Born in South Africa, Pretty Yende made her debut in Riga in the role of Micaela in Carmen. In 2010, she was awarded first prize in both the opera and operetta categories of the Vienna Belvedere Competition. In 2011, she won the Placido Domingo Operalia Competition and also graduated from the La Scala Academy for young artists in Milan. She then made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York, at the Theater an der Wien (Countess Adèle in Count Ory), at the Los Angeles Opera (Micaela) and the Hamburg Staatsoper (Fiorilla in Il Turco in Italia). She has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in The Barber of Seville, Romeo and Juliet, I Puritani, and Lucia di Lammermoor. She made her Munich Bayerische Staatsoper debut in L’elisir d’amore and also performed the role of Marie in La Fille du régiment at the Maestranza in Seville. She has sung in Riccardo and Zoraide in Pesaro, I Puritani at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Les Pêcheurs de perles and La Fille du régiment at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Sonnambula at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Zurich Opera and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Lucia di Lammermoor and L’elisir d’amore at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Il viaggio a Reims at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, La Traviata at the Vienna Staatsoper. During the 2022/23 season, she has performed Violetta Valéry (La Traviata) at the San Francisco Opera and Vienna Staatsoper, Marie and the title role in Manon at the Vienna Staatsoper, Micaëla at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, Gilda (Rigoletto) and the four heroines in The Tales of Hoffmann at the Hamburg Staatsoper. On 6 May 2023, she sang at the coronation ceremony of King Charles III at the Westminster Abbaye.

At the Paris Opera: The Barber of Seville (Rosina), 2016; Lucia di Lammermoor (title-role), 2016; Benvenuto Cellini (Teresa), 2018; Don Pasquale (Norina), 2019; La Traviata (Violetta Valery), 2019; Manon (title-role), 2020; L’elisir d'amore (Adina), 2021; The Magic Flute (Pamina), 2022; Romeo and Juliet (Juliet), 2023.