Rainhard Jürgen Fendrich (born 27 February 1955 in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

) is an 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 singer, composer, entertainer, and actor. He is one of the most successful Austropop

Austropop

Austropop is a musical movement, which started in Austria in the middle of the 1970s. However, Austropop is not much of a specific style, it is more a trademark of origin, because musicians of various styles, such as rock, Neue Deutsche Welle, New Folk and more recently perhaps Pop, are counted as...

 musicians. His lyrics are written in Viennese German

Viennese German

Viennese German is the city dialect spoken in Vienna, the capital of Austria and is counted among the Bavarian dialects. Even in Lower Austria, the state surrounding the city, many of its expressions are not used, while farther to the west they are often not even understood.- Linguistic...

, and he is very popular in Austria, but less in other German-speaking countries, and by far less known in non-German speaking ones. His song from 1990, "I am from Austria" (its lyrics are, except for this one line, in Viennese German) is still popular in Austria.

Life

Rainhard, called "Raini" by his friends, attended a Catholic boarding school. By his own admission he was a lazy pupil, and shy. He got his first guitar on his 15th birthday, and taught himself how to play it and started writing songs. He later began to study law, but soon gave up and took several jobs in order to finance his education as a professional actor and singer.

He has acted in the musicals Die Gräfin vom Naschmarkt (1980), Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...

 (Judas, 1982), Chicago

Chicago (musical)

Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...

 (Billy Flynn, 1998), and he played Jeff Zodiak in the musical Wake Up, which he co-wrote with Harold Faltermeyer

Harold Faltermeyer

Harold Faltermeyer is a German musician, keyboardist, composer and record producer.He is recognized as one of the composers/producers who best captured the zeitgeist of 1980s synth-pop in film scores...

 (and which failed) in 2002 (all of those in Vienna, Austria). He has also appeared in numerous Austrian and German movies.

As an entertainer, he followed Rudi Carrell

Rudi Carrell

Rudi Carrell , born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar, was a Dutch entertainer. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters, Linda de Mol and Sylvie van der Vaart, Carrell was one of the most successful Dutch personalities active in Germany.He worked as a television entertainer and hosted his...

 in the ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 TV-show Herzblatt, was the first host of Die Millionenshow

Die Millionenshow

* November 11, 2002: Christiane de Piero * May 9, 2003: Sigrid Weiß-Lutz * November 3, 2003: Karin Huber...

(the Austrian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire) and for a while had his own TV comedy show, Nix Is Fix, produced by 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...

 and ARD.

Fendrich received the Austrian Golden Romy

Romy (TV award)

The Romy TV award in honor of the actress Romy Schneider was created in 1990 by the Austrian newspaper Kurier – or rather their movie reviewer Rudolf John, who also designed the 30.5 cm gilded trophy. It recalls a scene from the movie The Swimmingpool with Alain Delon, when Romy Schneider...

 award for TV entertainment. In 1994, 1995 and 2000, he was nominated for the Amadeus Austrian Music Award four times before winning it in 2002. Austrian "NEWS" magazine readers voted him "Best Entertainer of the Decade" in same year.

Besides working as a solo artist, he gathered, in 1997, the Austrian singer-guitarists (also his friends) Georg Danzer

Georg Danzer

Georg Franz Danzer was an Austrian singer-songwriter. Although he is credited as one of the pioneers of Austropop , he always refused to be part of this genre.Danzer was successful as a solo...

 and Wolfgang Ambros

Wolfgang Ambros

Wolfgang Ambros is an Austrian singer-songwriter, most famously known for setting the then-new trend in the 1970s known now as Austropop. He is most famous for his song "Da Hofa" and "Schi foan"....

 for one single beneficial concert in favour of homeless people. Their success was overwhelming, and the three individualists showed up on stage as Austria3

Austria3

Austria3 was a conglomerate of three Austrian quite individualist singer-songwriters Wolfgang Ambros, Georg Danzer and Rainhard Fendrich.The group was initiated by Fendrich in order to give one single charity concert in favour of homeless in 1997...

 from that day, until they decided to stop that project in 2006. However, at Georg Danzer's comeback concert in Vienna on 16 April 2007, they met again for a few songs, and even "thought" in public about re-uniting in 2008. This can not happen, as Danzer died of lung cancer

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

 on 21 June 2007.

The concert on Donauinselfest

Donauinselfest

The Donauinselfest is an annual open-air free music festival happening on Vienna, Austria's Donauinsel. It usually happens in mid-June...

 which Fendrich gave "instead and for Georg Danzer" who a few weeks before the event had to refuse because of his rapidly progressing disease, attracted 200.000 fans on 23 June 2007.

