Overview
- Gitte Hænning, who turned 80 on Monday, June 29, 2026, marked the birthday by launching a jubilee programme and continuing to perform concerts across Germany.
- President Frank-Walter Steinmeier sent official congratulations and praised Hænning’s long record in jazz, pop and Schlager.
- Hænning’s career spans more than seven decades, beginning as a child performer in Denmark and rising to fame with the 1963 million-selling hit “Ich will ’nen Cowboy als Mann.”
- She says she does not plan to retire and credits steady work plus simple habits—walking, cycling and vitamins—for keeping her fit and engaged on stage.
- Her move to Germany in the early 1960s, Eurovision entry in 1973 and later revivals such as the post-2000 show “Gitte, Wencke, Siw” show how repeated reinvention has sustained her cross-border cultural influence.