Tamara Danz

Tamara Danz (1952-1996) was the lead singer and lyricist of Silly, one of East Germany's most important rock bands. Born in Breitungen, she trained at the Friedrichshain School of Music and sang with the Oktoberklub before joining Familie Silly in 1978, renamed Silly in 1980; the 1983 album Mont Klamott established them as a leading voice of GDR rock. Voted the DDR's best rock singer four times in the 1980s, Danz used her platform for dissent: in 1989 she co-authored and illegally read at concerts a resolution of rock musicians demanding political reform. Diagnosed with breast cancer while recording Silly's Paradies, she married guitarist Uwe Hassbecker shortly before her 1996 death.