Marianne Mendt

About:

29 September 1945

Born as Marianne Krupicka she enjoyed private lessons in classical singing and piano lessons during her childhood in Vienna.  After business school she worked for three years at the company Henkel detergents. At the end of the sixties toured with her band The Internationals as singer and bassist. In 1970 she returned to Vienna and was discovered by Gerhard Bronner. He wrote the text for her song " Wie a Glock’n ", regarded as the trigger for Austropop or popmusic in Austrian dialect. The music came from Hans Salomon and was the theme song of Bronner's television show " Die große Glocke ". On the same titled album, which next to Bronner and Solomon features contributions by André Heller and Werner Schneyder she displays a wide spectrum of popsongs and Austrian covers from popular English songs like "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", "Spinning Wheel" and the musical hit "Aquarius". In 1971, she represented Austria in Dublin at EuroVision Song Contest with the song ‘Musik’ ending in the low regions. In 1972 she published the LP " Gute Lieder sind wie Pistolen ", which again was produced by  André Heller. Songwriters were a young Georg Danzer, Robert Opratko and Richard Oesterreicher.

After the birth of her daughter Anna Mendt focused primarily on work in Vienna and played increasingly theater and movies, including at Vienna's Raimund Theater and the in der Josefstadt. Her LPs featured more light pop music and jazz coming from television programs she did in Germany and Austria on. In 1992 to 2000 she gained fame with the role of Gitti Schimek in the ORF television series Kaisermühlen Blues . In 2000, she recorded the album Freunde und Prophete, a duet album with some of her early songs and sung together with Danzer and André Heller (amongst others). From 2002 Mendt spent a year as chairman of SOS Mitmensch . In 2004 she started the talent competition "Take Your Chance".and started her own jazz festival under the name MM Jazz

On the web:

- Marianne's official website (mainly about the MM festival): http://www.mariannemendt.at/

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What do we think:

DB: If it wasn't for her singing the first ever Austrian pophit her fame would probably be much less. Not that Marianne has a bad voice, her first two albums are really worth seeking out. Her musical output has been somewhat arredicate. From pop, to beat, to jazz, to schlager, to musical. Actually you could say Mendt is more an actress then a singer although her jazz festival is quite popular and she always makes an appearance there. Still, for some original light Austrian pop you cannot go around Mendt.

Recommendations:

♪♪♪ - Wie a Glock’n - 1970

♪♪♪♪ - Gute Lieder sind wie Pistolen - 1972

♪ - Wienerlieder - 1974

♪♪♪ - Lieder Songs Schlager - 1975

- Meine Lieder - 1975

- Neue Lieder - 1978

- Momendts (live) - 1994

- Freunde und Propheten - 2000

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♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided