Helene Fischer was born in the Siberian city of
Krasnoyarsk, former
Russian SFSR,
Soviet Union, to Pyotr and Marina Fischer. who were among those sent to
forced settlements in Kazakhstan and Siberia. In 1988, at the age of three-and-a-half, she emigrated with her parents and her six-year-old sister to
Wöllstein, West Germany. After graduating from high school, Fischer attended the Frankfurt Stage & Musical School for three years, where she studied singing and acting. During this time, she performed on stage at the
Staatstheater Darmstadt, as well as at the
Volkstheater Frankfurt. Fischer's debut on stage occurred on 14 May 2005, in a program by the TV channel
ARD. It was a duet with
schlager singer
Florian Silbereisen. The two later became a couple. She performed at the
Olympia Stadium in Berlin in front of 120,000 people. The album received platinum certification after just five days in Germany, Denmark, and Austria.
Farbenspiel became the most successful release by a German female artist in the first week of release in the past decade. To date, over 2.4 million copies of the album have been sold. On 13 November 2015, Fischer released a Christmas album entitled
Weihnachten. It consists of two CDs, the first featuring Christmas songs sung in German and German dialects, and the second featuring songs sung in English. The album reached number 1 on the year-end charts in both Germany and Austria and received a total of 14 platinum certifications in both countries. It sold over 1.3 million copies. In 2016, she sang the German version of "
How Far I'll Go" ("Ich bin bereit"), the title song from Disney's
Moana. On 12 May 2017, she released her eighth studio album, titled
Helene Fischer. It was released by Polydor. The album debuted at number one on the Austrian, German, and Swiss Albums Charts and reached the top ten in the Netherlands and the
Flemish region of Belgium. In Germany,
Helene Fischer sold more than 300,000 copies in its first week of release, making it the highest-selling debut since
Herbert Grönemeyer's 2002 album
Mensch. The album won nine platinum certifications in Germany and Austria and has sold over 1 million copies in both countries to date. She performed all her new songs, along with several hits from previous albums, at the Kesselhaus in Munich, and released the album
Helene Fischer – Das Konzert aus dem Kesselhaus, showcasing this performance. In June 2018, she began her second stadium tour, performing in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria. In several locations on this tour, she performed up to five times in a row. Her show was developed in collaboration with 45 Degrees of
Cirque du Soleil. In October 2018,
The New York Times ranked Fischer seventh in terms of the world's biggest touring musical acts of the year. In the 2018
Forbes list of top-earning female artists worldwide, she ranked 8th. This also makes her the most successful non-English singer currently. Fischer performed at the
SnowpenAir 2022 Music Festival in
Grindelwald Terminal in the
Switzerland Alps. There, she sang the
Marius Müller-Westernhagen song
Freiheit as her response to the most recent
Russian invasion of Ukraine and another instance of
forced resettlement by
Russia. Fischer wore a blue and yellow ribbon in solidarity with Ukraine, tearfully introducing the song by describing the sorrow experienced by Ukrainian families being resettled and torn apart by the war. She performed the song with blue and yellow highlights on the stage. ==Discography==