Clowns & Helden is a German German rock band that was formed in Hamburg in 1985 and was active until 1989. The group is considered a one-hit wonder of the 1980s. It was formed by seven musicians: Carsten Pape (vocals, lyrics), Bernd Westermann (keyboard), Wolfgang Jensen (vocals), Volker Radow (bass), "Elle" Böndel (drums), Martin Fischbach (guitar, vocals) and Valeri Dobrev (drums). The band's name comes from Carsten Pape's imagination, as the ensemble was conceived as a rock theater from the very beginning. The band plays German rock with influences from Neue Deutsche Welle and German-language pop-rock and achieves national fame in the mid-1980s. In 1986, the debut album Von beteuerten Gefühlen und anderer Kälte was released, from which the single "Ich liebe dich" was taken. The song climbed to number 4 in the German charts in 1987 and stayed there for 20 weeks. After the first chart success of "Wir haben '86...", the line of the song is re-recorded on "Wir haben '87..." to bring it into line with the time period. The self-titled album Clowns & Helden followed in 1987, continuing the style they had adopted. Willkommen in West-Poind-Blanc was released in 1988, but was not a commercial success. The band disbanded in 1989 after further singles such as "Die Wahrheit", "Seitdem du wieder da bist" and "Tief in mir" failed to make any significant impact on the charts.
