Heino & Anna Maria Kaufmann

How to explain the extensive popularity of German folksinger Heino to someone unfamiliar with that country's culture? Imagine hoards of adoring fans, from children to grandparents, going gaga over Elvis. Then in Elvis' place, substitute another artist who goes by a single moniker, a blond-haired senior citizen clad in vinyl rectangular glasses. His voice is deep, the deepest baritone imaginable, which he uses to belt out his hit polkas and marches. By the 1980s, Heino's popularity began to spread outside the country's borders, throughout Europe and across the Atlantic. He is ...