Schlager purists scoff at Slovenia's Atomik Harmonik as not being schlager much as American Country music purists scoff at Shania Twain and the "New Country" sound.
Mateja "Tejči" Vuk and Špela Grošelj during
one of Atomik Harmonik's earlier incarnations
While both have, to some extent, fused traditional schlager and country with more current pop/dance sounds, the core schlager and country elements are there -- rural themes, lyrical simplicity and musical instrumentation native to the original genres.
Atomik Harmonik were formed in 2004 and have had something of a revolving door in personnel since then (kind of like the carousel boy bands of the 90s.)
The original Spelas, Grošelj and Kleinlercher as well as Kleinlercher's replacement "Tejči" Vuk have all left for other pursuits and have been replaced by new blondes.
Like the Swedish supergroup ABBA, the only really memorable members are the 2 girls at the center of the group who carry most of the vocal load and who have always been hot blondes. Very hot blondes!
They dance and prance and grind and are riveting to watch but Atomik Harmonik are schlager nonetheless.
Here are Špela Grošelj and Mateja "Tejči" Vuk in a very rural setting with Zavriskaj na ves glas (Shout out Loud):
Here they are in Brizgaina Brizga (Water Bucket Brigade) which has the same tune as their later hit The Turbo Polka:
And here is their famous 2005 hit Turbo Polka performed by the two Spelas. It is the only song that Americans, otherwise ignorant of European pop music, have mentioned to us in conversation. It lifted the group from regional to pan-European popularity and even made it onto American music TV:
London, England -- It’s back to Austria again to look Alexandra Lexer, a talented artiste who, despite having a rich musical heritage, only cut her first album in her mid 20’s.
Alexandra Lexer
Alexandra Lexer was born in the remote Lesachtal valley in Carinthia, in Southern Austria where the snow can lay three feet deep on the ground for weeks, or even months, in winter. She comes from a family of farmers who, in the way of folk from such places, also have a long history of performing traditional music. Her grandfather was an accomplished violin maker.
A free spirit herself, she may have been something of a reluctant performer in the family act and later suffered the anguish seeing her father die whilst performing in 1994. After that tragic event, it was two years before she could bring herself to perform again, resuming her career as part of Band 3L.
After combining professional singing lessons and attendance at business school for a time, Alexandra decided upon a complete change of direction and obtained a nursing qualification with a view to pursuing a career in healthcare.
But she was far too talented a singer to give up performing completely and her delightful voice, with its rare special tremelo sound, soon attracted wider attention. By 2007 she was invited to perform a televised Christmas duet with journeyman schlager performer, Florian Silbereisen (Helene Fischer's longtime boyfriend).
Other appearances on stage and television, a tour and a recording contract followed. Here she is performing the title track of her first (2008) album, Und ich dachte, es is Liebe (And I thought, it is Love):
The success of that album led in 2010 to a second, entitled Endlich bis du da (Finally, you’re here). We feature two tracks from this CD, the first Ein feuerwork der liebe (Firework of Love)
And her vocal virtuosity really shines on this second cut, Nur Getraumt (Only Dreaming)
Tracks from her two albums can be heard in full on her new website: http://www.alexandra-lexer.at/ which also contains more detailed biographical information and details of her forthcoming live performances.
She is described there as “authentic and with her feet placed firmly on the ground” and says herself that she does not feel like “a star”.
While a promising career away from the farm awaits for beautiful, dark-haired, Alexandra Lexer, it seems unlikely that she will anytime soon be letting go of the strong values imparted by her simple country upbringing.
The White Stars have announced that
they are returning to the studio
By Tom Faber CSMR Editor
CHICAGO, USA -- The White Stars are back in action!
For the decade beginning in 1970, when the Beatles last left their Abbey Road studios after putting their final Let It Be album in the can, it was the fervent hope of rock fans everywhere that they would some day, somehow reunite.
John Lennon's tragic assassination in 1980 rendered that a sad impossibility. But schlager fans, worldwide are more fortunate as the great, ground breaking Austrian White Stars are reuniting after a more than decade-long hiatus.
To compare the Austrian White Stars to the English Fab 4 is by no means an exaggeration.
The Styrian quintet were every bit the innovative force to schlager as the Liverpudlians were to rock 'n roll. Today rock-configured all-male schlager bands, sporting pristine white suits proliferate, but in 1963 the style and sound was invented by the White Stars -- and rather by accident.
In the early 1960s, three young brothers (one was only 15 at the time) from Graz in the far Southeastern part of Austria, Peter, Walter and Günther Reischl, played for the amusement of friends and family members. Together, they developed a compelling schlager sound, employing guitar, zither and the European small button accordion.
Then one auspicious night, they went to a dance hall where the scheduled band, save their drummer, failed to appear. The boys volunteered to fill in and, knees shaking, performed for the first time on-stage.
The White Stars were as innovative
to schlager as the Beatles were to rock
They met with instant, wild acclaim and, along with the stray drummer, Joschi Scheucher, were booked for regular performances.
For future gigs, they needed something to wear, and since white doctors' scrubs were cheap (about 5 bucks back then) they donned the loosely fitting all-white attire and it became their trademark.
Fans began calling them the "White Stars" and the name stuck.
In less than a year, the White Stars were booked into the largest dance hall in the region, the Hotel Fischerwirt Gratwein, at which they played (later joined by another brother, Michael) to packed houses for the next 11 years.
