Prior to embarking on a solo career, Sandra was the lead singer of the all-female disco trio Arabesque , which had a following in Japan and in Soviet Union. Also, between and , she provided vocals on album releases of the very successful musical project Enigma , which had top 10 hits in North America and the United Kingdom. A cult star with a devoted fan base, Sandra remains one of the most popular singers of the s in Continental Europe. During the height of her popularity, she even managed to outsell Madonna in a number of countries around the world.
With sales in excess of 33 million records worldwide, Sandra has established her position as the most successful German female vocalist. Sandra had an older brother, Gaston, a paraplegic who died in She showed an early interest in music and dancing, taking classical ballet at the age of five and guitar lessons when she was She was only a member of the audience, but when the participants had finished performing and the jury was discussing the results, Sandra walked onto the stage and persuaded the DJ to put on the German version of an Olivia Newton-John song.
The impromptu performance gained considerable recognition and led to the release of her first single, a song about a pet dog, " Andy mein Freund ". The single, however, performed poorly. In , now 17, Sandra joined Arabesque , a disco group consisting of Michaela Rose and Jasmine Vetter, and would become the band's lead singer. At that time, Sandra met keyboardist Michael Cretu. They found that they shared the same birthday, albeit five years apart, and became good friends. Arabesque became successful with their cheerful music and flamboyant costumes, winning a massive following in Japan and scoring a top 10 hit in Germany in with "Marigot Bay".
Their first single together was 's "Japan ist weit", a German cover of the Alphaville song " Big in Japan ". However, the song failed to chart with only copies sold. Sandra gained international success in with the song " I'll Never Be Maria Magdalena ", which topped the charts in 21 countries [ 9 ] and reached the top 10 in another five.
Shortly after the release of The Long Play , Sandra moved to London for six months to work with singing teacher Helena Shelen and take drum lessons. She also enrolled at the London Berlitz School of Languages to improve her English, returning to Germany at weekends to record new songs. Sandra's second studio album, Mirrors , was released in October with " Innocent Love " chosen as the first single, followed by " Hi! Both of these up-tempo synth-pop offerings achieved success in continental Europe.
