Kati Wolf

Kati Wolf (full name: Katalin Wolf; born in Szentendre, September 24, 1974) is a Hungarian singer. 

Kati spent her childhood in Szentendre. She became known in 1981 when she sang the theme song of the animated film “Vuk”, following the original version by Maros Gábor. She graduated from college specializing in solfège and choir conducting. During her high school years, she was a member of the Stúdió Dél band, performing blues songs. After the band later disbanded, she became a member of another musical group, Sunny Dance Band, where she was one of the singers. Her years there brought her a lot of experience and pleasant memories, perhaps contributing to her continued performances with the band despite her solo career. She then joined the funk band New Chocolate, followed by Avocaldo, where they mainly played popular Latin music, and the singer mentioned attending salsa classes. In 2001, she sang in a Queen tribute band, and soon after, founded Enjoy with her friends, entertaining audiences with pop hits. The last musical group she was seen in was János Nagy’s jazz band.

In 2006, she was one of the vocalists in the first season of the show “Szombat esti láz” (Saturday Night Fever). Her first album, “Wolf – áramlat”, was released in 2009, with songs and some lyrics written by her father, Péter Wolf. The album featured texts written by significant lyricists in their field, like Péter Gerendás, Ági Szabó, and Noémi Virág Pásztor. The album included a duet song “Tündérmesénk” (Our Fairy Tale) sung with Charlie.

In 2010, she participated in the X-Factor talent show. In the seventh live show of X-Factor, Ildikó Keresztes and Péter Geszti voted to send Wolf Kati home, while Feró Nagy and Miklós Malek chose Takács Nikolas. As a tie occurred in the jury, the decision on who would continue was based on viewer votes, leading to Wolf Kati’s departure from the show. Péter Geszti, who contributed to the tie situation, promised to write a song for her as compensation.

She didn’t win the competition, but she did gain national fame. Fulfilling his promise, Péter Geszti wrote a song for Kati after her exit, with music by the Gergő Rácz–Viktor Rakonczai duo. “Szerelem, miért múlsz?” quickly became popular in Hungarian light music circles. The song became one of the most played songs by Kati Wolf on domestic radios.

Encouraged by the success of the song, a month after its release, MTVA announced that they would enter Kati’s hit in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. They entered the competition with a Hungarian-English version of the song, titled “What About My Dreams?”. The song advanced to the final and finished in 22nd place out of 25 in the final, with 53 points.

After the festival, more people became familiar with Kati’s name, and by the autumn of 2011, her song “Vár a holnap” was released, which also had an English version. In the same year, her album also titled “Vár a holnap” was released, containing 16 songs. In 2011, she sang the Christmas song of the M1 DTK show along with Barna Pély, Adrien Szekeres, and Roy, which became one of the most popular Christmas songs of 2011.

In 2012, she became one of the jury members of the Hungarian Eurovision Song Contest pre-selection show, A Dal. That year, she also shot a video clip for her song “Az aki voltam”, which also had an English version. Shortly after, her song “Lángolj!” was released. In 2013, the singer again came out with a song, “Hívjuk elő!”, the lyrics of which were also written by Péter Geszti.

Soon after, she became the face of the Pirosban a nőkért (Women in Red) campaign along with Szonja Oroszlán and Gigi Radics, and they jointly sang the song “Szív dala” (Song of the Heart). In December, she released a new song, “Mesén túl”, and in February 2014, its English version titled “Porcelain” was also released.

In November 2014, she introduced her composition “Ne engedj el!” and entered it in the Hungarian Eurovision Song Contest selection, A Dal, with its English version, making it to the live broadcast among the top 30 songs. She advanced from the semi-final in second place. She achieved great success in the intermediate round two weeks later; scoring a total of 44 points and thus reaching first place to enter the final round of the competition. However, in the last round, she was not the one chosen to represent Hungary at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest based on the votes of the viewers and the jury.

Also, in the same year, she participated in the TV2 show Sztárban sztár (Star in a Star), finishing in fifth place.

In 2018, she participated in the sixth season of TV2’s A nagy duett (The Great Duet), partnering with two-time Olympic champion Rajmund Fodor and achieving seventh place.

In 2019, according to the compilation of MAHASZ, her song “Szerelem, miért múlsz?” was named the song of the decade.

In 2020, she released two more singles, “Egynyári” and “Boldogság utca 100”. In early 2021, she released the song “Te csak így vagy jó”. She also released a children’s album, “Gyerekszáj”. In the same year, Kati took part in Dancing With The Stars.

In 2022 and 2023, Kati was a member of the A Dal jury again. She started the Queen Real Jazz concerts again with Levente Csordas and Tibor Kocsis. 

In February 2023, the song “Aki vinne magával” was released, followed by “Szerelem az égben”.