Divorce and drugs

Fendrich was married to Andrea Sator from 1984–2004. Their "dirty" divorce had considerable publicity. The couple has two sons, Lucas and Florian. A daughter, Theresa-Valentina, had died as a baby in 1989. Lucas started a musician's career, but as of 2007, without much success. From 2004, Fendrich lived with singer and performer Ina Nadine Wagler and stayed mainly on his finca in Majorca.

In April 2006, he was observed by Vienna police buying cocaine

Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

. He admitted to have taken the drug for 15 years and stated to be "glad that this came to an end". The artist went to drug rehab immediately thereafter, but was however fined € 37.000 in May, 2006. This had no perceptible influence on his popularity.

Studio albums

Date	Title	Chart-Position
		DE Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	AT 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...	CH Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
1980	Ich wollte nie einer von denen sein	-	16 (4 Wo.)	-
1981	Und alles is ganz anders word'n	-	1 (24 Wo.)	-
1982	Zwischen eins und vier	-	1 (30 Wo.)	-
1983	Open Air (mit Wolfgang Ambros)	-	4 (18 Wo.)	-
1983	Auf und davon	-	2 (64 Wo.)	-
1985	Wien bei Nacht	-	1 (36 Wo.)	16 (8 Wo.)
1985	Kein schöner Land	-	3 (44 Wo.)	-
1988	Voller Mond	-	12 (8 Wo.)	-
1989	Von Zeit zu Zeit	-	3 (36 Wo.)	-
1991	Nix is fix	44 (8 Wo.)	1 (32 Wo.)	-
1993	Brüder	64 (17 Wo.)	1 (46 Wo.)	-
1997	Blond	51 (11 Wo.)	1 (20 Wo.)	21 (13 Wo.)
2001	Männersache	30 (10 Wo.)	1 (5 Wo.)	62 (5 Wo.)
2002	Ein Saitensprung	-	6 (15 Wo.)	-
2002	Wake Up Cast Album	-	-	-
2004	aufLeben	43 (4 Wo.)	1 (43 Wo.)	-
2006	hier+jetzt	43 (4 Wo.)	1 (14 Wo.)	-

Live albums

Date	Title	Chart-Position
		DE Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	AT 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...	CH Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
1985	Alle Zeit der Welt	-	9 (8 Wo.)	-
1989	Das Konzert	-	5 (16 Wo.)	21 (5 Wo.)
1998	Schwerelos	-	36 (5 Wo.)	-

Best-Ofs and compilations

Date	Title	Chart-Position
		DE Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...	AT 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...	CH Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
1994	Lieder mit Gefühl	70 (9 Wo.)	7 (16 Wo.)	-
1995	Recycled	-	2 (16 Wo.)	-
2001	Raritäten (containing rare Duets with Reinhard Mey Reinhard Mey Reinhard Friedrich Michael Mey is a German singer-songwriter, known to fans as "Liedermacher". In France he is known as Frédérik Mey....  and Marianne Mendt Marianne Mendt Marianne Mendt is an Austrian jazz singer and actress, best known for her participation in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest.- Early career :... )	-	4 (11 Wo.)	-
2005	So weit, so gut ... Die größten Hits aus 25 Jahren	83 (1 Wo.)	2 (26 Wo.)	-
2006	So ein Theater - Die schönsten Balladen und Liebeslieder	-	51 (2 Wo.)

Austria 3

• 1998: Austria3 - Live (with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer)
• 1998: Austria3 - Live Vol. 2 (with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer)
• 2000: Austria3 - Die Dritte (with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer)

Chart trajectories

Name	Year	Austria
Zweierbeziehung	1981	16
Strada del Sole	1981	1
Schickeria	1982	1
Razzia	1982	9
Oben ohne	1982	1
Es lebe der Sport	1982	7
Erobict, sierobict	1983	9
Ich bin ein Negerant Madam	1984	10
Weus'd a Herz hast wia a Bergwerk	1984	3
Wien bei Nacht	1985	19
Heimatlied	1986	16
Tränen trocknen schnell	1987	15
Der Wind	1988	24
Macho, Macho	1988	1
Tango Korrupti	1988	5
Von Zeit zu Zeit	1990	17
I am from Austria	1990	6
Blond	1997	1
*Little Drummer Boy, Stille Nacht	1997	16
Entsetzlich hetero	2001	47

• "Little Drummer Boy" with Eric Minsk, and "Stille Nacht" with Andrew Edge
  Andrew Edge
  Andrew Edge is a musician from Leeds, England who has played pop music, dance, synth pop and ballads. After playing in local Leeds jazz-rock bands and Working Men's Club bands, he moved to London in the late 1970s, and joined the Thompson Twins...
  
  .

External links