Stefanie Fabienne Heinzmann (born 10 March 1989) is a Swiss pop singer and television personality. She gained public interest in early 2008 when she won SSDSDSSWEMUGABRTLAD, a talent contest hosted in Stefan Raab's late-night-show TV total on the German ProSieben network. Following her win, Heinzmann released her debut single "My Man Is a Mean Man," which debuted straight atop the Swiss Singles Chart and became a top ten hit in Austria and Germany. Her pop soul-influenced album Masterplan was released in March 2008 and made it to the top ten in Austria and Germany, also reaching number one in Switzerland, where it was certified platinum by the IFPI for more than 30,000 copies sold.
Heinzmann followed this with a series of successful albums, including the chart toppers Roots to Grow (2009), Stefanie Heinzmann (2012), Chance of Rain (2015) and All We Need Is Love (2019), all of which entered the top five in Switzerland. Several singles from these album became top ten hits on the pop charts throughout German-speaking Europe, including "The Unforgiven", "Diggin' in the Dirt", and "In the End". One of the best-selling Swiss artists to emerge in the late 2000s, Heinzmann has won several high-profile prizes as a recording artist such as Prix Walo, the 1LIVE Krone, a Comet, a Swiss Music Award, the Radio Regenbogen Award, and the 2009 ECHO Award. Beyond her music career, Heinzmann has been featured as a coach on two seasons of the reality competition television series The Voice of Switzerland, the talent series Popstars, the music game show The Masked Singer, and Sing meinen Song – Das Schweizer Tauschkonzert.
Early life and career beginnings
Heinzmann was born in Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. She is the only daughter of Berti and Albi Heinzmann-Martig, and younger sister of Claudio Heinzmann, a music manager and singer-songwriter on his own. Heinzmann attended the commercial school for athletes and artists at the Kollegium Brig.
In 2005, she started her music career as the lead singer of the rock band Bigfisch. Their first single "Chumm ins Wallis" (Swiss German for "Come to Valais") became a local airplay success and was voted "Biggest Valais Hit of the Year" by local radio station Radio Rottu Oberwallis (RRO) in 2007. In summer 2007, her brother convinced Heinzmann to take part in Stefan Raab's talent contest SSDSDSSWEMUGABRTLAD, organised by commercial television channel ProSieben. She was picked as one of the 20 contestants for the show, and with her interpretations of soul, jazz and funk classics by the likes of Macy Gray, Norah Jones and Joss Stone, she managed to qualify for the final show on 10 January 2008. There, Heinzmann performed two songs, "Only So Much Oil in the Ground," a Tower of Power cover, and "My Man Is a Mean Man," which was specifically selected for her. Through televoting, the audience chose Heinzmann as the winner of the show, beating the two remaining contestants, Steffi List and Gregor Meyle. The music video for "My Man Is a Mean Man" was shot during the night of the final and premiered on German television channels days later.
Recording career
2008–2011: Masterplan and Roots to Grow
Heinzmann's competition song "My Man Is a Mean Man" went on sale the day after the final. The single went straight to the top of the Swiss Singles Chart and reached the top ten in Austria and Germany, where it became a successful airplay hit during the following months, and established Heinzmann as one of the biggest-selling newcomers of the year. The song was eventually certified platinum in Germany by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) as well. Her first album, Masterplan, primarily produced by Paul NZA and Marek Pompetzki, was released on 7 March 2008, throughout German-speaking Europe. Like the single, it peaked within the top ten in Austria and Germany, and debuted at number-one in the Swiss Albums Chart, where it was eventually certified platinum for more than 30,000 copies sold. Altogether, Masterplan sold more than 300,000 copies Europe-wide, and earned the singer several prizes such as the Prix Walo, the 1LIVE Krone, a Comet, a Swiss Music Award, and the 2009 ECHO Award for Best Female Artist National Rock/Pop. A reissue of the album was released on 19 November 2008 and included the previously unreleased song "The Unforgiven", a Metallica cover which became her second top ten hit in Germany.