Ute Lemper’s career is vast and varied. She has made her mark on theater and concert stages, as well as on film, in addition to appearing on more than 30 albums. She has been universally praised for her interpretations of Berlin cabaret songs, the works of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and the chansons of Marlene Dietrich, Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré, Jacques Prévert, Nino Rota, and Astor Piazzolla, among others.

Lemper won a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance as Velma Kelly in the West End production of Chicago, as well as a Theatre World Award for the same role on Broadway. She also earned a Molière Award for her performance as Sally Bowles in Cabaret in Paris. In addition to her stage performances, Lemper has received several Grammy nominations.

Lemper tours the world with her numerous theatrical and musical projects, including “Rendezvous with Marlene,” based on a three-hour phone call Lemper had with screen legend Marlene Dietrich in 1987; “Songs for Eternity,” featuring songs written by Jewish prisoners in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II; her homage to Astor Piazzolla, the “King of Tango”; the works of Brecht, Weill, and other composers of Berlin cabaret; and many others. She also created a triptych of poetry set to her own music: The Bukowski Project (with poetry by Charles Bukowski), Love Poems of Pablo Neruda, and The 9 Secrets (with writer Paulo Coelho).

Lemper formed her artistic identity as a young German woman in the early 1980s while living in West Berlin and being part of the local theater community before the fall of Berlin Wall. The worldwide releases of her early Weill albums catapulted her path towards artistically addressing the failure of humanity and facing crimes of the past. She has shared this theme on stages around the world, performing in five different languages on five continents for the last four decades.

Lemper has lived in New York City for 25 years with her family. She completed her autobiography in 2023, which is now a best-selling book in her native Germany.