NATALIE HORLER

Natalie Christine Horler (born 23 September 1981) is a German singer and television presenter, best known for being the lead singer of the Eurodance group Cascada. Natalie Horler was born in Bonn, West Germany, to English parents. They had moved to (then) West Germany from the United Kingdom in 1980. Her father, David Horler, is a jazz musician and her mother, Christine, is a foreign languages teacher. Horler grew up with her two siblings, Sally and Victoria. Natalie soon began singing jazz songs in her father’s studio as well as songs from Disney films.

Horler began her musical career by singing in bars and casinos. At 18, she started to work with different DJs and recorded a number of tracks. This is how she met future band members Manian and Yanou. Her most notable song of her pre-Cascada era is “Piece of Heaven” as Akira. In addition, Horler appeared on the German adaptation of Star Search in 2004.

Horler holding the flag of Germany during the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö
In 2004, she formed the group Cascada with DJ Manian and Yanou (the latter known for his track with DJ Sammy and Dominique van Hulst, “Heaven”, released in 2002), and began touring with her dancers Essa and Falk. Originally Cascade, the group name was soon changed to Cascada due to legal issues.

On 21 February 2006, Cascada’s 14-track album titled Everytime We Touch was released in the United States. Her most successful song in the U.S remains the band’s U.S. debut single “Everytime We Touch”. It was a worldwide hit, peaking at No. 10 on the US Hot 100. In addition, it peaked at No. 2 in the UK Charts, No. 1 in Israel for 2 weeks and No. 1 in Ireland for an impressive six weeks. Horler has stated that at that time that they were overwhelmed at their success, suggesting they came along at the right time, and were very lucky (particularly in the American market, where Eurodance music hardly accomplishes mainstream chart-success). The success of the album gained them a World Music Award, winning them World’s Best Selling German Artist in 2007. Other well-known Cascada songs include “Bad Boy”, “Miracle”, “Evacuate the Dancefloor”, and covers such as “Truly Madly Deeply” and “What Hurts the Most”.

The band’s second album, Perfect Day, was released on 3 December 2007. The album charted across Europe, peaking at No. 9 in the UK Album Charts. The single “What Hurts the Most” was a success in Canada, Germany and the U.S. It climbed to No. 10 in the UK Charts and did even better in the Swedish charts, peaking at No. 5. But its highest peak was in France at No. 2, the same position it first entered. It also peaked at No. 3 in the Austria Singles Charts. Other singles from the album include “Faded”, “What Do You Want From Me?”, and “Because the Night”.

Cascada’s third studio album, Evacuate the Dancefloor, was released in the United Kingdom in July 2009. It spawned one of their most successful singles “Evacuate the Dancefloor”, which was number one in the UK and Netherlands. The album itself made it to No. 8 in the UK Albums Chart and No. 7 in the U.S. Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums. Other singles from this album include “Fever”, which probably failed to chart in the UK due to no physical release. However, the single reached No. 18 in the Slovak Airplay Chart and did reach No. 3 in the UK Dance Chart, and the final single from this album was “Dangerous” which made it to No. 2 in the Dutch Tipparade (Bubbling Under) Chart and No. 10 in the Finnish Singles Chart, the song also had minor success in the UK charting at No. 67 in the UK Singles Chart.

Cascada released a new single, “Pyromania”, on 19 March 2010; it was the group’s least successful lead single to date, failing to reach the top 40 in the UK. It did, however, reach the top 20 in France. “San Francisco” was the next single from the upcoming album, and continued the group’s new electropop direction. The single made the top 20 in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. The release of these two singles was preceded by the release of their fourth studio album, Original Me, which was released on 20 June 2011, their lowest selling album ever, reaching No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart. The next single from the album was “Au Revoir” which failed to make much impact on any major chart, as did the final single, “Night Nurse”.

On 20 March 2012, Cascada released a new single, “Summer of Love”. This single was a return to Cascada’s earlier dance sounds, and already improve declining record sales, reaching the top 20 in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. The group then released a compilation album called Back on the Dancefloor.

Cascada released a new single on 22 July 2012, a cover of “The Rhythm of the Night” of Italian Eurodance group Corona which was thought to be the lead single from their fifth studio album in 2013. In late 2006, Horler made her first foray into television as the guest host of the viewer request show Back @ Ya on bpm:tv, a Toronto-based cable channel that broadcasts all across Canada and some parts of the United States. bpm:TV specializes in playing dance and electronica music videos.

 

Translate »