introducing former President Bill Clinton to Dr. Michael Nobel of the Nobel family,^[12] where she also presented a Peace Book to a social and political activist Bono of U2 from Dr. Nobel and eventually, co-developing of what was yet to become a hit television series for teens (13 to 18 years old)^[13] and their music called, B InTune TV.

B InTune GRAMMY Week Event: TV personality Zarah attends the B InTune Event held at the Viper Room in Hollywood, CA.

In 2005, Zarah’s break in television came when the show debuted as a nationally syndicated TV series in broadcast television^[14] and was well received by its teen audience all across America.^[15][16] The show's unique educational and informative (E/I) style program for teens and their music is designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),^[17] specifically to help educate as well as entertain youth by integrating music with popular culture thus, making the show fun and entertaining to watch. In December 10, 2007, Zarah was invited to the Led Zeppelin's Reunion Concert^[18] by Robert Plant's management at the O2 Arena in London.^[19] She covered the only hour-long television special for B InTune TV introducing the classic rock band Led Zeppelin and their history and accomplishments.^[20][21]

With its popularity on the rise, the show reached 120 million households in the United States and had an international growth of 54 countries worldwide.^[22] B InTune TV celebrated events in 2008 that commemorated its global success of totaling 200 million television homes in the United States^[23] and other countries around the world, promoting new and upcoming artists for the television show and renewed repeatedly for more seasons to come.^[24] Zarah was one of the many celebrity attendees to have arrived at the red carpet celebrated event, which was held at the world-famous Viper Room in Hollywood, California.^[25][26]

Apart from being the host and her responsibilities overseeing the production team and other departments involving the process for B InTune TV as the co-executive producer^[27] alongside Emmy Award-winning creator and executive producer Eugene Maillard,^[28] Zarah is also the contributing writer of the show.^[29]

She has featured various guest appearances such as Rihanna, Avril Lavigne, Chris Brown, Clint Eastwood and The Rolling Stones just to name a few,^[30][31] supported by B InTune Media's music industry collaborators like Warner Bros. Records who partnered at Where Music Meets Film at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah^[32] and other labels like Universal Records and Capitol Records.

[edit] Other guest star appearances

Other television shows[link]

Following B InTune TV's success was guest-starring roles for Zarah as an actress appearing on other popular television shows.^[33] Many of which were educational and informative TV series that also led to executive-producing while guest-starring and other media-centric projects for children's Music and Arts Education.^[34]

Music career[link]

Influences and style[link]

Zarah’s influence in music came from listening to classic to modern rock genre and at times, popular music that began at an early stage.^[35] This enabled her to explore and develop her songwriting ability and worked on her vocals with legendary vocal coach Seth Riggs. Zarah honed her craft by writing and working with diverse musicians recording and performing live on different scenes.^[36]

Since then, her collaboration list of known artists grew namely, bassist Ricky Phillips of Bad English (now a Styx member), lead guitarist Howard Leese from the Heart,^[37] the Goo Goo Dolls and many iconic figures on music-related projects such as the son of the famous Beatles member (Ringo Starr), Zak Starkey (now with The Who), the late Patrick Swayze, record producer David Foster^[38] and rock bands that influenced her growing up like U2 and Collective soul, where she met lead guitarist Ross Childress.^[39][40]

These involvements carried memorable experiences for Zarah, which reflected heavily in her music and lyrics writing style that is mainly positive, inspiring her to create songs that have 'meaning and purpose' as a songwriter.^[41]

50th Annual GRAMMY Awards: Recording artist Zarah attends the 2008 GRAMMY Awards.

Performances[link]

[edit] Goo Goo Dolls

Zarah’s notable performances include concert shows with the Goo Goo Dolls.^[42] Her first performance with the famous rock band took place at the 9:30 Club concert venue in Washington, D.C.^[43] known for its gold standard for rock clubs in the country.^[44] Subsequently, Zarah met with members of the United States Congress, which included former United States Senator John Breaux at Capitol Hill with John Rzeznik pertaining to music piracy issues^[45] in the music industry. Bringing success to her previous concert, Zarah followed-up on other performances with the Goo Goo Dolls in other locations like Los Angeles. She also worked with the band on similar projects toward youth like inviting them to appear as her guest stars in B InTune TV. In 2006, the recurring episodes featuring the Goo Goo Dolls gave Zarah the opportunity to share with her teen audience what goes on behind the scenes on learning how to launch a major rock concert, conducting many interviews with the band and their crew during rehearsal for their upcoming tour.^[46]

[edit] Fundraising events and projects

In support to further advance Music and Arts Education causes, programs and projects for youth, Zarah worked with several Congressional leaders leading to former United States Senator like Tom Daschle, United States Senator Harry Reid and United States Congressman Steny Hoyer. She offered support by delivering live performances with her band for Fundraising events, which took place across the country.^[47] On her press interviews, she frequently expressed how "being able to help educate and entertain teens both at the same time, is very powerful".^[48][49]

Zarah also worked with frontman Bono in association with the GRAMMY Foundation on a special project for children’s music,^[50] where she got invited to a U2's soundcheck and spent time with Bono and bassist Adam Clayton^[51] in one of their concert tours.

