Claudia Cane

Claudia Cane – Rock ’n’ Roll Without a Safety Net

Some voices are trained. Others are forged by experience. Claudia Cane unmistakably belongs to the latter kind. For more than 25 years, she has been one of the most distinctive voices in Germany’s rock and blues scene – a singer with a beautifully weathered rasp, a commanding stage presence and the kind of authenticity that cannot be manufactured.
Her career has never followed the industry’s safest or most predictable route. After completing professional training in acting and musical theatre, Cane spent five formative years in London before returning to Germany. She first reached a wider television audience as the voice behind the title songs of several major SAT.1 productions, including “Benzin im Blut”, starring Sonja Kirchberger, “36 Stunden Angst” and “Die rote Meile”.
Her debut solo album, “Come Closer!”, arrived in 2000, produced by renowned drummer and producer Curt Cress alongside Claudia’s brother Andrew Cane. Its lead single, “Free”, took her to the German national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, where she competed in the same year as Stefan Raab and his memorably eccentric “Wadde hadde dudde da?”. Even then, it was obvious that Cane was never designed to fit neatly into the music business’s usual categories.
The defining chapter of her career began with AC/DC. In 2001, she opened for the Australian rock titans on their German stadium tour. It proved to be far more than a one-off invitation. AC/DC brought her back for their club shows in 2003 and once again for the German and Austrian dates of the “Black Ice Tour” in 2009. Few German singers have shared a stage with Angus Young and company so often – or at such close quarters.
In 2012, Cane paid tribute to that long-standing connection with “CC/DC – A True AC/DC Remake”. This was never intended as a routine covers album. Drawing on her favourite songs from the Bon Scott era, Cane approached the material with reverence but without imitation. She did not simply sing AC/DC songs; she inhabited them, reshaping them around a voice that already carried enough grit, bruises and rock ’n’ roll history of its own.
Richie Sambora also took notice. In 2014, the former Bon Jovi guitarist personally selected Claudia Cane from hundreds of applicants to support his German tour. A duet performed together each night became one of the shows’ emotional highlights – a meeting between two musicians for whom honesty has always mattered more than polish.
Her 2017 album “Friends” revealed another side of her musical personality and reaffirmed the breadth of her range. Cane’s voice has often been compared to Melissa Etheridge, Tina Turner and Janis Joplin; at times, there is even a flash of Bon Scott’s ragged charm in her delivery. But such comparisons only go so far. Claudia Cane has long since established a sound that is entirely her own: powerful yet vulnerable, defiant but soulful, and always unmistakably human.
In the years that followed, she concentrated largely on live performance – the place where she has always appeared most at home. Cane does not sing her songs from a safe distance. She throws herself into them, accepts the risk and expects the audience to come along for the ride.
Her studio return came with “I Won’t Forget You”, composed by Tom Fock with lyrics by Tommy Wagner. The accompanying video, directed by Thomas Schwendemann and filmed in Munich’s Olympic Park, was made possible by a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Since then, Cane has continued her creative partnership with songwriter Tom Fock and producer Warthy Wartmann, known for his work with artists including Unheilig, Frei.Wild and Nino de Angelo. A run of solo singles has allowed her to refine the territory where she sounds most convincing: the point at which rock, blues and soul collide.
At the same time, Cane has rediscovered the spark that comes from meeting another voice in a song. She recorded two acclaimed duet singles with Andreas Kümmert, followed by a further collaboration with Diana D. More sessions with established artists are already being planned, leading towards an ambitious album scheduled for 2028. The record will feature Claudia Cane performing exclusively in duets with a cast of musical friends and fellow travellers.
Cane also continues to revisit the music that shaped her. Her muscular interpretation of Hot Chocolate’s “Every 1’s a Winner” stripped away the familiarity of the disco-rock classic and rebuilt it around her own unmistakable voice. In autumn 2026, she turns to one of her greatest inspirations, Janis Joplin, with a new recording of “Move Over”. The song will also form part of her appearance with the Hamburg Blues Band at the 2026 Woodstock Forever Festival.
That connection with Joplin will continue into 2027 with a special series of performances by “Claudia Cane & The Cosmic Blues Band”. The concerts will accompany readings by Gaby dos Santos exploring Joplin’s life, bringing spoken word and live music together in an attempt to look beyond the legend and find the woman behind the myth.
More than a quarter of a century into her career, Claudia Cane sounds every bit as energised as she did at the beginning – perhaps more so. She has played stadiums and clubs, shared stages with rock royalty and somehow retained the one quality the business is most likely to erode: individuality.
Her voice carries the evidence of the journey. It is rough, warm, powerful and still just a little dangerous.

Claudia Cane does not play rock ’n’ roll out of nostalgia for another age. She plays it because, for her, this music remains a matter of attitude.