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Julia Neigel (born 19 April 1966) is a German singer, songwriter, and music producer. She was initially known as Jule Neigel. Since 2018, she has been a member of the rock band Silly.
She won several Jugend musiziert playing the recorder before deciding to give up classical music. At the age of twelve, she discovered pop and rock music. After a failed attempt in a punk band, at the age of 16, she sang for the first time in a regionally well-known blues band. At this time, soul music became her preferred musical genre.
In 1981, she was part of the Südwest Ludwigshafen squad that achieved promotion to the Handball Bundesliga. In 1984, she was awarded the Memorial Medal of the state of Baden-Württemberg for her outstanding sporting achievements. She also hosted radio shows.
In 1988, she achieved national success with a record deal and the first album of Jule Neigel's band, "Schatten an der Wand." The band's most successful album, "Herz Willkommen," remained in the top 10 for weeks in 1994.
Neigel has sold several million albums and has been giving regular concerts and tours for decades. She has a vocal range of more than three . Her musical work spans many genres of Pop music and rock music, as well as funk and R&B. The press has called her "The Voice" and the "queen of German singers", as well as "Germany's most beautiful voice, often copied but never equalled". In 2008, Peter Maffay, according to Bild, considered her "still the best German singer". In the foreword to her biography, Udo Lindenberg describes her as an " extraterrestrial phenomenon" with a "performance ... that blows you away. Her voice, her mind, her fitness, all of this together makes up the total work of art that is Julia Neigel".
In August 1989, she was part of the Rock Poets Tour through the GDR. The tour, organized in cooperation with the West German Ministries of Culture, was performed together with Purple Schulz, , and Heinz Rudolf Kunze, with stops in Chemnitz, Suhl and Weimar. The final concert on August 22, 1989, in East Berlin Weißensee district in front of 120,000 people was broadcast Live television on ARD.
In 1990, Neigel appeared in the Sketch comedy Och Joh by Badesalz, in which her song " Schatten an der Wand" was also satirized. In 1992, she had a guest appearance in the episode " Der neue Anzug" of the television series On 25 April 1991, the artist performed at a Jimi Hendrix tribute concert with Simon Phillips and Jack Bruce for the Rockpalast on WDR. In the summer of 1995, she toured with the sold-out festival series Rock over Germany, initiated by Fritz Rau.
After Schatten an der Wand, further albums were able to place themselves in the charts: 1990 Wilde Welt, 1991 Nur nach vorn, 1994 Herzlich Willkommen (number 4), 1996 Sphinx and 1998 Alles.
Since 1987, Neigel has worked as a producer, singer, lyricist, and composer. In 1988, she was the first recipient of the for German-language songwriters. She wrote the lyrics for " Freiheit, die ich meine," "Siehst Du die Sonne," and "Gib die Liebe nicht auf" for Peter Maffay, among others, and continues to perform with him to this day. She has collaborated on her albums with musicians such as Simon Phillips, Paco de Lucía, and . From 1989 to 1998, she was voted the best national singer by Rolling Stone magazine and the .
In 2003, she was a jury member on the ZDF talent show . On October 10, 2005, British artist David Knopfler released a duet with her, "Tears Fall," on his album Ship of Dreams.
She disbanded the Jule Neigel Band and has performed under her real name Julia Neigel since 2004. In 2006, she released the live album Stimme mit Flügeln.
From January to May 2010, she performed live with in double concerts with the project Rock'n Soul Tour. On the 20th anniversary of German reunification (3 October 2010), Julia Neigel performed with Edo Zanki and Ulla Meinecke in front of over 100,000 spectators in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Edo-Zanki-Fanpage; retrieved 27 February 2012. In April 2011, Zanki released the song " Lass uns ein Wunder sein" by Rio Reiser as a duet with Neigel on his album " Zu viele Engel".
Neigel's album Neigelneu was released on 15 April 2011. In the same year, she performed with entertainer in a big band project. On 29 March 2011, Neigel explained on the talk show that her long-term creative break and her withdrawal from public life were due to legal disputes with her former band and a traumatizing incident of violence in 1995. She has since healed, freed herself from her former band, and is fully practicing her profession again. Since then, she has regularly performed on German stages with Acoustic music and rock programs and a new band. On 2 December 2011, Julia Neigel performed together with Peter Maffay, Udo Lindenberg, Silly and Clueso in Jena at the festival Rock 'n' Roll in Jena – for a colorful Republic of Germany in front of 60,000 people.
