Manuela began her musical life in 2005 at the age of 23 while singing in a Finnish
choir group, and discovered her new passion was singing. She took classical singing lessons and sang in more church and gospel choirs, and was soon asked to become a solo singer. She grew up with
rock and metal music, and wanted to combine it with her classical background, and so began singing rock and metal music songs. She unsuccessfully auditioned to be the new lead singer of
Nightwish in 2006. While writing her own songs, she joined the Swiss band Nagor Mar, but shortly, she left and became a vocalist for German musical group
Haggard. She only performed with Haggard live. On 19 December 2010, she became the new singer of
Xandria after
Lisa Middelhauve finished performing the rest of the live tour dates after Kerstin's departure. On 7 January 2011, she debuted live with Xandria at the "Classic Meets Pop" event at the Seidensticker Halle in Bielefeld, and performed their 2004 hit song, "
Ravenheart", with the Bielefeld Philharmonic Orchestra. She then toured with Xandria on the Out of The Dark tour. On 28 November 2011, Xandria announced they would release their first album with Kraller, ''
Neverworld's End'', and released the album's only single, "Valentine", on 14 February 2012, followed by their music video with Manuela. She then went on tour with
Epica,
Stream of Passion and
Kamelot on their ''Neverworld's End'' tour. In August 2013, Manuela collaborated with
Heidi Parviainen, the former lead singer of
Amberian Dawn, on a duet on her new project
Dark Sarah for her upcoming album. On 25 October 2013, the band announced on their website that Manuela Kraller had left the band to pursue a different career and was succeeded by Dutch singer and Ex Libris frontwoman
Dianne van Giersbergen (who is also no longer the frontwoman of Xandria). Manuela leaves the band with regret but also full of gratitude, thanking Xandria and fans for the time together and being grateful for the "wonderful moments in mutual tours and shows". On 6 April
Heidi Parviainen confirmed on Dark Sarah's
Facebook page that Manuela Kraller is about to guest again on Dark Sarah's second album,
The Puzzle. == Influences ==