Album soft-launch: Zarah performs live in Hollywood, California where Adam Gaynor of Matchbox 20 hosted the red carpet event.

[edit] Album soft-launch

By early 2008, Zarah was at the highest peak of her global audience in B InTune TV show running in two separate network line-ups with 120 million homes in the United States on one and another for its rerun syndication and TV specials, totaling of 200 million households and 54 international countries around the world.^[52]

Brewing to make music, Zarah decided to take the time off and get back to her roots as a musician. Within the same year, she wrote an entire album conveying meaningful and relevant subjects in her work, evolving into a seasoned artist.^[53] In late 2008, Zarah recorded with musician Robin DiMaggio, keyboardist Alex Alessandroni and bassist Chris Chaney among others, on self-written tracks she co-produced at the Henson Recording Studios (formerly A & M Studios) in Hollywood, California.^[54] The record was engineered by Julian Chan and mixed by Grammy Award-winning mix engineer Mark Needham. She soft-launched her rock recordings in 2009,^[55] by performing live with guitarist Devin Bronson and invited a few aspiring artists from a local high school to join her, where Adam Gaynor of Matchbox 20 guest-starred and introduced her at the show. Fender, Where Music Meets Film at the Sundance Film Festival, Bel-Air Entertainment Group and B InTune Media, sponsored the jam-packed showcase event.^[56][57]

Zarah finds her purpose through a positive impact in music as she once told Charley Daniels from a Television Week interview saying, "I think music has healed a lot of my past".^[58]

In 2011, Zarah began working on finishing her debut album with multi-platinum selling and multi-GRAMMY Award-winning duo producers Jean-Claude Olivier (Poke),^[59] after taking a notice from soft-launching her album^[60] and his partner Samuel Barnes (Tone) of Track Masters Entertainment,^[61] who sometimes are credited as ‘Poke and Tone’ in the music industry. Her production team also included additional GRAMMY Award-winners, record producer Cory Rooney^[62] and mix engineer Jason Goldstein.^[63] They have worked with many successful artists including the likes of Will Smith, Rihanna, Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez.^[64]

Radio career[link]

In addition to her television show and music, Zarah started a radio special for syndication back in early 2008. She co-hosted a voice-over doing one-on-one interviews with Bono and the whole U2 covering the thirty years of their life story detailing from their dream of being rock stars where they started in Dublin, Ireland, all the way to becoming one of the biggest rock bands known today.^[65]

Awards and recognition[link]

As a longtime advocate for Music and Arts Education for children, Zarah has worked her way through a variety of projects lending her skills and talents in all aspects of her music, television and radio career.^[66]

In 2008, Zarah earned her place at the 2008-2009 Cambridge Who’s Who (Honor's Edition) and became a lifetime member among the top women executives and professionals in the United States and around the globe as a television host, singer-songwriter, co-executive producer and entrepreneur,^[67] where many entertainment industry people were honored in the past.

She continues to dedicate herself towards similar causes for children in different fields and describes, "working with kids combined with music is no short of saying: it truly is a dream job."^[68]

Trademark[link]

Zarah has been largely popularized for inspiring youth through her work. She highly supports advancing children's Music and Arts Education as well as Peace, Tolerance and Non-violence cause-related projects and concerts. As a songwriter, Zarah often writes songs that have 'meaning and purpose',^[69] stressing the importance of conveying good messages.

After dropping her last name several years prior, Zarah started carrying her one and only name after her father left the family. She officially became known in the public eye as Zarah both professionally and legally.^[70]

Entrepreneurship[link]

In early 2011, Zarah designed her very first couture gown (ZARAH Couture) she was seen wearing at the 53rd Annual GRAMMY Awards.^[71] Her evening ensemble was recently covered in a number of GRAMMY red carpet arrival articles that included Los Angeles Times,^[72] Chicago Tribune^[73] and many other celebrity-driven news such as Life^[74] and MSN.^[75][76]

Zarah is the founder of a styling and branding company Straum Limited, which designs a t-shirt and hat line company GodsandGoddesses and fashioned by celebrities among others, she also founded earlier.^[77]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zarah

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Zarah

Media related to Zarah at Wikimedia Commons

• http://www.thezarah.com — The Official Zarah Website
• http://www.zarahmusic.com — Official Music Site
• Zarah at the Internet Movie Database

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2010)

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Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen in 2010
Background information
Birth name	Catharina Hagen
Born	(1955-03-11) 11 March 1955 (age 57)
Origin	East Berlin, German Democratic Republic
Genres	Punk rock Post-punk New wave Gothic rock Glam rock Neue Deutsche Welle Gospel
Occupations	Singer, Activist
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Columbia Records Mercury Records
Associated acts	Automobil The Nina Hagen Band Apocalyptica
Website	nina-hagen.com

Catharina "Nina" Hagen (born 11 March 1955) is a German singer and occasional actress.

