Ute Lemper

Singer and actress

- Michael Beek

Ute Lemper has performed on stage and screen over a 40-year career – in musicals and plays on Broadway, in Paris and Berlin, and in London’s West End. She has recorded more than 30 albums, and is particularly known for her interpretations of Berlin cabaret songs, the works of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and the songs of Marlene Dietrich, Édith Piaf, Nino Rota and Astor Piazzolla, as well as her own compositions. In December she presents her ‘Rendezvous With Marlene’ show in Paris, before touring Europe and America in 2026.

I grew up in a small town called Münster in West Germany during the Cold War. There was a lot of music in our house, which helped me to find freedom in quite restrained, bourgeoisie surroundings. My father had a great jazz collection of LPs – Gershwin, Cole Porter, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. He played the piano and could work out how to play any song you asked for. He was a funny guy and should have been an entertainer instead of a banker. My mum was a soprano and pianist, and liked opera and operetta. I was the wild kid in the family; I didn’t like to obey the rules, and I had so much fire and passion but didn’t know where to put it! So I started studying ballet and modern dance, and once I was 12, I started to sing.