Sandra won international success in 1985 with a song '(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena', which topped the charts in 21 countries worldwide and reached top 10 in further five. The single, however, performed poorly on charts at that time dominated by disco mania. The impromptu performance gained considerable recognition and led to the release of her first single, which was a children's song about a pet dog, 'Andy mein Freund'.
She was only a member of the audience, but when all participants had finished performing and the jury was discussing the results, Sandra walked onto the stage, persuaded the DJ to put on the German version of a song made famous by Olivia Newton-John and started singing. In 1975, at the age of thirteen, Sandra went with her mother to see Young Star Festival, a Saarbrücken talent competition. Sandra showed an early interest in music and dancing, starting to learn classical ballet at the age of 5, which she would continue for ten years, and receiving guitar lessons when she was 10 years old. She also had an older brother, Gaston, a paraplegic who died in 1995. Mariah, 21, from the US, encourages her self-proclaimed bestie and mother Sandra, 45, to dress half naked and embrace her sexy side in tonights episode of TLCs sMothered. Her father, Robert Lauer, who owned a wine store in Saarbrücken, is French and her mother, Karin ( née Eltern), who worked in a shoe store, is German.
