Peggy March at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2023

Peggy March at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2023 in an interview:

“I am very pleased that we have the time to conduct this interview,” says Peggy.

When I asked Peggy March, “How long have you been an artist?” She laughs and says, “I have actually been an artist all my life.”
“I’ve been doing a lot since I was a child.” To be precise, she has been on stage for 63 years. “My mom said: I imitated
commercials on television when I was two.” “My dad always listened to Big Band records, and I imitated the songs,
many of which had female singers, and I liked that.”

Neither of her parents was ever in show business. Peggy was married for 45 years, and her husband passed away 10 years ago.
Peggy lives in Florida, USA, but she is frequently in Germany and has spent some time in Munich. In Munich, she immediately felt
at home, and she really likes Germany. When asked if she could imagine living in Germany, she says:

“Well, my whole family lives in America, and that is quite far away. Her child is in America, her sister and her husband too, and it
would be very difficult to see them if she still lived in Germany.” She will keep coming here, and yet, German is a difficult language.
In Florida, it’s always nice and warm. Florida is a flat land, with little landscape to see, but at least it’s warm.

The weather is now humid and warm, and that is “our winter.” As she gets older, she prefers warmer weather, and her house is waiting
for her in Florida. Once a year, they all get together, the whole family. It has always been that she
traveled a lot, and her “girl,” as she affectionately calls her:

“She has known that forever, and she doesn’t mind.” Her girl will turn 50 in January. She is already a mother herself and has a son
who is 16 years old, tall, slim, and really good-looking. She always tells him:

“You have to stop growing, you have to bend down to get a hug – poor guy.” He is already taller than his parents. Peggy’s father
was tall, her grandfather is tall, and she is taller than her sister, “at least that!” Peggy laughs. “How old is your sister?”
I asked Peggy. “My sister is 70 years old, and she herself is 75 years old.” “I think everyone knows that by now.”
“My age has always been in every article, so I couldn’t cheat!”

“One can’t change it anyway.” “It is what it is,” says Peggy. “I keep myself young; my mom was also a young type.”
“She was always young and quick and always thought young.” “And that was always beautiful.”
“The world is not always so beautiful at the moment, and it’s important to find your place.” “I’m lucky; I love my job, and life
is definitely very beautiful for me.”

Peggy, what has been your highlight? “There have been and still are many highlights.” “I always say, ‘My best production’ is my child.”
“And that’s still true!” She has become a good person and a great woman, happily married, and has a great son, and she herself
had a great husband for 45 years. “And I have a job that I like.”
“Not everyone is so lucky.” She has had a lot of luck in life, and that is also in her book.

“Peggy, is there anything you have ever regretted in life?” “No, there really wasn’t anything.” Peggy smiles
and says, “I always thought, if it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.” “My mom always said,
‘Everything happens for a reason, everything has a reason why it’s like that.'”

“I married the right man; I haven’t regretted not being taller” – Peggy and I laugh heartily. “I always wanted to have
an older brother,
that didn’t work either.” Is Peggy March
your stage name? “Yes, it is now; that’s how it is in your passport.” Peggy March was born as Margaret Annemarie Batavia.
Peggy didn’t particularly like her name Margaret, so she asked her mother, “Why did you name me Margaret?” Her mom replied,
“Because it’s your name.” It’s an old-fashioned name, and she never felt like a Margaret, never. March is also Peggy’s birth month,
and the record company gave her the name.

I ask Peggy, “How many records have you produced?” “No idea,” she says. “Because she sang and made records in 7 languages!”
In Japan, there were a lot, she spent years in Japan. And when she lived in Munich, they flew there three times a year, and
also to Holland, Spain, Italy, Japan, France, the USA, England. In Japan, she gave concerts and appeared on television. “Japan is great!”
Peggy raves. “It’s completely different, you can’t compare it to anything. After 30 days, she had had enough.

“On the one hand, the language, everything is pronounced differently, you never know where you are, can’t read anything.”
“Learn to pronounce the hotel name correctly so that the taxi driver knows where you want to go.” But a great country,
she likes the food, she likes the people, and she was warmly welcomed. However, on every poster, etc., they gave her blue eyes.
“I don’t have blue eyes,” says Peggy, “but every blonde person must have blue eyes.” “She didn’t know that either.”
But she saw big pictures there and thought to herself, “something is not right until I noticed that they gave me blue eyes.”
She had to laugh a lot. She scolded her mom and asked why she didn’t give her blue eyes? 🙂
Peggy always wanted a redhaired child, and indeed, her daughter was born with red hair.

Peggy has been on stage since she was 5 years old; back then, she wasn’t paid. Professionally she has been
doing it for 60 years now, and the song “I Will Follow Him” was her first song produced by RCA. RCA was a very
large record company in America at that time.
Radio Corporation of America spelled out. Today, RCA is no longer a record company. Peggy made it to the top
of the US charts in 1963.
The song reached the top 10 worldwide and became number 1 in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Scandinavia
and even received a Grammy nomination. To this day, she holds a record: she is the youngest artist with a number 1 hit.

Later, Peggy switched to another record company when we moved to Germany. Becker and Tell TAG – the sister company of RCA.
In Japan, she had a completely different record company. “When you’ve been in the business for a long time, a change is quite normal.”