Alexandra

Born Doris Trietz on May 19, 1942 in Heydekrug, Memelland, or current-day ilucé, Lithuania (though at the time it was part of Germany), the singer who would later be known as Alexandra (her middle name) spent her childhood in Kiel and Hamburg dreaming of stardom. She began writing songs at a young age, and when she was a teenager she saved up enough money to buy her first guitar. Around this same time, she met the Russian Nikolai Nefedov, whom she wed at 19 despite the fact he was thirty years her senior. However, when their first child was born shortly after, the couple divorced and Nefedov emigrated to America, while Alexandra stayed in Hamburg with her son. She began to take singing lessons and became interested in theater. It was on the stage, in fact, that she was discovered by a local producer, who was taken by her voice and looks and took it upon himself to arrange meetings with record execs. In 1967 her first single, “Ziguenerjunge,” was released, followed by “Sehnsucht,” “Schwartze Balalaika,” and “Mein Freund, der Baum,” among others. Sadly, Alexandra’s career ended tragically on July 31, 1969, when, while on vacation with her mother and child, she was involved in a car accident that killed both adults almost instantly. ~ Marisa Brown