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No Angels

The No Angels are an ECHO Award-winning all-female pop group from Germany. Originally a quintet, the group originated in 2000 on the international television talent show Popstars and was one of the first television-casted acts to enjoy a great deal of success throughout Central Europe in the early 2000s. Following a major success with record-breaking single "Daylight in Your Eyes" and debut album Elle'ments in 2001, a series of hit records established their position as one of the most successful female band vocalists to emerge in the early-to mid decade. They have since been ranked as the "biggest-selling German girlband to date" by the media, with four number-one hits, three number-one albums and record sales in excess of more than 5.0 million.

In fall 2003, the members went their separate ways due to lasting exhaustion, focusing on their individual solo careers in music, theatre, television and film. However, on January 31 2007, it was confirmed that four members of the original line-up (including Nadja Benaissa, Lucy Diakovska, Sandy Mölling and Jessica Wahls) had re-formed permanently and were recording their first studio album in over four years. In April 2007, the band's fourth studio album, Destiny was finally released. On May 24, 2008, the group represented Germany with their single "Disappear" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, where they finished 23rd in the final voting.

History

2000: Formation on Popstars

Over the course of three months in fall 2000 more than 4,500 hopeful female singers attended open television auditions in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Cologne, Oberhausen, Stuttgart and Munich to audition for the first installment of RTL 2’s Popstars talent show. Judged by Dutch entertainer Simone Angel, booker Mario M. Mendryzcki and Rainer Moslener, a director of A&R, thirty-two out of two hundred girls eventually made it from the local recall shows to Majorca, Spain to get trained in singing, dancing, and fitness. While the judges continued eliminating two or three girls each day with the help of choreographer Detlef "D!" Soost, eleven finalists remained and were sent home to prepare.

In November 2000 Angel and Moslener visited each of them to reveal whether or not they had been selected for the band. In the end five girls made it into the band: Nadja Benaissa, Lucy Diakovska, Sandy Mölling, Vanessa Petruo and Jessica Wahls. With the final members of the group in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of the new band - from then on known as the No Angels.

2001: Commercial breakthrough with Elle'ments

After months of recording the No Angels released their debut single "Daylight in Your Eyes," a re-recorded version of Victoria Faiella's unreleased 2000 single, on February 5, 2001 in Europe. The song instantly entered the top position on the Austrian, German and Swiss Media Control singles and airplay charts, making it one of the most successful debuts of the year. The song also proved to be a hit outside the German speaking countries when it peaked at number one in Brazil, and Estonia, and moreover, entered the charts in France, Latvia, Poland and the UK. Although a "less sexy" second version of the video was filmed for the North American market, both the video and the song saw minor commercial success in the United States where "Daylight," however, peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart.

On March 12, 2001, the band released their debut album, Elle'ments. German producers Thorsten Brötzmann, Leslie Mandoki, and Peter Ries consulted on the album, which — due to the sheer volume of interest in the group — sold more than 1.1 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling German album of 2000. Elle'ments was eventually certified triple platinum and septuplicate gold by the IFPI Germany and earned the band several internationally acclaimed prizes such as a Bambi, two ECHO Awards and a World Music Award.

Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group followed their debut by quickly releasing "Rivers of Joy," a top 10-hit, and "There Must Be an Angel," a cover version of the 1985 hit by British pop duo Eurythmics that continued the group's remarkable sales by topping the charts once again in Austria, Brazil, and Germany. The last release from Elle'ments was a double A-side of album cut "When the Angels Sing" and "Atlantis," a duet with the song's original performer Donovan which was re-recorded to become the theme song of Walt Disney's animated feature Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Following this and two short engagements as the main opening act for the German leg of both DJ Bobo and Westlife's concert tours, the band announced their Rivers of Joy Tour with thirty dates which began on October 19, 2001 and ended on December 10 2001. Nearly all of the shows of tour, among opened by the A*Teens, were reportedly sold out.

2002: Career development on Now... Us!

After a short break from public the No Angels reunited in early 2002 to begin working on their second studio album. Prepared to contribute own ideas and skills to guarantee a more personal album after fast-recorded Elle'ments, each member of the group focused on writing lyrics and melodies on her own — a scheme that produced the album's media-critical lead single "Something about Us", the band's third non-consecutive number-one hit in Austria and Germany within a period of sixteen months. Producers and songwriters Mousse T, Pontus Söderqvist, and Peter Ries consulted on Now... Us! which was released to generally mixed reception on June 24, 2002. Although most professional reviewers praised the band for the include of self-written material and a "less conventional" and more mature pop sound with "major influences of contemporary R&B and soul, others declared the album as "teen-pop" on "average level," calling it "dissembling [...] cheesy and cliched." However, the No Angels' second album became a major success: It debuted on top of the German albums chart, and at number 2 and 4 on the Austrian and Swiss albums chart respectively, and was eventually certified platinum and double gold by the IFPI. Further singles released from the album included summer-lite "Still in Love with You" and Mousse T-produced funk track "Let's Go to Bed," the band's first release not to enter German top-10.

In the course of a special concert at the Berlin Tränenpalast in October 2002, the No Angels soon followed with a DVD and CD entitled When the Angels Swing featuring their biggest hits and selected songs from their first two albums, done in the style of classic swing music. They also re-released Now ... Us! in a 'Special Winter Edition, including the band's next single "All Cried out", a cover by singer Alison Moyet. The song was released in two versions, one pop and one classical, and spawned two music videos to promote both the re-release and When the Angels Swing.

