Joy Fleming

German Jazz, Blues and Pop singer, born November 15, 1944 in Rockenhausen, Germany, died September 27, 2017. Her maiden name was Erna Raad, then with her first marriage in the early 1970's her name became Erna Strube. In 1976, when she married a second time, her name changed to Erna Liebenow. She started her music career in the late 1950's at the age of 14, when she won a Schlager contest in Mannheim. In 1966, she met Klaus Nagel, who introduced her to his band Hit Kids. She joined the band the same year and fronted it. The name was changed into Joy & The Hit Kids in 1966. In 1969, the band renamed to Joy Unlimited. The band became popular in the early 1970's. Due to this reason, she started a solo career in 1971, while her ex-band continued to work under the same name and under the former name Hit Kids. Her biggest hit was "Neckarbrücken-Blues" in 1971. She was representative of Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1975 in Stockholm with the song "Ein Lied Kann Eine Brücke Sein". She released more than 20 solo albums until 2010 and received a couple of awards. After her death in 2017, a street in her hometown Mannheim was renamed after her ("Joy-Fleming-Ring").