Career
In her late teenage years she became the lead singer of several soul and rock bands, including The Gong FM Band, LOP and the more popular Panta Rei. After her high school graduation at Anton-Bruckner-Gymnasium Straubing, Elli decided to become a student teacher and began studying Music and Sports at Regensburg University. Around the same time, in 2003, she participated in the second season of Deutschland sucht den SuperStar.
Because of her massive stage experience, her raspy voice and the unconventional look she was seen as an early favourite by the judges and also by the audience, who enabled her to sing against comrade-in-arms Denise Tillmanns during the final show.
However, in the end she beat out runner-up Tillmanns by a margin of 11 percent. Elli"s first single "This Is My Life" (written and produced by Dieter Bohlen) was released in April 2004 via BMG. Afterwards Elli decided not to collaborate with Dieter Bohlen once again (as Klaws had done before), caused by personal and musical differences with the judge.
As a consequence she went on tour with her band Panta Rei for some time. In winter 2006, Erl"s previously unreleased record "Better Than the Best" was chosen to become the Corporate Song for Doctor of Humane Letters. After her 2007 Album, "Moving On", failed to make an impact she chose to get full creative control over her subsequent work and founded her own record label 1773 Records.
Her third album "Human" is slated for a May 2009 release.
Erl has written most of the tracks and played several instruments (acoustic guitar, piano, harmonica and accordion) on the album. Private Nowadays, Erl is working as a teacher at a Realschule in Düsseldorf. Her father is headmaster in a Realschule in Regenstauf in Bavaria.
Elli Erl is bisexual, but prefers to have relationships with women.
