Vanessa Mai

Vanessa Mai, born Vanessa Marija Else Mandekić on May 2, 1992, is a German pop and Schlager singer. She initially gained public recognition as a member of the musical group Wolkenfrei before launching a successful solo recording career. Her professional surname was chosen as an homage to her birth month, which translates to "Mai" in German.

Mai grew up exposed to music through her father, a Croatian-born musician whom she occasionally accompanied on tambourine. As a child, she performed in a school production of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In her youth, she pursued a media designer apprenticeship and engaged in competitive dance. At age 15 in 2008, she competed at the hip-hop world championships in Las Vegas as part of the German champion dance group Getting craz'd.

Her professional music breakthrough began in mid-2012 when she was recruited by Marc Fischer to join the group Wolkenfrei after meeting at a concert. The band debuted their first single in July 2013, followed by their charting debut studio album Endlos verliebt in early 2014. Mai subsequently served as the face of the Mein Herz schlägt Schlager promotional campaign in 2015. Following the departure of her bandmates later that year, she continued the project independently, releasing the hit album Wachgeküsst, a dedicated live project, and featured television performances under the Wolkenfrei name.

In early 2016, Mai permanently set aside the Wolkenfrei brand to perform strictly under her own name. She released her debut solo album Für Dich in April 2016, produced by Dieter Bohlen, and embarked on a 26-date solo concert tour across Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland later that year. Her follow-up solo album, Regenbogen, arrived in August 2017. She later parted ways professionally with Bohlen and released her studio album Schlager in August 2018. Led by the successful single "WIR 2 IMMER 1" featuring Olexesh, the album reached the top of the German charts, making her the youngest Schlager act to secure consecutive number-one albums in Germany.

Beyond her recording endeavors, Mai has appeared extensively on television. She served as a judge on the 13th season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar in 2016 and finished in second place on the 10th season of Let's Dance in 2017. Her media appearances also include participating as a guest artist on the German edition of I Can See Your Voice in 2020.

In her personal life, Mai began dating Andreas Ferber in 2013 after meeting him at a club in Stuttgart, with Ferber also becoming her talent manager. The couple became engaged in early 2016 and married in June 2017 in both a civil ceremony and a church ceremony held in Mallorca.