Vanessa Struhler (born November 4, 1985 in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia), better known as Vanessa S., is a German singer and songwriter who came to fame as a finalist of the first season of the television show Deutschland sucht den SuperStar (DSDS), the German version of Pop Idol.|Vanessa S. was born in Germany to Filipina mother, and a German father, she has a younger brother.
In 2002 Vanessa participated in the 1st season of DSDS, though she received a wildcard and became the last candidate to join the ten finalists, Vanessa S. was able to boost her popularity constantly with performances of Christina Milian’s “When You Look At Me”, Oleta Adams’ “Get Here” or Vanessa Williams’ “Save The Best For Last”. However, in the end she was voted out on February 8, 2003, and thus got 4th 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, Vanessa S. 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 (now performing under her pseudonym Vanessa S.) she released her RnB-influenced 1st album ‘Ride With Me’. The album managed to peak at #30 on the albums chart but failed to earn critical and commercial success, selling just 30,000 copies around release date. Nevertheless her record company decided to release three further singles, including the double A-Single “Ey Ey Ey/Back To Life”, which became another Top 20 hit.|Her 2nd 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”, “Don’t Say (You’re Sorry)” and “Bonafide”.|Later the singer was focusing on Eastern European and Asian markets, where she did Promotion in China and gave a concert in Poland. |
