David Alexandre Winter

David Alexandre Winter (born Lion Kleerekoper; 4 April 1943) is a Dutch-born international pop singer. Winter found fame in Luxembourg and France.

Winter was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands into a Jewish family. Both he and his parents, Israel Kleerekoper and Magdalena Kleerekoper, née Blocq, were deported to different Nazi concentration camps during the German occupation of the Netherlands. After the end of the war, the family was reunited.

From 1966 to 1968 Winter was the lead singer for The Hague-based band "Daddy's Act". One of his first recordings was a cover of the Beatles hit "Eight Days A Week". Under the name Johnny van Dooren, he was a DJ at Dutch pirate station Radio Veronica and later at Radio 227, an English pirate radio station in the North Sea. During 1967–68, he also recorded two singles in Dutch for the Philips label. In early 1968 while living in London he represented England at the Innsbruck Song Festival in Austria, where he obtained first prize and the coveted ‘'prix de press'’.

He left England where he resided at the time to go to Paris, and was discovered by Leo Missir from Riviera Records (an affiliate of the Barclay group). In January 1969, his debut single, "Oh Lady Mary", was released; and by April 1969 it had sold 750,000, and one million sales were achieved by August in France, where it was number one for 36 weeks and in the Top 10 for nine months. Total sales for the first single resulted in 2,6 million copies sold. It was also a hit in Italy (…