Dimitrios Makulis (Greek: Τζίμης Μακούλης, born 12 April 1935, Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 - died 28 October 2007, Athens) was a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 singer who had a successful career in German-speaking

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 markets in the 1950s and 1960s, and is known for his participation on behalf of Austria in the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

.

Early career

Makulis became a successful singer in his native Greece before moving to Germany in the mid 1950s. In 1956 he scored a top 5 hit with "Auf Cuba sind die Mädchen braun". His biggest hit was "Gitarren klingen leise durch die nacht", #4 in 1959, and he continued to place charting singles until 1964.

Eurovision

In 1961, Markulis was chosen internally by Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n broadcaster ORF

ORF (broadcaster)

Österreichischer Rundfunk, ORF, is the Austrian national public service broadcaster.Funded from a combination of a television licence fees and revenue from limited on-air advertising, ORF is the dominant player in the Austrian broadcast media...

 to represent the country with the song "Sehnsucht" ("Longing") in the sixth Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1961

The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the sixth Eurovision Song Contest. A total of sixteen countries took part in the Contest, including the three debuting countries: Finland, Spain, and Yugoslavia. It was held on 18 March 1961 and was the first to take place on a Saturday night, a tradition that...

, held on 18 March in Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. This proved unsuccessful, as "Sehsnucht" picked up only one point, from the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 jury, and finished along with Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

's Bob Benny

Bob Benny

Bob Benny was a Belgian singer and musical theatre performer, who participated in the Eurovision Song Contests of 1959 and 1961.-Early career:...

 in joint last place of the 16 entries. "Sehnsucht" is one of very few Eurovision entries never to have been recorded by the performer.

Later career

Makulis moved to the USA in 1965, and in following years lived and performed in Las Vegas

Las Vegas metropolitan area

The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

. He moved back to his native Greece in 1985, and in 1990 took part in the selection for that year's Greek Eurovision entry, finishing fifth. He returned to Germany in the early 1990s.

Singles discography

(Shows highest position reached on German Singles Chart)

• 1956: "Auf Cuba sind die Mädchen braun" (#5)
• 1959: "Gitarren klingen leise durch die Nacht" (#4)
• 1960: "Nachts in Rom" (#9)
• 1960: "Ein Boot, eine Mondnacht und du" (#36)
• 1961: "Sweetheart Guitar" (#10)
• 1962: "Ich habe im Leben nur dich" (#17)
• 1962: "Keiner weiß wohin" (#43)
• 1962: "Weil ich weiß, dass wir uns wiedersehn" (#37)
• 1963: "Lebe wohl, du Blume von Tahiti" (#43)
• 1964: "Little Moonlight Love" (#38)