Sarah Connor

Singer and songwriter Sarah Connor has topped the charts in her native Germany many times over with her soulful pop. She went to number two with her debut single, "Let's Get Back to Bed…Boy!," from her first album, 2001's Green Eyed Soul. It also included the number one ballad "From Sarah with Love." Her one song to hit the U.S. Hot 100 was "Bounce" in 2004. She had her first chart-topping album in Germany with the next year's Naughty but Nice, returning to the number one spot with 2015's Muttersprache and 2019's Herz Kraft Werke, as she focused on her domestic fans. None of her LPs with European distribution to that point placed outside of Germany's Top Ten.

Influenced by her grandfather, a jazz and R&B pianist from New Orleans, Sarah Marianne Corina Lewe grew up in Hamburg listening to soul music. A church chorus became her introduction to singing gospel at a very young age. After participating in musicals as a middle schooler and later attending a performing arts school, she and her sister Anna-Maria were selected to sing in a choir that backed <a href="spotify:artist:3fMbdgg4jU18AjLCKBhRSm">Michael Jackson</a> during a 1997 tour stop in Bremen, Germany. Inspired by the concert (and meeting <a href="spotify:artist:3fMbdgg4jU18AjLCKBhRSm">Jackson</a> backstage), she recorded some demos and was eventually hired to sing lead on producer <a href="spotify:artist:2bnp0PzMRKZX5ZuPcgL0P9">Marc van Linden</a>'s 1999 remix of the theme to The Last Unicorn (1982). Then going by Sarah Grey and uncredited on the track, it was a minor hit, cracking the Top 100 of the singles chart in Germany. Changing her name to Sarah Connor, she signed with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony%22">Sony</a> imprint <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22X-Cell+Records%22">X-Cell Records</a> the following year.

In 2001, her catchy debut single, "Let's Get Back to Bed...Boys," climbed to number two in Germany. It was featured on her debut album, Green Eyed Soul, which went as high as number two the same year. The power ballad "From Sarah with Love" from the same album became her first number one a year later. She reached number ten on the album chart with the follow-up, 2002's Unbelievable, and entered the Top Ten again with the next year's Key to My Soul.

American pop fans got their chance to hear Connor's vibrant pop in March 2004, when she released a self-titled <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Sony%22">Sony</a> album in the States that collected prior material. It peaked at number 106 on the Billboard 200 and spawned her one U.S. hit, "Bounce." The <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22X-Cell%22">X-Cell</a> release Naughty but Nice followed in 2005 and took her to the top of the album chart in Germany. It featured the number one single "From Zero to Hero." A holiday album, Christmas in My Heart, followed later that same year, reaching number six.

Around that time, Connor increased her visibility by appearing in a highly rated German reality TV series, Sarah & Marc in Love, with her then-husband <a href="spotify:artist:14Y9eoPvi9kUXERS6dvuJe">Marc Terenzi</a>, lead singer of the American boy band <a href="spotify:artist:7qGCw7TxbpSUpg0Bp5GtUx">Natural</a> (who had enjoyed success in Germany). After a hiatus during which she gave birth to their second child, she released her sixth <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22X-Cell%22">X-Cell</a> album, 2007's Soulicious, a collection of covers of classic Motown songs. The following year's Sexy as Hell was cross-promoted with another reality TV series, Crazy in Love, and she again hit the Top Ten. After debuting as a judge on Germany's X Factor, Connor returned in 2010 with another Top Ten release, Real Love. She had her first child with Florian Fischer (her manager and one-time member of pop group <a href="spotify:artist:5sUhbZKXnH93T0beNSXamf">the Boyz</a>) in 2011.

After signing with <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Polydor%22">Polydor</a>, she debuted at number one with her next two albums, the German-language Muttersprache (2015) and Herz Kraft Werke (2019). In between those albums, Connor gave birth to her fourth child. After reaching number nine with "Vincent" from the latter full-length, she had another Top 40 single with standalone track "Bye Bye" in 2020. ~ Marcy Donelson & Drago Bonacich, Rovi