Ella Endlich
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Jacqueline Zebisch (born 18 June 1984), known professionally as Ella Endlich, is a German singer and dancer who also performed as Junia as a teenager. Best known for her song "Küss mich, halt mich, lieb mich", which is based on the title song of the film ''
Tři oříšky pro Popelku ''Three Wishes for Cinderella'' (; , also called in English ''Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella'' or ''Three Gifts for Cinderella'') is a 1973 Czechoslovak- East German film based on the fairy-tale ''Cinderella''. It was directed by Václav Vorl ...
'', she participated in the national final for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes (Måns Zelmerlöw song), Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organis ...
.


Career


1984–2009: Early life and career beginnings

Ella Endlich was born in
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...
. She is the daughter of songwriter and record producer Norbert Endlich. In 1989, she moved with her family to
West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
. At age 10, she sang for the first time in a recording studio at the
Hansa Tonstudio Hansa Tonstudio is a recording studio located in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany. The studio, famous for its Meistersaal recording hall, is situated approximately 150 metres from the former Berlin Wall, giving rise to its former nickna ...
s and was hired as a background vocalist for the ''
ZDF-Hitparade The ''ZDF-Hitparade'', or ''Hitparade'' for short, by German TV channel ZDF, was one of the most popular and most well-known music television series presenting mostly German Schlager. From 1969 to 1984 the presenter was Dieter Thomas Heck. The l ...
''. During her schooldays, she took dancing and singing lessons and also filmed various videos with her own choreographies for the television channel
VIVA Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Energy, an Australian petroleum company * Viva Entertainment, a Philippine media company * Viva Films, a Philippine film company ...
in Los Angeles, Miami, and London. She signed her first contract with
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
on 18 June 1998, her fourteenth birthday, which inspired her stage name at the time, Junia. Her début single "It's Funny" was released in 1999 and peaked at 17 in Germany and 21 in Switzerland. Its follow-up "My Guy" peaked at 54 in Germany and her third single "Who's the Other Woman" peaked at 72 in the country, while her fourth single "Skaterboy", released in 2000, did not chart. All of these songs appeared on her début album ''Junia'', released in 2000. In 2000, during her teenage career, she took an apprenticeship in the field musical theater at the Musicalstudio Neukölln and finished the
Realschule Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...
to study at the Bayrischen Theaterakademie August in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
in October 2001. She specialised in drama and was also educated in dancing, musical, and singing. In 2001 and 2002, she was part of the ensemble of the Bregenzer Festspielproduktionen that performed ''
La Bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...
'' and ''
West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...
''. She performed at the Prinzregentheater München and the
Theater Erfurt The Theater Erfurt is a German municipal theatre located in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. The main stage is in a building in the Brühlervorstadt, completed in 2003. The theatre offers musical theatre and concerts, played by the Philharmonisc ...
in '' City of Angels''. In 2005, she completed her studies at the Bayrische Theaterakademie with a diploma. In 2006, she won the singing contest of the HypoVereinsbank as well as the audience prize. From 2005 to 2009, she performed in numerous musicals, such as ''Heidi'' (as Tinette), ''
Sweet Charity ''Sweet Charity'' is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Neil Simon, based on the screenplay for the 1957 Italian film '' Nights of Cabiria''. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse sta ...
'' (as Betzy), '' Grease'' (as Sandy), '' Prinzessin Lillifee und der Zauber der Rose'' (as Princess Lillifee), ''Best of Musicals'' (as Christine from ''
The Phantom of the Opera The Phantom of the Opera may refer to: Novel * The Phantom of the Opera (novel), ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (novel), 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux Characters * Erik (The Phantom of the Opera), Erik (''The Phantom of the Opera''), the title char ...
''), ''
Moulin Rouge! ''Moulin Rouge!'' (, ) is a 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. It follows an English poet, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge, cabaret actress and courtesan ...
'' (as Satine), ''
The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" (), sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story foll ...
'' (as Ariel), ''
Wicked Wicked may refer to: Books * ''Wicked'' (Maguire novel), a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name * ''Wicked'', a 1997 novel series collaboration between Australian children's authors Paul Jennings and Morris ...
'' (as Elphaba), or ''
Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...
'' (as Cosette). She also had a role in the play ''Der Steppenwolf'', which is based on a
Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...
work.


2009–present: Career as Ella Endlich

Her first release under the name Ella Endlich was the single "Küss mich, halt mich, lieb mich", which peaked at 12 on the
German charts The GfK Entertainment charts are the official charts for music, home video, and video games in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on be ...
and reached gold status. The song is based on the title song of the film ''
Tři oříšky pro Popelku ''Three Wishes for Cinderella'' (; , also called in English ''Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella'' or ''Three Gifts for Cinderella'') is a 1973 Czechoslovak- East German film based on the fairy-tale ''Cinderella''. It was directed by Václav Vorl ...
''. In October 2010, she released her first album as Ella Endlich, ''Da'' (English: "Here"), which peaked at 53 in Germany and 66 in Austria. Its follow-up ''Meilenweit'' (English: "Miles and Miles"), released exactly a year later, peaked at 94 in Germany. Shows peak position in Germany. In 2012, Endlich released an EP titled ''Wintercollage''. Her album ''Die süße Wahrheit'' (English: "The Sweet Truth") was released in June 2014. Later that year, she switched record labels, management, and producers. In February 2016, Endlich released the album ''Träume auf Asphalt'' (English: "Dreams on Asphalt") through
Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...
and participated in the national final for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes (Måns Zelmerlöw song), Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organis ...
with the song "Adrenalin". She was a judge on the fifteenth season of ''
Deutschland sucht den Superstar ''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'' (''DSDS''; "Germany is looking for the Superstar") is a German reality talent show. Part of the ''Idol'' franchise, it was created by British media mogul Simon Fuller as a spin-off from the British show ''P ...
'' (the German version of ''
Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and pa ...
'' and ''
American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...
''), which aired from 3 January to 5 May 2018, alongside
Dieter Bohlen Dieter Bohlen (; born Dieter Günter Bohlen on 7 February 1954) is a German songwriter, producer, singer and television personality. He first achieved fame as a member of the pop duo Modern Talking in the 1980s, and has since produced numerous G ...
,
Mousse T. Mustafa Gündoğdu (; born 2 October 1966), best known under his stage name Mousse T., is a German-Turkish DJ, record producer, film music composer and judge on season 15 of ''Deutschland sucht den Superstar'', the German version of ''Pop Idol ...
, and Carolin Niemczyk. In February 2019, Endlich was announced as a contestant on
season 12 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...
of ''Let's Dance'', and her partner was Valentin Lusin. On 29 March, she received the 1st 10 of the season, and received the 1st perfect score of the season 3 weeks later. She earned that same score the next 2 weeks & the last 3 weeks of the season. She broke the record of the most perfect scores of 40, with 11, later matched by
season 16 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...
winner Anna Ermakova, and the most 10s of any contestant, with 55 out of 76. On 14 June, she and Lusin finished as the runners-up behind
handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...
player
Pascal Hens Pascal "Pommes" Hens (born 26 March 1980) is a former German team handball player and former World Champion. He received a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens with the German national team.Ella Endlich's official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Endlich, Ella 1984 births Living people Musicians from Weimar People from Bezirk Erfurt German pop singers German female dancers 21st-century German dancers Deutschland sucht den Superstar judges 21st-century German women singers Masked Singer winners