Early years[link]

Nina Hagen was born in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva-Hagen), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen (née Buchholz), an actress and singer. Her paternal grandfather died in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp (one of Nina's great-grandparents was Jewish).^[1] Her parents divorced when she was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine.

When Hagen was 11, her mother married Wolf Biermann, an anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views later influenced young Hagen.

Hagen left school at age sixteen, and went to Poland, where she began her career.^[2][3] After that, she returned to Germany and joined the cover band Fritzens Dampferband (Fritzen's Steamboat Band, together with Achim Mentzel and others). She added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the "allowable" set lists during shows.

From 1972 to 1973, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduation, she formed the band Automobil.

Music career[link]

1970s[link]

In East Germany, she performed with the band Automobil, becoming one of the country's best-known young stars. Her most famous song from the early part of her career was Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen (You forgot the colour film), " a subtle dig mocking the sterile, gray, Communist state,"^[4] in 1974. Her musical career in the DDR was cut short, however, when she and her mother left the country in 1976, following the expulsion of her stepfather.

The circumstances surrounding the family's emigration were exceptional: Biermann was granted permission to perform a televised concert in Cologne, but denied permission to re-cross the border to his home country. Hagen submitted an application to leave the country. In it, she claimed to be Biermann's biological daughter, and threatened to become the next Wolf Biermann if not allowed to rejoin her father. Just four days later her request was granted,^{[citation needed]} and she settled in Hamburg, where she was signed to a CBS-affiliated record label. Her label advised her to acclimate herself to Western culture through travel, and she arrived in London during the height of the punk rock movement. Hagen was quickly taken up by a circle that included The Slits and the Sex Pistols; Johnny Rotten was a particular admirer.^{[citation needed]}

Back in Germany by mid-1977, Hagen formed the Nina Hagen Band in West Berlin's Kreuzberg district. In 1978 they released their self-titled debut album, which included the single "TV-Glotzer" (a cover of "White Punks on Dope" by The Tubes, though with entirely different German lyrics), and Auf'm Bahnhof Zoo, about West Berlin's then-notorious Berlin Zoologischer Garten station. The album also included a version of "Rangehn" ("Go For It"), a song she had previously recorded in East Germany, but with different music.

According to reviewer Fritz Rumler:

… she thrusts herself into the music, aggressively, directly, furiously, roars in the most beautiful opera alto, then, through shrieks and squeals, precipitates into luminous soprano heights, she parodies, satirises, and howls on stage like a dervish.

Hagen in 2003

The album gained significant attention throughout Germany and abroad, both for its hard rock sound and for Hagen's theatrical vocals, far different from the straightforward singing of her East German recordings. However, relations between Hagen and the other band members deteriorated over the course of the subsequent European tour, and Hagen decided to leave the band in 1979, though she was still under contract to produce a second album. This LP, Unbehagen (which in German also means discomfort or unease), was eventually produced with the band recording their tracks in Berlin and Hagen recording the vocals in Los Angeles, California. It included the single "African Reggae" and a cover of Lene Lovich's "Lucky Number". The other band members sans Hagen, soon developed a successful independent musical career as Spliff.

Meanwhile, Hagen's public persona was steadily creating media uproar. She became infamous for an appearance on an Austrian evening talk show called Club 2, on 9 August 1979, on the topic of youth culture, when she demonstrated (while clothed, but explicitly) various female masturbation positions and became embroiled in a heated argument with another panelist. The talk show host had to step down following this controversy.^[5][6]

She also acted with Dutch rocker Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the 1979 film Cha Cha.

1980s[link]

Hagen in 1980

A European tour with a new band in 1980 was cancelled, and Hagen turned to the United States. A limited-edition 10-inch EP was released on vinyl that summer in the U.S. Two songs from her first album Nina Hagen Band were on the A side, and two songs from her second album Unbehagen were on the B-side. All four songs were sung in German, although two had English titles and the other two were covers of English-language songs with new German lyrics.

In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be Ferdinand Karmelk,^[7] and moved to Los Angeles. Her daughter, Cosma Shiva Hagen, was born in Santa Monica on 17 May 1981. In 1982, Hagen released her first English-language album: NunSexMonkRock, a dissonant mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera. She then went on a world tour with the No Problem Orchestra.

