There she sits, this always in a good mood woman with the cheerful eyes and the warm, soft honey voice. The woman who gave us the “bright red rubber boat” in 1970 and, even after 70 years – and more than 700 recorded songs – is still far from tired of music.
Wencke Myhre is now 77 years old. What an unreal number for this youthful-looking, delicate woman! She also finds it unreal and says to BamS: “77? That’s just in my passport. But I still feel like I’m 37. I’m getting older, but I want to keep the childishness in my heart.”
Myhre in 1970 at the age of 23 in her first and only feature film “Our Timpanists Go Up in the Air” with Chris Roberts (then 25)
Foto: picture alliance / United Archiv
Myhre is without question an exceptional musician. Someone who had music in her blood before she could even speak complete sentences.
She said at a meeting with BamS: “I was allowed to go backstage when I was a little girl. All the people there looked out for me. We had little money, my parents couldn’t afford a babysitter for my brother and me, so we were always there. And of course, I had always heard the music and wanted to be on stage when I was three years old.”
But his father only allowed it when little Wencke turned seven. There she stood, next to her father Kjell († 44) and her brother Reidar, who was two years older: “Father played the accordion, my brother played the clarinet, and I sang.”
Myhre with Peter Alexander in 1972. She says about him: “Of everyone I ever worked with, I had the most fun on stage with him. He was always perfectly prepared, always funny, always eager to learn.”
Foto: picture alliance / United Archiv
Anything other than a great career would somehow have been wrong given these circumstances.
Just six years later, twelve-year-old teenager Wencke Myhre won the “Chat Noir” talent competition in Oslo (Norway). On her 13th birthday she got her first record deal. She still went to school and sang on the weekends in old people’s homes, at garden parties and in prisons – most of the time she didn’t even take any money for it. Only when her songs sold so well that Myhre became a star did the cash register ring – and she bought her family a house.
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But it didn’t just stop in Norway: Myhre also became a star outside of her homeland – especially with German songs! And that was before she could even fully understand the language!
Did you always know what she was singing? Myhre laughs and says honestly: “Not always! But it was explained to me every time. But a song like ‘Hey, hey, hey, do you already know my Peter’, of course I already understood that.” Hit after hit followed, award after award. A great success story. In the 1970s she was a regular guest on German television.
Myhre is grateful for her big hits – “He has a brightly colored rubber boat” came out in 1970, and she still sings this party song in particular regularly
Photo: PR
Then the first blow: Wencke’s father died of a heart attack in 1970 at the age of just 44. At the time, his daughter was pregnant with her first child. Myhre says to BamS: “He was able to witness the beginning of my success in Norway, Germany and Sweden. Unfortunately he didn’t see my children anymore. For me that was terrible. A difficult time.”
Only one of the two gentlemen could have lifted this delicate person! Myhre with her esteemed colleagues Peter Alexander (†84) and Roy Black (†48)
Photo: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf
The most famous Norwegian woman in Germany has had three marriages from 1969 to the present day. Not without drama here either: her second husband, the German director Michael Pfleghar (†58), shot himself in his apartment in 1991.
This great love did not require a marriage license (at least so far): Wencke Myhre and her partner Anders Eljas
Photo: picture alliance / Geisler-Fotopress
Finally, at the age of 53, Myhre found a great love again: the Swedish actor and conductor Anders Eljas (71), with whom she is still happily together today – without a marriage license. Myhre says: “Weddings are not an issue for us. I’m too grown up for that now. We are so very happy together too.”
So pretty and so talented: Wencke Myhre as a teenager with a good blouse and ponytail
Photo: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf
But there is much more – because Myhre not only has four children, but also ten grandchildren between the ages of twelve and 19. She is proud of that, you can clearly tell when you talk to her.
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She says to BamS: “When all the grandchildren are there, that’s fantastic. They were all born within ten years of each other. That time back then wasn’t boring, believe me. There was a lot of work to be done.”
Myhre is a passionate grandmother and says: “I love it! I love doing silly things and hanging out with them. I just hope I get to be a part of their lives for as long as possible.”