Biography
[edit] Early life Born in 1979 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.[3] 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.[3]
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.
[edit] No Angels Main article: No Angels By a fortunate coincidence Petruo decided to audition for the 2000 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 November 2000, 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 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 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 September 5, 2003 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 November 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 31 January 2007 however Vanessa declined to join the other four.
[edit] Solo career In spring 2004, 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 April 2005.
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 November 2005.
In fall 2006 she starred alongside Til Schweiger, and Alexandra Maria Lara in the motion picture Wo ist Fred?!. Still in 2006 Petruo went also on tour with famous soul singer Solounge.
In August 2007 Peturo announced that she had left Universal Island due to varying viewpoints in music and marketing. However, she also announced on her MySpace that she will release a new album in 2008. Details about this release are not known yet.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums Mama Lilla Would (2005) #135 GER TBA (2008)
[edit] Singles Dramaqueen (2004) #11 GER Hot Blooded Woman (2005) #53 GER
Year Title Chart Positions Album GER Singles AT Singles CH Singles 2004 "Dramaqueen" #11 #35 #88 (Non-album release) 2005 "Hot Blooded Woman" #53 - - Mama Lilla Would 2008 TBA - - - TBA
[edit] Filmography
Stephen King's Pet Cematary (German voice of Ellie Creed) Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten (1998) (TV) Der Kleine Eisbär (Voice) (2001) Lilo & Stitch (Voice) (2002) SOKO 5113 (2003) (TV) Back to Gaya (Voice) (2004) Der Wixxer (Cameo) (2004) Wilde Engel (2005) (TV) Wo ist Fred? (2006)
Background information
Birth name Vanessa Anneliese Petruo
Also known as Vany
Born October 23, 1979 (1979-10-23)
Origin Berlin, Germany Genre(s) Pop, soul, funk
Occupation(s) Singer, songwriter, musician, composer, actress
Years active 2000-2003 (group)
2004-present (solo) Label(s) Cheyenne / Polydor
(2003-2004)
Universal Island
(2005-2007)
Website Official site
