Jürgen Drews

Born Jürgen Ludwig Buttlar in Nauen on April 2, 1945, Jürgen Drews achieved fame above all in the pop scene. pop scene scene. He began his musical career as a member of the Les Humphries Singers. His breakthrough as a solo artist came in 1976 with Michael Kunze produced by Michael Kunze A Bed in a Cornfield. The single received a “gold record“. In 1999, Thomas Gottschalk awarded him the title “King of Mallorca” in his show Wetten, dass…? as he regularly performed on the island and had a loyal fan base. He ended his stage career in 2022 due to health problems.

Life

Jürgen Drews was born in 1945 in Nauen near Berlin. He is the only child of the Wehrmacht doctor Werner Drews and his wife Lieselotte Buttlar. His paternal line goes back to Huguenots, his mother comes from the Franconian-Hessian noble family Buttlar. As his maternal grandfather, the opera singer Georg Buttlar, had renounced his aristocratic title, it was not continued. After his parents married, Drews took his father’s surname.

He spent his childhood and youth in Schleswig, where he gained his first stage experience as a musician. After graduating from the cathedral school in Schleswig, he began studying medicine at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel in 1967. However, he dropped out after four semesters to devote himself entirely to music.

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Jürgen Drews’ career

Jürgen Drews was enthusiastic about music from an early age. At the age of 15, he won a prize in Schleswig-Holstein as a banjo player in the jazz band “Schnirpels”. He later played in the school band “Monkeys” before joining the Kiel band “Chimes of Freedom” as a solo guitarist in 1967. At the manager’s request, the band was renamed Die Anderen. In the same year, Drews had a small role in the film Die Lümmel von der ersten Bank. The band recorded two albums with producer Giorgio Moroder, the first under the title Kannibal Komix. In the USA, they released music under the name Apocalypse. Following the bankruptcy of their record company, the band disbanded at the end of 1969.

Drews joined the Les Humphries Singers in the early 1970s and launched a solo career at the same time in 1973. His big breakthrough came in 1976 with the hit Ein Bett im Kornfeld, a German version of Let Your Love Flow (Bellamy Brothers). Shortly afterwards, he appeared in the ZDF hit parade, where he placed with four more titles over the following three years. In 1976, he performed on Mallorca for the first time, later also in the Oberbayern discotheque. In 1977, he composed the film music for Spielen wir Liebe. His 1978 release Wir zieh’n heut’ Abend aufs Dach, a cover version of Call on Me (Sunrise, 1977), reached number 21 in the German charts.

In 1980, Drews tried to gain a foothold in the USA. Under the name J. D. Drews, he released an album with influences from new wave and progressive rock. The single Don’t Want Nobody reached number 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1981, but the album was not a great success. In Germany, Drews hosted the Schlagerparade on the Third Program at the end of the 1980s.

He made a comeback in the 90s and also became active as a music producer. In 1995, he recorded a new version of Ein Bett im Kornfeld with Stefan Raab and citizen Lars Dietrich. In 2000, he landed another hit with König von Mallorca. In 2002, he released a cover version of Hey! Amigo Charly Brown which made it into the top 50 sales charts and onto music television. He also sang the German theme song for Darkwing Duck.

In 2007, he founded the Les Humphries Singers Reunion with old and new members of the Les Humphries Singers. The group released old hits, gospels and new songs. In 2011, Drews recorded the song Hey, wir woll’n die Eisbärn sehn with the rock band Puhdys. In 2016, Mickie Krause dedicated the song Ich hab den Jürgen Drews gesehn to him and sang it as a duet with him. In 2018, he took part in the charity project Schlagerstars für Kinder and re-recorded the song Auf einmal.

In May 2022, Drews announced his retirement for health reasons. In July, he officially announced the end of his career in a pop show. He gave his last concert on October 6, 2022 in Tyrol at Musikherbst am Wilden Kaiser. On October 22, he said his final farewell to the stage in the ARD show Der große Schlagerabschied. The show was broadcast on January 14, 2023. Numerous colleagues and friends paid their respects. At the end, he sang We’ve Got Tonight with his daughter Joelina and said goodbye to his audience with Ein Bett im Kornfeld.

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Jürgen Drews’ private life

Drews was in a relationship with the model Dagmar Hädrich for nine years. In 1981, he married Corinna Drews, with whom he has a son. The marriage ended in divorce in 1985. In 1991, he met Ramona Middendorf, whom he married in 1994. The couple have a daughter, Joelina Drews, who was born in 1995. After many years in Taufkirchen and Münsterland, the couple moved to Munich in 2024, where their daughter also lives.

In 2003, the three-part RTL2 documentary soap Die Drews – Eine furchtbar nette Familie provided an insight into their lives.

Since the end of the 1990s, Drews has spent a lot of time on Mallorca, where he owns a finca. His image as the “King of Mallorca” has been shaped by numerous appearances on the island. In 2011, he opened the King of Mallorca Bistro in Santa Ponça, which was closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Studio albums by Jürgen Drews

• 1974 Time for my songs
• 1976 A new beginning
• 1977 Barefoot through the summer
• 1978 Today
• 1978 Fire + water
• 1979 Rocky
• 1980 J. D. Drews
• 1980 Don’t miss anything
• 1980 On the way home in the morning
• 1989 Someday … with you right away
• 1992 J.D.
• 1994 Love must be a little sin
• 1996 Jürgen Drews feat. uncle Jürgen
• 1999 Everything under control again
• 2007 Splendor & Glory
• 2010 Schlossallee
• 2011 Schlagerpirat
• 2013 Cornflowers
• 2015 It was all for the best

Famous singles by Jürgen Drews

• Barefoot through the summer
• You get me
• A bed in a cornfield
• I’ll build you a castle
• I am the king of Mallorca
• I saw Jürgen Drews (with Jürgen Drews)
• Sometime, somewhere, somehow
• I’ll build you a castle
• King of Mallorca
• And I give you a rainbow
• What once was will never come back
• When the sparklers burn
• Everything under control again