Modern Talking - Biography
By Eric Brightwell
Modern Talking are, having sold over 120 million records, the most commercially successful German band in history. Their brand of melodic, Hi-NRG-influenced pop music created the mould which German Eurodisco bands like Bad Boys Blue, C.C. Catch, Cheryl Hardy, Sandra, Silent Circle and many others would cast themselves. However, although Modern Talking far outsold fellow Germans like Boney M., Milli Vanilli, Enigma, The Scorpions and Rammstein; in the Anglosphere they are all but unheard of outside the club scene.
Dieter Günther Bohlen was born on February 7, 1954 in Berne, Germany to Hans and Edith Bohlen. At the age of ten, he fell in love with The Beatles, learned piano and guitar, and began writing his own songs not long after. He began performing his music publicly although success eluded him. He enrolled at the University of Göttingen but continued to perform in various bands and going to discos. It was at one such Göttingen venue, Afro-Asiaten-Heim, that Günther met his future wife, Erika Wilma Emma Frida Sauerland, whom he ultimately married after ten years of cohabitation.
In 1978, Bohlen formed a schlager act, Monza, with Holger Garbode. The following year, he found steadier employment at Hamburg’s Intersong, where he finally achieved his dream of having others record his songs, which he composed under a variety of pseudonyms. Working Sauerland, songs like “Heiβkalter Engel,” “Was Macht Das Schon,” “Endstation Sehnsucht” and “Wovon träumst du denn?” skirted the middle regions of the German charts. In 1980, Bohlen attempted to achieve success as a recording artist, as Steve Benson. However, neither as Steve, nor Marcel Mardello nor David Berhardt did he have a hit. In bands, he again proved more successful when in 1981, Sunday had a minor hit with “Hale Hey Louise.” Wisely accepting that solo success was unrealistic, Bohlen attempted to follow up Sunday’s success with another duo, this time with Thomas Anders.
Anders was born Bernd Weidung on March 1st, 1963 in Münstermaifeld. His mother, Helga, was a grocer and café operator. His father, Peter, was a revenue officer and, at one point, mayor of Mörz. Young Weidung made his public debut at a St. Nicholas Day party, singing carols. After that, he began singing duets with Barry Manilow recordings and enrolling in talent shows. After learning piano, he enrolled at the University of Mainz to study German Studies, Journalism and Musicology. However, after failing to win a Radio Luxembourg competition he’d entered, he was nonetheless contract by members of the jury two days later. His first single, “Judy” was followed by a German tour. He made his television tour the following year and in 1982 signed to Hansa.
First as Modernes Gespräch, Anders and Bohlen would probably have been no more popular than Sunday had they not, near the end of 1984, decided to record solely in English. Within six weeks of their debut release, “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul” charted highly in 35 countries in Asia and Europe. In Japan, it was the first song by a German act to chart. In Germany, it spent six weeks at number one. The inspirational “You Can Win If You Want” provided yet another big hit. The debut, the cheekily-named The 1st Album (1985-Hansa), followed. As the duo’s success grew, so too did interpersonal tensions, mainly between Bohlen and Anders’s wife, Nora. It proved to be too much to handle and in the middle of the year, Anders suffered a nervous collapse.
Nonetheless, the juggernaut that was Modern Talking ploughed on and before the year was out, another full-length was released. Let’s Talk About Love (1985-Hansa) yielded the infectious “Cheri Cheri Lady” and Modern Talking’s fame spread even more widely as the album reached the higher end of charts in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. In North America, the single went gold in both Canada and Mexico. In fact, the US was alone amongst the major pop markets in its resistance to Modern Talking’s pop pandemic. As if Modern Talking weren’t cranking out enough of their own hits, Bohlen began producing a young Dutch-German singer, Caroline Catharina Müller who as C.C. Catch began a successful career of her own with similarly-styled English language Eurodisco.
