Vanessa Struhler - Biography

Biography

Struhler was born in Oberhausen, Germany to a Filipina mother, Lorna Abracosa, and a German father, Klaus Struhler. She has a younger brother, Christian.

In 2002 Vanessa participated in the first season of Deutschland sucht den SuperStar. She was only 17 at the time and the youngest contestant. Though she received a wildcard and became the last candidate to join the ten finalists, Struhler was able to boost her popularity constantly with performances of Christina Milian's "When You Look At Me", Oleta Adams' "Get Here" or Vanessa L. Williams' "Save The Best For Last". However, in the end she was voted out on February 8, 2003, and thus got fourth place in the competition. As of 2007, she holds the record for the most times in the bottom three on the series.

After the show, Struhler teamed up with Hip-Hop producer DJ Tomekk to create her debut album. The pre-release duet "Ride or Die (I Need You)", a collaboration with German rapper Trooper Da Don, became a major hit, eventually peaking at #4 on the German singles chart. In summer 2003 Struhler (now performing under her pseudonym Vanessa S.) released her R&B influenced first album Ride With Me. The album managed to peak at #30 on the albums chart but failed to earn critical and commercial success, selling 30,000 copies only. Nevertheless Struhler's records company decided to release three further singles, including the double A-Single "Ey Ey Ey/Back To Life", which became another Top 20 hit.

Vanessa Stuhler's second album Independence was released in 2004. The partly self-written album failed to chart on the German 100, but spawned three singles with "Blah, Blah, Blah" featuring David Jassy, "Don't Say (You're Sorry)" and "Bonafide".

Vanessa was focusing on Eastern European and Asian markets, and she achieved a Promo Tour in China and gave a concert in Poland.

As of January 2009, Vanessa is currently recording a new album.