Helene Fischer

Helene Fischer (German: [heˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɐ]; born 5 August 1984) is a German schlager singer. Since her debut in 2005, she has won numerous awards, including 17 Echo awards, four "Die Krone der Volksmusik" awards, and three Bambi awards. She has sold at least 18 million records. In June 2014, her multi-platinum 2013 album Farbenspiel became the most downloaded album ever by a German artist and is currently the sixth-best-selling album of all time in Germany. Her signature song "Atemlos durch die Nacht" was the best-selling song in Germany in 2014. She has had the best-selling album of the year in Germany five times: in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018. She ranked No. 8 on Forbes' list of "The World's Highest-Paid Women in Music 2018," earning US$ 32 million. Fischer has been referred to as the "Queen of Schlager".

Early life and career

Helene Fischer was born in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, former Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, to Pyotr and Marina Fischer. Her father worked as a physical education teacher, and her mother was an engineer. Her paternal grandparents were Black Sea Germans who were among those sent to forced settlements in Kazakhstan and Siberia. In 1988, at the age of three-and-a-half, she emigrated with her parents and her six-year-old sister to Wöllstein, West Germany.

After graduating from high school, Fischer attended the Frankfurt Stage & Musical School for three years, where she studied singing and acting. During this time, she performed on stage at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, as well as at the Volkstheater Frankfurt.

Fischer's debut on stage occurred on 14 May 2005, in a program by the TV channel ARD. It was a duet with schlager singer Florian Silbereisen. The two later became a couple.