Nadja Benaissa (born 26 April 1982) is a German singer and television personality. She rose to fame in late 2000 when she auditioned for the German adaption of the reality television show Popstars and became a member of the girl group No Angels, one of the best-selling girl groups of European origin of all time. During their hiatus, Benaissa released her solo album, Schritt für Schritt (2007), which produced the single "Ich hab dich", and represented Hesse in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2006 with the song, finishing in fourth place.
No Angels reunited in 2007. Benaissa announced her departure from the group in 2010 after she was found guilty of one count of causing grievous bodily harm and two counts of attempted bodily harm and given a two-year suspended sentence. The charges stemmed from Benaissa having unprotected sex with people who were not aware of her HIV-positive status. Months later, Benaissa released Alles wird gut, her first autobiography, and relocated to Berlin where she withdrew from the public eye to pass her Abitur exams, and qualified as an event manager.
In 2019, Benaissa joined the a cappella group Medlz, with whom she recorded and released two studio albums. In 2021, she left the band to re-join No Angels for their 20th anniversary celebrations.
Early life
Born in Frankfurt, Benaissa is the second child born to a Moroccan father, Muhamed Benaissa, and a mother of mixed Serbian and German ethnicity, Sabina. Raised alongside her three years older brother Amin, she spent much of her childhood in Langen, where her parents worked in the catering business, and she attended the Geschwister-Scholl-Schule.
At the age of nine, Benaissa began playing instruments, learning the piano and the flute. Her early musical interest grew after having auditioned and won a role in the school stage musical Tabaluga during her first year at the Dreieich-Schule-Langen. In her early teenage years, she began writing songs, and at the age of 13 Benaissa started performing in several cover bands within the Frankfurt area, eventually winning the second place at Jugend musiziert, a supraregional music contest for youths.
On 25 October 1999, at the age of 17, Benaissa gave birth to her daughter Leila Jamila, an event which she describes as "the proudest moment of [her] life". Although Benaissa and her boyfriend ended their relationship, Benaissa began attending evening classes in pursuit of her Realschulabschluss school certificate.
Career
2000–2003: Breakthrough with No Angels
In mid-2000, Benaissa, along with thousands of other women, applied for the debut installment of the German reality television program Popstars, a talent show looking to put together an all-female band. Sailing through the selection process, judges Simone Angel, Rainer Moslener and Mario M. Mendryzcki were generally impressed by her performances, which earned her a position in the top ten finalists despite her struggle with dancing choreography. During a special episode in November 2000, jury member Angel eventually disclosed that Benaissa had been selected to become part of the final five-member girl group No Angels. Initially hesitant about signing a recording contract which would force her to leave her baby daughter with her parents, the show's producers remained persuasive and Benaissa eventually agreed on joining the band.
With the final five members of the band in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of the group who left homes to move into a shared flat near Munich, Bavaria. However, it took another four months until the band released their debut single "Daylight in Your Eyes", which would subsequently appear on the band's debut album Elle'ments (2001). Both the single and the album became an unexpected but record-breaking success, when both instantly entered the top position on the Austrian, German and Swiss Media Control singles, albums and airplay charts, giving No Angels one of the most successful debuts in years. Suffering from the separation from her daughter, Benaissa burned out within months, a subject on which she later commented: