Verena von Strenge, fondly referred to as the 'Rave Queen,' was born on July 27th, 1975. Currently she is the lead singer of Dune, but, it wasn't always that way. She began her career with Dune as a dancer during the group's live performances, back when Dune consisted of Oliver Froning, Bernd Burhoff, and Jens Oettrich. This job is what brought about her rise to fame when she became the lead singer in 1996.

Verena's love for dance started at the tender age of 5, when her grandmother, a former ballerina, began to teach Verena classical dance. Before Dune, Verena was going to persue a career as a professional musical singer/dancer. However, she had to give up that dream due to knee problems.

Verena's first singing job with Dune came with the vocal remake of their own song, Can't Stop Raving, originally recorded on their first album. She recorded two albums with Dune, Expedicion and Live!, before she announced that she would be leaving the group to persue a solo career.

However, before she left the group, she recorded one last album, Forever, in which she demonstrated her vocal talents as a classical singer. The remake of Queen's Who Wants To Live Forever was the last single released with Verena still a part of the group.

When she first left, Verena was unable to sign with a new record label due to complications with her existing contract under Orbit Records, so she had to hold off for a while, before she could do anything.

Eventually Verena signed with Mega Records, where she began to work on an album. In her time with Mega Records, Verena recorded and released the three singles, Finally Alone, Heartbeat, and Part of Your World, a remake of the soundtrack song of Disney's The Little Mermaid(click here for lyrics to the three Verena songs). During this time Verena also became a model for a major German clothing manufacturer; her image was plastered across a multitude of magazines. Not only that, but she kept herself busy with interviews and live performances on a variety of television stations.

Unfortunately, Verena's solo career didn't go as well as expected; record sales were too low for Mega Record's liking. A forth single, Sky(Follow Me) was being prepared, but Mega Records stopped the recording process and cut off funding for the www.verena-von-strenge.de web site. For some time, nothing was heard of Verena, and people wondered what was going to happen.

Fortunately, in the summer of 1999, Verena was reunited with Dune with the release of the single, Dark Side of the Moon. An album, Reunion, was planned to commemorate Oliver and Verena's reunion, which, because of the Heaven ordeal, didn't end up getting released(see Dune Bio for details).

Dune announced that they would be taking a break, where each individual could persue their own career interests for a while. During this time, Verena spent a full week hosting a show on VIVA, in which she was given the opportunity to interview other groups, such as the Vengaboys.

Since then, Verena has been the vocals for three more Dune songs, Back to the Future, Here I Am, and Space Invaders, all available on the greatest hits album, History.

Will Verena be the vocals for a new Dune album? Only time will tell...