She was a star of the Neue Deutsche Welle genre of German popular music in the early 1980s.

Menke is best known for her single "Hohe Berge" ("High Mountains"), which was a top 10 hit in the German charts in 1982 and has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date.

Menke's career peaked from 1982–1984 along with Neue Deutsche Welle, when she had three hit singles and released a self-titled album.

Menke gave birth to two children at the end of the 1980s and composed various jingles for radio stations and advertisement campaigns.

In 1990, she was remixed by the German band Masterboy, and in 1994, she recorded techno versions of "Hohe Berge" and "Tretboot in Seenot."