Nina Hagen

Nina Hagen was born Catharina Hagen in East Berlin in 1955, trained in opera as a child, and grew up to become the godmother of German punk. Her five-octave vocal range—capable of moving from guttural snarl to coloratura soprano mid-phrase—made the Nina Hagen Band's 1978 debut a quarter-million-selling sensation and established a template no one else has quite managed to replicate. Over twenty studio albums and nearly five decades, she has roamed freely through punk, new wave, funk, reggae, gospel, and Brecht cabaret, treating genre boundaries less as fences than as suggestions. Her latest record, HiGHWAY TO HEAVEN (2026), pairs Southern gospel standards with her signature theatrical delivery, featuring duets with Nana Mouskouri and Gitte Hænning. She is also a voice-over actress, author of three autobiographies, and a persistent advocate for human and animal rights.