Judith Mahdavi Lefeber (born 14 March 1981) is a German singer, who gained fame as a finalist of the first season of the television show ''

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 ...

''.

Biography

Lefeber was born in

Manipal 300px, The house of T. M. A. Pai located in Manipal; it has since been converted to a museum. Manipal is a suburb and university town within Udupi, in coastal Karnataka, India. Manipal is located five kilometres away from the centre of Udupi C ...

, Karnataka, India. At six months old, she was adopted by a couple from Germany and grew up in

Rheda-Wiedenbrück Rheda-Wiedenbrück (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Raie-Wienbrügge'') is a city in the Gütersloh (district), district of Gütersloh, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography The twin community lies within the valley of the river E ...

near

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the administrative region of Detmold (administrative region), Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a Gütersloh (distric ...

alongside her adoptive brother; who is seven years her senior. She started taking vocal, piano and ballet lessons at four years old, followed-up by joining the local girl's choir. After her high school graduation, Lefeber went on studying singing and piano at the conservatory in

Detmold Detmold () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, with a population of . It was the capital of the small Principality of Lippe from 1468 until 1918 and then of the Free State of Lippe until 1947. Today it is the administrative center of ...

. Shortly afterwards, she moved to

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

. In 2002, Lefeber participated in the first 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 ...

''. Although she was widely considered as the favourite finalist right from the beginning of the show, she decided to leave ''DSDS'' after her second performance, explaining that personal issues that had arisen. However, after the final show it was revealed that Lefeber had received the highest percent of votes both during the top 10 and top 9 shows. Afterwards Lefeber signed a contract with

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

. Released in fall 2003, her debut album ''In My Dreams'' saw comparatively big success, peaking at number 17 on the German albums chart (almost two years after her quit from ''DSDS''), while the album's singles reached number 13 ("I Will Follow You") and number 70 ("Everybody Does") respectively on the national singles chart. In 2004, Lefeber was engaged for the leading role in the musical ''

Aida ''Aida'' (or ''Aïda'', ) is a tragic opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni. Set in the Old Kingdom of Egypt, it was commissioned by Cairo's Khedivial Opera House and had its première there on 24 De ...

'' in

. Simultaneously, she released her second album ''In My Room'' after a sudden label change to

Zyx Music ZYX Music GmbH & Co. KG is a German record label founded in 1971 by Bernhard Mikulski. It is one of the most successful German record labels of the 1980s and 1990s. Until 1992, the label was known as Pop-Import Bernhard Mikulski. The label speci ...

. Due to a lack of promotion, both the album and the same-titled single saw less to no commercial success. The singer has since focused on starring in

stage musicals Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lefeber, Judith 1981 births Living people People from Karnataka People from Rheda-Wiedenbrück Indian adoptees Indian emigrants to Germany German people of Indian descent Deutschland sucht den Superstar participants 21st-century German women singers Warner Music Group artists ZYX Music artists