Early on, she exhibited singing talent, and was discovered in 1978 by Georg Bossert at a performance of her school's choir.From 1996 to 2000, she was part of Die Wochenshow on Sat.1, a rather famous comedy TV show in Germany at that time, alongside Bastian Pastewka, Ingolf Lück and Marco Rima.In 2003, Engelke and Olli Dittrich were awarded the Grimme-Preis for the improv show Blind Date 2 – Taxi nach Schweinau.On 17 May 2004, when the very successful Die Harald Schmidt Show left Sat.1, Engelke took over its timeslot with Anke Late Night, which was cancelled due to low ratings a few months later on 21 October 2004.[4] The following year, Engelke served as the spokesperson for Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 held in Baku, Azerbaijan.