Hella Donna

Hella Donna (means: “Hell, what a woman”) is a Saxony (Germany) based pop project and stands for expressive modern pop - a powerful mix of groovy pop songs, rock tracks with electro-, house- and RnB-elements as well as emotional and soulful ballads.

Hella Donna was founded in 2003 by guitarist Sven Hessel from Plauen/Vogtland. Currently, the group is represented by the charismatic Anika Karabas (Vocals, Since 2011 successor to the former frontwoman Cindy Leißner) and her four fellow musicians Sven Hessel (Guitar), René Voigt (Bass), Lars Henrik Lincke (Keys) and Christian Scherff (Drums, Backing vocals).

The first successes, first publications, first concerts

The original cover band Hella Donna had arranged within the shortest possible time to get plenty of attention on their own songs. The tracks take very quickly their place in the regional, national and even international web and radio charts.

In 2005, the band released the debut single "Hometown Radio", which was heard on numerous radio frequencies (like Vogtland Radio, R.SA, Bayern3, Radio Zwickau, Radio Zusa, Radio NRW). The debut album "Come on" followed in April 2007 with a total of three singles ("Give me some time", "Star Stalker" and "Come On"). In cooperation with the Bavarian film company Dreamfilms an elaborate music video has been produced, which was a promo clip for the planed same name movie "Starstalker". Invitations to various radio shows and television shows (like FAB-Berlin, VRF, Antenne Thüringen, TV Zwickau, Landeswelle Thuringia, Vogtland Radio) as well as numerous live performances throughout Germany enthused the audience.

First career peak in autumn 2007: During her headlining club tour Hella Donna played in 16 German cities (including Hamburg, Stuttgart, Cologne and Nuremberg) and was also at the Wood Pop and the Summer Summit Festival on stage.

Baby break of the front woman = Hiatus for the whole band

The maternity leave of front singer Cindy Leißner was used by the band as a a real creative break. With new ideas and much enthusiasm Hella Donna returned in 2009 and presented their fans in July the second album "Different Faces". The first single "Only You" was previously published in May and promoted in the Pro7 TV show "Germany's next Show Stars". "Only You" climbed to number one in the "Official Webcharts" and was played by over 70 radio stations (including JUMP , Radio BOB , rock radio).

The band was also with over 30 live shows again very present in 2009. The highlights were the “Jump Community Party” in Ferropolis and the “Splash Diving World Cup” in Essen.

In January 2010, Hella Donna published with "Good Things" another single from the second album.

Break up and a new beginning

After the live season 2010, the members of Hella Donna broke up to focus on other music projects. But as early as the spring of 2011 René Voigt and Sven Hessel decided to rebuild the band.

By 2012, Hella Donna was back again - with new front woman, new program, new musical orientation and a new show concept. Also a new album and first live performances would not take long to wait for. "Groove On", the now third longplayer by Hella Donna, includes a total of 14 ballades, pop and rock songs. It was published in September 2012. The first single "Perfect" came out before, including the bonus track "Block by Block", a Hella Donna homage to the cult computer game "Minecraft". The accompanying video has already more than 280,000 views on YouTube. The second single was followed in October 2012: "Not the Cure". A song in cooperation with Grammy-Award winner Philip Larsen (also remixer for Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and more) was produced and nominated before the publication for the "Hollywood Music in Media Awards”. The team around Anika Karabas is the first German band that was nominated for this American Music Award in 2012. In addition, the song reached top rankings in several dance and radio charts. So it was not surprising that the music video with a focus on the impressive front woman Anika Karabas was from the beginning of great interest. It was followed by airplays on many TV stations (A- rotation IM1 and MTV Music24). Also at the German Rock and Pop Award in 2012 and 2013 Hella Donna was one of the big winners. After 6 nominations in two years there were three initial placings for "Not the Cure" as “Single of the Year in 2013” and for "Groove on": "Best Producer of 2012" and "Best Cover 2012". Also: Nominations for the LSFM Newcomer Award 2012, winning the Bubble Beat Awards (Best Newcomer) of the Dude magazine and the BMT Award “Video of the Year 2013”.

In addition to numerous television appearances (Pro7, TV.Berlin, RNF.TV, IM1, BubblegumTV, NachtfahrtTV, YagalooTV, FAB, FAN) and video airplay (MTV Music 24, IM1, McDonalds Instore.TV, Putpat.TV, tape.tv, QTom, StreetclipTV) enthused Hella Donna her fans in the last year live in Germany - Anika and the band grooved at numerous major events and concerts. Further successes on the World Wide Web: 500,000 Views in YouTube channel and over 18,800 fans on Facebook - and rising.

Another highlight in April 2014 was a tour through Germany, Switzerland and Poland as the support of the British Led Zeppelin tribute band Letz Zep. Especially Anika and her boys were also excited to cooperation with the New European Westling League (N.E.W. ) for a new anthem produced by Hella Donna.

Future plans, tragets and visions

For 2014, the publication of the single "Gimme - Light, Camera & Action" (May 2014), a collaboration with U.S. indie rapper and YouTube Star None Like Joshua as well as the release of th fourth studio album "Unbreakable" (June 2014) is planned.

In addition, Anika Karabas and her four band mates look forward to numerous festival and club shows throughout Germany!
http://www.helladonna.com