Gitte Hænning (born 29 June 1946) is a Danish singer and film actress, who rose to fame as a child star in the 1950s. She was known primarily monomously (without a surname) in Europe. She moved to Sweden in 1958. Her first

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

was "Tror du jag ljuger" from 1961. As a teenager, Gitte sang popular hits in German, English, Italian (4 songs: "Amo Johnny", "Parla", "La mela", and "Il ricordo", recorded on two

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

), and

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

. She had five different number one hits in three countries: one in Denmark, two in Sweden, and two in Germany. Her first German number one song was "Ich will 'nen Cowboy als Mann". This

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

sold 1.05 million copies by mid 1965, earning Gitte a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. In 1962, she attempted to compete for

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

with "Jeg Snakker med mig Selv", but was disqualified because the composer,

Sejr Volmer-Sørensen Sejr Volmer-Sørensen (7 February 1914 – 11 May 1982) (also known as Volmer-Sørensen and Win Volmer-Sørensen) was a Danish lyricist, actor, director and television host. Born in Kristianstad, Volmer-Sørensen was adopted by a family of leath ...

, had whistled the song in the canteen of the

Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enter ...

. In 1973, she competed for

Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest Germany has officially participated in every Eurovision Song Contest since its inaugural edition in , except in when its entry did not qualify past the audio-only pre-selection round, and consequently was not seen in the broadcast final and doe ...

with the song "Junger Tag". Her success continued after famous duets with

Rex Gildo Rex Gildo (formerly Alexander Gildo, born Ludwig Franz Hirtreiter; 2 July 1936 – 26 October 1999) was a German singer of Schlager ballads who reached the height of his popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, selling over 25 million records and st ...

as 'Gitte & Rex' in a number of popular films. Gitte made an attempt to represent

Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest Luxembourg has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 37 times since making its debut at the first contest in . Between 1956 and , Luxembourg missed only the contest. Luxembourg has not participated in the contest since its last participat ...

in 1978 with the song "Rien qu'une femme" but she lost out to the group

Baccara Baccara was a female vocal duo formed in 1977 by Spanish artists Mayte Mateos (born 7 February 1951) and María Mendiola (4 April 1952 – 11 September 2021). The duo rapidly achieved international success with their debut single "Yes Sir, I Ca ...

. In the 1960s she also starred in several music and drama movies and on TV in Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Gitte was among the most popular Schlager (hit music) singers of the

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...

era, and continued to be popular in Germany and Denmark even as American music increasingly dominated the airwaves in the 1970s. She recorded a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

album with

The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band The Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band was a jazz big band co-led by American drummer Kenny Clarke and Belgian pianist François "Francy" Boland. They were one of the most noteworthy jazz big bands formed outside the United States, featuring top ...

in 1968. Through ensuing decades her singles still reached the German

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

, but never with the same success she enjoyed in the 1960s. In the 1980s, she changed her image and performed more adult-oriented music. She won some awards as a singer/entertainer. Her chart entries ended in the mid 1980s, but she has continued to be a successful live performer to the present day. A number of

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s have been recently released in Germany, among them a biographical

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

. From 2004 to 2006 she starred with two other Scandinavian entertainers,

Wenche Myhre Wenche Synnøve Myhre (born 15 February 1947), known in some countries as Wencke Myhre, is a Norwegian singer who has had a great number of hit songs since the 1960s in the Norwegian, Danish, German and Swedish markets and languages. Early caree ...

and

Siw Malmkvist Siw Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist (born 31 December 1936) is a Swedish schlager singer and actress popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "''Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht''" (''"Lovesickness ...

, in a huge stage and tour success. The live CD recording of their show entered the German charts. In 2010, she presented a new CD, which also had a German chart entry. She had her first chart entry in 1960 in Sweden and her last in 2010 in Germany.

Selected filmography

* ''

The World Revolves Around You ''The World Revolves Around You'' (German: ''Jetzt dreht die Welt sich nur um dich'') is a 1964 Austrian musical film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and starring Gitte Hænning, Rex Gildo and Claus Biederstaedt.Von Dassanowsky p.186 It was ...

'' (1964) * ''

In Bed by Eight ''In Bed by Eight'' (German: ''...und sowas muß um acht ins Bett'') is a 1965 Austrian-West German black-and-white musical comedy film directed by Werner Jacobs and starring Peter Alexander, Gitte Hænning and Ingeborg Schöner.Von Dassanowsky p ...

'' (1965), as Prinzessin Margaret * ''

The Pipes ''The Pipes'' ( cs, Dýmky) is a 1966 Czechoslovak film directed by Vojtěch Jasný. It was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Walter Giller as George Randy * Gitte Hænning as Mary Randy * Juraj Herz as William Poker * ...

'' (1966), as Mary Randy * ''

Hagbard and Signe ''Hagbard and Signe'' or ''The Red Mantle'' ( da, Den røde kappe, sv, Den röda kappan, is, Rauða skikkjan) is a 1967 internationally co-produced drama film based on the story of Hagbard and Signy from the twelfth-century work ''Gesta Danor ...

'' (1967), as Signe

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Haenning, Gitte 1946 births Living people 20th-century Danish women singers Danish film actresses Danish television actresses English-language singers from Denmark Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1973 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Germany German-language singers Italian-language singers Singers from Aarhus Schlager musicians 21st-century Danish women singers