Nicole Seibert

Nicole Seibert (née Hohloch; born 25 October 1964), known professionally as Nicole, is a German singer, songwriter, musician and producer.[2] In 1982, she became the first representative from Germany to win the Eurovision Song Contest.[3] Throughout her career, Hohloch has released more than 25 studio albums and 80 singles,[4] some of which she performed and recorded in, among other languages, English, Dutch, and French. Besides being a singer, she is also credited with composing the music and lyrics for some of her recordings.[5] Her music has been included on the soundtracks of several movies and television series.[6]

Nicole Seibert
Photograph of Nicole from her 2008 promotional collection
Born	Nicole Hohloch 25 October 1964 Saarbrücken, Germany
Other names	Nicole
Notable work	"Ein bißchen Frieden" "A Little Peace"
Spouse(s)	Winfried Seibert (married 1984)
Children	2
Musical career
Genres	Schlager pop jazz rock gospel[1]
Occupation(s)	singer songwriter musician producer
Instruments	Vocals guitar accordion cajón
Years active	1980s–present
Labels	CBS Records Jupiter Records Ariola Telamo
Website	nicole-4-u.de

Career

Hohloch was born in Saarbrücken, and began performing at the age of four, but did not achieve commercial success until she was 16, when her first single ("Flieg nicht so hoch, mein kleiner Freund") was released. The song peaked at 2 in Austria and reached positions within the top 40 on multiple European music charts.[7]

When she was 17 years old, she won the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ein bißchen Frieden", which went to position 1 on multiple European music charts. After the end of contest voting, Hohloch reprised the song by performing parts of it in English, French, and Dutch, along with the original German.[8]

Interviewed years later, she made a statement regarding the points received from Israel: "But the most important victory (was) that a German girl gets 12 points from Israel with a song about peace." In the interview, she also stated that she received an invitation from the Israeli government (which she accepted) to go to Tel Aviv to sing in front of the soldiers stationed there.[3]

She recorded an English version of the song, "A Little Peace", which also reached position 1 on the UK Singles Chart. It went on to be the 500th number one single in the UK Singles Chart.[9] Full versions in French ("La Paix sur Terre"), Dutch ("Een beetje vrede"), Spanish ("Un poco de paz"), Danish ("En smule fred"), Slovene ("Malo miru"), Russian ("Немного мира"), Polish ("Troszeczkę ziemi, troszeczkę słońca"), and Hungarian ("Egy kis nyugalmat kívánok én", with Neoton Família) have also been recorded.[10]

Later in 1982, she released two studio albums - one German (Ein bißchen Frieden) and the other in English (A Little Peace). Like the title tracks, most of the songs have a corresponding German and English track (the English lyrics are not literal translations of the German songs, but rather rewritten to match the melody of the original German songs while maintaining the meaning of the German lyrics).[11]

In 2005 she co-produced her album Alles Fliesst, which was released in May of that year.[2]

In 2008, she released the album Mitten ins Herz,[12] which was accompanied by a three-month "unplugged" tour that ended in January 2009.[7]

Early in her career, the songs she recorded and performed were primarily written by composers such as Ralph Siegel, Bernd Meinunger, Robert Jung, and Jean Frankfurter.[13][14] For the recordings of songs in other languages, she's worked with, among others, Paul Greedus, Zack Laurence, Pierre Delano, and Jean-Paul Cara.[15][16][17] In 2016 she worked with Siegel and Meinunger when making her studio album Traumfänger, and Hohloch (as Seibert) is also credited with some of the compositions.[18] In 2019, for the songs on her studio album 50 ist das neue 25, she worked with Heinz Rudolf Kunze, Jens Carstens, Martin Koppehele, Suna Koppehele, Gabi Koppehele, and Giorgio Koppehele, and is credited with songs from that album as well.[5]

In 2020, Hohloch celebrated her 40th anniversary in the music industry with a concert tour; however, these dates were re-scheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[19]

