Vanessa Petruo (born Oct. 23, 1979 (30 years ago) in Berlin), also known as Vany, is a German singer, songwriter, musician and film, television and voice actress. She debuted in 2000 (9 years ago) as a member of the all-female pop band No Angels who enjoyed a great deal of success throughout Central Europe in the early 2000s, following their record-breaking debut single "Daylight in Your Eyes" and the album Elle'ments (2001, 8 years ago). During Petruo's time with the group they sold more than five million singles and albums. The group officially disbanded in 2003 (6 years ago) , due to "exhaustion" and in favour of individual solo careers.
After the release of the moderately successful solo song "Drama Queen", Petruo took much more control over her image (wallpaper) and music. Following a short hiatus from public performance she introduced elements of blues, funk and jazz into her solo album debut Mama Lilla Would, a critically-acclaimed but commercial failure. Her musical ambitions have since mainly focused on her training as a jazz singer and several new compositions, widely published through her own MySpace.
While maintaining a recording career Petruo has also gained fame for both her work as a voice actress and starring in several movie and television productions, including RTL series Wilde Engel (2005, 4 years ago) and a supporting role in the 2006 (3 years ago) movie Wo Ist Fred?.
Early years
Born in 1979 (30 years ago) as Vanessa Anneliese Petruo in Berlin, she is the eldest of her three siblings. Petruo has a brother named Jon-Alexander and a sister named Priszilla. Her Spanish-Peruvian mother, Mercedes, was the owner of a salsa-nightclub in the Wielandstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and her father, Thomas, works as a professional voice actor. Her grandfather, Heinz Petruo, also was a famous radio show host for RIAS and a voice actor, too, probably best known as the German dub of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga.
Due to her father's work Petruo started dubbing movies at the age of seven. At age twelve, Vanessa started taking vocal lessons. In her teenage years she made several appearances on German television, while gaining experience in music with own bands and first professional song recordings. After her high school graduation Vanessa applied herself to her communication studies but quickly chose to leave university and for internships at both MTV Germany and news channel N24.
Career
STiLL
Petruo begun her music career in 1998 (11 years ago) as a member of a project called "STiLL", together with the songwriter Bernd Klanke. The same year they have recorded 5 demo songs, but they couldn’t get any record deal. The STiLL EP was released in 2000 (9 years ago) as a digital download at the official site of the duo.
No Angels
By a fortunate coincidence Petruo decided to audition for the 2000 (9 years ago) debut of the German reality television program Popstars. She entered the competition with thousands of other women, and the judges Simone Angel, Rainer Moslener and Mario M. Mendryzcki were impressed with her performance of Bill Withers' hit single "Ain't No Sunshine". She earned a position in the top thirty finalists and travelled to Mallorca, Spain to join her competitors for a workshop there. In the end Petruo made it to the final ten on the show, and during a special episode in Nov. 2000 (9 years ago), jury member Moslener disclosed that Petruo was chosen to become part of the final girl group, later called No Angels.
With the final five members of the band in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of No Angels. After four months the band released "Daylight (In Your Eyes)", a partial cover of Victoria Faiella's unreleased 2000 (9 years ago) single, which would subsequently appear on the band's debut album Elle'ments. Both the single and the album became an unexpected but major success, setting chart records when both peaked at #1 on the German, Austrian, and Swiss singles, airplay and albums charts - all at the same time.
In the following years the band released four more albums, including the #1 charting studio albums Now... Us! and Pure, a live album and a very successful Swing album title When The Angels Swing.
Altogether the albums spawned twelve singles - including four number 1 singles and ten Top 10 hits - making the No Angels the most successful European girl group of their era with more than 5 million singles and albums sold.
On Sep. 5, 2003 (6 years ago) the group announced that they would no longer be performing together after three years of continual touring and increasing cases of illness. The release of The Best of No Angels in Nov. of the same year marked the end of the band, whose members each went their separate ways. While some decided to go for motherhood or musical and television careers, Vanessa Petruo planned to take a longer vacation.
No Angels announced a reunion on Jan. 31, 2007 (2 years ago) however Vanessa declined to join the other four.
Solo career
In spring 2004 (5 years ago), however, Petruo was the first ex-member of the No Angels to launch music as a solo artist. From now on performing under her nickname Vany, she released her first self-written solo single, "Drama Queen", which became a moderate success on the airplay charts and eventually peaked at number 11 on the German singles chart. A video for a second single called "Pop That Melody", produced by Mousse T, was filmed but the release of the track was soon cancelled. Instead, Petruo worked as a simple employee for her record company Polydor for a couple of months.
Thereupon Petruo also spent time on synchronizing movies (including Lilo & Stitch and Back to Gaya) and acting, most noticeably as a member of the main cast of Wilde Engel, a TV action series affected by Charlie's Angels whose four episodes were broadcasted in Apr. 2005 (4 years ago).
After a sudden label change to Universal Island Vanessa released her second single "Hot Blooded Woman", followed-up by her critically acclaimed but minor successful first solo album Mama Lilla Would in Nov. 2005 (4 years ago).
In fall 2006 (3 years ago) she starred alongside Til Schweiger, and Alexandra Maria Lara in the motion picture (wallpaper) Wo ist Fred?!. Still in 2006 (3 years ago) Petruo went also on tour with famous soul singer Solounge.
In Aug. 2007 (2 years ago) Peturo announced that she had left Universal Island due to varying viewpoints in music and marketing.
At the 2009 (this year) Echo Awards, Vanessa stated that her new album was scheduled for a Aug. 2009 (this year) release.
Filmography
Stephen King's Pet Sematary (German voice of Ellie Creed)
Der Kleine Eisbär (Voice) (2001, 8 years ago)
Lilo & Stitch (Voice) (2002, 7 years ago)
Back to Gaya (Voice) (2004, 5 years ago)
Der Wixxer (Cameo) (2004, 5 years ago)
Wo ist Fred? (2006, 3 years ago)
TV-shows (series)
Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (1998, 11 years ago) (TV)
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