Natacha

Natacha emerged among the earliest Mundartmusik acts to secure number-one chart placement. The Swiss pop singer, born Natacha von Moos in Berne, Switzerland, first rose to prominence in the early-to-mid 1990s, after which her recordings sustained steady popularity. Her initial solo full-length appeared in 1992 on the NICY Music label as the self-titled Natacha.

Breakthrough arrived with the 1993 album Orlando, whose highlights included “Nadisna” and the title track; that release climbed to number twelve on the Swiss albums chart and became the first of three consecutive Natacha projects overseen by producer Tony Carey. Its successor, Stärntaler (1995), climbed even higher, reaching the top of the Swiss albums chart and representing a milestone for Mundartmusik—music performed in Swiss German dialect—at the time.

The chart-topping performance of Stärntaler led to a contract with EMI Music and the subsequent releases Venezia (1996), Imago (1998), Natacha (2000), and Kuss (2002). Among the major singles from this era were “Banderas” (1996), “Sölli, Sölli Nid” (1998), “I Wär So Gärn” (2000), and “Sorry” (2002). Natacha next moved to Sony BMG, issuing Gschpüre (2004) and Greatest Hits: Losla (2006), the latter blending newly recorded material with earlier selections.

Although she had already maintained consistent commercial traction—every post-breakthrough album except Greatest Hits: Losla had reached the Swiss Top 20 and frequently the Top Ten—a further resurgence occurred in 2008 with N-10 and its featured single “I Fa di Uf.” That album marked her strongest chart placement in eight years and her first project for Universal Music, the company that had acquired the majority of her back catalog and, to celebrate the tenth album, reissued her earlier titles.