Mary Susan Applegate is an American

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

lyricist A lyricist is a songwriter who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income ...

who lives in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, Germany. She rose to prominence in 1984 with the lyrics to the multi-platinum hit “ The Power Of Love”, and has since written songs for and co-written songs with multiple singers, and her songs have been constant part of the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years.

Career

Applegate is best known for the song “ The Power Of Love”. In 1985 the

Jennifer Rush Jennifer Rush (born Heidi Stern; September 28, 1960) is an American pop and rock singer. She achieved success during the mid-1980s with several singles and studio albums including the million-selling single " The Power of Love", which she co-w ...

original took the number one position the UK, remaining there for 5 weeks. In 1994 the song became

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

’s first number one in the

US Billboard charts The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...

, staying at the top for four weeks. Celine Dion’s version of " The Power Of Love“ won Mary S. Applegate the ASCAP Pop Award for “Most Performed Song” in the United States and was nominated for the

Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

American Music Award The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Produc ...

for Favorite Pop/Rock Single, two

Billboard Music Award The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by '' Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of ...

s for Hot 100 Single of the Year and Hot Adult Contemporary Single of the Year, and for the

Juno Award for Single of the Year The Juno Award for Single of the Year has been awarded since 1974 for the best single in Canada. It has also been known as Best Single and Best Selling Single. The award goes to the artist. Best Single (1974) Best Selling Single (1975 - 1979) ...

Shirley Bassey Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey (; born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer. Best known for her career longevity, powerful voice and recording the theme songs to three James Bond films, Bassey is widely regarded as one of the most popular vocalists ...

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli (; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting fro ...

Laura Branigan Laura Ann Branigan (July 3, 1952 – August 26, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her signature song, the platinum-certified 1982 single " Gloria", stayed on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for 36 weeks, then a record for ...

and

Air Supply Air Supply is a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975. It consists of Englishman Graham Russell (vocals, guitar) and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). They had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hit ...

are among many world-renowned artists that covered the song. Applegate went on to write various hit songs for:

Milli Vanilli Milli Vanilli were a German-French R&B duo from Munich. The group was founded by Frank Farian in 1988 and consisted of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. Their debut album, '' All or Nothing'' in Europe, reconfigured as ''Girl You Know It's True'' in ...

, No Mercy,

La Bouche La Bouche (French for "The Mouth", ) is a Germany, German-America, American Eurodance, Euro-Dance duo best known for the hits "Be My Lover (La Bouche song), Be My Lover", "Sweet Dreams (La Bouche song), Sweet Dreams", "You Won't Forget Me (song), ...

Bad Boys Blue Bad Boys Blue are the German pop group formed in Cologne in 1984. The group performed many international hits including "You're a Woman", " Pretty Young Girl", " I Wanna Hear Your Heartbeat", and "Come Back and Stay". The group became massive ...

Boney M. Boney M. was a German-Caribbean vocal group that specialized in disco and funk created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group's o ...

Banaroo Banaroo was a German pop group active from 2005-2008 and then 2013 with a new line up. They had several successful singles in countries including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The first line-up consisted of Robbert "Bobby" Dessauvagie, Vitt ...

Bonnie Bianco Lory Bianco (born August 19, 1963) is an Italian-American singer and actress from the United States also working under the name Bonnie Bianco. She may be best known for her role in the 1983 miniseries '' Cinderella 80''. Artistic life Bianco ...

Far Corporation Far Corporation were a multi-national band created by German record producer Frank Farian, who created the bands Boney M. and Milli Vanilli. The name was shortened from "Frank Farian Corporation", which was originally put together to record a cov ...

Aaron Carter Aaron Charles Carter (December 7, 1987November 5, 2022) was an American singer and rapper. He came to fame as a teen pop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among preteen and teenage audiences during the first years of the ...

Liberty X Liberty X (originally called Liberty) are a British-Irish group originally consisting of Michelle Heaton, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young. The group was formed by the five finalists of the 2001 ITV talent show ''Popstars' ...

and

Le Click Le Click was a German Eurodance duo. The duo consisted of Swedish/Nigerian singer Kayo Shekoni and rapper/singer Robert Haynes. Career Their U.S. chart debut was in 1995 with "Tonight Is the Night" (which featured La Bouche's Melanie Thornton o ...

. She worked with:

Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". In the same ye ...

Udo Lindenberg Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, drummer, and composer. Career Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969, he founded his first band Free Orbit, and also appeared as a studio and guest musician (with Micha ...

