Natalie Horler

Natalie Horler
Horler at the Eurovision 2013 Press Conference in Malmö
Born	Natalie Horler (1981-09-23) 23 September 1981 Bonn, West Germany
Occupation(s)	Singer, television presenter
Parent(s)	Father: David Horler Mother: Christine Horler
Relatives	Uncle: John Horler

Natalie Horler (born 23 September 1981) is a German-born British singer and television presenter. She is known as the lead singer of Eurodance/Eurotrance group Cascada. She is known to have a mezzo-soprano voice type and spans three octaves in her range.

Early life and family

Natalie Horler was born in Bonn, then West Germany. Her parents are British (English). They moved to West Germany in 1980. Her father, David Horler, is a jazz musician and her mother, Christine, is a foreign languages teacher. Horler grew up with her 2 siblings. She has stated that she had a very British childhood. Natalie soon began singing jazz songs in her father's studio as well as songs from Disney movies.

Career

Musical beginnings

Horler began her musical career by singing in bars and casinos. At 18, she then went on to working with different DJs recording a number of tracks in a studio. This is how she met future bandmembers 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.

Breakthrough with Cascada

In 2004, she formed the group Cascada with DJ Manian and Yanou (the latter known for his smash hit 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 #10 on the US Hot 100. In addition, it peaked at #2 in the UK Charts, #1 in Israel for 2 weeks and #1 in Ireland for an impressive 6 weeks. Horler has stated that at that time that they were overwhelmed at the success they had, suggesting they came along at the right time, and were very lucky (particularly in the tough American market, where Eurodance music hardly ever 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 well across Europe, peaking at #9 in the UK Album Charts. The single "What Hurts the Most" was a success in countries like U.S., Canada, and Germany. It climbed to #10 in the UK Charts and did even better in the Swedish charts, peaking at #5. But its highest peak was in France at #2, the same position it first entered. It also peaked at #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 on 6 July 2009. It spawned one of the their most successful singles "Evacuate the Dancefloor" which was number one in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The album itself made it to #8 in the UK Albums Chart and #7 in the U.S. Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums. Other singles from this album include Fever, which failed to chart in the United Kingdom probably due to no physical release. However the single reached #18 in the Slovak Airplay Chart and did reach #3 in the UK Dance Chart, and the final single from this album was Dangerous which made it to #2 in the Dutch Tipparade (Bubbling Under) Chart and #10 in the Finnish Singles Chart, the song also had minor success in the United Kingdom charting at #67 in the UK Singles Chart.

Cascada released a new single, Pyromania on March 19, 2010, it was the group's least successful lead single to date failing to reach the top 40 in the United Kingdom. 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 the 20 June 2011, their lowest selling album ever, reaching #24 in the UK Albums Chart and the only other country the album made the top 20 in was Poland, where it reached #38 on the Polish 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 headed back into 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 Corona's "The Rhythm of the Night" which is thought to be the lead single from their fifth studio album in 2013.

Cascada's It's Christmas Time was released on 30 November 2012.

Television work

In the autumn of 2006, Horler made her first foray into television as the guest host of the viewer request show Back @ Ya on bpm:tv, a Toronto, Canada-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. Also in 2006, she appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly to promote her album, Everytime We Touch. She's also presented The Clubland Top 50, exclusively to the music channel, 4Music and has performed on countless television shows, mainly in Europe, one of which was promoting the UK version of Perfect Day on the UK breakfast show GMTV in 2007, performing Last Christmas live. Horler then returned to GMTV on 28 July 2008, performing "Because The Night" live. She returned to the GMTV studios in June 2009 to perform her new single "Evacuate the Dancefloor" with Carlprit. Horler has also made numerous appearances on the Dome, mostly to perform Cascada's latest singles although she did a one-off performance with her co-stars during the 52nd installment where she covered Heal the World. In 2012, Horler was one of the new judges of the 9th season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar.

Personal life

Horler is bilingual and speaks German and English fluently. Horler is the daughter of the British jazz trombonist David Horler and the niece of the British jazz pianist John Horler. Horler currently resides in Bonn, Germany. Since 11 May 2011, Horler has been married to Moritz Raffelberg, they were privately married in Italy, with Horler wearing a dress she had designed herself. She appeared on the cover of the German August 2011 issue of Playboy magazine.