Ralph Siegel(I)

He comes from an upper-middle-class musical family: his father Ralph Maria Siegel was a music publisher and composer, his mother Ingeborg Döderlein had made a name for herself as an operetta singer and his grandfather had already become general music director. In keeping with family tradition, Siegel received artistic training at Swiss and British boarding schools. He presented his first compositions as a teenager. After attending school, he was introduced to the basic skills of publishing in Paris and the USA. In the mid-1960s, at the age of 19, the composer achieved his first success in the USA: Don Gibson sang "It's a long way to Georgia", which became a hit on the US charts. After working in his father's music publishing company, Siegel founded "Olympia-Musikproduktion" in 1970, which soon celebrated great success with such popular hits as "Once in Love, Always in Love" (Peggy March).

When his father died in 1972, his "Siegel music publishers" also joined the company, which Siegel enriched with the "Jupiter Records-Raplh-Siegel" in 1973. In the 1970s, Siegel became one of the most successful German hit composers and producers with "Griechischer Wein" (Udo Jürgens, 1975), "Fiesta Mexicana" and "You can't always be 17", and until 2000 he had numerous works with the European Grand Prix competitions were represented. The 1980s were marked by Katja Ebstein's comeback, which Siegel was able to secure for the singer in 1980. In 1982 he won the Grand Prix for the Federal Republic with "A Bit of Peace" (Nicole Hohloch). Towards the middle of the decade, Siegel entered the TV industry, where he was responsible for the SAT.1 theme tune. During the 1990s, shifts in emphasis in artistic evaluation in the German Grand Prix preliminary rounds marked the first moments of crisis for the major traditional music and hit producers. In view of Guildo Horn's success, Siegel was visibly displeased with the selection criteria in 1998.

Nevertheless, the producer continued to stick to his previous recipe for success, which is based on simple but sensitive lyrics and melodies, which immediately imprint themselves on the audience's emotional memory as a déjà vu experience. In 2002, when he took part in the European "Grand Prix de la Chanson" in Estonia, Siegel achieved 21st place with his "I can't live without music" (Corinna May). The music producer has been awarded several gold records and numerous other awards for his achievements. In 1998 Siegel received the Federal Cross of Merit. At the beginning of March 2003, the hit producer once again prevailed in the German preliminary decision for the Grand Prix with "Let's Get Happy" (Lou). However, at the Grand Prix Final in Riga in May 2003, the German entry only reached twelfth place. In 2007, Siegel received the ECHO for his life's work. The laudatory speech was given by pop singer Nicole.

In his private life, Ralph Siegel married Dagmar Weber for the second time in 1992, with whom he remained married until 2000. He is the father of three children from his first marriage to Dunja. Siegel has been married to Kriemhild Jahn since 2006.