Artistic and Musical Career
As a child Manfred Siebald learned to play several musical instruments, including the violin, the viola and the piano. Along with his studies at the University of Marburg he took instruction in harmonisation and singing. As early as 1970 he was conducting the Youth for Christ Choir and singing in the Christ Singers. He also brought out his first single - "Meinst du wirklich, es genügt?" - at that time. In 1972 he published his first solo album, entitled Da steh ich nun. Siebald gained an international following with his performances at Eurofest '75, the international youth conference and evangelistic crusade which was organized by the Billy Graham organisation in Brussels. Siebald has often been compared with the singer-songwriter Reinhard Mey for his style, and sometimes with Graham Kendrick for his influence on Christian music in his country.
Over time he has become the most well-known German Christian singer songwriter, and has influenced many others. This is demonstrated, among other things, by the release of the album In deinem Haus - A Tribute to Manfred Siebald in 2003, consisting of reinterpretations of some of Siebald’s best-loved songs by other well-known Christian musicians (such as Michael Janzde from the group Beatbetriebde). The album was arranged by Florian Sitzmannde and produced by Arne Kopfermannde.
Siebald also translates English songs and writes lyrics for other singers. For example, he wrote all the lyrics for Cae Gauntt'sde album Welt von 1000 Wegen. He is frequently asked to write a theme song for special meetings or conferences. This was the case when he wrote "Von deinen Worten können wir leben" (We Can Live Off Your Words) for The Year of the Bible in 1992. To date Siebald has penned about 350 songs, produced 19 albums and published seven poetry books.
Manfred Siebald performs about thirty concerts annually, accompanying himself on various acoustic guitars. For this he travels all over Germany and abroad. For his concerts abroad, including the U.S., South Africa and Sri Lanka, he has produced English versions of his songs.
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