BLÜMCHEN
Jasmin Wagner (born 20 April 1980), better known as Blümchen , is a German pop and dance music singer and actress. Although she releases her English albums under the name Blossom, her German stage name Blümchen actually translates to “floret” or “small flower”.
Born in Hamburg, West Germany, to a German father and a Croatian mother, she began performing as a cheerleader for the Hamburg Blue Angels, a squad associated with the Hamburg Blue Devils American football team. In 1995, when she was 15, she started her musical career under the name Blümchen. She became the most successful German female singer of the 1990s. She also released singles and albums in other German-speaking countries, Scandinavia and Asia.
The first release was the debut studio album Herzfrequenz in 1996, preceded by the chart hit “Herz an Herz”, a Paso Doble cover version. This was followed by the singles “Kleiner Satellit (Piep, Piep)”, “Boomerang”, “Du und ich”, all becoming chart successes.
In 1996, Wagner released her first English language single, the only single released as Blümchen and Blossom, the Queen cover version “Bicycle Race”. The release of the latter paved the way for Wagner’s career for the international releases under the moniker Blossom, with the release of the studio album Heartbeat, Herzfrequenz’s counterpart, along with the English versions of “Herz an Herz” and “Du und ich”, the singles “Heart to Heart” and “You and me”. “Bicycle Race” has also been included on a Queen tribute cover compilation album titled Queen Dance Traxx I, which also featured an ensemble cast song, labeled as Acts United, “We are the Champions”.
In 1997, Wagner released her second studio album Verliebt… alongside its english language counterpart In Love… as Blossom. Singles from Verliebt… have been the Nena cover “Nur geträumt”, “Verrückte Jungs” and “Gib mir noch Zeit” (“Just a dream” and “Give me more Time” as Blossom). Later the album Verliebt…, sublabeled as “Die Fanedition”, has been re-released with a reworked cover art, a bonus medley and a new song, the single “Sesam-Jam (der, die, das)”, which samples the German versions’ Sesame Street theme.
In 1998, she released her eponymous third studio album Jasmin, which features the three singles “Blaue Augen”, the Ideal cover “Ich bin wieder hier”, a Rozalla cover, and “Es ist vorbei”. The album marks a soft departure from a happy hardcore sound to a more pop and dance sound. In 1998, she also contributed to the charity single “Let the Music Heal Your Soul” as part of the supergroup Bravo All Stars.
In 1999, the album Jasmin was re-released with reworked cover art, along with two new songs, the singles “Heut’ ist mein Tag” and “Tu es mon île”, a French language version of “Du bist die Insel”, which previously appeared on the Verliebt… album. The same year, Wagner released her first and only Live album “Live in Berlin”, which featured a previously unreleased song, the Christmas single “Unter’m Weihnachtsbaum”.
In 2000, Wagner released her fourth studio album Die Welt gehört dir, which features the three singles “Ist deine Liebe echt?”, “Die Welt gehört mir” and “Ich vermisse dich”, the last mentioned of which served as her farewell single as Blümchen to end up a chapter.
Before stopping releasing music as Blümchen, the greatest hits compilation album Für immer und ewig alongside a previously unreleased song, the promotional single “Es ist nie vorbei” featuring Swedish artist E-Type, has been released. Wagner also appeared on the 2001 charity single “Die Stadt mit der Nase im Wind” as part of the supergroup Hamburg Allstars. In 2001, she appeared on a Norwegian rock bands’ Turbonegro tribute cover album Alpha Motherfuckers with the song “Are you Ready for some Darkness” featuring Die Ärzte member Bela B. Due to the drastic departure from her previous electronic sound to an independent rock sound, Wagner used the stage name Denim Girl for the first and only time.
The same year, Wagner released her first and only promotional single mononymously as Jasmin, the Christmas song “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town”, an Eddie Cantor cover, which was only available exclusively at Tchibo stores. Wagner has also ventured into acting making cameo appearances in several movies, most notably as a race car fan in the 2001 film Driven, starring Sylvester Stallone.
After a brief hiatus from the music industry, Wagner returned with a new record deal on Polydor in 2003 under her real name Jasmin Wagner with the single “Leb deinen Traum” for her upcoming fifth studio album. The song proved to be a moderate success, peaking #24 at the German Single Chart, and served as the theme song for the talent show Popstars – Das Duell.