Yvonne Catterfeld

Yvonne Catterfeld is a German singer, actress, and television personality. Born on 2 December 1979 in Erfurt, Thuringia, then part of East Germany, she grew up as the daughter of Jürgen Catterfeld, a foreman, and Annemarie Catterfeld, a teacher. A former athlete, she began playing the piano and flute at age 15 while simultaneously taking dance and vocal lessons. After graduating from the Albert-Schweitzer-Gymnasium in Erfurt, she relocated to Leipzig to study pop and jazz for two years at the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre. In 1998, she released her seven-song debut project, KIV, which found little recognition in the music industry.

In 2000, Catterfeld participated in the singing competition series Stimme 2000 under the pseudonym Vivianne, finishing in second place. This earned her a recording deal with Hansa Music. After releasing her debut single "Bum" in 2001, she joined the cast of the RTL Television soap opera Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten as Julia Blum, which propelled her to wider public fame. She achieved her musical breakthrough in 2003 when her single "Für dich", composed by Dieter Bohlen, reached number one in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Her debut album, Meine Welt, was released in May 2003, debuting atop the German Albums Chart and eventually earning platinum certification.

Catterfeld maintained her commercial momentum with her follow-up albums Farben meiner Welt (2004) and Unterwegs (2005), which spawned hit singles including "Du hast mein Herz gebrochen" and "Glaub an mich". After leaving her role on Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten in early 2005, she starred as Countess Sophie von Ahlen in the historical telenovela Sophie – Braut wider Willen. She released her fourth album, Aura, in 2006, followed by Blau im Blau on Columbia Records in 2010. She later experienced a major chart resurgence following her appearance on the reality series Sing meinen Song - Das Tauschkonzert, which prompted a successful 2015 re-release of her sixth album, Lieber so.

Alongside her music career, Catterfeld established herself as an actress in television and feature film productions. Her early screen work included a cameo appearance in Til Schweiger's Rabbit Without Ears (2007), as well as roles in the television movies The Secret of the Königssee, Schatten der Gerechtigkeit, and Volcano. In 2011, she appeared in the Channel 4 period miniseries The Promise and portrayed diver Lotte Hass in the biographical television film The Girl at the Ocean Floor. Her subsequent roles included the Franco-German romantic film Beauty and the Beast (2014) and the television movies Zwischen Himmel und hier and Mein ganzes halbes Leben.

Over a career spanning 15 years, Catterfeld has sold nearly one million records as a solo artist, becoming one of Germany's best-known female musical performers. Her achievements have been recognized with awards including a Bambi Award, a Goldene Stimmgabel, and an ECHO Award. Expanding her television presence, she served as a coach on the German reality competition series The Voice of Germany across several seasons in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2024.