[2] He has a brother, Harald Fendrich, who is six years younger than him and also a musician who played the bass guitar in his band and is now part of WIR4 (Ulli Bäer, Gary Lux, Harry Stampfer).

Fendrich appeared at the Theater an der Wien from 1980 (in Die Gräfin vom Naschmarkt and Chicago)[5] and played Judas in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar there in 1982.

[6] In 1980 he was also engaged by Hans Gratzer for a performance series of Hamlet at the Schauspielhaus, made one of his first television appearances as a singer on the ORF program Wir-extra for the benefit of children in the Third World, and received his first recording contract.

[7] The debut album Ich wollte nie einer von denen sein (I never wanted to be one of them) was released in May of the same year, but initially failed to achieve high sales figures.

[6] In August 1981 he landed the Austrian summer hit of the year with Strada del sole (in a similar style, about a "vacation relationship").

[8] In 1983 Fendrich presented his first compilation called A winzig klaner Tropfen Zeit (A tiny drop of time).

[11] After a short retreat from the public eye, the albums Wien bei Nacht (Vienna by night) and Kein schöner Land (No country more beautiful) were released in 1985 and 1986.

[2] Equally well known in Austria and Germany is his appearance with Reinhard Mey, with Ein Loch in der Kanne (A hole in the pot) in the television program Was wäre wenn (What if) in 1988.

[12] In 1991 the album Nix is fix (Nothing is final), produced by Tato Gomez at BMG Ariola, was released, which could repeat the success of earlier times.

[10] Fendrich took over as host of the ARD program Herzblatt (Sweetheart) in 1993 after Rudi Carrell, which he presented on German television until 1997.

In 1997, Fendrich initiated a benefit concert for the homeless, which was intended as a one-off event, at which he performed together with Wolfgang Ambros and Georg Danzer.

[16][17] Also in 1997, Fendrich had success as a film actor in the lead role of Fröhlich geschieden (Happily divorced) (ZDF) alongside Christina Plate and Helmut Fischer.

[18] Fendrich received the Austrian Golden Romy award for most popular presenter in TV entertainment three times.

The concert on Donauinselfest which Fendrich gave "instead and for Georg Danzer" who a few weeks before the event had to refuse because of his rapidly progressing disease, attracted 200.000 fans on 23 June 2007.

[28] When Fendrich was found to have bought cocaine in early April 2006 in the course of police surveillance of a dealer ring, he confessed and claimed to have been using it for 15 years.

Immediately afterwards, the artist went through voluntary withdrawal and has since participated in anti-drug campaigns, but was sentenced to an unconditional fine of 37,500 euros in May for possession of cocaine and the (later largely abandoned) "passing on of drugs".