Michelle Leonard (born 5 June 1973) is a German / British singer and songwriter, now based in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Leonard has written and co-written multiple songs, both singles and for albums, that have achieved gold and platinum status. Leonard is known internationally for her work with

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and

Paul van Dyk Matthias Paul (; born 16 December 1971), known professionally as Paul van Dyk () is a German DJ, record producer and musician. Van Dyk was the first artist to receive a Grammy Award nomination in the newly added category of Best Dance/Electron ...

, as well as for her collaboration with

Robin Schulz Robin Alexander Schulz (; born 28 April 1987) is a German musician, DJ, and record producer. On 4 February 2014, he released the first single from his debut album, a remix of "Waves (Mr. Probz song), Waves" by Dutch hip hop artist Mr. Probz. T ...

(under the stage name Solamay). As a songwriter, Leonard is currently signed to Budde Music Publishing.

Biography

Leonard grew up in Germany, where she attended British schools.

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Music Publishing signed her when she was 17. She had just released her first single at 16, which was a cover version of " Falling," a 1990 song by

Julee Cruise Julee Ann Cruise (December 1, 1956 – June 9, 2022) was an American singer and actress, known for her collaborations with composer Angelo Badalamenti and film director David Lynch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She released four albums beg ...

that later became popular as the ''

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'' theme song. Leonard's first original songs included "Feel So Perfect," which was released by Cape, became a radio hit, and was used for a three-year, pan-European C&A advertising campaign. Multiple music videos and short films were created around the song. Many of her co-written songs have been used in advertisements for companies including

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, RMS (Radio marketing services),

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and

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...

Germany. Some of Leonard's biggest songwriting hits have been performed by other artists. Her greatest achievements in this field have included

's ''"''Running with the Wolves," "Rooftop" by Nico Santos, and "Love Is You" by Thomas Godoj. In 2005, Leonard also worked on the song "Instant Replay" with Such a Surge, which was released on their album ''Alpha''. Leonard was also the performance and music director for the German Theatre Abroad project in New York and directed the musical "Electric Society," which was staged on 12 November 2005 in Cologne, Germany. In 2009, she was a judge on the German casting television show ''

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 ...

'' and released her debut album ''Fragile.'' Since 2005, Leonard has been a lecturer at the Popakademie (University of Popular Music and Music Business), the

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1890, it has 6,493 students (as of fall 2021) pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It i ...

, and at the SRH Hochschule der populären Künste (College of Popular Arts) in Germany for Songwriting. In 2011, Leonard started the co-publishing company "DOLSIRA" with Universal Music Publishing, Germany, and in 2018, started "EERA" in cooperation with

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was formed in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its st ...

. In 2015, she started her own solo-artist project, Solamay, which has achieved platinum status.

Discography

As songwriter

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Michelle 1973 births Living people British women songwriters Place of birth missing (living people) British expatriates in Germany