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David Alexandre Winter
David Alexandre Winter
	David Alexandre Winter at the Eurovision Song Contest 1970
Background information
Birth name	Lion Kleerekoper
Also known as	John van Doren / Johnnie Van Doren
Born	4 April 1943 (age 81); Amsterdam, Netherlands
Origin	Netherlands
Genres	French Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1966 – present

David Alexandre Winter (born Lion Kleerekoper;^[1]^[2] 4 April 1943) is a Dutch-born international pop singer. Winter found fame in Luxembourg and France.

Early life

Winter was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands into a Jewish family. Both he and his parents, Israel Kleerekoper and Magdalena Kleerekoper, née Blocq,^[2] were deported to different Nazi concentration camps during the German occupation of the Netherlands.^[2]^[3] After the end of the war, the family was reunited.

Career

From 1966 to 1968 Winter was the lead singer for The Hague-based band "Daddy's Act". One of his first recordings was a cover of the Beatles hit "Eight Days A Week". Under the name Johnny van Dooren, he was a DJ at Dutch pirate station Radio Veronica and later at Radio 227, an English pirate radio station in the North Sea. During 1967–68, he also recorded two singles in Dutch for the Philips label.^[4] In early 1968 while living in London he represented England at the Innsbruck Song Festival in Austria, where he obtained first prize and the coveted ‘'prix de press'’.

He left England where he resided at the time to go to Paris, and was discovered by Leo Missir from Riviera Records (an affiliate of the Barclay group).^[5] In January 1969, his debut single, "Oh Lady Mary", was released; and by April 1969 it had sold 750,000, and one million sales were achieved by August in France, where it was number one for 36 weeks and in the Top 10 for nine months.^[5] Total sales for the first single resulted in 2,6 million copies sold. It was also a hit in Italy (#4), Spain (#5), Germany (#2), Netherlands (# 5), Belgium (#1). In total it sold over 4.5. million copies throughout Europe. The song was written by Patricia Carli and Turkish composer Metin Bükey, and also became a hit in 1970 for Austria's Peter Alexander (number one for four weeks).^[5] Winter went on to record 10 albums and 42 singles & E.P.'s, of which 9 titles became No. 1 hits in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Songs like: "Vole s’envole" (#1 1.650.000 sold )/"Je suis tombé du ciel" (# 3. 850,000 sold, Luxemburg's entry for the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest in Amsterdam, finishing last).

He also recorded in all those languages, and scored two number 1 hits in Germany: "Schau Schau Hinter Den Dunen" and "Ohne Dich war es Halb So Schoen" In total David-Alexandre Winter sold well over 26 million records over his 10-year career in France and the rest of Europe, and performed on the most prestigious stages in all of Europe: The Bolchoi Theater in Moscow, the Royal Command Performance for Queen Elizabeth of England at the Royal Albert Hall in London, as well as the Gala of the Red Cross for Prince Raineer and Grace Kelly in Monte Carlo.

In 1980, Winter moved to the United States. He recorded and produced an album with the Canadian independent company Isba Records and released a single entitled "L'Étoile du Berger".

In 2010, Winter returned to the stage in France for a revival tour with "Age Tendre & Têtes de Bois", which tour played for 55 sold-out venues with over 550,000 people seeing him in concert.^{[citation needed]} In 2014, Winter recorded a studio album Winter Country in Nashville, Tennessee.

Private life

He was first married in 1964 in Amsterdam and had a daughter called Debby. Then Winter was married to French fashion model Catherine Fefeu in the early 1970s. They had two children, Ophélie Winter (born 1974) and Michael Winter. Ophélie became a model, actress and pop singer in her own right, producing four albums between 1996 and 2009. David and Catherine's marriage ended in divorce in 1976.