Udo Jürgens

Silvio Francesco , Jürgens
and Harald Juhnke in 1962

Udo Jürgens (born September 30, 1934 as Udo Jürgen Bockelmann in Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria), is a composer and singer who, although he has been very successful for four decades, is hardly known outside the German-speaking world as almost all of his lyrics are in German. His rise to fame began in 1966 when he won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria with his song "Merci Cherie".

In 2000, Jürgens celebrated his 66th birthday, proving that the title of his 1977 song "Mit 66 Jahren" ("Mit 66 Jahren, da fängt das Leben an" -- "At 66, that's when life begins") also holds true for his own person. Jürgens still goes on tour and regularly appears on television, both in shows and made-for-TV films. For many years now, the tabloid press have cast him as a womanizer, and several women have claimed that he is the father of their children. In September 2003 Bild revealed that Jürgens had secretly married his long-term companion Corinna in New York on July 4, 1999.

Jürgens's brother Manfred Bockelmann (born 1943) is a painter; his daughter by his first marriage, Jenny Jürgens (born 1967), is an actress. His uncle Werner Bockelmann was mayor of Frankfurt am Main.