Zarah Leander

Zarah Leander Stina ( Karlstad , March 15 1907 - Stockholm , June 23 1981 ) was a well-known Swedish singer and actress . Her birth name was Zarah Stina Hedberg. ==[Biography  edit ] == ===[Youth  edit ] === Zarah Leander studied as a child piano and violin and sang for the first time on the stage when she was 6 years old. As a teenager she lived two years inRiga (1922-1924), learned the then major international language German, worked as a secretary , married Nils Leander and had two children (1927 and 1929). She got work as an amateur at the Ernst Rolf-cabaret toured and sang for the first time the song "Skin ni se and stjärna" (Would you like a star?), Which would soon become her trademark. ===[Career  edit ] === In 1930 she participated in four cabarets in the capital, Stockholm, she made ​​her first recordings, including a cover of Marlene Dietrich Falling in love againand played a movie role. However, it was as operetta singer, as Anna Glavari in Lehárs Franz The Merry Widow , she broke definitively (1931). By that time she was separated from Nils Leander. In the years that followed, she made ​​a glorious career and was very fortunate life as a celebrated stage and film performer in Scandinavia . Her fame rushed from the European continent to Hollywood, where some Swedish actors and film directors worked. Her special voice has certainly contributed to this, a rare and compelling contralto . During World War II she was very popular, especially in Germany, where she worked for the German film industry (UFA) and lived until the end of 1942. Her role during this period was not without controversy. After initial difficulties, but she could continue her career after the war from Sweden.