Sandra

Born in Saarbrücken, West Germany, Sandra, whose full name is Sandra Ann Lauer, first made her mark in the late 1970s as a member of the female trio Arabesque, a disco-pop group active across Europe with a particularly strong following in Japan. After this early period in a group, Sandra launched a solo career in the mid-1980s, working across synthpop, Euro disco, dance-pop and Italo disco, with a soft voice and melodic productions distinguished by a crisp electronic sound. Her solo career took shape with The Long Play in 1985, followed by Mirrors in 1986 and Into a Secret Land in 1988. These albums established a style combining pop choruses, dance rhythms and more understated moods. Her collaboration with Michael Cretu, a key producer and composer during this period, left a lasting mark on Sandra’s sound, as did her close ties to the musical world of Enigma, a project to which she also contributed vocals from 1990 onwards. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Sandra steered her repertoire towards a more mature, atmospheric pop sound on Paintings in Yellow in 1990, Close to Seven in 1992, Fading Shades in 1995 and The Wheel of Time in 2002. She went on to release The Art of Love in 2007, Back to Life in 2009 and Stay in Touch in 2012, while continuing to perform regularly, particularly on European stages dedicated to the pop and dance music of the 1980s.