In 1998 Valerie was selected to be cast in the girl group C-Bra, with which she scored a few hit singles (Make Up Your Mind!, Love You Today, Papa Chico) and released a full-length album, Mind Your Make Up! (1999). The group separated after releasing its one album, and Valerie focused on the completion of her studies, graduating with a law degree in 2000. In subsequent years, she worked as a jazz singer in the south of France, an experience that inspired her to name her next project Saint Privat. Named after a village near Montpellier in which she lived for a while, the project was a collaboration chiefly with producer Klaus Waldeck; other members of the group include guitarist Clemens Wabra, bassist Ruediger Kostron, and drummer Erwin Schober.
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Following the relative disappointment of Superflu, Valerie split from Saint Privat and embarked on a solo career as a jazzy pop/rock singer in partnership with the Ariola division of Sony BMG. Her first solo release was the lead single Mädchen, a number 11 hit in Austria, followed shortly thereafter by the album Picknick (2007). The follow-up single, Noch Einmal, proved much less popular, charting for only one week and peaking at only number 73. The third single, the ballad Regen, caught on, however, breaking into the Top Ten and driving Picknick back up onto the albums charts, where it approached its previous peak position of number 24. The revived interest in Picknick, thanks to the heavy airplay of Regen, motivated Ariola to reissue the album in 2008 in a new edition boasting new cover art, bonus tracks, and multimedia content. ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi