Vanessa Ferber (née Mandekić, born 2 May 1992), known professionally as Vanessa Mai, is a German singer. She first gained notoriety as a member of schlager band Wolkenfrei and later began working as a solo artist following the band's split. She chose her stage name as a reference to her birth month, which is spelled Mai (pronounced ) in German.
Vanessa Mai completed a media designer apprenticeship. She had one of her first performances as a singer in the school musical The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Before that, she had occasionally accompanied her father, a musician born in Croatia, with the tambourine. In 2008, aged 15, she took part to the hip-hop world championship in Las Vegas, placing last, as part of the dance formation Getting Craz'd, who were German champions.
In 2012, she met Andrea Berg's stepson Andreas Ferber, who became her manager, in a Stuttgart club, and began dating him in 2013. After getting engaged in early 2016, they got married in June 2017. The civil marriage took place on 6 June, while the church wedding took place in Mallorca on 12 June.