Indira Weis

Verena Weis (born September 30, 1979, Groß-Gerau, Hesse, Germany) is a German singer and actress, who rose to fame as a member of the R&B/Pop group Bro'Sis. She is currently working on a solo career.

Early life

Weis was the second daughter born to her mother Manju, an Indian interpreter and her German father Helmut, a retired grammar school teacher. Her one-year older sister works as a flight attendant. She received the nickname "Indira" on a trip to India where she has relatives.

Weis began at the age of five years with piano lessons and guitar lessons. After the Abitur she began a study of the music sciences and American studies. She broke them to take instead theatrical lessons with main focus Song and Dance at the international theatrical school in Munich. There she helped in a Hip Hop tape and started to work as a model. Also she brokeoff the theatrical school after one year and finished a training period in an Internet agency. Last she worked before her application with Popstars as a producer with the Frankfurt radio station Planet Radio.

Recently, after spending more than a year in Israel, Verena made an Orthodox Conversion to Judaism. Her Hebrew name is Shira, meaning "Song" in Hebrew.

Bro'Sis

In 2001, Weis decided to audition for the second season of the German reality television program Popstars. She entered the competition with thousands of other men and women, and the judges Alex Christensen, Noah Sow and Detlef Soost were impressed with her performance of Usher's song "You make me wanna". She earned positions in the Recall and the re-recalls, before travelling to Ibiza, Spain to join her competitors for a workshop there. In the end, Indira Weis made it to the final eight on the show, and during a special episode in November 2001, jury member Soost disclosed that she was chosen to become part of the final group, later called Bro'Sis.

With the final six members of the band in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of Bro'Sis. However, it took another two months until the band released "I Believe", produced by Christensen, which would subsequently appear on the band's debut album Never Forget (Where You Come From). The single and the album became a major success, both peaking at No.1 on the German and Austrian singles, airplay and albums charts, eventually selling more than 1.5 million copies.

In the following years the hype around the band decreased constantly. On August 5, 2002 she received the New Faces Award as a „Trendsetter of the year“.

On May 9, 2003, four days before the band's second album's release, Indira Weis announced her departure from the group. Official statements claimed that musical differences between her and the rest of the band had been reason enough for leaving. However, rumours persisted that she had fallen out with her bandmates.

Solo career

After going solo Indira concentrated on her acting career. After spending more than a year studying religion in Israel, Verena converted to orthodox Judaism. Her Hebrew name is Shira, meaning "singing" in Hebrew. In September 2009, she released her debut single, a cover version of the Rudi Carrell single Wann wird's mal wieder richtig Sommer?. She recorded a video for her second single "Oh" in September 2006 but the plans to release the video were dropped. "It was just too much for me", remembered Indira. Against her will the video premiered in its entirety on YouTube on November 6, 2009 and received harsh criticism. On June 25, 2010, she released her second single Beautiful Destination.

Solo singles

• 2004: SOKO Köln (ZDF)
• 2005: Letztes Kapitel (ZDF)
• 2005: SOKO Kitzbühel - Blumen für die Diva (ZDF)
• 2007: Der Kriminalist - Abwärts (ZDF)
• 2008: Das Traumhotel - Karibik (ARD)
• 2008: Arbeitsaufenthalt in Israel
• 2011: Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! (Series 5)

• 2005: Helloh
• 2007: Miss Lucifer!
• 2009: Snowblind

• 1993: Igelhans, Nationaltheater Mannheim
• 1995: The Winter's Tale, Staatstheater Darmstadt
• 1998: West Side Story (Maria), Manchester
• 2005: Quo Vadis, Theater Trier

• 2002: New Faces Award, „Trendsetter of the year“