Nina Hagen

The godmother of German punk, Nina Hagen rose to stardom in the ‘70s as a campy underground provocateur blending New Wave aesthetics with grinding rock ‘n' roll and operatic vocals. Catharina “Nina” Hagen was born in East Berlin in 1955. Her father was a scriptwriter and her mother was an actress and singer; both encouraged Hagen's artistic leanings by enrolling her in ballet and opera lessons as early as four. As a teenager, she joined pop band Automobil, scoring her first hit with “Du hast den Farbfilm vergessen” in 1974, which subtly poked fun at East Germany's repressive communist regime. Trips to London and Los Angeles nourished Hagen's signature opera-punk style, synthesized in full acid-neon glory on her 1982 solo debut, Nunsexmonkrock. Her wild mix of punk, funk, reggae, and opera launched jagged club hits “Cosmic Shiva” and “African Reggae,” while Hagen's eccentric persona made her a fixture of international nightclubs and talk shows throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. But she continued to evolve with club trends: Her atmospheric 2000 LP, Return of the Mother, embraced big beat, ambient, and house music on “Schachmatt” and the title track. Hagen has also worked as a voice actress, appearing on The Simpsons and the German dub of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, before returning to music in 2022 with experimental pop-rock album Unity.