[1][2] In 1997, Steen's demo tape got into the hands of a befriended producer, who passed it to an up-and-coming hip hop group, he was working with: Freundeskreis.

Impressed by her voice, Steen was invited to contribute backing vocals to the trio's 1997 debut album Quadratur des Kreises, gaining her first official feature credit on their collaboration "Telefonterror".

[3] The following year she appeared in Freundeskreis' music video for their single "Wenn der Vorhang fällt" and accompanied the band on their first tour throughout German-speaking Europe.

[3] Further collaborations with Freundeskreis failed to materialize as Steen decided to move to Hamburg in hopes of a solo career launch and soon she was offered a contract with the independent label Booya Records.

The song became an instant success, reaching number five on the German Singles Chart, and garnered the band three ECHO Award nominations.

Additionally, Steen continued singing background and chorus for label mates Illmatic, Franziska and Setlur, and made guest appearances on several new releases by J-Luv, W4C, Melbeatz, Bushido and Curse.

The following year, she appeared alongside band mate Moses Pelham on the German reality television series Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert.