Nina Hagen
(born Catharina Hagen
on 11 March 1955) is a singer from East Berlin, Germany.
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Early years
Hagen's parents are Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva), a scriptwriter, and
Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer. Her paternal
Jewish grandparents died in
Sachsenhausen concentration camp. 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 influenced young Hagen: she was "dishonorably discharged" from the
Free German Youth group at age 12, and became active in political protests against the
East German government.
Hagen left school at age 16, 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 1972–3, Hagen enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin. Upon graduation, formed the band Automobil.
Music career
1970s
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") in 1974. However, her musical career in East Germany was cut short 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. During a period when
bureaucracy was the norm, and families divided by the
Berlin Wall had not seen one another in decades, 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, 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.
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" (approximately, "Go On"), 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
.
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 and she became infamous for an appearance on an Austrian talk show called
Club 2
, in which she described female
masturbation techniques and became embroiled in a heated argument with another panelist.
[1] She also acted with
Dutch rocker
Herman Brood and singer Lene Lovich in the 1979 film
Cha Cha
.
1980s
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.
In late 1980, Hagen discovered she was
pregnant, broke up with the father-to-be Ferdinand Karmelk,
[2] 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). From 1984 to 1985, she dated
Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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. Her contract with
CBS over, 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
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, NIna 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." 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." Also in 1996, Hagen collaborated with
electronic music composer
Christopher Franke, along with Rick Jude on "Alchemy of Love", the theme song for the film
Tenchi Muyo! in Love
. 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
Berthold Brecht, alongside
Max Raabe.
2000s
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.
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.
[3] In August 2009 she was baptized in the Protestant church of Schüttorf.
Discography
See:
Nina Hagen discography
Quotations
- 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.
- 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.
Both quotes from an interview in Zeit Online
, 11 April 2006. She also believes that Lord Krishna was the king of Jerusalem and chants Hare Krishna (as stated on her website).
References
- Nina Hagen Biography
- Nina Hagen Archiv
- Nina Hagen is a vegetarian — Famous Vegetarians — Vegan Celebrities — by HappyCow