Dieter Falk Dieter Falk (born 5 December 1959 in Klafeld-Geisweid, now Siegen) is a German music producer, keyboardist, Christian composer, and arranger. Discography * 1985: ''One Time'' * 1985: ''Instrumental Journey'' * 1987: ''Today'' * 1989: ''Dieter F ...

Tic Tac Toe Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses ( Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian or Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who take turns marking the spaces in a three-by-three grid with ''X'' or ''O''. ...

, Funky Diamonds,

Culture Beat Culture Beat is a German Eurodance project formed in 1989 by Torsten Fenslau. The act has gone through a number of lineup changes over the years; they achieved the most success whilst fronted by singer Tania Evans and rapper Jay Supreme. Their ...

, Yoomiii,

Jazzamor Jazzamor is a German musical duo which consists of Bettina Steingass (née Bettina Mischke) and Roland Grosch. Their music combines elements of lounge music, jazz and bossa nova. Discography Albums *''Lazy Sunday Afternoon'' (2003 · Blue F ...

Cascada Cascada (, Spanish for "Waterfall", stylized as CASCADA, CASC''A''DA and cascada) is a German dance music act founded in 2004 by singer Natalie Horler and DJs/producers DJ Manian and DJ Yanou. They are best known for their hit singles " Everyti ...

, Pur,

Erkan Aki Erkan Aki (born June 20, 1969 in Sursee) is a Swiss cross-over singer between pop music and classics with Turkish descent. The classically trained tenor sings in seven languages. Career Erkan’s professional journey on the way to becoming on ...

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

and Gotthard. Earlier work includes " Do You Wanna" from the “ 1st album“ (1985) of

Modern Talking Modern Talking was a German pop music duo consisting of arranger, songwriter and producer Dieter Bohlen and singer Thomas Anders. They have been referred to as Germany's most successful pop duo, and have had a number of hit singles, reaching th ...

co-written with

Dieter Bohlen Dieter Bohlen (; born Dieter Günter Bohlen, 7 February 1954) is a German songwriter, producer, singer and television personality. He first achieved fame as a member of pop duo Modern Talking in the 1980s, and has since produced numerous German a ...

. Applegate also left a footprint in the German Pop- and Schlager world, writing for acts like:

Thomas Anders Bernd Weidung (born 1 March 1963), known by his stage name Thomas Anders, is a German singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the pop duo Modern Talking. Starting his singing career while still in schoo ...

Nino De Angelo Domenico Gerhard Gorgoglione (born 18 December 1963), known professionally as Nino de Angelo, is a German singer of Italian descent known for his 1983 chart-topper " Jenseits von Eden", and who participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 ...

Matthias Reim Matthias Reim (born 26 November 1957) is a German pop and Schlager singer. His 1990 single " Verdammt, ich lieb' dich" ("Damn, I love you") was a hit in several European countries and spent 16 consecutive weeks at the number 1 spot in the Germ ...

, Michelle and

Helene Fischer Helene Fischer ( /heˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɚ/; German: eˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɐ born Jelena Petrovna Fischer, 5 August 1984) is a Russian-born German singer. Since her debut in 2005, she has won numerous awards, including 17 Echo awards, four "Die Kron ...

. Applegate, who only wrote English lyrics during her career, began writing German lyrics for the first time in 2020. Her debut was on the

Wolfgang Petry Wolfgang "Wolle" Petry (born 22 September 1951 as ''Franz Hubert Wolfgang Remling'') is a German schlager musician and songwriter from Cologne, Germany. In 1997, he was named the leading German language musician in terms of chart figures for th ...

album " Auf das Leben", which was released in September 2021 and ranked at number 2 in the German music charts. Further collaboration with Petry took place on the " Stark wie Wir" album, which reached No. 4 in the German music charts in March 2023.

Eurovision Song Contest

Applegate won 2nd place together with Victor Drobysh in the 2012

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 the Russian entry

Buranovskiye Babushki Buranovskiye Babushki (russian: Бурановские бабушки, ; udm, Брангуртысь песянайёс, Brangurtyś pesänajos; both meaning "Buranovo Grannies") is an Udmurt-Russian ethno-pop band comprising eight elderly wo ...

song “

Party For Everybody "Party for Everybody" was the Russian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 sung by Buranovskiye Babushki (The Grannies from Buranovo). The song won Russia's national song selection, which took place on March 7, 2012, in Moscow. At the ...

