Diva Divo - Dance Magazine

You can call her a lot of things: even the wrong name.

But whatever you do, don't call her the T-word.

"It's totally wrong when people say we do 'techno,'" cries Natalie Horler, the German singer better known to American audiences as Cascada. Horler, who has been singing since she was a teenager, takes her music seriously; and it's paid off, considering that Cascada – armed with the Top 10 hit "Everytime We Touch" and several big follow up singles – has been one of the few Euro dance acts since the Clinton years (La Bouche, anyone?) to invade mainstream American radio.

But when asked about the pet peeves that accompany newfound fame, Horler is unhappy with having her music lumped under the wrong genre heading.

" Cascada We don't do 'techno,'" she reiterates to the hypothetical offender. "People don't know what techno is. If there's anything fast and electronic, people call it techno!"

Funny that Horler takes offense at what people call her music, since she finds it far less irksome that her own name is frequently the subject of confusion.

"People call me Cascada all the time, and I do answer to it," says Horler. "They think it's my stage name."

But actually, Cascada refers to the European production team – the dance music industry's equivalent of "a band" - of Natalie Horler, DJ Manian and Yanou (of the DJ Sammy featuring Yanou summer time hit, "Heaven"). Horler met the producers when she was 17, doing studio gigs for various DJs and lending her pipes to tracks-in-progress. The daughter of a jazz musician, Horler envisioned a future in the music business that was more in line with her own favorite icons growing up: R&B and pop crossover stars like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Boyz II Men.

When she was approached to be the permanent front person for the Cascada team, Horler was unsure about taking on the dance genre.

"I went home and I slept on it overnight," she says. "I always wanted to do R&B and stuff, but I said 'Oh God… you wanted this opportunity' [for the music business]."

Horler accepted, and it was a rare opportunity for fame, indeed. Whereas her teammates spend most of their time behind the scenes, she is the pretty blonde; the vocalist; the touring act; in short, she's The Face.

Hence the confusion about the Cascada moniker.

"It even sounds like a girl's name!" laughs Cascada – er, Horler – who adds that her teammates don't take offense by Horler inadvertently hogging the spotlight.

Given the act's success, why complain? Cascada has quickly become responsible for delivering some of the most infectious dance-pop of the last decade. With the newly released, second stateside album Perfect Day, even more emphasis is placed on the latter half of that equation. Buoyed by lead single "What Hurts the Most," a dance remake of the country music hit recently popularized by Rascal Flatts, Perfect Day is banking on the crossover success of Cascada's earlier club (and radio) hits like "Everytime We Touch," "Miracle," and "Truly Madly Deeply."