In 1983, she released the album Angstlos and a minor European tour. By this time, Hagen's public appearances were becoming stranger and frequently included discussions of God, UFOs, her social and political beliefs, animal rights and vivisection, and claims of alien sightings. The English version of Angstlos, Fearless, generated two major club hits in America, "Zarah" (a cover of the Zarah Leander (#45 USA) song "Ich weiss, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehen") and the disco/punk/opera song, "New York New York" (#9 USA). During 1984 Hagen spent a lot of time in London and UK based MusicSzene magazine chief-editor Wilfried Rimensberger, in conjunction with Spree Film, produced a first TV feature on her and what was remaining from London's 70 Punk movement induced by artist and model Frankie Stein.

Her 1985 album Nina Hagen In Ekstasy fared less well, but did generate club hits with "Universal Radio" (#39 USA) and a cover of "Spirit In The Sky" and also featured a 1979 recording of her hardcore punk take on Frank Sinatra's My Way, which had been one of her signature live tunes in previous years. She performed songs from this album during the 1985 version of Rock in Rio. Wilfried Rimensberger and award-winning film director Lothar Spree produced a TV documentary for German Television ZDF. This was followed by a launch of Nina's UFO fashion underwear at anti-SAFT in Zurich, where again Rimensberger joined her up with New Romantic icon Steve Strange performing on stage. Simultaneously fashion photographer Hannes Schmid produced a Nina Hagen cover for German Cosmopolitan magazine. This also coincided with leading music publications like BRAVO and MusicSzene running cover stories that all put Hagen back on the forefront of something that in retrospective became a final highpoint of what the punk movement was all about. At the end of 1986, her contract with CBS was over and she released the Punk Wedding EP independently in 1987, a celebration of her marriage to a 17-year-old-punk nicknamed 'Iroquois'. It followed an independent 1986 one-off single with Lene Lovich, the anthemic Don't Kill The Animals. In 1989, Hagen released the album Nina Hagen which was backed up by another German tour.

In 1989 she had a relationship with Frank Chevallier from France, with whom she has a son, Otis Chevallier-Hagen.

1990s[link]

In the 1990s, Hagen lived in Paris with her daughter Cosma Shiva and son Otis. In 1991 she toured Europe in support of her new album Street. In 1992 Hagen became the host of a TV show on RTLplus. Also in the same year (1992) she collaborated with Adamski on the European smash and minor UK hit single "Get Your Body". The following year, she released Revolution Ballroom. In 1994, Hagen starred in the acclaimed San Francisco Goethe Institut's "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber", playing the singer version of "Anita" alongside dancer Jennifer Pieren who portrayed the other "professions" of "Anita". Also, her voice was heard on the Freaky Fukin Weirdoz single "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick". 1995 brought the German-language album Freud Euch appeared, recorded in English as BeeHappy in 1996. Nina returned to San Francisco to star in another San Francisco Goethe Institut show, "Hannusen, Hitler's Jewish Clarvoyant." Hagen also collaborated with electronic music composer Christopher Franke, along with Rick Palombi (credited as Rick Jude) on "Alchemy of Love", the theme song for the film Tenchi Muyo! in Love. In May 1996, she married David Lynn, who is fifteen years younger, but divorced him in the beginning of 2000. In 1997 she collaborated with German hip hop musician Thomas D.

In 1998, Hagen became the host of a weekly science fiction show on the British Sci-Fi Channel, in addition to embarking on another tour of Germany. In 1999, she released the devotional album Om Namah Shivay, which was distributed exclusively online and included an unadulterated musical version of the Hare Krishna mantra (in real life she believes that the Hindu incarnation of God known as Krishna was 'the king of Jerusalem'. Krishna is sometimes referred to as "Christ"). She also provided vocals to "Witness" and "Bereit" on KMFDM's Adios.

Also in 1998 she recorded the official club anthem (Eisern Union !) for FC Union Berlin and four versions were issued on a CD single by G.I.B Music and Distribution GmbH.

In 1999, she played the role of Celia Peachum in The Threepenny Opera by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, alongside Max Raabe. She also regularly performs songs by Kurt Weill, Hans Eisler and Paul Dessau set to Brecht's texts.

2000s[link]

In 2000, her song Schön ist die Welt became the official song of Expo 2000. Another cover of a Zarah Leander song "Der Wind hat mir ein Lied erzählt" was a minor hit the same year. The album The Return of the Mother was released in February 2001, accompanied by another German tour. In 2001 she collaborated with Rosenstolz and Marc Almond on the single Total eclipse/Die schwarze Witwe that reached #22 in Germany. On 14 October 2002 Nina hit Moscow by coming there with her concert, while interviews with the eccentric singer were aired on many TV-channels.

