Ralph Siegel

Ralph Siegel: Pop hits & Eurovision successes

Ralph Siegel, born Ralph Claus-Peter Siegel on September 30, 1945 in Munich, is a German musician, music publisher, pop composer and music producer. music producer. He is one of the defining personalities of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) and has taken part in the international music competition 25 times to date. At the GEMA he is registered with over 2000 titles. He is the owner of the record companies Jupiter Records, Chips Records and Siegel-Musikverlage.

Ralph Siegel – The successful composer of the German pop song

Siegel learned to play various instruments from an early age, such as drums, guitar, accordion and piano. After intensive lessons in harmony and composition, he wrote his first pieces of music at the age of twelve under the pseudonym Peter Elversen. At the age of 19, he landed a hit in the American country charts: the title It’s a Long Long Way to Georgia, sung by Don Gibson, reached number 12. From 1966, Siegel established himself in the German pop scene and composed songs for well-known artists such as Mireille Mathieu, Mary Roos, Marianne Rosenberg, Angela Wiedl, Peter Alexander, Roy Black, Costa Cordalis, Rex Gildo, Karel GottHeino, Michael Holm, Udo Jürgens, Roland Kaiser and Chris Roberts.

In 1974, he founded his own record company Jupiter Records and took part in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in the same year. Ireen Sheer represented Luxembourg with Siegel’s song Bye Bye I Love You and came fourth. However, his first entry for Germany, Sing Sang Song, sung by the Les Humphries Singers, only reached 15th place in 1976. Siegel took part in the ESC with a total of 20 of his own compositions and once as a producer, often in collaboration with Bernd Meinunger.

Away from the ESC, 1975 was a successful year for Siegel, when he released hits such as Der Teufel hat den Schnaps gemacht, Geschieden, Ein ehrenwertes Haus and Griechischer Wein together with Udo Jürgens. He is also responsible for the success of Rex Gildo’s Fiesta Mexicana from 1972.

Between 1979 and 1985, Siegel produced the group Dschinghis Khan, which came fourth at the ESC in the very first year of its formation and celebrated several successes in the German charts in the following years.

Siegel celebrated his greatest triumph at the ESC in Harrogate in 1982, when the singer Nicole won the competition with his song Ein bißchen Frieden. This made Siegel the second German composer to win the ESC after Klaus Munro. He celebrated further successes in 1980 with Theater (Katja Ebstein), 1981 with Johnny Blue (Lena Valaitis) and 1987 with Laß die Sonne in dein Herz (Wind), which all came second. In 1994(Wir geben ‘ne Party, Mekado) and 1999(Reise nach Jerusalem, Sürpriz) his compositions took third place.

His last ESC participations for Germany were in 2002(I Can’t Live Without Music by Corinna May, 21st place) and 2003(Let’s Get Happy by Lou, 11th place). Since then, he has also written songs for artists from other countries, including for Malta in 2004 with It’s a Wonderful Life, sung by Ali & Lis. Although he lost in the preliminary decision, he produced the Maltese entry On Again … Off Again for the ESC final instead, which came 12th. In 2005, he was represented with six songs at the Malta Song for Europe, five of which reached the Top 10. In Bosnia-Herzegovina, he tried his hand with the song Sometimes I Wish I Were a Child Again.

Siegel entered the German preliminary round in 2005 under the pseudonym Mario Mathias in order to receive a neutral evaluation. But even before the show, it was revealed that A Miracle of Love, sung by Nicole Süßmilch and Marco Matias, was written by him and came second.

Even in his youth, Siegel used pseudonyms such as “Peter Elversen”, under which he won the German preliminary round in 1987. Other stage names include Werner Zylka, Peter Match, Serge Bonheur, Klaus-Peter Burbart, Peter Starkowski and Ralph Maria Siegel.

In 2003, Siegel was a judge on the ZDF casting show “Die deutsche Stimme 2003″, which was dedicated exclusively to German-language songs. In 2006, he composed the musical *Lachen! – Die Zeit der Clowns” by Christian Berg, which premiered in Cuxhaven on July 12.

In 2010, Siegel made public the prostate cancer he had been diagnosed with in 2007. He then largely withdrew from the public eye, but reappeared in 2010 on the occasion of his 50th anniversary as a composer with the new artist Marcus Kuno. With Bernd Meinunger as lyricist, he produced Flieg mit mir zum siebten Himmel. After several ESC participations for Montenegro and Switzerland, each of which ended in the semi-finals, he returned to the ESC stage for the first time in 2014, accompanying Valentina Monetta on the piano.

In 2015 and 2017, he composed songs for San Marino, both of which were eliminated in the semi-finals. In 2015, Siegel discovered the winner Julia Kollat and runner-up Maurice Zappe as part of the Die Stimme von Morgen competition. Laura Pinski competed in the German preliminary round in 2016 with her song Under the Sun We Are One and came fourth.

Her musical Zeppelin was originally scheduled to premiere at the Festspielhaus Neuschwanstein in November 2020, but was postponed to October 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics at Bayerischer Rundfunk praised the work as a “successful venture”.

Ralph Siegel’s family history: marriages, children and musical roots

Ralph Siegel was born the son of pop composer Ralph Maria Siegel and operetta singer Ingeborg Döderlein. His grandfather Rudolf Siegel was a well-known opera composer, conductor and general music director in Krefeld.

From 1975 to 1989, Siegel’s first marriage was to Dunja Siegel, née Kreibich, from Slovakia. Their daughters Giulia(1974) and Marcella (1976) were born from this marriage. His second marriage was to Dagmar Kögel, née Weber, in 1992. This marriage produced their daughter Alana Siegel (*1996). In 2006, he married the soprano Kriemhild Siegel, née Jahn, for the third time. This marriage ended with their separation in 2014 and divorce in 2016. In 2018, Siegel married the Swiss music manager Laura Käfer, whom he had met in 2015. He adopted their daughter Ruby. The couple have lived in Grünwald again since 2022.

In 2002, Siegel made headlines for a brief relationship with Nadja Abd el Farrag, Dieter Bohlen’s ex-partner. She is said to have ended the relationship after four months by text message.

Who did Ralph Siegel compose for?

• Angela Wiedl
• Chris Roberts
• Corinna May
• Costa Cordalis
• Genghis Khan
• Heino
• Karel Gott
• Katja Ebstein
• Lena Valaitis
• Marianne Rosenberg
• Mary Roos
• Michael Holm
• Mireille Mathieu
• Nana Mouskouri
• Nicole
• Peter Alexander
• Pigloo
• Rex Gildo
• Roland Kaiser
• Roy Black
• The Les Humphries Singers
• Udo Jürgens
• Valentina Monetta
• Wind