Ute Lemper

Did you know?!

1. Languages

   Lemper provided the singing voices for Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid and for Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, dubbing both roles for German-speaking audiences.

2. Early training

   At 16, Lemper became a member of the Panama Drive Band, a jazz-rock group. She went on to graduate from Vienna's Max Reinhardt Seminary Drama School and the Dance Academy in Cologne.

3. Big break

   Lemper's breakthrough came in the original Viennese cast of Cats, and she later played the title role in Peter Pan and Marlene Dietrich's Lola in The Blue Angel.

4. Beyond film

   Lemper performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in 1991. The song she sang there was called "The Photograph," and the Italian songwriter Enzo Jannacci wrote it.

5. Beyond film

   For her 2000 album Punishing Kiss, several artists contributed material composed especially for Lemper, among them Scott Walker, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Philip Glass, and Neil Hannon.