Hagen dubbed the voice of Sally in the German release of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, and she has also done voice work on the movie Hot Dogs by Michael Schoemann. Hagen has been featured on songs by other bands, for instance on Oomph!'s song "Fieber". She did a cover of Rammstein's "Seemann" with Apocalyptica. Later albums include Big Band Explosion, in which she sang numerous swing covers with her then husband, Danish singer and performer, Lucas Alexander. This was followed by Heiß, a greatest hits album. Her most recent album, Journey to The Snow Queen, is more of an audio book—she reads the Snow Queen fairy tale with Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in the background. In 2005 Nina Hagen headlined the Drop Dead Festival in New York City. Hagen has been an active protester against the war in Iraq. In 2006 she was a part of the Popstars team. She is a vegetarian.^[8] In August 2009 she was baptized in the Protestant Reformed church of Schüttorf.^[9] On October 21 after seven years passed she visited Moscow^[10] again. Her latest album, Personal Jesus was released July 16, 2010, after a four year lapse.

Discography[link]

See: Nina Hagen discography

Acting career[link]

Filmography[link]

Quotations[link]

• Both of my parents were atheists, and I found the way to God all alone on my own. You have to invite him, so that he shows up. ^[11]
• Asked if she was happy, she replied: Of course, I'm a family member of Christ and I have a Lord. He marched ahead of me and showed me the way.^[11]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nina Hagen Mother Of Punk (Russian-English)
• Seltene Live/Video Aufnahmen von Nina Hagen
• Nina Hagen discography
• Nina Hagen Electronic Shrine
• Trouser Press Nina Hagen Discography
• Nina Hagen - MySpace page
• Nina Hagen on Europopmusic.eu (English)
• Nina Hagen at the Internet Movie Database
• Nina Hagen: Interview (German)
• Nina Hagen vertreibt Wissenschaftler aus Talkshow Maischberger (German)
• [1]
• Drop Dead Magazine with issue 0 with Nina Hagen on the cover as well as a large interview inside
• 1979 Club 2 talk show with loose translation in More info
• Nina Hagen interviewed on Swedish TV during the 80s (English with Swedish subtitles)

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2012)

Zarah Leander
Born	Sara Stina Hedberg (1907-03-15)15 March 1907 Karlstad, Sweden
Died	23 June 1981(1981-06-23) (aged 74) Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation	Actress, singer
Years active	1929–1979
Spouse	Nils Leander (1926–1930) Vidar Forsell (1932–1943) Arne Hülphers (1956–1978)

Zarah Leander (15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Swedish actress and singer.

Leander began her career in the late 1920s, and by the mid 1930s her success in Europe, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian countries, led to invitations to work in the United States. Leander was reluctant to relocate her children, and opted to remain in Europe, and from 1936 was contracted to work for the German Universum Film AG (UFA) while continuing to record songs. Leander later noted that while her films were successful, her work as a recording artist was more profitable.

As a result of her controversial choice to work for the state-owned UFA in Adolf Hitler's Germany, her films and song lyrics were viewed by some as propaganda for the Nazi cause, although she took no public political position. Leander was strongly criticized as a result, particularly in Sweden where she returned after her Berlin home was bombed during an air raid. Initially she was shunned by much of the artistic community and public in Sweden, and found herself unable to resume her career after the Second World War. It was several years before she could make a comeback in Sweden, and she would remain a figure of public controversy for the rest of her life.

Eventually she returned to performing throughout Europe, but was unable to equal the level of success she had previously achieved. She spent her later years in retirement in Stockholm, and died there at the age of 74.

Beginnings[link]

She was born as Sara Stina Hedberg in Karlstad. While Zarah Leander's career in the Third Reich has been criticized, rumors nevertheless erroneously implied that Zarah was of Jewish heritage.^{[citation needed]} According to her son Göran, his mother's family, going back through generations, were from the Swedish provinces of Dalarna and Värmland.^{[citation needed]}

Although Zarah Leander studied piano and violin as a small child, and sang on stage for the first time at the age of six, she initially had no intention of becoming a professional performer and led an ordinary life for several years. As a teenager she lived two years in Riga (1922–1924), where she learned German, took up work as a secretary, married Nils Leander (1926), and had two children (1927 and 1929). However, in 1929 she was engaged, as an amateur, in a touring cabaret by the entertainer and producer Ernst Rolf and for the first time sang "Vill ni se en stjärna," ('Do you want to see a star?') which soon would become her signature tune.

In 1930, she participated in four cabarets in the capital, Stockholm, made her first records, including a cover of Marlene Dietrich's "Falling in Love Again", and played a part in a film. However, it was as "Hanna Glavari" in Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow that she had her definitive break-through (1931). By then she had divorced Nils Leander. In the following years, she expanded upon her career and made a living as an artist on stage and in film in Scandinavia. Her fame brought her proposals from the European continent and from Hollywood, where a number of Swedish actors and directors were working.

