Romy Haag

Romy Haag (born Edouard Frans Verba on 1 January 1948) is a Dutch dancer, singer, actress and former nightclub manager. When she was 13, Romy Haag and her family joined the circus. She started her career at the renowned Circus Strassburger as a children's clown. At age 16, she moved to Paris with the trapeze artists from the circus and debuted at the Parisian nightclub Alcazar as a cabaret dancer. In 1972, an American show manager offered Haag a tour booking and she performed her show "Berlin Chanson" at Fire Island, in Long Island and Atlantic City. There she met and fell in love with a street musician from Berlin and decided to move back to Europe to live in the German city with him. In 1974, at age 26, she opened her own cabaret, named Chez Romy Haag, in Berlin-Schöneberg. The venue became successful and had many notable visitors, including Udo Lindenberg, Zizi Jeanmaire, Patricia Highsmith, Bryan Ferry, Tina Turner, Horst Buchholz, Grace Jones, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Iggy Pop, Freddie Mercury, Lou Reed and Mick Jagger, whom she first met in 1973.[2] In 1976, Haag and David Bowie began a romantic relationship; Bowie subsequently moved to Berlin and completed his first German tour. Her first single “Liege-Samba“ appeared in 1977, with Udo Lindenberg contributing the lyrics and music. She went on tour with Lindenberg, and in the following year, released her single “Superparadise”. In 1979, the New Yorker Profile Gallery profiled her in a photo tribute. In 1981, her first album “So bin ich”, with Klaus Hoffmann contributing the lyrics, was released. After nine years, in 1983, she sold her night club to travel the world. Returning to Germany in 1986, she began touring Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the U.S. with her “City in the Night” show. During mid 1980s, Haag was featured in the video installation "Queen Zero", an art performance in the New York Museum of Modern Art. In 1999, her autobiography Eine Frau und mehr was published. Haag describes her life, the art scene in the U.S., and Berlin in the 1970s. In 2010, she had a role as a receptionist in the internet soap opera Doc Love playing alongside Dieter Bach, Oliver Bender and Ellenie Salvo González. During her career, she performed with Conny Göckel, Alexander Kraut, Lutz Woite, Friedel Schwarz, Erik Küppers, Blacky Schwarz, Roland Götz, Hansi Wallbaum, Uli Moritz, Eberhardt Fortmann. She has had roles in 26 films, including Plastikfieber, Zum Beispiel Otto Spalt, Die Hamburger Krankheit and Mascara with Charlotte Rampling. She released 17 albums. In 1997 Haag received the Teddy Award at the Berlinale 1997 for her life work. The Teddy Award is awarded in recognition of films with LGBTQIA topics. The German astronomer Felix Hormuth named one of the minor planets he discovered on 29 January 2009 after Romy Haag. The asteroid is officially named 305660 Romyhaag.