Chris Roberts

Biography

Chris Roberts was born from a German mother and a Yugoslavian father. Because it was forbidden to marry a Yugoslavian during the time of National Socialism, he did not get the German nationality and was stateless until he finally became a German citizen in 2016.
From 1964 on he drummed in the band Blue rockets, a cover band. In 1966 he was discovered by Hans Bertram who gave him a record deal. His first singles were unsuccessful, but in 1968 “Wenn Du mal einsam bist” reached the top 15 of the German charts. This succes was followed by “Die Maschen der Mädchen”, “Ich bin verliebt in die Liebe”, “Hab ich dir heute schon gesagt, daß ich dich liebe” and “Hab Sonne im Herzen” all top-10 hits. Roberts appeared on television very often, and played in many films. Then he got a new contract at Jupiter Records. There he got to know Ralph Siegel who wrote his biggest success: “Du kannst nicht immer siebzehn sein”. The song was in the German top-10 for twelve weeks. After this he released many songs, but they were no longer successful. Since then he has mainly written songs and became a producer. He nevertheless took the lead once more: in 1985, when he represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Children, Kinder, enfants”. Chris Roberts died of cancer at the age of 73 at the 2nd of july 2017.

In 1985, Ralph Siegel got the idea of three duo’s from respectively France, Germany and the United Kingdom, to represent Luxembourg. However, the French duo contained a Dutch and a Belgian singer. The song “Children, Kinder, enfants” contained three different languages.