In the beginning of the 1930s she performed with the Swedish revue artist, producer and songwriter Karl Gerhard who was a prominent anti-Nazi. He wrote a song for Zarah Leander, "I skuggan av en stövel" (In the shadow of a boot), in 1934 which strongly condemned the persecution of Jews in Nazi-Germany.^[1]

Zarah Leander opted for an international career on the European continent. As a mother of two school-age children, she ruled out a move to America. In her view it was, most of all, too insecure. She feared the consequences, should she bring the children with her such a great distance and subsequently be unable to find employment. Despite the political situation, Austria and Germany were much closer, and Leander was already well-versed in German.

A second breakthrough, by contemporary measures her international debut, was the world premiere (1936) of Axel an der Himmelstür at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, directed by Max Hansen. It was a parody on Hollywood and not the least a parody of the German Marlene Dietrich, who had left a Europe marked by Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. It was followed by the Austrian film Premiere, in which she played the role of a successful cabaret star.

The UFA star[link]

Zarah Leander on the cover of Swedish weekly Se 1941

In 1936, she landed a contract with UFA in Berlin. She became known as an extraordinarily tough negotiator, demanding influence and high salaries with half of her salary paid in Swedish kronor to a bank in Stockholm. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels dubbed her an "Enemy of Germany", but as a leading film star at UFA, she participated in ten films, most of them great successes. However, unlike other film stars at the time, such as Olga Chekhova, Leander neither socialized with leading party members nor took part in official Nazi party functions. (Both actresses are rumored to have been Communist spies.)

At a party she met the Nazi minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, who asked her ironically: "Zarah... Isn't this a Jewish name?" "Oh, maybe" the actress told "but what about Josef?" "Hmmm... yes, yes, a good answer" Goebbels replied.^[2]

In her films, Zarah Leander repeatedly played the role of a femme fatale, independently minded, beautiful, passionate and self-confident. Although most of her songs had a melancholic flair, some had a frivolous undertext, or could at least be interpreted that way. In 1942, in the midst of a burning war, Leander scored the two biggest hits of her recording career - in her signature deep voice, she sang her anthems of hope and survival: "Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" ('That is not the end of the world') and "Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh'n" ('I know that someday a miracle will happen'). These two songs in particular are often included in contemporary documentaries as obvious examples of effective Nazi propaganda at work; however, it should also be noted that Leander's performance on these tracks, along with countless other hits she had all over Europe, struck a chord with the German people. Although no exact record sales numbers exist, it is likely that she was among Europe's best-selling recording artists in the years prior to 1945. Zarah herself was quick to point out in later years that what made her a fortune was indeed not her salary from Ufa, but the royalties from the records she released.^[3] "Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder gescheh'n" was the song on which New Wave singer Nina Hagen (who grew up in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and as a child had idolized Leander) based her 1983 hit "Zarah".

Return to Sweden[link]

Her last film in Nazi Germany premiered on 3 March 1943. Her villa in the fashionable Berlin suburb of Grunewald was hit in an air raid, and the increasingly desperate Nazis pressured her to apply for German citizenship. At this point she decided to break her contract with Ufa, leave Germany, and retreat to Sweden, where she had bought a mansion at Lönö, not far from Stockholm.

After the Wehrmacht's defeat in the 1943 Battle of Stalingrad, public opinion in Sweden (the government of which remained officially neutral throughout the war, though ideologically aligned with the Allies, but also supplying the Nazis with strategic war materials), was more free to display outward hostility toward the Nazis, especially as news of the Holocaust became widespread^[4] (public opinion was mainly anti-Nazi from the start, but was censored in the press by the government, to avoid severe repercussions from Germany). Leander had been far too extensively associated with Nazi propaganda, and as a result was shunned. Gradually she managed to land engagements on the Swedish stage. After the war she did eventually return to tour Germany and Austria, giving concerts, making new records and acting in musicals. Her comeback found an eager audience among pre-war generations who had never forgotten her. She appeared in a number of films and television shows, but she would never regain the popularity she had enjoyed before and into the first years of World War II. In 1981, after having retired from show business, she died in Stockholm of a stroke.

After the war, Zarah Leander was often questioned about her years in Nazi Germany. Though she would willingly talk about her past, she stubbornly rejected allegations of her having had sympathy for the Nazi regime. She claimed that her position as a German film actress merely had been that of an entertainer working to please an enthusiastic audience in a difficult time. She repeatedly described herself as a political idiot.

Zarah Leander continued to be very popular in Germany for many decades after WWII. She was interviewed several times in German television until she died.

In 1987 two Swedish musicals were written about Zarah Leander.

In 2003 a bronze statue was placed in Zarah Leander's home town Karlstad, by the Opera house of Värmland where she first began her career. After many years of discussions, the town government accepted this statue on behalf of the first Swedish local Zarah Leander Society. A Zarah Leander museum is open near her mansion outside Norrköping. Every year a scholarship is given to a creative artist in Zarah's tradition. The performer Mattias Enn received the prize in 2010, the female impersonator Jörgen Mulligan in 2009 and Zarah's friend and creator of the museum Brigitte Pettersson in 2008.

