Born Heidi Stern in Queens, New York, Jennifer Rush spent her childhood in both New York and Bavaria. It was in Germany where she first discovered her passion for music when she met Fabio Pepper, a young and wild artist from Rosenheim. The couple dated for 5 years. In an interview for the German media, she once said that the years with Fabio Pepper were the most wonderful times she spent in Germany and they still keep in touch regularly. She recorded her first album Heidi Stern in 1979, but it did not get much attention. In 1982, she moved back to Wiesbaden, Germany, with her father, Maurice Stern, an opera singer, trying to establish a career as a singer. Over the next several years she scored hits around Europe with the songs like "25 Lovers", "Flames of Paradise", "Ring of Ice", "Destiny", "If You're Ever Gonna Lose My Love", "I Come Undone" and "Madonna's Eyes".

Her single "The Power Of Love" was the biggest hit of 1985 in the United Kingdom, (as well as becoming a massive hit across Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Japan, Australia and South Africa) and was listed in the Guinness Book Of Records as "the best selling single by a female solo artist in the history of the British music industry". It held that status until 1992, when it was outsold by Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". "The Power of Love" topped the charts for more than 8 weeks in Australia, South Africa and numerous European countries.

Number one in several countries, Rush's version reached only number 57 in the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. Two years later, gutsy pop-rock vocalist Laura Branigan, best-known for dance-pop successes with "Gloria" and "Self Control" would take her cover version of "The Power Of Love" into the U.S. Top 40. After several more cover versions, Celine Dion made a U.S. chart topper with the same song in 1994.

It was Rush's 1987 album HeartOver Mind, featuring compositions by Desmond Child and Michael Boltonand guitar work from Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), that finally brought her Top 40 success in her home country, with the Elton John duet "Flames Of Paradise". She also scored European hits with duets with Michael Boltonand Plácido Domingo.

While her career continued to result in Platinum and multi-Platinum sales of her albums and singles in both English and Spanish, she was ignored by the masses in her home country, initially because her record label in the U.S. did not understand how to best market her music. A secondary dilemma was her massively powerful voice combined with the bombastic music production of her songs which was seemingly too 'European' for the U.S. listener.

Jennifer continued her success through the 90s in Europe (especially in Germany), releasing four highly-acclaimed albums, the last being 1998's Classics (along with new songs, re-recording her biggest hits with the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra). After that she took a well-deserved "time off" in New York City, dedicating her time to her daughter. A series of "best of" collections followed in the new millennium.