1986's Ready for Romance (Hansa) yielded “Atlantis is Calling (S.O.S. For Love)” as well as their biggest hit, “Brother Louie.” Despite its title, the song is unrelated to The Stories and Hot Chocolate-associated hit. For the first time, the duo cracked the British market and the song reached number four in the UK. This accomplishment meant they were invited to play Top of the Pops. At the time, the UK was awash with gay, synth duos like Erasure, Soft Cell, Wham! and Pet Shop Boys. Not surprisingly, especially given their Hi-NRG and Italo-disco leanings, Modern Talking were widely assumed to themselves be homosexual and were almost exclusively pigeonholed as such. Naturally, they attempted to counter this notion. In reality, by this point the two could barely stand one another. However, their strained attempts to express their heterosexuality were so awkward that they only seemed to reinforce the misperception and may’ve helped ensure that they would never again have a crossover hit in the UK. When Modern Talking made their British television debut, the duo carefully maintained an awkward distance between one another so that no one would think they were lovers. Bohlen stared blankly as he sang and wore a necklace with his wife’s name spelled out in conspicuous, shiny, gold letters.. Anders attempted to look playful and carefree but instead came off as robotic and extremely creepy. Unnatural tans, styled and highlighted hair, shiny lip gloss and outfits that that looked borrowed from Linda Evans were also on display. Even by the warped sartorial standards of the day, Modern Talking looked decidedly freakish.
Another album quickly followed, In the Middle of Nowhere (1986-Hansa). Their most lyirically ridiculous song yet, “Geronimo's Cadillac,” was another enormous hit around most of the world. “Give Me Peace on Earth” followed. Though one of the most popular acts in the world, tensions between Anders and Bohlen reached their zenith and, after the conclusion of the Formel Eins tour, they both had no intention of every appearing together again.
Romantic Warriors (1987-Hansa) marked a considerable downturn in the band’s financial fortunes and “Jet Airliner” and “Don’t Worry” weren’t the enormous hits they were used to. After the album’s release, Bohlen started another project, Blue System. Modern Talking released one more album, In the Garden of Venus (1987-Hansa), after they’d already broken up. Shortly thereafter, Bohlen’s professional relationship with C.C. Catch was also terminated leaving Blue System Anders’s primary concern. Anders moved to Los Angeles in an attempt to continue his career, a highlight of which was providing Engelbert Humperdinck with a composition, “I Can Never Let You Go.” He separated from Nora Ballin, whom Bohlen largely blamed for Modern Talking’s break-up, in 1998. A solo project, Man-X, was created and a tour, The Thomas Anders show, continued until 1989.
In 1994, Bohlen’s marriage ended after an affair with one of Blue System’s dancers, Nadja Abd el Farrag, came to light. In 1996, after having known her for two weeks, he married Miss Germany, Verona Feldbusch. Their marriage lasted for thirty days. The following year, Blue System released their final album. Anders’s next venture was much more successful. In 1998 he and Anders put aside their differences long to pose for the cover of a new Modern Talking album, Back for Good (Hansa), though it consisted entirely of new Eurodance versions of old hits. It was popular in much of Europe and inspired ‘80s Eurodisco rivals Bad Boys Blue to stage a similar comeback. Alone (Hansa) followed in 1998 and was comprised of new compositions, again mostly in the Eurodance vein. Afterward, the two again went their separate ways and Anders married Claudia Hess in 2000.
In 2002, Bohlen published a book about Modern Talking, Nichts Als Die Wahrheit. It was adapted into an animated film, Dieter - Der Film in 2006. In between, he briefly returned in 2000 to Naddel (Nadja Abd el Farrag) and another autobiography followed, Hinter den Kulissen, published in 2003. It focused more heavily on the author’s sexual exploits and denigrating Anders, Anders’s then-wife, and rival German music producer, Frank Farian (Boney M, La Bouche, Milli Vanilli). Its release resulted in lawsuits and Farian even responded with a book, Stupid Dieser Bohlen - Die Wahrheit und nichts als die Wahrheit über den Pop-Hochstapler.
In 2005, Bohlen fathered a child with model Stefanie Küster. After their relationship fell apart the following year, he began dating his current girlfriend, Carina, whom he met through Deutschland sucht den Superstar; essentially the German version of Pop Idol/American Idol, with Bohlen essentially playing the Simon Cowell role, albeit with a dash of another Dieter – the one from Sprockets. On the show his critiques of contestants have included such classic lines as, “You sing like a gnome on ecstasy” and “Your voice sounds like Kermit when someone treads on his behind.”Anders, meanwhile, performs semi-regularly in a show called Thomas Anders Fanparty, in which he sings Modern Talking’s enduring hits.
