The band began with lead vocalist Natalie Horler, who made her live debut at the age of 17 performing live in jazz clubs, bars and casinos around her home town of Bonn, West Germany. As her musical tastes changed, she found herself seeking out collaborations with DJ's and producers instead of performing live, and it was during this period where she met her fellow Cascada band-mates Manuel Reuter (otherwise known as Manian) and Yann Peifer (Yanou). Eventually, the trio worked together on the same track, and hit it off so much that they decided to work together full time as a band, taking the name Cascade for themselves. However, soon after their live debut a fellow producer by the name of Kaskade threatened legal action based on how similar their names were, and so Reuter, Peifer and Horler changed their band name to Cascada in response.
Soon after the name change they signed to Andorfine Records and released their first singles, “Miracle” and “Bad Boy”. The latter song was their first genuine hit and attracted the attention of the American dance music label Robbins Entertainment, who signed them at the end of 2004. In August 2005, their second single “Everytime We Touch” became a colossal hit all over the world, with Gold and Platinum certifications in no less than six countries. Ever since then, the band have continued to be one of the most commercially successful trance acts in the world, with 30 million physical records sold and a further 15 million digital downloads to match. For being the first exposure that many music fans have to the weird and wonderful world of techno, Cascada come highly recommended.
In terms of mainstream dance crossovers, they probably haven’t come too much bigger, this past decade or so, than Cascada. It’s not that the German trio have reinvented the wheel - far from it, with their brand of Eurodance a pretty familiar one for anybody who’s ever switched on a chart-oriented radio station during the summer on that continent - but their interpolation of pop influences has made them hugely successful commercially, having sold an estimated thirty million records worldwide, and an estimated fifteen million single downloads racked up over the course of just ten years, too. Key to their success is frontwoman Natalie Horler, who - in the public eye at least - is Cascada, a real pop star in her own right. She’s the real bedrock of the live show for Cascada, too, an engaging performer who’s also more than capable of replicating her impressive recorded vocals on stage. The trio’s last UK tour, as part of Clubland Live 3 in 2009, saw them sharing the bill with the likes of N-Dubz and Darren Styles; the fact that they were playing arenas was a huge boon for Cascada, who were able to harness some impressive lighting to really bring their club bangers to life.