The popular German girl band, No Angels, who represented Germany in 2008 and finished last with Disappear, loses another member. It was announced Nadja Benaissa has decided to leave the band.
The last year has been very hard for Nadja. In 2009, it became public that she is HIV positive. She was accused of having infected another man with the HIV virus while she already knew that she was infected by the virus. She was arrested for ten days and the trial will be in August. In the past there were already rumours about Nadja leaving the band. In May 2010 the band started a tour through five German cities. Nadja Benaissa cancelled her participation. Afterwards she was certified as ill for seven weeks.
The girl band No Angels was founded in the casting show, Popstars, in 2001. It consisted of five members: Lucy Diakovska, Sandy Mölling, Jessica Wahls, Nadja Benaissa and Vanessa Petruo. Her first song, Daylight In Your Eyes directly hit the charts. A second no.1 followed in the late summer of 2001 with the Eurythmics cover, There Must Be An Angel. Her albums, Elle’ments, Now Us and Pure all reached the top position of the German album charts as well.
In September 2003, the band announced its dissolution because all band members seemed to be exhausted. In January 2007, the reunion was officially announced. Vanessa Petruo decided not to join the band again, so only four band members were left.
On March 6th 2008, No Angels finally took part in the German final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade. They won by a very close vote against Caroline Fortenbacher. Their song, Disappear, could not convince the European audience and finished last with only 14 points, 12 of them coming from Bulgaria, the home country of band member Lucy Diakovska.
