Jürgen Marcus

Biography

Jürgen Marcus was a German schlager singer. He completed an apprenticeship as a mechanic. He then appeared as a singer in various amateur beatbands in his hometown Herne. Because of the similarity of his civil name Jürgen Beumer with the name of figure skater Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, he chose the stage name “Jürgen Marcus”. In 1967 he was the winner of the European Festival in Brussels. In 1968 and 1969 he was successful at the Beat Festival in Recklinghausen. Finally in 1969 he got the role of Claude in a German performance of the musical “Hair”. Producer Jack White contracted him and produced his first single “Nur Du (El cóndor pasa)” in 1970 . This was followed by “Du bist mein ganzes Leben” (1970) and “Nur Liebe zählt” (1971) His most successful and  title is “Eine neue Liebe ist wie ein neues Leben” (1972). The song was present in the German top ten for 15 weeks and reached the #2 spot. Marcus performed in many music tv-shows. He received numerous awards and worked in the Jack White film “Heut hau’n wir auf die Pauke” in 1972.  
Under White’s direction Marcus published a total of 23 singles and numerous albums, until he left him in 1979. The top ten successes include “Ein Festival der Liebe” , “Schmetterlinge können nicht weinen” (1973) and “Ein Lied zieht hinaus in die Welt” (1975), with which he took part in the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Already the previous year he had taken part in an internal competition  for Eurovision with the song “Grand Prix d’amour”.
In 1975 ZDF aired the personality show Jürgen Marcus: Einer für Viele. In 1976, he represented Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Chansons pour ceux qui s’aiment”. 
In the early 1980s the songs he published did not gain as many succes as before. Further collaborations with Ralph Siegel and Bernd Meinunger or a pop-oriented single as “J. Marcus “(1988) in English did not bring the singer a comeback. In 1998 he took part in the ‘Grand Prix des Schlagers’.
In August 2004, he made a comeback album. In 2006, a Christmas album was released. 
In April 2017, Jürgen Marcus was due to his lung disease COPD, in which he fell ill in 2002, announced his withdrawal from the music business.
In 1991, Marcus came out as the first wellknown German singer being gay.
Jurgen Marcus died on 17 May 2018, a few weeks before his 70th birthday, in a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in his Munich apartment.