Soon after the girls experienced a bit of turbulence when Jessica Wahls announced she was taking a break from the band to give birth to her first child. Although the girls agreed on Jessica's return the following year and Wahls was positive of a re-join after her daughter's birth in March 2003, the No Angels' management eventually decided on her departure since the group had successfully went on as a quartet. While the singer accepted a record deal as solo artist, the band later noted Jessica's pregnancy "as the beginning of the end of the No Angels."

2003: Pure era and disbandment

Returning from another hiatus, the four remaining girls released their third album, Pure, in August 2003. Sporting a more mature side of pop music, the album received a positive response, drawing comparisons to Madonna's 1998 studio album Ray of Light as well as other female groups such as All Saints and the Sugababes. However, it failed to achieve the success of its two best-selling predecessors with a total of more than 150,000 copies sold. The lead single from the album, "No Angel (It's All in Your Mind)", became the group's fourth non-consecutive number-one single in Germany and seventh top ten hit in Austria. With Spanish-lite "Someday", and R&B driven "Feelgood Lies" the album spawned another two top 5 singles.

Further planned single releases off the album never materialised. On September 5, 2003 — after three years of touring and promotion, — the quartet announced that they would not come together for a new No Angels project in 2004 and instead were preparing their official disbandment towards the end of the year. While the media began a never-ending speculation about the pro and contra of a "creative pause," the girls and their management arranged the cancellation of all dates of their scheduled 2004 Pure Acoustic Tour. Even so, the band agreed on releasing a final album, The Best of No Angels, in December of the same year. Apart from a collection of all of the radio-ready singles the girls had released between the years of 2001-2003, the album also contained a reworked version of one of the debut album tracks, "Reason;" it was released as the band's last single before their split in November 2003 and became another top 10 success for the group.

After a farewell concert in the Munich Olympiahalle on November 28, several TV appearances, and a more private unplugged performance in the Munich P1 club on December 12, 2003 the No Angels each went their separate ways, concentrating on their individual solo careers in music, theatre, television and film...

2006-2007: Reunion on Destiny

After listening to a few old recordings, Lucy Diakovska approached her former bandmates in mid-2006 to arrange a first meeting with all original band members for years. While Vanessa Petruo refused to re-join the band in favour of her solo career in music and film, all other members of the original line-up agreed upon Diakovska's request to reunite for a musical comeback, and the band eventually took action to prepare their comeback album in secrecy from public. However, on January 1, 2007 rumors emerged, that the band was reuniting, and while both the group and their management declined to confirm rumors during the following weeks, an official press conference on January 31, 2007 announced that the No Angels had reformed and were working on a new studio album with producers Boogieman, Tobias Gustafsson, Steve Mac, Max Martin, Adrian Newman, and the Redfly team.

Although acclaimed and distinguished by the media, the reunion widely failed to link previous successes. The band's first commercial release in years, Destiny, received a lukewarm reception from music critics, and debuted at number 4 in Germany, number 14 in Austria and number 22 in Switzerland, making it the band's first regular studio album release not to reach the top position on the German Media Control Charts and the top 10 in Austria and Switzerland respectively. It eventually sold 30,000 copies domestically during its run on the charts, also making it the No Angels' lowest selling album to date. While the album's lead single "Goodbye to Yesterday" still made it to the top 5, follow-up "Maybe" and double A-single "Amaze Me"/"Teardrops" became the No Angels' lowest-charting singles to date, never making it to the top 20 of any chart. In March 2008, the album was re-released under the title Destiny Reloaded, including previsouly unreleased songs, remixes and b-sides.

In fall 2007, the No Angels produced the theme song and a music video for the Warner Bros. animated feature Kleiner Dodo.

2008-present: ESC participation and other activities

In January 2008, it was announced that the group had qualified for the Grand Prix Vorentscheid, the German national pre-selection of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, organized and broadcasted by the ARD. Following several weeks of promotional appearances, the No Angels entered the competition on March 6, 2008 with Remee-produced single "Disappear," competing against all-male groups Marquess and Cinema Bizarre, and singers Tommy Reeve and Carolin Fortenbacher. Widely considered as early favourites by the media the band eventually finished first, having earned tight 50,5% of the audience vote over Fortenbacher in the second and final election round. Released on February 29, 2008, "Disappear" reached number 4 on the German Singles Chart, and number 21 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles, eventually becoming the band's biggest-selling single in years.

With Germany being one the biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union, the No Angels were allowed to skip the contest's semi-finals and automatically qualified for competition with 24 other countries in the finals of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Thus, on Saturday, May 24, 2008, the band started at number four during the show, following Albania's entry Olta Boka with her ballad "Zemrën E Lamë Peng" and preceding Armenia's Sirusho with "Qele Qele." Having previously decided to rework parts of their show for the final, the performance saw changes in stage clothes, choreography and the LED projections. An estimated 100 million fans watched the final contest, and viewers from all 43 participating nations voted for their favourite performers via text message and telephone. The No Angels eventually ranked 23rd place out of the 25 countries that participated with a total of 14 points – taking 12 points from Bulgaria, band member Lucy Diakovska's native country, and 2 points from Switzerland only. Only the United Kingdom and Poland placed below the four-member female band.

Having managed themselves since their reformation, the band recently signed a deal with their new managers Khalid Schröder's Kool Management. As reported, the group is currently writing and compiling songs for their fifth studio album, which will involve production by Rick Nowels as well as Evan "Kidd" Bogart and his Writing Camp and is currently expected for a spring 2009 release. In addition, a new concert tour is in the planning stages.