A look back – Barbara and singer Annett Louisan already see a lot of attractive similarities and wonder whether they continue to raise temperatures in others.
Barbara: Dear Annett, there are good reasons why you, of all people, wrote the cover story “Caution, hot!” are our guest
Annett: But now I’m curious. Why then?
Barbara: Because since you started out in the music world before… when was that exactly?
Annett: That was 19 years ago when my first album “Bohème” was released.
Barbara: godgod. How long has it been? Anyway: Your first single was “Das Spiel”, and after that your image was immediately that of a very cute…
Annett: I’m very small now…
Barbara: …but pretty hot blonde vamps nonetheless. And strictly speaking, not much has changed in this picture to this day.
Annett: Isn’t that strange?
Barbara: What about it?
Annett: The image thing. I’ve just turned 46, my themes are now completely different than in “The Game”, which is about seduction and attraction and pure sex.
Barbara: Is correct. For example, on the new record you sing about “The Middle Ages”.
Annett: And everything that is no longer sexy today and restricts you. Incidentally, I was strongly advised against this commitment to aging in song lyrics in advance. Because of image and such.
Barbara: It’s also a bit sobering, the song: the euphoria is gone, everything is lukewarm towards the end…
Annett: That’s just one aspect. My life is not lukewarm at all, on the contrary. But yes: some things are over, and I even mourn some of them afterwards. It’s like that for all of us. Why shouldn’t you be allowed to write songs about it? Does that make me old-fashioned?
Barbara: Of course not. But with you and me, the salt no longer burns our skin, at least not permanently. We have other issues, we have to organize families – it’s clear that the emotional amplitudes become flatter, no matter what image others have of us.
Annett: But now that you’re starting with the external image: let’s talk about your image.
Barbara: That there would be?
Annett: Not that much different from mine. Hot, funny, can do anything she sets her mind to.
Barbara: As is so often the case with public images, this is largely nonsense. I always strive to do everything, but I fail every day. What is only important to me: how to deal with this failure. I don’t hate myself for not getting younger, prettier, thinner and certainly not more disciplined at 49, no matter what I do about it. I am gentle with myself.
Annett: The key for me is not to cover anything up. Standing by yourself and making an art out of it, whether it’s music like me or jokes like yours.
Barbara: And that works too. The people who like us are in the same boat with us, they’re getting older with us and they know what we’re talking about.
Annett: But that still includes what you said before: we both started out with certain images more or less 20 years ago. When I think of “Blondes Gift”, your late night show… That used to be really hot. How’s your hotness factor today? How big is it?
Barbara: I’m mega hot in all areas, I can say that much. It’s just that not as many people notice it anymore, because it’s probably not as obvious as it was at the beginning of the millennium. You have to moderate it better.
Annett: I know. It’s not just others who have an image of me, but also myself, and that has a lot to do with the past and often not so much with today. When I go out smart at night… well, let’s just say men’s reactions to me aren’t always what I expect.
Barbara: Exactly! Like me! I often think: Are they stupid.
Annett: Even! If only they knew!
Barbara: They would buy paradise with us! I wonder how many more generations have to be born before men see us women as a hot resource shortly before 50. It probably won’t be until the average life expectancy increases to 100. Then we will presumably have more time every ten years to calmly…
Annett: … but what actually? But nothing that can’t be done now. I don’t want to go back to my twenties either. I find myself horny as I am here and now, with my body, but also with the experience and knowledge that I have accumulated during this time. Don’t you feel the same way?
Barbara: Sure, of course. When I was 20, I did everything just for the others. So I wanted the guys walking home feeling like the horniest lovers ever. Today I think more about myself and my needs and tend to congratulate the others for being able to be there.
Annett: I would fully subscribe. But then I think: wait a minute – haven’t we both been happily married for a long time?
Barbara: Yes, but that’s not the point. I would like to continue to be perceived as a sexual person, of course also as a married woman. That doesn’t mean that I actively live out this availability or rather this attraction to others, I don’t have to. Also, conversely, I think it’s great to know that I’m with a man who I’m not the only one who thinks he’s good.
Annett: Oh right, because what kind of ballast would that be. Only people who are afraid of loss need that, it becomes a trap. As are some of the topics that you can be pinned down to: When I recorded an album four years ago, I had just become a mother. That’s great, I wouldn’t want to miss anything about it. But somehow that was the only topic in the interviews back then.
Barbara: Which probably made you really happy.