". Other ESC entries were

Natalia Podolskaya Natalia Yuryevna Podolskaya (Natalla Padolskaja, Belarusian: ''Натальля Юр'еўна Падольская'', Russian: ''Наталья Юрьевна Подольская'', born 20 May 1982) is a Belarusian singer who performed for R ...

" Nobody Hurt No One" in 2005 for Russia (position 15 in the finals) and helped pen the ESC Belarusian entry in 2016 "

Help You Fly Belarus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "Help You Fly" written by Viktor Drobysh, Alexander Ivanov, Timofei Leontiev and Mary Susan Applegate. The song was performed by Ivan, which is the artistic name of singer A ...

", by

Ivan Ivan () is a Slavic languages, Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John (given name), John) from Hebrew language, Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. T ...

. In 2019

Serhat Serhat is a Turkish given name for males. People named Serhat include: * Serhat Akın (born 1981), Turkish footballer * Serhat Akyüz (born 1984), Turkish footballer * Serhat Caradee, Turkish-Australian film director * Serhat Çetin (born 1986), T ...

sang “

Say Na Na Na "Say Na Na Na" is a 2019 single by Turkish singer Serhat. The song represented San Marino after being internally selected by (SMRTV), the Sanmarinese national broadcaster. The song was released on 7 March 2019. It finished 19th in the Grand Fina ...

” for San Marino. It was only the second time San Marino made it into the ESC finals.

Poetry and Vocals

Mary S. Applegate contributed poetry, lyrics and vocals to the German experimental electronic band

Air Liquide Air Liquide S.A. (; ; literally "liquid air"), is a French multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902, after Linde it is ...

, composed of

Ingmar Koch Ingmar Koch (also known by his pseudonym Dr. Walker) is a German musician, producer and label owner in the field of Electronic Music. He was a member of more than 50 different techno music projects, such as Air Liquide (with Cem Oral), Khan & W ...

(a.k.a. "Dr Walker") and

Cem Oral Cem Oral, also known under his pseudonyms Jammin' Unit and G 104, is a German musician, music label, label owner and mastering engineer. He was a member of the techno projects Air Liquide (band), Air Liquide (1991 to 2005), Ultrahigh (1993 to 200 ...

(a.k.a. "Jammin' Unit"). The band was formed in 1991 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Her vocals on Air Liquide's “This is not a Mind Trip” was used for the opening of the 1994

Love Parade The Love Parade (german: Loveparade) was a popular electronic dance music festival and technoparade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held annually in Berlin from 1989 to 2003 and in 2006, then from 2007 to 2010 in the Ru ...

in Berlin.

Screenplays

Applegate collaborated with

Frank Farian Frank Farian (born Franz Reuther; 18 July 1941) is a German record producer, musician, singer and songwriter, who founded the 1970s disco-pop group Boney M., the Latin pop band No Mercy and the pop band Milli Vanilli. He frequently created vo ...

and Michael Stark on the storyboard for the Daddy Cool musical which opened in London's Westend at the

Shaftesbury Theatre The Shaftesbury Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue, in the London Borough of Camden. Opened in 1911 as the New Prince's Theatre, it was the last theatre to be built in Shaftesbury Avenue. History The theatre was d ...

in 2006. She currently is working on a biopic screenplay with

Cine Golden Eagle Award Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer ...

winner, director and producer Sven Fleck.

Short stories

Further contributions can be heard on The Pete Wolf Band album ''2084'', where beside lyrics, she also co-penned 14 short stories with Pete Wolf.

Awards

Grammy Awards

" The Power Of Love", (Celine Dion),

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

(1994) - Nominated

American Music Award

" The Power Of Love", (Celine Dion), Favorite Pop/Rock Song (1995) - Nominated

ASCAP

" The Power Of Love", (Celine Dion), Most Performed Song. (1994)

Billboard Music Awards

" The Power Of Love", (Celine Dion), Top Hot 100 Song Of The Year. (1994) " The Power Of Love", (Celine Dion), Hot Adult Contemporary Single Of The Year. (1994)

Juno Award

" The Power Of Love", (Celine Dion), Single Of The Year. (1995) - Nominated

References

External links

* *https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2293710/ at the Internet Movie Database *https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mary-susan-applegate-mn0001800382/credits at allmusic.com *https://www.offiziellecharts.de/suche/person-73889 at offiziellecharts.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Applegate, Mary Susan American women poets American women songwriters Living people 1955 births Air Liquide (band) members