Anna Ermakova sings Boris Becker's daughter releases first album

Anna Ermakova, Boris Becker's daughter, has slowly but surely crept into the limelight - and into the public's favor. She showed how well she dances on "Let's Dance". Now she is also releasing music.

For years, Anna Ermakova was first and foremost "the daughter of". A spitting image of her father Boris Becker, many people probably saw the tennis idol first - and her only at second glance, if at all. That has increasingly changed.

The now 24-year-old works as a model, danced her way into viewers' hearts on the RTL show "Let's Dance" and won the 16th season of the program.

Now she also wants to make a career as a singer. Her first album entitled "Behind Blue Eyes" will be released this Friday, August 9.

"I really wanted to cover 'Behind Blue Eyes'"

The title track is a cover of the song with which she probably enchanted viewers the most on "Let's Dance". But "Behind Blue Eyes" also stands for what has been going on behind her own blue eyes in recent years.

"I really wanted to cover 'Behind Blue Eyes'. The song meant a lot to me - both when I heard it when I was younger and because of the magical moment on 'Let's Dance'," says Ermakova in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

"It was a moment when I felt accepted for who I am - by myself and also by the German people," she continues.

She will never forget this moment.

Anna Ermakova: "Music and films were my safe space"

The entire album consists of well-known film songs that Anna Ermakova has reinterpreted with her warm, gentle, emotive yet powerful and recognizable voice. She sounds much more mature and expressive than one might have expected from the newcomer.

"When I was growing up, music and movies were incredibly important to me. They were my safe space," enthuses Anna Ermakova.

She wanted to reconnect with that younger part and discover herself to find her musical sound - and her genre, she says. "It's a big learning-healing-and-gratitude journey for me and I'm excited to share it."

There are 15 songs on the album, including a duet with pop singer Florian Silbereisen. With him, she follows in the footsteps of Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman and sings "Somethin' Stupid". Other classics such as "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Venus" are also included.

"It's a variation of different things and sounds from different time periods and genres. Male performers, female performers - it doesn't matter. We have everything," says the 24-year-old, describing her album, which means a lot to her.

"I grew up with so much judgment"

"I grew up with so much judgment that I cringed," Anna Ermakova recalls. "Then dancing meant a connection to my body - and singing has now connected me to my voice, to my words and to saying things and expressing how you feel," she says.

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Ermakova did not give interviews for a long time. "When I was growing up, I wanted to stay away from it. But you shouldn't hide from life and from being yourself."

And she wants to continue to develop this musically, as she says in the dpa interview. She can imagine that it won't be her only work as a singer: "I'm definitely starting to like it."

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