Annett: Haha very funny. Nah, I was upset that I let that happen because I’m so much more. And so I’m totally with you on availability. It is also extremely important for our job, this radiance of physicality and sensuality – if it is part of one’s own personality.
Barbara: As with both of us.
Annett: And I hope that will never change. I am not mother, I am not wife of. I am above all me.
Barbara: Have you actually been single for a long time?
Annett: nope Not really.
Barbara: Me neither. There was this one week, but my ex-boyfriend didn’t know it then…
Annett: I often think about why this is the case for me. Hildegard Knef once said that she had managed everything in her life – just not being alone. It probably has something to do with me.
Barbara: It was different for me: I always wanted to be in love. And that has led me to throw myself into things where a little common sense would have been enough to realize: This isn’t going to work.
Annett: But what does common sense have to do with it? You’re always so great in these moments.
Barbara: All or nothing.
Annett: Exactly. The really big emotional cinema.
Barbara: And always pull together. But at the same time I was aware: I can always leave, overnight.
Annett: I was never good at that. I’ve actually always been in relationships since I was 18. I’ve never developed the feeling that I’m enough on my own. Until a few years ago. Fortunately. Now I even need moments of solitude.
Barbara: How long do they last?
Annett: One evening at most. How about you?
Barbara: I could be alone But I don’t want to, I’m very interested in exchange. I get bored so easily. I think the first three hours alone are really cute, but then I start calling my family to ask how they are doing.
Annett: Does that mean you never travel alone? Don’t you take me-time somewhere else?
Barbara: That would be hell for me! But speaking of travel…
Annett: Yes, please?
Barbara: I just read that the most popular foreign holiday destinations for Germans are Italy, Spain and Turkey. So areas where it is extremely hot in summer. Where are you drawn to? Do you need heat on vacation?
Annett: ohh You first.
Barbara: From me: a very clear no to the heat.
Annett: Why?
Barbara: For many reasons. First, I find daytime heat exceedingly debilitating. It doesn’t fit my need to be active, to do something in the garden, to walk around the lake, that sort of thing. Second: I really love to slip into a cool bed in the evenings, without air conditioning.
Annett: And where do you find these conditions?
Barbara: In Sweden. Or in Austria – there it gets refreshingly cool in the evenings at 1200 meters, no matter how hot the day was. So how about you?
Annett: I grew up in the GDR, when the wall fell I was a teenager. That’s why I had the impulse to go south in the summer earlier – that was all new and exciting for us, who up until then had only known the Baltic Sea. But now I can’t stand the heat very well anymore. Except that it scares me. 40 degrees and more are now the norm in summer in Italy, that can’t be good or healthy. So, I’m with you there too: A shady spot in the garden is a good place for me. On the one hand.
Barbara: And on the other hand?
Annett: Do I have more of a problem with the fact that we’ve always been going to the same place in recent years. I would be ready again…
Barbara: … for an adventure?
Annett: Exactly. For an adventure. I used to go away with my husband for a long time right after the tours, never for less than six weeks, Costa Rica, South America, Thailand … Although: I thought Thailand was shit.
Barbara: How come?
Annett: The beaches are fantastic, but every few minutes someone comes and asks: massage? And at unbelievably low prices. I don’t get along well with the servile nature of the people there. Somehow I have a problem with the relationship between service providers and servants there.
Barbara: Understand. I’m also very bad at being served. I don’t like being asked things all the time, I never go to the hotel for breakfast, I never ask for waiter service – so I can understand very well what your problem with Thailand is. Another topic: It’s not necessarily good for your health, but if you say “hot”, you also have to think “fatty”.
Annett: Do you have something greasy that you find difficult to keep your hands off?
Barbara: French fries.
Annett: Of course, sure, I knew it.
Barbara: Just say you’re a fries girl too!
Annett: But hello. I also like to eat cold pizza in the morning, but goodness, fries are the very best.
Barbara: Ketchup or Mayo?
Annett: So please: red and white. And the saltier the better.
Barbara: Honestly, it’s a childhood thing, but when I drive past a snack bar today, just the thought of a portion of fries gets my adrenaline pumping and I immediately start salivating like a torrent.
Annett: And I have to eat the first one before I even pay. No matter how hot it is. With which, speaking of hot, we would probably have come full circle.
ANNET LOUISAN, born Annett Päge in Havelberg in 1977, studied painting after graduating and also worked as a studio musician. In 2004 she released her debut album “Bohème”, which sold over half a million copies. 19 years and another million record sales later, the tenth album was recently released: “Babyblue”. Louisan is married, has one daughter and lives in Hamburg.