Peter Maffay

Born in Braşov, Romania, in 1949 as Peter Alexander Makkay, Peter Maffay was fourteen when his family, of German Transylvanian Saxon descent, moved to West Germany in 1963. That same year he founded his first band, The Dukes. His reputation rests on emotional lyrics and powerful melodies, and he is often credited with moving audiences, which has made him a fixture of the German music scene across a long career that has also taken in film, children's storytelling and politics.

His breakthrough came with "Du" ("You"), his first single, which became his biggest German hit in 1970. The 1979 album Steppenwolf made him a major star, selling 1.6 million copies, and Revanche in 1980 beat that with more than 2.1 million. Between 1976 and 1985 he worked as part of the country rock duo Tame & Maffay with Johnny Tame, releasing two albums. His fairy tales about a little green dragon, Tabaluga, ran across five albums and became a musical. Later, his 2005 album Laut und Leise was his fourteenth album to sell over a million copies, he has sold over 40 million records overall, and in 2023 he duetted with Anastacia on "Just You".