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 in Swedish 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), and Danish. 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, r ...

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 = Kingdom of Denmark , establishe ...

in the Eurovision Song Contest 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 leat ...

, had whistled the song in the canteen of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. 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 do ...

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

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 C ...

. 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 ...

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 majo ...

album with The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band 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 ta ...

, 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 albums 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 kin ...

. From 2004 to 2006 she starred with two other Scandinavian entertainers, Wenche Myhre 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'' (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 ...

'' (1965), as Prinzessin Margaret * '' The Pipes'' (1966), as Mary Randy * '' Hagbard and Signe'' (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