Mostly associated with being a Schlager musician, she has also recorded and released jazz, pop, rock and gospel songs.[1]

Personal life

Hohloch is one of four children, born to Marliese and Siegfried Hohloch. She grew up with her brother and two sisters in the small community of Nohfelden in Saarland. It was there that she attended school and graduated from high school. She is an honorary citizen of her hometown of Nohfelden.[20]

Hohloch married Winfried Seibert (a childhood friend she had known since she was 14) in a civil ceremony on August 17, 1984; a day later they had a wedding ceremony in a church. They have two children.[21][22]

She likes to give concerts in churches because of the atmosphere and acoustics. Since she was a child, she has found answers in her spirituality and firmly believes that guardian angels will take care of her. This belief was reinforced by some events in her life. In one such instance, Hohloch had planned a trip for Thailand in the winter of 2004, around the time the tsunami struck, killing over 220,000 people. Due to strong recommendations from friends, she cancelled her trip to Thailand and went to South Africa instead.[23]

She supports various humanitarian causes, such as child abuse prevention, and healthy activities for homeless children in the Philippines. She continues to campaign for Rett syndrome and for “life without chains”. She has been to Africa twice for Welthungerhilfe.[20]

Honors and Awards

• 1982: First place at the Eurovision Song Contest[3]
• 1983: Second place at the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo with the song "So viele Lieder sind in mir"[7]
• 1991: Winner of the German Schlagerparade with the song "Ein leises Lied".[8]
• 1993: Echo Award for Best Schlager Female Artist (of 1992)[20][24]
• 1999: Saarland Order of Merit[20][24]

Discography

References

1. Mendez, Fernando. "Germany: What is Nicole up to?". ESCToday.com. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
2. "Nicole Seibert". charts.org.nz. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
3. Saunders, Emma (May 21, 2015). "Eurovision memories: Oh, what a night!". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on July 24, 2016. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
4. "Discographie Nicole" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
5. "Nicole Seibert". charts.org.nz. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
6. "Nicole Hohloch". IMDb. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
7. Eurovision '82 winner Nicole talks about 'Ein bißchen Frieden', her success and the Contest today at Wikinews
8. "29 years ago today - Germany get their first win with Nicole". Wayback Machine. February 24, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
9. Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 224. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
10. McAlpine, Fraser (May 11, 2018). "7 Eurovision winners nobody talks about any more". BBC. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
11. "Release "A Little Peace" by Nicole - MusicBrainz". musicbrainz.org. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
12. "Mitten ins Herz". germancharts.de (in German). Retrieved December 16, 2020.
13. "Papillon credits". Irish Charts.
14. https://austriancharts.at/showperson.asp?name=Jean+Frankfurter
15. "A Little Peace (credits)". hitparade.ch (in German). Retrieved December 18, 2020.
16. "lescharts.com - Nicole - Butterfly". lescharts.com. Archived from the original on February 13, 2018. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
17. "lescharts.com - Nicole - La paix sur terre". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
18. https://hitparade.ch/song/Nicole/Traumfaenger-1538827
19. Sanabria-Rangel, Álvaro (October 11, 2020). "Eurovision 1982: Germany's Nicole in focus". Retrieved December 16, 2020.
20. "Nicole Wiki: Die Sängerin im Blickpunkt" (in German). SchlagerPlanet. August 28, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
21. "Nicole und ihr Winfried: Eine Liebesgeschichte" (in German). SchlagerPlanet. November 27, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
22. Posselt, Fabian (June 21, 2009). "Nicole und ihr Ehemann Winfried sind seit 25 Jahren verheiratet". bild.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-01-17.
23. Schmidt, Annika (June 26, 2020). "Schlagersängerin Nicole ist dem Tod dreimal von der Schippe gesprungen - eine unglaubliche Fügung" (in German). ExtraTipp. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
24. "Nicole". nicole-4-u.de (in German). November 5, 2019. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2021.

External links

• Official Website
• Nicole Hohloch at IMDb