Early life and career Steen is an only child born to a German mother and an African-American father in
Ostfildern-Ruit near
Stuttgart, Germany in 1980. In 1997, Steen's
demo tape got into the hands of a befriended producer, who passed it to an up-and-coming hip hop group, he was working with:
Freundeskreis. Impressed by her voice, Steen was invited to contribute backing vocals to the trio's 1997 debut album
Quadratur des Kreises, gaining her first official feature credit on their collaboration "Telefonterror". The following year she appeared in Freundeskreis' music video for their single "Wenn der Vorhang fällt" and accompanied the band on their first tour throughout
German-speaking Europe. Due to musical differences she soon asked for a release however. The album's same-titled lead single reached number six on the German Singles Chart and was chosen to represent
Baden-Württemberg on the
5th Bundesvision Song Contest where Steen finished fourth with 103 points. The second single "Stadt", a collaboration with
Ich + Ich singer
Adel Tawil, was released to even greater success, reaching number two in Germany and the top five in Austria. It eventually became the fourth biggest-selling single of 2009 in Germany. Also in 2009, Steen voiced the character
Tiana in the German dub of
Disney's 49th animated feature
The Princess and the Frog. "
Never Knew I Needed", a duet with original singer
Ne-Yo, was the first single to be lifted from the
accompanying soundtrack. In 2011, her third album
Mir so nah (2011) was released. It produced the top 30 single "Tanz" and was followed by her 2014 album
Spiegelbild. A prominent featured vocalist, Steen's discography also includes the hit singles "
Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt" with rapper
Bushido, "Eines Tages" with rapper
Azad, and the duet "Unter die Haut" with singer
Tim Bendzko. In 2016, Steen re-joined Glashaus. The following year, she appeared alongside band mate
Moses Pelham on the German reality television series
Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert. ==Personal life==