Filmography[link]

• 1930 – Dantes mysterier, with Eric Abrahamson, Elisabeth Frisk, Gustaf Lövås
• 1931 – Falska millionären, with Sture Lagerwall, Fridolf Rhudin
• 1935 – Äktenskapsleken, with Einar Axelsson, Karl Gerhard, Elsa Carlsson
• 1936 – Premiere (her first film in German), with Karl Martell, Attila Hörbiger, Theo Lingen
• 1937 – Zu neuen Ufern, with Willy Birgel, Viktor Staal, Carola Höhn, Erich Ziegel, Hilde von Stolz
• 1937 – La Habanera, with Ferdinand Marian, Karl Martell, Paul Bildt, Edwin Juergenssen, Werner Finck
• 1938 – Heimat, with Heinrich George, Ruth Hellberg, Lina Carstens, Paul Hörbiger, Leo Slezak
• 1938 – Der Blaufuchs, with Willy Birgel, Paul Hörbiger, Jane Tilden, Karl Schönböck, Rudolf Platte
• 1939 – Es war eine rauschende Ballnacht, with Marika Rökk, Paul Dahlke, Aribert Wäscher
• 1939 – Das Lied der Wüste, with Gustav Knuth, Friedrich Domin, Herbert Wilk, Franz Schafheitlin
• 1940 – Das Herz der Königin, with Willy Birgel, Axel von Ambesser, Will Quadflieg, Margot Hielscher
• 1941 – Der Weg ins Freie, with Hans Stüwe, Agnes Windeck, Siegfried Breuer, Hedwig Wangel
• 1942 – Die große Liebe, with Viktor Staal, Paul Hörbiger, Grethe Weiser, Wolfgang Preiss
• 1942 – Damals, with Hans Stüwe, Rossano Brazzi, Karl Martell, Hilde Körber, Otto Graf
• 1950 – Gabriela, with Siegfried Breuer, Carl Raddatz, Grethe Weiser, Gunnar Möller
• 1952 – Cuba Cabana, with O. W. Fischer, Paul Hartmann, Hans Richter, Eduard Linkers, Karl Meixner, Werner Lieven
• 1953 – Ave Maria, with Hans Stüwe, Marianne Hold, Hilde Körber, Berta Drews, Carl Wery
• 1954 – Bei Dir war es immer so schön, with Willi Forst, Heinz Drache, Sonja Ziemann, Margot Hielscher
• 1959 – Der blaue Nachtfalter, with Christian Wolff, Marina Petrowa, Paul Hartmann, Werner Hinz
• 1964 – Das Blaue vom Himmel (TV-Film), with Karin Baal, Toni Sailer, Carlos Werner
• 1966 – Das gewisse Etwas der Frauen, with Nadja Tiller, Anita Ekberg, Romina Power, Robert Hoffmann, Michèle Mercier

Operettas and musicals[link]

• 1931 Franz Lehár, Die lustige Witwe
• 1936 Ralph Benatzky, Axel an der Himmelstür (as Gloria Mills)
• 1958 Ernst Nebhut, Peter Kreuder, Madame Scandaleuse (as Helene)
• 1960 Oscar Straus, Eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will (as Manon Cavallini)
• 1964 Karl Farkas u. Peter Kreuder, Lady aus Paris (as Mrs. Erlynne)
• 1968 Peter Thomas, Ika Schafheitlin, Helmuth Gauer, Wodka für die Königin (as Königin Aureliana)
• 1975 Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler, Das Lächeln einer Sommernacht (as Madame Armfeldt)

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Ascheid, Antje. Hitler's heroines : stardom and womanhood in Nazi cinema. Philadelphia, Pa. : Temple University Press, 2003
• Carter, Erica. Dietrich's ghosts : the sublime and the beautiful in Third Reich film. London : BFI Publishing, 2004
• Seiler, Paul. Ich bin eine Stimme. LinkBerlin : Ullstein, 1997

Autobiography[link]

• Es war so wunderbar. Mein Leben. Hamburg: Hoffmann u. Campe. 1973. ISBN 3-455-04090-X

External links[link]

• Zarah Leander at the Internet Movie Database
• Listen to Zarah sing
• Zarah Leander talking about her German film years (in Swedish)
• Photographs and bibliography
• Zarah Leander at Find a Grave
• Zarah Leander, German fan-site

Noel Blanc (born October 19, 1938) is a voice actor, the son of late voice acting legend, Mel Blanc. Throughout Noel's childhood and early adulthood, he worked with his father on the Looney Tunes voices so that when the time came, he could take over for his father.^[1] Following his father's death, Blanc made a number of appearances performing the voices of Looney Tunes characters. Other voice artists such as Billy West, Bob Bergen, and Joe Alaskey have also provided the character voices for Looney Tunes. Noel has voiced the characters of Elmer Fudd, Barney Rubble, Yosemite Sam and background characters on the television show Family Guy.

