Helene Fischer (German: [heˈleːnə ˈfɪʃɐ]; born 5 August 1984)[1] is a German schlager singer. Since her debut in 2005, she has won numerous awards, including 17 Echo awards, four "Die Krone der Volksmusik" awards and three Bambi awards. She has sold at least 15 million records.[2] In June 2014, her multi-platinum 2013 album Farbenspiel became the most downloaded album ever by a German artist and is currently the sixth bestselling album of all time in Germany.[3] Her signature song "Atemlos durch die Nacht" was the bestselling song in Germany in 2014. She has had the best-selling album of the year in Germany five times, in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.[4][5][6][7][8] She ranked No. 8 on Forbes' list of "The World's Highest-Paid Women In Music 2018", earning US$ 32 million.[9] Fischer has been referred to as the "Queen of Schlager".[10][11][12][13]
After graduating from high school, Fischer attended the Frankfurt Stage & Musical School for three years, where she studied singing and acting.[17] During this time, she performed on stage at the Staatstheater Darmstadt, as well as on the stage of the Volkstheater Frankfurt.
During her time at the Stage & Musical School, Fischer's mother secretly copied a demo CD with six of Fischer's songs and sent it to different recording studios to gauge the reaction of professionals.
Fischer's debut on stage took place on 14 May 2005, in a programme by the TV channel ARD. It was a duet with schlager singer Florian Silbereisen. The two later became a couple.[15]
She has won 17 Echo awards, the "Goldene Henne" award seven times, and the "Krone der Volksmusik" prize four times. All her albums and DVDs have achieved multiple gold and double platinum status. Her songs, with their stories of the everyday worries and woes of home-loving folks, are lyrically close to what could be called "country music" although musically quite different.
Her fanbase extends beyond Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland, and New Zealand.
She released her first English album, The English Ones, on 7 June 2010. The album was produced by Jean Frankfurter [de] (Erich Ließmann), a German producer, composer and arranger. On singing in English, Fischer commented: "I have always dreamed of singing my songs in another language. English is the language of country, the music that we call Schlager. Language is a tool, but it is important that what you sing comes from the heart – and that is what this album is about".
Fischer on Tour with Orchestra, Vienna 2011
In January 2013, she made her acting debut in an episode of the German TV series Das Traumschiff.
On 4 October 2013, she released her album Farbenspiel in Germany. She went on tour in 2014 and a big stadium tour in 2015.[18] She played in the Olympia Stadium in Berlin in front of 120,000 people. The album received platinum after five days in Germany, Denmark and Austria. Farbenspiel is the most successful release of a German female artist in the first week of release in the last 10 years. To date, over 2.4 million copies of the album have been sold.
On 13 November 2015, Fischer released a Christmas album entitled Weihnachten. It consists of two CDs, the first being Christmas songs sung in German and German dialects, and the second is songs sung in English.[19] The album reached number 1 of the year-end charts in both Germany and Austria and received altogether 14 platinums in both countries. It sold over 1.3 million copies.
In 2016, she sang the German version of "How Far I'll Go" (Ich bin bereit), the title song of Disney's Moana.
On 12 May 2017, she released her eighth studio album, which bears her own name of Helene Fischer. It was released by Polydor. The album debuted at number one on the Austrian, German, and Swiss Albums Chart and reached the top ten in the Netherlands and the Flemish region of Belgium. In Germany, Helene Fischer sold more than 300,000 copies in its first week of release, making it the highest-selling debut since Herbert Grönemeyer's 2002 album Mensch. It won nine platinums in Germany and Austria and has sold over 1 million copies in both countries to date. She performed all her new songs and several hits from previous albums in the Kesselhaus, Munich and released the album Helene Fischer – Das Konzert aus dem Kesselhaus showcasing this performance. In June 2018, she started her second stadium tour, performing in Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Austria. In several locations on this tour, she performed up to five times in a row. Her show was developed together with 45 Degrees of Cirque du Soleil.[20] In October 2018, The New York Times ranked Fischer seventh in terms of the world's biggest touring musician acts of the year. In the 2018 Forbes list of top-earning female artists worldwide, she ranked 8th.[21][22] This also makes her currently the most successful non-English singer.
From May 2008, Fischer was in a relationship with Florian Silbereisen. The two were considered the "dream couple of German pop music" and were often the subject of speculative headlines in tabloid media. In December 2018, they announced that they had been separated for a while and that they had remained friends.[26] Fischer announced that her boyfriend is the aerial acrobat Thomas Seitel, with whom she works in her stage shows.[27] In December 2021, they married and became parents of a daughter. In the same year, the couple moved into a house[28] in Inning am Ammersee, where the family has lived ever since.[29][30]
Social Engagement and Political Statements
Fischer has generally refrained from making political statements in the past. However, she expressed clear opposition to discrimination, racism, hatred, and violence in an interview with the magazine "Stern." She referred to these as poisonous to society and called for the defense of democratic values, urging people to stand against extremism by participating in elections and not allowing themselves to be intimidated by antidemocratic forces.[31]
Her remarks sparked controversy among her fans, particularly among suspected supporters of the far-right party AfD in Germany, who subsequently spread hateful messages under her Instagram posts and criticized her. On the other hand, she also received support for her outspoken stance against racism and antidemocratic propaganda. Some users praised her for publicly taking a stand and positioning herself against the far-right. The reactions to Helene Fischer's statements reflect a mix of support and opposition. While some fans are grateful for her clear stance, others criticize her for it. Nevertheless, she also received positive feedback, with some individuals declaring themselves as new fans because of her stance against hatred and intolerance. Helene Fischer is not the only celebrity who has spoken out in the "Stern" magazine. [31]
^ abc"Певица Хелен Фишер: "Я родилась в Сибири" /Singer Helene Fischer: "I was born in Siberia"". gazeta.aif.ru (in Russian). Argumenty i Fakty. 25 February 2009. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2017. Хелен Фишер родилась 5 августа 1984 года в Красноярске. В июне 1988 года с родителями эмигрировала в Германию. После окончания школы Stage & Musical School / Helene Fischer was born in Krasnoyarsk, 5 August 1984. In June 1988, with her parents she emigrated to Germany. After graduation from Stage & Musical School in Frankfurt...; Бабушки и дедушки Лены Фишер разделили судьбу сотен тысяч поволжских немцев, которых в 1941 году сослали в Казахстан и Сибирь. / Her grandparents shared the fate of hundreds of thousands of Volga Germans, who in 1941 were exiled to Kazakhstan and Siberia.
