Together they sang the famous duet “It’s great to be in the world”: Antita Hegerland is still mourning Roy Black. A visit to the 60-year-old.
It’s nice to be in the world
hen the sun shines for young and old
You can breathe, you can walk
Enjoy everything and see everything
It’s nice to be in the world
Says the bee to the porcupine
You and me, we agree
It’s nice to be in the world
Many people can still sing the lines to this day – and they can’t get out of their heads as a catchy tune: 50 years ago Roy Black released a song together with the then 10-year-old Anita Hegerland that was not only at the top of the ZDF hit parade at the time managed, but has burned itself into the national hit memory. “It’s nice to be in the world” by the duo Roy Black & Anita is an evergreen.
50 years ago (on August 2, 1971) the song came into the charts of the Federal Republic of Germany, as it is called by GfK Entertainment as an investigator in the official German charts. The highest place in the following weeks was second place. Roy Black (bourgeois Gerhard Höllerich) was already a star back then; six years earlier he had a hit with “Ganz in Weiß”. The career of little Norwegian Anita Hegerland was just getting started back then.
Anita Hegerland couldn’t speak a word of German
The girl with the blonde hair was already a child star in her native Norway. Producer Hans Bertram brought them to Germany. She was supposed to be in front of the camera at Black’s side (he played a pediatrician in it) in the movie “When my sweetheart hits the drum”. Part of the film is the common duet. which – in contrast to the cinema strip – is still a success today.
“The text was written down for me in spoken language,” recalls the now 60-year-old in an interview with the German Press Agency. But later she learned German, but her Norwegian accent remained her trademark. Her music career continued internationally as an adult. For example, she sang the world hits “Pictures in the dark” and “Innocent” by British musician Mike Oldfield. She spent six years in England, France and Switzerland when she was in a relationship with Oldfield.
Hegerland mourns Roy Black
Today she lives south of the Norwegian capital on the Oslofjord. She has three grown children (33, 31, 22 years old – two of them with Oldfield). The 60-year-old, who also paints and is currently planning to record a German hit album, is still saddened by the untimely death of Roy Black. The singer died 30 years ago (October 9, 1991) at the age of only 48. “I still miss Roy. We had a wonderfully successful time together on stage for many years.”
For the 40th anniversary of “It’s great to be in the world” in 2011, Hegerland recorded a heavy metal version of the song with Chris Boltendahl and the musicians of the band Grave Digger. She did it with a smile because Roy Black always wanted to make rock music.
50 years after the success of “It’s great to be in the world”, Hegerland hopes that, despite Corona, things will soon be better for the music industry with performances and concerts. She herself is vaccinated and confident. If all goes well, she will appear on October 9th at the “Roy Black Gala 2021” concert in Bobingen near Augsburg.
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