Indira Weis (born Verena Weis; 30 September 1979) is a German singer and actress who rose to fame as a member of the R&B/

Pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

group

Bro'Sis Bro'Sis was a multicultural R&B/ pop group from Germany, which was formed through the TV series '' Popstars – Du bist mein Traum'' in 2001. The group comprised the singers Ross Antony, Hila Bronstein, Shaham Joyce, Faiz Mangat, Indira Weis ...

Biography

Early life

Weis was born the second daughter to Manju, an Indian interpreter and her German-Jewish father Helmut, a retired grammar school teacher. Her father's ancestors were Hungarian Jews who had converted to Christianity to avoid being socially marginalized. Her one-year older sister works as a flight attendant. Weis received the nickname "Indira" on a trip to India where she has relatives. At the age of five, Weis started taking piano and guitar lessons. After finishing school and a short period of studying music sciences and American studies, Weis started taking theatrical lessons in a

theatre school A drama school, stage school, or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university, or a free-standing institution (such as the drama section at the Juilliard School) that specializes in the p ...

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 ...

. There, she helped in a

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

tape and started to work as a model. She left theatre school after one year and finished a training period in an internet agency. Before her application for ''

Popstars ''Popstars'' is an international reality television franchise aimed to find new singing talent. Serving as a precursor to the ''Idol'' franchise, '' Popstars'' first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the girl gr ...

'', she worked as a producer for

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

radio station ''Planet Radio''. After spending over a year in Israel, Weiss converted to Orthodox Judaism. Her Hebrew name is Shira, meaning "singing" in Hebrew.

Bro'Sis

In 2001, Weis auditioned for the second season of the German reality TV series ''

''. The judges

Alex Christensen Alex Christensen (born 7 April 1967), also known by his stage names Jasper Forks or Alex C., is a German dance music producer, songwriter, and DJ generally known as the face and one of the founding members of U96. Since 2002, he has been coll ...

, Noah Sow and

Detlef Soost Detlef Soost (born 2 July 1970), also using the name D! (formerly ''Dee!''), most often called Detlef D! Soost, is a German television personality, dancer and Choreography, choreographer who gained recognition as one of the jury members of the ...

were impressed with her performance of Usher's song "

You Make Me Wanna "You Make Me Wanna..." is a song by American singer Usher. This track was released on August 5, 1997, by LaFace Records and Arista Records as the lead single from his second studio album, ''My Way'' (1997). He and Manuel Seal wrote the song w ...

". Weis earned a spot in the "recall" and "re-recall" (second and third round, respectively), and subsequently made it to the final eight of the show. During a special episode in November 2001, jury member Soost disclosed that Weis was chosen to become part of the final group, later named

. With the final six members of the band in place, ''Popstars'' continued tracking the development and struggles of Bro'Sis. However, it took another two months until the band released " I Believe", produced by Christensen, which would subsequently appear on the band's debut album '' Never Forget (Where You Come From)''. The single and the album became a major success, both peaking at No. 1 on the German and Austrian singles, airplay and albums charts, eventually selling more than 1.5 million copies. In the following years, the hype around the band decreased. On 9 May 2003, four days before the band's second album's release, Weis announced her departure from the Bro'Sis. Official statements claimed that musical differences between her and the rest of the group had been reason enough for leaving. However, rumours persisted that she had fallen out with her bandmates.

Solo career

After going solo, Weis focused on her acting career. In September 2009, she released her debut single, a cover version of the

Rudi Carrell Rudi Carrell (born Rudolf Wijbrand Kesselaar; 19 December 1934 – 7 July 2006) was a Dutch entertainer. Along with famous entertainers such as Johannes Heesters and Linda de Mol, he was one of the most successful Dutch personalities active ...

single " Wann wird's mal wieder richtig Sommer?". She recorded a video for her second single, "Oh", in September 2006, but the plans to release the video were dropped. Against her will, the video premiered in its entirety on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

on 6 November 2009 and received harsh criticism. On 25 June 2010, Weis released her second single, "Beautiful Destination".

Discography

Solo singles

Film and television

* 2004: '' Cologne P.D.'' (

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

) * 2005: ''Letztes Kapitel'' (ZDF) * 2005: ''

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– Blumen für die Diva'' (ZDF) * 2007: ''

Der Kriminalist ' is a German television series produced by Monaco Film Hamburg, subsidiary of Odeon Film. Directors during the first season were Sherry Hormann and , during the second: Thomas Jahn, Jobst Oetzmann and Torsten C. Fischer. List of episodes ...

– Abwärts'' (ZDF) * 2008: ''

Das Traumhotel ''Das Traumhotel'' is a German/Austrian television series. See also *List of German television series The following is a list of television series produced in Germany: Current Drama * ''4 Blocks (TV series), 4 Blocks'' (TNT Serie, 2017–2 ...

– Karibik'' ( ARD) * 2008: ''Arbeitsaufenthalt in Israel'' * 2011: '' Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus!'' (season 5)

Films

* 2005: ''Helloh'' * 2007: ''Miss Lucifer!'' * 2010: '' Snowblind''

Theater

* 1993: Igelhans,

Mannheim National Theatre The Mannheim National Theatre () is a theatre and opera company in Mannheim, Germany, with a variety of performance spaces. It was founded in 1779 and is one of the oldest theatres in Germany. History In the 18th century Mannheim was the cap ...

* 1995:

The Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...

Staatstheater Darmstadt The Staatstheater Darmstadt (Darmstadt State Theatre) is a theatre company and building in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, presenting opera, ballet, plays and concerts. It is funded by the German states, state of Hesse and the city of Darmstadt. Its hi ...

* 1998:

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 ...

(as Maria),

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

* 2005: Quo Vadis,

Trier Trier ( , ; ), formerly and traditionally known in English as Trèves ( , ) and Triers (see also Names of Trier in different languages, names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle (river), Moselle in Germany. It lies in a v ...

Awards

* 2002: New Face Award (fashion trendsetter)

References

External links

Official website of Indira Weis
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weis, Indira 1979 births Living people People from Groß-Gerau German people of Indian descent Converts to Orthodox Judaism 21st-century German Jews German Orthodox Jews German women pop singers German people of Hungarian-Jewish descent 21st-century German women singers German television actresses Actresses from Hesse