Nana Gualdi - born Adriana Klein in Basel, Switzerland on April 29, 1932 – was a singer and actress best known for her German language recordings. Born into a musical family – her Italian father was conductor Emilio Gualdi, and her aunt was German singer Maria Kloth – Nana Gualdi began singing at the at of 15. She won a scholarship and began studying acting, dancing, and singing in Hamburg, but after appearing in public and singing the slightly controversial song “Open the Door, Richard”, her scholarship was revoked. However, she was discovered during that performance by singer Fred Weyrich, who invited her to record in Berlin at Odeon Studios. By the early 1950s, she was performing on radio broadcasts and singing on pop recordings with the Hansen Quartet and the Starlets. Her first solo release was the 1954 single “Ich Sing' Heut' Vergnügt Vor Mich Hin” followed by several more singles over the next four years. In 1958, she scored a massive hit with “Junge Leute Brauchen Liebe”, which was a German-language version of the Doris Day hit “Everybody Loves a Lover”. On the German charts, Nana Gualdi’s version reached Number 5 on the charts while Doris Day’s original version never moved higher than Number 15. Nana Gualdi continued to release solo recordings as well as duets with Owen Williams and Werner Overheidt. In 1961, she released her second best-known song "Drei Weiße Birken”, a collaboration with Kurt Stephan and released under the pseudonym Monika and Peter. However, after several more solo recordings and Monika and Peter releases, chart success began to elude her and at the beginning of the 1980s, she abandoned her recording career and turned to acting and achieved success as a stage actress for nearly two decades. Nana Gualdi died on July 11, 2007, at the age of 75.
