FALCO – immortal!

A posting from Poetry Café

2013 marks the 15-year anniversary of Falco’s death. Undoubtedly the most famous Austrian pop musician ever, Falco took over the international pop charts with hits like “Rock me Amadeus” and “Jeanny” and became a global pop star. He died in a car crash in the Dominican Republic on February 6, 1998.

Falco’s beginnings were humble – he left school at 16, worked odd jobs and played in various bands. His first own musical group based in what was then West Berlin was called „Umspannwerk“ (transformer station). After his return to Vienna, he was one of the founders of the band “Spinning Wheel” which fed his actual true passion: eccentric rock theater. He created the “Erstes Wiener
Musiktheater” (First Vienna Music Theater) and renamed himself Falco, after East German ski jumper Falko Weisspflog.

The next step was chaos group “Drahdiwaberl”. He played bass and stayed mostly in the background, but his solo track “Ganz Wien” became a cult favorite. It was a steep rise to fame from there. Hits like “Der Kommissar” and later “Einzelhaft” followed in quick succession. And just when it seemed like there was nowhere to go but down, he released „Rock me Amadeus“, landing him in the top spot of the US charts for over 4 unbroken weeks. The hits kept on coming until the limelight-hugging artist suddenly retreated to the seclusion of the Dominican Republic. He finished recording his last album “Out of the Dark” just a few weeks before his death.

The news of his tragic accident was a shock for the entire country and many of his fans mourned for years after. However, the “Falcon”, as he was dubbed by the local media, will stay alive in the minds of his fans in Austria and beyond.