
“The uncompromising Godmother of German Punk went on to navigate bhajans, standards, protest folk, and more with a theatrical style all her own.”
Source: Nina Hagenfan (YouTube Channel)
Google Translation of Nina Hagenfan’s YouTubeComments (Originally in German)
Nina Hagen, who was born in East Berlin on March 11, 1955, actually wants to be an actress – like her mother Eva Maria Hagen – but the intended acting school rejects the application for admission. This can hardly have been due to a lack of talent on the part of the 17-year-old.
In the studio for light music, you don’t see that so closely, and so Nina completes a one-year singing course with distinction in 1974. With the Alfons Wonneberg Orchestra, Fritzens Dampferband and her first own band called Automobil, she is now touring through the GDR and singing melancholically beautiful songs like “You forgot the color film”.
Two years later, the GDR expelled Wolf Biermann, and Nina Hagen left the country with him. After a trip to the motherland of punk, Nina founded the Nina Hagen Band in 1977, which would later (without Nina) become known as Spliff. The first two releases by the Nina Hagen Band hit the alternative milieu of the Federal Republic like a bomb, “TV Glotzer” from the first LP “Nina Hagen Band” (1978) and “African Reggae” from “Unbehagen” (1979) are coming to an end the seventies at every cool party.
The music is based more on the American New Wave sound than on English punk and is not exactly revolutionary. But the band’s powerful way of performing and above all the throaty, expressive voice, which Nina also uses in a wide variety of ways, lay the foundation for the legendary reputation of the diva.
But most radio stations initially ignore the uncomfortable punk lady’s music, whose lyrics consistently go against the establishment, so Nina Hagen left the band in 1979 and tried her luck abroad. Not really successful musically in Paris, Rio or New York, her first English-language album “Nunsexmonkrock” also flopped.
In return, she repeatedly made the headlines with her UFO theories, auto-erotic demonstrations, her great interest in esotericism and Buddhism, and her commitment to animal welfare, which soon earned her the image of Germany’s flashiest pop star.
In keeping with the style, she also names her daughter, who was born in 1981, Cosma Shiva Hagen.
First named because of her UFO sighting on Malibu beach, Shiva as a tribute to the Indian deity of the same name. One of the highlights then was the marriage to a 17-year-old punk musician in Ibizia, who separated after only a week.
But such escapades prove to be a hindrance for the musical career. Finally, in 1989, she turned to the German-speaking audience again with “Nina Hagen”.
But she can’t quite make up her mind between German and English and she doesn’t find the right tone in her music either. In “Street” she proposed herself for president in 1991, until two years later she wanted to start again with producer Phil Manzanera on “Revolution Ballroom”.
In 1995 she moved to Los Angeles, where she actively supported the animal protection organization PETA and wrote the song “Tiere” from the album “Freud Euch” which was released in the same year. Even if she repeatedly gets ridiculed by claims that AIDS does not come from HIV but from the medication against it, she still has a lot to offer musically.
Above all, however, she demonstrates a feeling for strong partners. In 1998 she supported Thomas D from the Fantastischen Vier on “Solo”, the first single from his album of the same name. With the piece, Nina made it into the top 20 of the German charts for the first time since the early 1990s.
Further collaborations with Oomph and Apocalyptica follow, and so the German public sees Nina Hagen for what she actually is: a brilliant singer.
In addition to her music, she also appears as an actress, in 2004 for the first time together with her daughter in “7 Zwerge” and two years later in the sequel “7 Zwerge – Der Wald ist nicht haben”. She is also a member of the jury alongside Detlev D! Soost in 2006 and 2007 in two seasons of Popstars, which brought Monrose and Room2012 to the German audience.
Nina still lives part-time in the States where son Otis is graduating from high school. In 2009 and with her return to Germany, her lifelong inner search for the Protestant-Reformed faith ended: manifested in the book “Confessions” or later in songs like “Jesus Is A Friend Of Me”. From now on, this belief and her well-known commitment to socio-political issues such as peace, justice and civil rights will remain her thing.
This is also the case in the rock and punk-oriented album “Volksbeat”, with which Nina returned to more familiar musical terrain in 2011 after excursions into the big band or gospel profession (“Personal Jesus”, 2010 and “Irgenwo Auf Der Welt”, 2006). enters.
Also Posted By Nina Hagenfan:
0:00 – Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen
0:14 – Hatschi – Waldera
0:26 – Wir tanzen Tango
0:41 – Ich bin so alt
0:51 – Ich glotz TV
1:03 – Herman ist high
1:18 – Ziggy Stardust
1:33 – Born in Xixax
1:45 – Smack Jack
2:03 – New York New York
2:18 – Atomic flash deluxe
2:32 – My Way
2:50 – Zarah
3:06 – Punk Wedding
3:17 – Chernobyl
3:32 – Hold me
3:48 – Love heart attack
4:03 – In my world
4:17 – Ruler of my Heart
4:31 – Im gonna live the life
4:49 – So bad
5:03 – Tiere
5:17 – Gimme your love feat. Herman Brood
5:35 – Solo feat. Thomas D
5:52 – Moon of Alabama feat. Eva-Maria Hagen
6:10 – Wir leben immer…noch
6:24 – Frequenzkontrolle
6:36 – Jai Mata Kali Jai Mata Durge
6:42 – African Raggae
6:57 – Seemann feat. Apocalyptica
7:18 – My Way
7:37 – Born in Xixax
7:48 – Der Wind hat mir ein Lied erzählt feat. Capital Dance Orchestra
8:02 – Stand up for your right
8:17 – Amma Amma Taye
8:32 – Für dich solls rote Rosen regnen
8:59 – Gods Radar
9:19 – Personal Jesus
9:34 – An einem Tag im Frühling
9:50 – Keiner von uns ist frei
10:13 – Am dunklen Fluss
10:33 – Bang Bang
10:46 – Bang Bang
11:03 – Soma Koma
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