Noel Blanc is CEO of Warner-Blanc, a joint venture of Warner Bros. and Blanc Communications Corp. He carries on his father's legacy of personal appearances, notably in the booth as a celebrity guest for the 2002 and 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 NASCAR Races featuring the Looney Tunes characters in themed paint schemes for Chevrolet drivers, where he performed Looney Tunes character voices before crowds of 200,000. Noel continues to be a regular featured guest on radio shows throughout the United States and Canada.

Noel's wife, Katherine Blanc, is an artist and book author.[1].

References[link]

This article about an American voice actor is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Michael Jary (born Maximilian Michael Jarczyk in Laurahütte -Siemianowitz (today Siemianowice Śląskie) on 14 September 1906; died in Munich on 12 July 1988) was a German composer.

Early years[link]

Jary's father worked at the Königshütte iron works and his mother was a tailor. He planned to become a missionary and went to school at the monastery of the Steyl Missionaries near Neisse where he discovered his love of music. At the age of 18 he moved to the conservatory at Beuthen. He directed the church choir and started to write his first chamber music works that were transmitted on the radio Gleiwitz. The city theatre of Neisse and Plauen gave him a position as a second concert master. In 1929 Jary was accepted at the Staatliche Akademische Musikhochschule at Berlin, meanwhile he made money playing as a pianist at cafés or movies. In 1931 he received the Beethoven-prize of Berlin.

During the Nazi years[link]

When Jarczyk delivered his graduation concert on 8 February 1933, he was bullied by members of the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur. Paul Graener, the new director of the Stern’sches Konservatorium denigrated his concert as „... culture-bolshevistic musical stammer of a Polish Jew“! Jarcsyk had to go underground for some time and used as a pseudonym Jackie Leeds for arrangements and Max Jantzen for chansons. Recognizing that his name was a hindrance to his career, he changed it to Michael Jary.

Sinfonic-type music was his strength. But after he composed his first musical score for a movie,Die große und die kleine Welt, he quickly became a secret tip among the professionals. The multiple possibilities of sound track caught his interest. Swing-arrangements and Jazz were part of his repertoire in spite of governmental diktats. Among others he originated a cyclus of musical zodiac interpretations. He became an expert in jazz and swing during the thirties.

In 1938 he had his first popular music hit, Roter Mohn. As the director of the Szymanowski-Gedächtniskonzertes in Berlin he was invited by Ernest Ansermet to Genf. However, the Nazi authorities denied him an exit visa. Forced to stay in Germany, he wrote, often with the lyricist Bruno Balz, songs for movies that became hits, including: Ich weiß, es wird einmal ein Wunder geschehn and Davon geht die Welt nicht unter.^[1]

After WWII[link]

Shortly before the end of WWII Jary had founded his own ensemble. Just 19 days after the capitulation his group became the basis for the new Radio Berlin Tanzorchester (RBT) in East Berlin. He engaged among others Ilse Werner and Bully Buhlan.^[2].

In 1948 he created his own production company, Michael Jary-Produktion, and maintained an office during the fifties in New York. He would have liked to have written musical scores for revue films as he had done in 1943 for the movie Karneval der Liebe. In 1949 he moved to Hamburg, and Jary was very successful as film score followed film score including „Leise rauscht es am Missouri“, „Das machen nur die Beine von Dolores“, „Mäki-Boogie“, „Heut’ liegt was in der Luft“ and others. These songs were interpreted by artists such as Zarah Leander, Rosita Serrano, Evelyn Künneke, Gerhard Wendland, Heinz Rühmann, and Hans Albers.

By the end of the fifties, „Mäki“, as he was called by his friends, restricted his output and shunned cheap movies. For the German entry for the Grand Prix 1960 he composed for Heidi Brühl „Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehn“. Nobody believed in the song, but today it is one of the greatest successes of the history of the German Schlager.

After this personal victory Jary returned to his roots. He composed the musical Nicole, that was first shown in Nürnberg in 1963 and would be celebrated later in Eastern Europe. He settled in his final domicile in Switzerland above the Lake of Lugano. He suffered from three heart attacks in 1973.

Michael Jary died on 12 July 1988 in Munich, the site of his grave is in the Friedhof Ohlsdorf in Hamburg.

References[link]

The beginning of this article is based on the corresponding article of the German Wikipedia from 03-31-2008

External links[link]

• Michael Jary in the German National Library catalogue (German)
• http://www.michaeljary.de
• Michael Jary at the Internet Movie Database