Christina Stürmer
Encyclopedia
Christina Stürmer is an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n pop/rock singer. After working at a bookshop in Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

 and singing in several bands, she reached #2 in Starmania
Starmania (TV series)
Starmania is an Austrian casting show, a talent show for would-be pop stars. It is broadcast on the Austrian TV channel "ORF 1".Despite striking similarities, Starmania is not a licensed version of the Idols format distributed by FremantleMedia. Attempts to export the format to Germany failed due...

, an Austrian music casting TV show. Her first song was "Ich lebe
Ich lebe
"Ich lebe" is the first single by the Austrian pop-rock star Christina Stürmer. It reached number one for eight weeks in Austria in 2003.When it came time to record her third album, Stürmer decided to venture into the German and Swiss markets and re-recorded her previous Austrian hits for her 2005...

" (I'm Alive) released in 2003, which was very successful in Austria and was followed by several #1 hits.

In 2004 the song "Vorbei" (Over) reached the German Top 100, and in April 2005, a new version of "Ich lebe" was produced especially for the German and Switzerland market. That song reached very high positions in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, making Christina Stürmer well known in the German-speaking countries. 2006 was her most successful year. She sold more than 1.5 million copies of her CDs in Austria, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

.

Early years

Christina came from a very musical family. At the age of thirteen she played the saxophone in a jazz band. In addition to the saxophone, she also played the transverse flute. In 1998 she sang in a cover band which she had founded, named "Scotty", which played mostly English language songs. Stürmer sang on Scotty's self released EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 Waste Of Time, released in 2000. She was also a member of an a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 group named Sulumelina. After dropping out of high school, Christina began an apprenticeship with the bookstore, Amadeus. A few months after that she applied to Starmania.

Starmania

In 2003, Stürmer won second place in Starmania
Starmania (TV series)
Starmania is an Austrian casting show, a talent show for would-be pop stars. It is broadcast on the Austrian TV channel "ORF 1".Despite striking similarities, Starmania is not a licensed version of the Idols format distributed by FremantleMedia. Attempts to export the format to Germany failed due...

 behind Michael Tschuggnall. Shortly after that she released her first original song, "Ich Lebe" (I Live) which in 2003 occupied the number one spot on the Austrian music charts for nine weeks.

Beginning her career in Austria

After "Ich Lebe" followed two more highly successful singles: "Geh nicht wenn du kommst" (Don't Go When You Come) and the anti-war song Mama (Ana Ahabak) (Arabic for Mama, I Love You) which originated during the war in Iraq. The song represents a little Iraqi girl's perspective of the war, and it also spent nine weeks at the number one spot on the Austrian charts. Her first album, Freier Fall (Free Fall), was released exclusively in Austria in May 2003, and it also rose quickly to the top of the charts, where it occupied the number one spot for weeks. In fall of 2003 she did an Austrian tour behind the strength of her first album.

In May 2004 her second album, Soll das wirklich alles sein (Is that really everything?) appeared, again only in Austria. The album was even more successful than Freier Fall
Freier Fall
Freier Fall is Christina Stürmer's debut album after she took part in Starmania.It was the most successful album of an Austria artist since Falco and it was on top of the Austria Top 40 and the Italian hit charts for weeks....

, (Free Fall) but the album's singles had only average sales figures. The Wirklich alles!
Wirklich alles!
Wirklich alles! is a live album from Christina Stürmer, released in 2005. It was recorded during a tour in Austria called Wirklich alles! during the fall of 2004, in promotion of her album Soll das wirklich alles sein....

(Really Everything!) tour in Austria followed in the fall. The highlight of this tour was the concert at Vienna city hall in November, which sold out all 11,000 tickets in a very short time. The concert was filmed, and along with some interviews and a short biography, was released in DVD form as Wirklich alles! During the club tour that began directly after the Vienna concert, she presented for the first time her own original compositions, which she had written with her band.

Breakthrough in Germany

At this time, Christina and her managers, Andreas Streit and Bernd Rengleshausen, were working towards breaking through in Germany. The single Vorbei was released in Germany in November 2004, but it fell short of expectations. In April 2005 a re-worked version of "Ich Lebe" was released in Germany. This single met with great success; it rose to ninth place on the German charts, and shortly thereafter reached number four.

