Cherchez La Femme: Remaining Mysteries In The Great Alliterating Romance of Our Times Extinguished!

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

Stressed out about the coming fixtures? Worried about el clasico! Join the club! Let's have a happy, cheerful post to take our minds off it for a bit!

Now it's all officially unofficially official, time to take a look at the lovely girl - 22 year old Mandy Capristo - and to clear up that final mystery: what were they doing in that toy-store in Madrid?  crinkly_ears knows everything! Read on to find out!

The Bambi Awards

Beginnings, Competitions, Monrose & The First Press Rumour

Once upon a time a girl was born in Mannheim, and brought up in Bürstadt. Her father was Italian and her mother was German. They called her Mandy Grace, and gave her singing, gymnastics and dancing lessons.

When Mandy was 11 (in 2001), she was entered into a televised singing competition by her music teacher. The competition - Kiddy Contest - was playing in Austria. She won the competition, singing Ich wünsche mir einen Bankomat.

In 2006, now 16 years old, Mandy entered a second competition. It was the German show Popstars - Germany's version of American Idol. After a six week process (where 5100 contestants were gradually eliminated and the remaining 20 were given singing and dancing lessons) the judges chose the first two members of the band: Senna Guemmour and Bahar Kızıl. The third member of the band was chosen by televoting.

Mandy was voted the third member of the band, to be called "Monrose". They were the most successful German all-girls band to date. Most of their records went platinum, 7 out of 11 of their singles were in the top 10 of the pop music charts and they are the only German all-girls band to have stayed together for more than 3 years (4 in total). In the week electric downloads for songs in Germany became legal, one of their singles smashed a long-held sales record.

Monrose was similar to the English pop-band "The SugarBabes" (only without the constant line-up changes) and the girls were very cute, giving giggly interviews, trying to speak English to English journalists, performing in concerts, making fun and artsy music videos, wearing lots of grown-up looking eye-make-up and the latest in trendy matching clothes and pretty shoes, and just generally having lots of fun! They also competed to get into EuroVision to represent Germany. The band sang mainly in English.

In October 2010, the band split up to pursue their individual careers.

A couple weeks later, news came out that a certain Mesut Ozil was single again after his fiancee had left him to return to Germany. For some reason, a press rumour developed (which I remember very well) that he was seeing "Monrose Mandy" (as she was still sometimes referred to in the press). 20 year-old Mandy's reaction when she was approached by a journalist on this subject: "I've never heard of this person in my life!"

The story, which was actually false, was put to bed.

Mandy's solo career is now in full swing.

Other Gigs: Modeling, Disney Films, Strictly Dancing & Magazines

Last year Mandy had a stint on German television doing "Let's Dance", which looks like it was a lot of fun!

She and her partner didn't win, but they seem to have had a ball, especially when they were practicing together. This video of them together shows a lot of humour and some lovely personality -

Because her voice is pretty and she can sing (of course!) Disney has used her for a couple of films. Most recently the German version of the film: "The Great Divide" - for which she voiced the character of the Winter-fairy "Periwinkle" - one of two main characters and the sister of Tinkerbell.

Mandy was also chosen twice by the readers of men's magazine FHM as one of the sexiest women in the world. The first time she came in 10th with band-mate Bahar in 100th place. The second time she won straight out and made the cover of the magazine -

The win was a bit of a surprise at the time that had concrete repercussions for her career. Interviewed after winning, Mandy said she was very surprised herself and personally thought Megan Fox was the sexiest woman in the world (mid thirties on the list, as it happens - Heidi Klum was number 100 for the record).

I personally find her fresh-faced appeal rather easy to see, but it wasn't until it happened that people saw her modelling potential.

So as a result of the win, she was snapped up by a modelling agency (incredibly - she had never modeled seriously before) and by various fashion companies, cosmetic companies, accessories designers and shoe companies. Here are some examples (there are many - these are just a few) of the types of ads she's done -

For Beyu Cosmetics:

The American shoe designer "JustFab"

Various fashion/clothing companies and magazine photo-shoots:

Mandy is not very tall for a model, but she's so beautiful and photographs so gorgeously she can easily do catalogues and photo-shoots!

Mandy: A Day In The Life

So what does a singer and model do all day? Well, first you have to wake up yourself and puppy up!





Then there's the daily argument over who gets what over breakfast.

If there's a place to travel to for an event or a show, there's packing to be done.

Mandy takes her pug, Capone, everywhere with her. When she stays in a hotel, there's even a bed for him in the room:






Sometimes songs have to be written and rehearsed...






And then recorded...

And sometimes in the evenings there's a performance...

There are modelling jobs, which require covering her already pretty face in lots of make-up for the magazines and posters -



Mandy: before the stylists get their hands on her...

I'm guessing she finds the process sort of boring!

Mandy: "Whatever!" Stylist: "Can we please take this seriously?"

And when there aren't concerts or a photo-shoot there are events and award-shows to go to -

And interviews to give -

And record-label photo-shoots -

And then there's the ever-present and daily battle to stay healthy and fit:

Mandy: Family & Friends

Mandy is very close to her family, long-time school-friends and the children of her long-time friends.

Here is her immediate family -

And of course, there's Capone, her darling pug who goes with her everywhere -

There are many close friends she likes to spend time with -

Most importantly though, the children of her friends. Mandy's Instagram is full of pictures of her best friend's son - the apple of her eye and a kid she is always baby-sitting and watching Disney movies with. In general, she seems to adore children.

In fact, she seems to end up with babysitting duty for her married friends a lot.

Why is this important? Because obviously it explains why on a trip to Madrid she and Mesut would have been in a toy store!

The final M&M Mystery Cleared Up!

There is nothing we don't know in this community! I hope the kids liked their presents from Madrid.

On a related note, winning and keeping Mandy's heart seems to be really easy: so Mesut should pay attention to these 5 hard and fast rules!

1. Suck up to the children in Mandy's life: candy, toys and bribes are useful for this. Tired of watching "The Little Mermaid"? Tough.
2. Get her parents on your side. Mandy loves her parents. Buy her Mum flowers, always agree with her Dad. Her Dad likes Angela Merkel's monetary policy? You think Angela Merkel is way cool! Her Mum cooks something? You have never tasted something so delicious in your life! On the subject of Dad: he's a football coach. So make sure to play well and impress him! No loose passes! Scoring against Barcelona is a major plus! Do it for love!
3. Flowers are your friend. Mandy loves flowers. She puts flowers in every room in her house. Her Instagram is full of pictures of fresh flowers. Time to get the number of a decent florist.
4. Beyonce is now your second favourite singer. Period. Deal with it.
5. Bribe the Pug. This is most important, probably. In a dispute between Rocky and Capone on who gets the best sofa cushion: Capone wins okay? Sorry Rocky. Love is on the line here.

And that, ladies and gents of crinkly_ears is the lovely girl that Mesut has fallen for! According to the press, he had a long-distance crush on her and asked friends for her phone-number and to help him meet her.

Or, in his own words: "She's down to earth and funny, I like spending time with her. She's a wonderful person..." Awwww....

Isn't she lovely?

.
.