Vanessa Mai

Vanessa Marija Else Ferber (née Mandekić, born 2 May 1992), known professionally as Vanessa Mai, is a German singer. She was first-known as a member of Schlager band Wolkenfrei and later began working as a solo artist following the band's split. She chose her stage name as a reference to her birth month, which is spelled Mai (pronounced [maɪ]) in German.

Early life

Mai completed a media designer apprenticeship. She had one of her first performances as a singer in the school-musical The wonderful Wizard of Oz. Before that, she had occasionally accompanied her father, a Croatian-born musician, with the tambourine. In 2008, aged 15, she took part in the hip-hop world championship in Las Vegas, placing last, as part of the dance-formation Getting craz'd, who were German champions.

Career

2012-2015: Wolkenfrei

In the summer of 2012, then-singer of Wolkenfrei, Heike Wanner, left the band for health-reasons. While attending a concert of her father's band Musik-Express at the Sonnenhof in Aspach, Mai was enlisted as a singer by Wolkenfrei member Marc Fischer. On 19 July 2013, their début single "Jeans, T-Shirts, und Freiheit" ("Jeans, T-Shirts, and Freedom") was released. It was followed by their début studio album Endlos verliebt ("Endlessly in Love") in February 2014, which charted in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In January 2015, it was announced that Mai was the new face of the campaign Mein Herz schlägt Schlager. She promoted it through an ad as well as with the song "Mein Herz schlägt Schlager", which was released on a sampler album belonging to the project.