The album which followed, named Schwarz Weiss
Schwarz Weiss
Schwarz Weiss is a 2005 album by Austrian pop/rock singer Christina Stürmer. It was her debut album in Germany and Switzerland and her third studio album in total.The songs "Ich Lebe", "Vorbei" and "Engel fliegen einsam" were released as singles...

(Black White) was released in June 2005, in Germany and Switzerland, reached number three on the German album charts, and stayed in the top twenty for more than a year. The majority of the songs on this album, which were mostly already known in Austria, were reproduced and oriented towards the emerging trends in German rock and pop music. The singles were "Engel fliegen Einsam" (Angels Fly Lonely) "Mama (Ana Ahabak)", and "Immer an euch geglaubt" (Always Believed In You). The singles were also re-recorded to be more rock oriented. In late 2005 Christina and her band toured through Germany and Switzerland. The Schwarz-Weiss tour, with just under 40 concerts, lasted two months, in which some concerts had to be relocated to larger halls because of the great demand for tickets. Christina Stürmer and her band had established themselves as a major group.

Continued success

In 2006, Christina and her band released their fourth album, Lebe lauter
Lebe lauter
Lebe lauter is an album by Christina Stürmer, released in September 2006. Her earlier albums were all released in either Germany and Switzerland or Austria and Italy, but this is the first one released in all of those countries....

(Live Louder). The album reached number one in both Germany and Austria. And the singles, Nie genug
Nie genug
"Nie genug" is the lead single from Christina Stürmer's fourth album, Lebe Lauter. Translated, it means "Never Enough."- Music video :The music video starts off with Stürmer singing live with her band on the beach of a lake. Shots of her walking down a road, with a truck following behind her are...

(Never Enough), and Um bei dir zu sein/An Sommertagen
An Sommertagen
"An Sommertagen" was released with "Um bei dir zu sein" from Christina Stürmer's fourth album, Lebe Lauter. Together, they were the second single from the album...

(To Be By Your Side/On Summer Days) both reached number one as well on the Austrian charts. The first single, Nie genug
Nie genug
"Nie genug" is the lead single from Christina Stürmer's fourth album, Lebe Lauter. Translated, it means "Never Enough."- Music video :The music video starts off with Stürmer singing live with her band on the beach of a lake. Shots of her walking down a road, with a truck following behind her are...

reached a respectable number fifteen in Germany. The following singles after Um bei dir zu sein/An Sommertagen
An Sommertagen
"An Sommertagen" was released with "Um bei dir zu sein" from Christina Stürmer's fourth album, Lebe Lauter. Together, they were the second single from the album...

, Ohne Dich
Ohne Dich (Christina Stürmer song)
"Ohne Dich" is the third single from Christina Stürmer's fourth album, Lebe Lauter, released in 2006. Translated, it means "Without You."- Music video :...

(Without You) and Scherbenmeer
Scherbenmeer
"Scherbenmeer" is the fourth single off Christina Stürmer's fourth album, Lebe Lauter. The song was released in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and throughout the European Union.- Music video :...

both reached the top ten in Austria. When Austria co-hosted Euro 2008 with Switzerland, Christina's song Fieber
Fieber (Christina Stürmer song)
"Fieber" is the title of the "Austrian Song for the UEFA EURO 2008" by Christina Stürmer. The song was released on May 23, 2008. The song is on Stürmer's album laut-Los...

 was the Austrian song for Euro 2008, followed by her last album In dieser Stadt in 2009, which brought us two more singles, "Ist mir egal" and "Mehr als perfekt".

Her new single "Wir Leben den Moment" is set to be released 3 September 2010, from her upcoming album.

Awards

  • Amadeus Austrian Music Award 2004 for "Best Pop/Rock national" and "Newcomer of the Year national"
  • Amadeus Austrian Music Award 2005 for "Best Pop/Rock national" and "Best Single national"
  • ECHO 2006 for "Best National Female Artist (Rock/Pop)"
  • Amadeus Austrian Music Award 2006 for "Best Pop/Rock national" and "Best Single national"
  • Goldene Stimmgabel
    Goldene Stimmgabel
    The Goldene Stimmgabel is an annual prize awarded within the German music scene.The prizes are awarded according to the number of records sold from October of the previous year to June of the year of the award, as determined by Media Control...

     2006 for "Best German Rock/Pop"

External links

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