Already in 1980, Humpe founded Ideal along with Ernst Ulrich Deuker and Frank Jürgen Krüger (called "EffJott").

Among others, they also recorded songs originally performed by Neonbabies including the highly popular "Blaue Augen", written by Annette Humpe.

[9] The song was performed by the two Austrian comedians Joesi Prokopetz and Manfred Tauchen along with Inga Humpe.

The duo was known as Swimming with Sharks in the UK, probably due to the potential sexual connotations of the name Humpe in English.

Annette Humpe resigns as a singer after the release of her album and would exclusively work as a composer and producer over the following years.

During that time, she wrote and produced for successful artists such as Udo Lindenberg, Die Prinzen, Lucilectric, Sin With Sebastian, Nena, Band ohne Namen and Etwas.

The song "Mädchen", which she co-produced, was a top ten hit in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands for Lucilectric.

[12] Their third studio album was released in 2009 and it went straight to number one in Germany keeping the top position for five consecutive weeks.

In 2011, Humpe teamed up with German singer Max Raabe and co-wrote his album, Küssen kann man nicht alleine[1]; a second collaboration, Für Frauen ist das kein Problem, followed in 2013.