Actor

1 series in the catalog

Nadja Benaissa (born 26 April 1982) is a German singer, songwriter and television personality. She first gained public recognition in 2000 as a contestant on the German adaption of the reality television show Popstars, through which she became a member of No Angels, one of the most commercially successful girl groups of European origin. During the group's initial hiatus, she pursued a solo career, releasing the solo album Schritt für Schritt (2007), which included the top 40 single "Ich hab dich," and represented Hesse in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2006 with the song, finishing in fourth place.

Following the reunion of No Angels in 2007, Benaissa remained with the group until 2010. That year, she departed after legal proceedings that resulted in a suspended sentence related to personal conduct, an episode that temporarily affected her public career. She subsequently published her autobiography Alles wird gut and withdrew from the entertainment industry for much of the remainder of the decade. Benaissa returned to music in 2019 as a member of the a cappella group Medlz, recording two studio albums with the ensemble, but left in 2021 to rejoin No Angels for their 20th anniversary celebrations.

Early life

Born in Frankfurt, Benaissa is the second child born to a Moroccan father, Muhamed Benaissa, and a mother of mixed Serbian and German ethnicity, Sabina. Raised alongside her brother Amin who is three years older, she spent much of her childhood in Langen, where her parents worked in the catering business, and she attended the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule.

At the age of nine, Benaissa began playing instruments, learning the piano and the flute. Her early musical interest grew after having auditioned and won a role in the school stage musical Tabaluga during her first year at the Dreieich-Schule-Langen. In her early teenage years, she began writing songs, and at the age of 13 Benaissa started performing in several cover bands within the Frankfurt area, eventually winning the second place at Jugend musiziert, a supraregional music contest for youths.

Benaissa was diagnosed with HIV when she was 17 during a routine screening after she became pregnant. On 25 October 1999, at the age of 17, Benaissa gave birth to her daughter Leila Jamila, an event which she describes as "the proudest moment of [her] life". Although Benaissa and her boyfriend ended their relationship, Benaissa began attending evening classes in pursuit of her Realschulabschluss school certificate.

2000–2003: Breakthrough with No Angels

In mid-2000, Benaissa, along with thousands of other women, applied for the debut installment of the German reality television program Popstars, a talent show looking to put together an all-female band. Sailing through the selection process, judges Simone Angel, Rainer Moslener and Mario M. Mendrzycki were generally impressed by her performances, which earned her a position in the top ten finalists despite her struggle with dancing choreography. During a special episode in November 2000, jury member Angel eventually disclosed that Benaissa had been selected to become part of the final five-member girl group No Angels. Initially hesitant about signing a recording contract which would force her to leave her baby daughter with her parents, the show's producers remained persuasive and Benaissa eventually agreed on joining the band.

With the final five members of the band in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of the group who left homes to move into a shared flat near Munich, Bavaria. However, it took another four months until the band released their debut single "Daylight in Your Eyes", which would subsequently appear on the band's debut album Elle'ments (2001). Both the single and the album became an unexpected but record-breaking success, when both instantly entered the top position on the Austrian, German and Swiss Media Control singles, albums and airplay charts, giving No Angels one of the most successful debuts in years. Suffering from the separation from her daughter, Benaissa burned out within months, a subject on which she later commented:

"I was completely unprepared, overwhelmed with the work and the fame. I enjoyed being with the girls, singing, recording, but it was more about keeping the media interested – there was always a camera in your face. And I had no time for my daughter."

Nevertheless, Benaissa decided to remain with the band, and in the following years No Angels released another two number-one studio albums, Now... Us! and Pure, a live album and a successful swing album branded When the Angels Swing, totalling twelve singles altogether – including four-number one singles. Eventually selling more than five million singles and albums worldwide, No Angels became the best-selling German girl band to date and the most successful girl group of continental Europe between the years of 2001 and 2003. On 5 September 2003, the four remaining members of the band (Jessica Wahls had left the band following the birth of her first child in February 2003) 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, with each member going their separate ways in early 2004.

2005–2006: Launching a solo career

While her former bandmates pursued solo careers in music and television, Benaissa, who had suffered from intense sleep deprivation, decided to focus on her recovered motherhood the following months. In fall 2004, however, she signed a solo contract with the urban music division of Universal Music and started work on her debut album. Encouraged to perform soul and R&B music with lyrics in German language after a 2001 participation in the Sisters Keepers project's single "Liebe & Verstand", Benaissa decided to focus on writing songs with German lyrics only. As a result, she released her first solo single, "Es ist Liebe", produced by Tino Oac, in September 2005. The Motown-inspired ballad received positive reception from music critics, but failed to reach the top 50 of the German Singles Chart.

In the fall of 2005 Benaissa went on tour as a supporting act for the German leg of Simply Red – In Concert. Afterwards she prepared the release of her second single "Ich hab dich", which was chosen to represent Hesse on the 2nd Bundesvision Song Contest. Benaissa eventually finished fourth with 104 points, while the single entered at number 36 on the German Singles Chart. Two weeks later Schritt für Schritt was released, yet barely reaching the top 70. In June 2006, Benaissa participated in another non-profit-making aid project when she provided vocals for the Fury in the Slaughterhouse cover, "Won't Forget These Days", released during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

2007–2017: Reformation of the band and legal problems

Although Benaissa was preparing her second studio album for a February 2007 release, involving production by German producers Audiotreats, DJ Desue, Loomis Green, MRF Entertainment, and Monroe among others, she decided to postpone the release in favour of a reunion of No Angels on their fourth studio album Destiny in early 2007. However, as all four band members had settled on the continuation of solo projects, Benaissa entered Berlin recording studios in January 2008 to record at least 15 new demo songs, including material she already penned in 2003. While she finished the album recordings with a second session in March 2008, it was left unused though Benaissa later leaked several songs to her MySpace account. Also in 2008, Benaissa appeared as a guest vocalist on rapper Fler's third studio album Fremd im eigenen Land.

On 11 April 2009, shortly before the release of the band's fifth studio album Welcome to the Dance, Benaissa was arrested on suspicion of having had unprotected intercourse on several occasions in 2004 and 2006 without beforehand…