Amongst her huge musical success in Germany where she built a name for herself as a great vocalist and performer, Helena also toured the whole of Germany, Austria and Switzerland singing backing vocals for the singing artist and music producer, Edo Zanki (his songs are all with German texts) on the Gib Mir Musik single hit tour with Sascha, Xavier Naidoo and Soehne Mannheims Rolf Stahlhoven. She started to learn the language properly when she took a role in the musical The Little Shop Of Horrors (or, in German, Der Kleiner Horror Laden).
Some of her studio sessions in Germany include recording with the following projects: Sweet Box, Captain Hollywood, Haddaway, Jam & Spoon, Xavier Naidoo, Kosho, De Phazz, Joe Kraus, SWR3 Radio Station Jingles, SWR Big Band, Masterboy, TMC, Down Low, Dacia (It Makes Me Wonder), 3P featuring Linda Carriere. Helena has sung background vocals on MTV and Baerbel Schaeffer whilst on tour with 3P. Songwriting partnerships were together with Michael Herberger (from Naidoo records - Mannheim), Tom Keil & Thorsten Adler of A&K Records (Darmstadt), Kosho (Mannheim) as well as with the Sweet Box producers (Bensheim), Logic Records (Frankfurt) and Hart and Held productions (Mainz).
Whilst in Germany one of Helenas claims to fame was that she instigated a team of 10 people who together, under the name of Help, raised a considerable sum of money by creating a Live Aid-style concert as a charity event in Mannheim for the Kosovo war. It was a huge success where 79 Artists including many famous German names, TV and Radio presenters, radio stations, TV stations etc donated their services totally for free. The concert venue was the Rosengarten in Mannheim and working together, gratis, were all the musicians, vocalists, back stage crew, all security, all the sound and lighting crew, catering donated by a local hotel and they even managed to get printers to print the posters for free, the same story with the tickets which were printed and distributed to the agents etc. All in all there were around 2000 tickets sold and they made more than 90 thousand German Marks which was presented at a press conference to the Red Cross in Germany to help build a hospital for the victims of the Kosovo war. This was something that Helena did from her own volition because she was aware, as performers, they have a voice and are able to do something about such tragedies - rather than just sit back and criticise how terrible it all is! There was a 4 hour video made to catalogue the whole show. For sure, all the people involved on that special day, on stage and off, will always remember that day where all were surrounded by a great feeling of loving, caring and giving. Helena gives thanks to everyone who took part!
During her stay in Germany, Helena learned and performed songs in Hebrew and Yiddish for a concert where she was singing with Mannheims community Rabbi, Rafaeli Polani (originally from Israel).
Helena has been featured in a new book called Toene Mannheims (printed by Edition Braus im Wachter Verlag publishers - Heidelberg, Germany). The book was instigated by a well known photographer from the Mannheim area called Nicole Simon. It consists of a huge selection of professional photographs Nicole has taken of all the well known personalities and famous artists who have risen from the town of Mannheim. And there are quite a few! Helena Pauls photograph with Nicoles biog. piece is featured side by side with stars like Joy Flemming, Xavier Naidoo, Laith Al Deen, Jule Neigel, De Phazz to name but a few Helenas inclusion in this book highlights the kind of impression her short time in Germany left on the music scene and her audiences as a well known and respected Artist.
Helena has relocated recently to live on the south coast of Spanish mainland. In her earlier years she lived in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). This was effectively the beginning of her professional singing career even though Helenas main focus has always been music where she sang, played the piano, wrote songs and has had bands from the time that she was in school.
Soon after she established a name in Tenerife, Helena returned to the UK to really hit the London scene. There she had much success and learnt her craft by treading the boards in the various famous clubs and bars like Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express, The Marquee, The Rock Garden, The Spot, Ten Rooms, Troy Bar etc as well as writing and recording in a lot of Englands top recording studios alongside many great professionals such as Peter Gabrielle in his Real World Studios with Fischer Z, Phil Collins, Wet Wet Wet, Angie Brown (Bizarre Inc) and many more This was a fundamental time for her where she made most of her musical contacts and learnt a lot of the experiences that she still uses today on stage as well as behind the scenes.
For a couple of years Helena was also the host for a show called The Original Songwriters a regular Monday evening event (still held) in West Kensington, London. The concept of the night is to showcase up and coming talents in the UK for A&R and music management companies, using a house band of professional session musicians and a team of backing vocalists. The show has been hugely successful for many years now. As part of the hosting job, Helena got to perform her own original material on a weekly basis to open and close the shows. Also she had to learn and arrange all the backing vocals to support each of the various new acts which were to perform each week. She had a great flair for presenting the acts and co-ordinating the back stage with the performances. This time in her life was rock and roll at its finest! She renamed her backing vocal team as The Horny Section!
Amongst other elements of her work today in Spain, she has sung for the Marbella Big Band. Also she has been teaching for the Spanish franchise of Stage Coach in Gibraltar and continues to have several private students also. Helena performs at various night spots in Marbella and on the Mijas Costa with forthcoming events in Barcelona, Valencia and other parts of Spain as well as on the Algarve in Portugal. Her wish is to create a larger music culture in the area where she is living and she is happy to work together with the local councils to have more live music and jazz festivals in southern Spain. Helena has so far performed as a featured artist in jazz festivals for Granada, Ronda, Jimena de la Frontera and Madrid with some great players on the Spanish jazz music scene.