In 2012, Neigel sang the song " Mit Leib und Seele" ("With Body and Soul") in a duet with Heinz Rudolf Kunze on his album " Ich bin" (I'm in duet). In August 2012, the artist was a judge on the talent show "Simply the Best" on SWR. In October 2012, her biography "Neigelnah - Freedom, which I mean" (Neigelnah - Freedom, which I mean) was published in collaboration with . randomhouse.de; retrieved 21 February 2012. A reading tour accompanied the publication. From October to December 2012, the singer toured Germany with Peter Maffay's Musical theatre " Tabaluga and the Signs of the Times " in the role of "The Lady of the Camellias".
In 2014, Julia Neigel sang the duet Regen with Dieter Birr on his second solo album (Puhdys), which was released as a single and with a music video. In 2015, she went on tour again as a duet partner with Peter Maffay and the musical Tabaluga - Long live friendship and contributed vocals to the live CD for "Freunde da" (That's what friends are for). From January to March 2017, she was Dieter Birr's duet partner on his "Neubeginner" tour. In 2018, she toured Germany with a project with and Big band. In 2019, she performed with Birr on .
In 2019, Julia Neigel went on tour with the band Silly and AnNa R.
In 2020 she released her ninth studio album Ehrensache, which entered the charts at number 13 in September 2020.
On 25 June 2021, Silly announced the studio album "Instandbesetzt" featuring her and AnNa R., as well as another joint tour. The album was released in September 2021 and reached the top 10, peaking at number 7.
On 3 September 2002, she participated in the benefit concert "Menschen am Fluss" (People by the River) for the financial rescue of the Elbe flood victims. In June 2007, she performed at the protest against the G8 summit in Rostock on the market square in front of 25,000 people. In 2011, she was a member of the SWR jury for the "Aktion Ehrensache" (Action of Honor), which honors voluntary social services.
She is a member of the board of trustees of the , which awards the , and is also on the jury for the , which is awarded to young talents by the Udo Lindenberg Foundation. retrieved 21 February 2012. Neigel is also part of the jury for the Christmas Song Contest on SWR Rhineland-Palatinate. In 2010, the singer was also active for the children's charity .
She has supported the Peter Maffay Foundation for traumatized children for years at various events. retrieved 21 February 2012. She also meets with Israeli, Palestinian, and German children for an international exchange of understanding between different cultures. The focus is on overcoming conflict through creativity.
For the Mannheim , Neigel recorded her self-written song " Alter macht besser " (Older Makes Better) as part of the Starke50 initiative, a part of the federal program "". She performed this song on 20 December 2012, at a concert for the long-term unemployed at the . The aim of the initiative is to encourage people over 50 to escape long-term unemployment., Julia Neigel mit Exklusivkonzert für Langzeitarbeitslose in Mannheim auf starke-50.de
In 2013, she received the Charlie Award from the for her social commitment in the fight against racism. Her extraordinary social commitment was honored, among other things, with her inclusion in the Signs of Fame of the Oberkotzau in 2017.
Neigel is an opponent of the Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, partly because of the drinking water protection area on the site and has been a member of the since summer 2020 and was a member of the Ecological Democratic Party for one year.
Julia Neigel is committed to enforcing copyright claims, especially on the Internet. From June 2012 to July 2013, she served as an honorary deputy member of the supervisory board of GEMA. In an interview with the online magazine Giga.de, she commented on copyright and GEMA and criticized Internet companies such as YouTube and the Pirate Party. retrieved 29 May 2012.
In 2024, Neigel brought legal proceedings against the then-current 2G regulation before the same court. The singer was represented by Ralf Ludwig, a self-described "lateral thinker lawyer" and friend of key Querdenker figure Michael Ballweg, and . During the proceedings, the latter compared the effects of COVID-19, in terms of the incidence and mortality, to a common flu epidemic.
| Jule Neigel Band | |||
| 1988 | Shadow on the wall | 16 (10 weeks) | |
| 1990 | Wild World | 12 (19 weeks) | |
| 1991 | Only Forward | 17 (12 weeks) | |
| 1994 | Welcome | 9 (27 weeks) | |
| 1996 | sphinx | 44 (6 weeks) | |
| 1998 | Everything | 23 (6 weeks) | |
| Julia Neigel | |||
| 2011 | New | 65 (1 week) | |
| 2020 | A matter of honor | 13 (2 weeks) | |
| Silly | |||
| 2021 | Maintained | 7 (6 weeks) | Together with AnNa R. |
| Jule Neigel Band | |||
| 1993 | The best songs | 85 (5 weeks) | |
| Jule Neigel Band | |||
| 1988 | Shadow on the wall Shadow on the wall | 30 (12 weeks) | |
| 1991 | Tonight only forward | 56 (11 weeks) | |
| 1994 | The soul burns Welcome | — | |
| 1994 | Longing Welcome | 78 (10 weeks) | |
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