Sarah Connor

Sarah Connor (born Sarah Marianne Corina Lewe; 13 June 1980) is a German pop singer.

Also that year, she provided the leading vocals for the German producer Marc van Linden's trance remix of the 1982 record "Last Unicorn", which reached number eighty-six on the German singles chart.

In 1989, the family relocated from Hamburg to Delmenhorst, where Connor attended the Max-Planck-Gymnasium (high school).

She also enrolled at the local performing arts school, where she received dancing, singing, and acting lessons, which she paid for through waitressing and modelling jobs.

After dropping out of school, she completed an internship with RTL Television.

In 1997, Connor and her sister Anna-Maria were picked to sing with the backing choir during the performances of "Earth Song" and "Heal the World" at Michael Jackson's HIStory World Tour in Bremen, Germany.

Overwhelmed by a personal meeting with Jackson at the end of the show, she began to record a number of demo tapes under the pseudonym Sarah Gray, including cover versions such as "Silent Night" and "This Christmas" as well as the local radio success "Ula la Ula".

In 1998, her boyfriend Martin Scholz, member of the boy band Touché, arranged for Connor to sign a management deal with the group's manager.

She subsequently served as their opening act for a Bremen concert in July 1998.

Unhappy with her management though, Connor transitioned to the manager Carlo Vista and began work on the single "This Christmas" with the producers Oliver Hintz and Thomas Nöhre.

It was released through Villa Records in 1999.

She rose to prominence after she signed with X-Cell Records in 2000 and released her debut album Green Eyed Soul (2001) the following year.

Connor has sold seven million albums worldwide and is recognized as one of the most successful German vocalists to emerge in the 2000s.

According to GfK Entertainment, she is the first recording act to ever have scored four consecutive chart-topping hits on the German Singles Chart.

In 2000, music manager George Glueck eventually signed her as Sarah Connor with the Sony subsidiary X-Cell Records.

Connor fluctuated between Berlin, Hamburg, and Hanover to work on her R&B and hip hop-driven debut album, involving German music producers Bülent Aris, Rob Tyger and Kay Denar as well as international collaborators such as Eddie Martin and rapper TQ.

Its release was preceded by the top five and top 20 hit singles "Let's Get Back to Bed – Boy!" and "French Kissing", respectively, as well as her breakthrough hit, the ballad "From Sarah with Love", which reached the top position in Germany, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland and raised Connor's fame all over Europe.

Eventually released in November 2001, Green Eyed Soul generally had mixed reception from music critics, who declared it a mixed bag but considered it a solid career launcher.

The album debuted at number two on the German albums chart, and charted within the top five in Austria, Finland and Switzerland, reaching gold status in Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland, while earning platinum certifications in Finland and Germany.

Connor was subsequently awarded a Goldene Europa and won the Echo Music Prize for Best National Rock/Pop Female Artist, among three nominations.

She followed it with a series of successful albums, including Unbelievable (2002), Key to My Soul (2003), Naughty but Nice (2005), Christmas in My Heart (2005), Soulicious (2007), Sexy as Hell (2008) and Real Love (2010).

Several songs from these albums became hit singles on the pop record charts, including the number-one hits "From Sarah with Love", "Music is the Key", "Just One Last Dance", "Living to Love You" and "From Zero to Hero".

The following year, Connor embarked on the Green Eyed Soul Tour in 2002 and began production on her second studio album Unbelievable.

A continuation of Green Eyed Soul, she reteamed with Aris, Denar and Tyger to work on the majority of the album, with American musicians Wyclef Jean, Jerry Duplessis, and Diane Warren also joining the project.

Jean wrote, produced and rapped on the album's lead single, "One Nite Stand (of Wolves and Sheep)", which once again entered the top 5.

Unbelievable simultaneously achieved gold status in Germany within 48 hours and spawned another three singles, including "Skin on Skin", "He's Unbelievable" and "Bounce".

In October 2003, Connor released a live DVD branded Sarah Connor Live – A Night to Remember: Pop Meets Classic, whose performance had been recorded at the Alten Kasselhaus in Düsseldorf on 24 January, including individual performances of own songs with a classical orchestra backing her up.

Her popularity was further enhanced by the ProSieben reality television series Sarah & Marc in Love (2005) and Sarah & Marc Crazy in Love (2008) alongside her then-husband Marc Terenzi, chronicling their marriage and careers.

Her maternal half-brothers Mick and Lex were born in 2008, Connor grew up listening to soul music, mostly-influenced by her paternal grandfather, a former jazz and R&B pianist from New Orleans.

A church choir provided her with her first experience in gospel music at the age of six.

In 2010, she returned to television to become a judge on the debut season of the German X Factor adaptation of which she remained part for two further seasons.

Separated from Terenzi, father of her first two children, Connor has been in a relationship with her manager Florian Fischer since 2010.

The couple have another two children of their own.

Connor is the eldest of six siblings born to Michael Lewe, a copywriter from New Orleans, and his wife Soraya Lewe-Tacke (née Gray), a former fashion model and homemaker of Scottish, Irish, and German descent, in Hamburg.

She has four sisters, including Anna-Maria Lagerblom, the wife of German rapper Bushido, as well as Marisa, Sophia-Luisa, and Valentina; and one brother, Robin.

In 2014, she joined the cast of the debut season of Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert, the German version of the series The Best Singers whose accompanying compilation album topped the Austrian and German Albums Chart.

In 2015, Connor's first German language project Muttersprache became her second chart-topper after a decade.

The following year, she served as a guest coach on the RTL II remake of the talent series Popstars 2015.

In 2017, Deutsche Welle ranked her third on its list of the top ten German solo acts who have enjoyed international success.

A 13-time nominee, Connor won two Echo Music Prize and has been the recipient of four Comets, a Top of the Pops Award, a Goldene Kamera, a Goldene Europa, and a World Music Award.