Ariola records took notice of the regional White Star popularity and signed them to a recording contract. In the ensuing years they churned out 16 albums and a bevy of singles and CDs. Like the Beatles, and somewhat a rarity in the schlager realm, they self-composed virtually all of their songs.
Overall, the White Stars have sold more than half a million records, 11 went gold, 2 went platinum and one crystal.
Additionally they made more than 200 radio broadcasts, appeared on over 50 television shows and regularly played to packed houses throughout Austria on their periodic tours.
More than 100 White Stars fan clubs sprung up, not only in Europe, but in the US and Canada as well.
By 1994, the group members drifted off to other pursuits, mostly still in the world of schlager.
Walter became the music director of the Styrian office of the #1 Austrian broadcaster, ORF. Brothers Michael and Werner continued composing for other performers, scoring hits for the Nockhalm Quintett (a white suited, all male schlager group for whom they had paved the way), Klostertaler and many others.
The White Stars have just released a new Greatest Hits CD (which includes their 1980 #1 "I am not a Casanova"), and they will be returning to the studio to work on a 2013 CD release containing half classics and half entirely new material.
For fans of the White Stars' smooth, sometimes pulsating classic schlager sound this is a happy and long awaited development.
Here the White Stars reprise their 1980 #1 smash hit, Ich war nie ein Casanova (I'm not a Casanova):
Here the White Stars recapture their classicly lively sound in a live performance of Du Bist Mein Superstar, (You're my Superstar), the title cut of their forthcoming CD:
And here, the White Stars sing a lovely ballad, a paean to their home town, Graz, the capitol of Styria. They tell us that this is one of their favorite songs and the video contains some very picturesque shots of the historic city. Here's Graz, Oh Graz:
More information, downloads and White Stars videos can be had at their website: http://www.whitestars.at
CHICAGO, USA -- Of the more than 100 profiles of Euro schlager and pop artists that we have written for these pages, no subject has been more unusual and multifaceted than that of the Croatian pop sensation turned American Catholic evangelical, Tajci.
Tajci represented Yugoslavia at the 1990 ESC
and became an overnight pop sensation
Depending on your perspective, Tajci's story is either an ill-starred, fate-driven tragedy of lost opportunity or an uplifting morality play of Paradise Found.
She was born in 1970 as Tatjana Matejaš in Zagreb, the principal city of the Croatian sub-state within communist Yugoslavia. From a very young age she was performing onstage with members of her show business family and eventually, Tajci became something of a Yugoslav child star, appearing in a number of musical productions on stage and on state television.
She later attended the Croatian Music Conservatory, studying classical piano.
In her late teens she turned to pop music and her big break came in 1990 when she won the competition to represent Yugoslavia in the Pan-European Eurovision Song Contest (ESC).
She came in 7th in a field of 22 ESC contestants (she did beat out Austrian schlager star, Simone, who also debuted that year and finished 10th), but performing before a home town crowd in Zagreb, that year's ESC host city, her high-energy entry, Hajde Da Ludujemo (Let's Go Crazy) became an instant fan favorite and immediately began its ascent to the top of the pop charts in the Balkan countries.
Her pert, vivacious on-stage demeanor and hot Marilyn Monroe-styled persona made her the subject of a kind of regional fan mania, not unlike that which accompanied Lena Meyers-Landrut's 1st ever ESC win for Germany in 2010.
Accompanied by slick, Western-styled, avant garde videos, Tajci's next several pop releases were ecstatically received. Her musical style then was a kind of retro, pop/dance, heavily influenced by American teen pop of the late 50s and early 60s.
She recorded a Croatian language cover of 60s American star, Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again," and her breakthrough hit, "Hajde Da Ludujemo" evokes images of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello from the early 60s days of "Beach Blanket Bingo."
But in 1991, a mere half year after her victorious Zagreb performance, her world began unraveling.
Yugoslavia was a contrived concoction of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which had thrown together a hodge-podge of contentiously antithetical, Slavic ethnic and religious groups, many of which had been at each others throats for centuries.
Tito's murderous communists managed to keep the lid on the ethno-religious pressure cooker for 45 years, but by 1991 the cauldron was ready to blow. And blow it did, as a large scale shooting war began in the Spring of that year.
Tajci as Roman Catholic Musical Minister
The resulting Serbo-Croatian, Serbo-Bosnian war eventually took an estimated 130,000 lives. It is largely considered to be the most brutal conflict to have afflicted Europe since WWII, complete with genocidal ethnic cleansing, Red Army-styled systematic rape, and indiscriminate physical destruction.
Tajci might have urged post-communist Yugoslavs to "Go Crazy," and that they did, but not quite in the way she envisioned.
These events had catastrophic consequences on the career of the 20 year old pop star from Zagreb.
With artillery shells crashing and bullets flying in the streets, pop music was a luxury Tajci's natural fan base could no longer pursue. At the very moment of her greatest success, her career was seemingly at an end due to forces entirely beyond her control.
After spending the better part of a year entertaining Croatian front line troops and war-wounded, Tajci decided to abandon her embattled countrymen, applied for an American student visa and fled to the greener pastures of the USA.
By her account she arrived in New York City, knowing practically nobody and speaking little English. There she studied English, subsisted on a number of menial jobs (something quite illegal under student visa status) and studied musical theater.
Eventually she made her way out to LA to test the waters in the US music industry. Coming up dry in Tinseltown, it was somewhere around this time that she says she experienced a Christian Epiphany.
A matchmaking California Carmelite nun then introduced her to her future husband there, Matthew Cameron, a devout, fellow Roman Catholic who urged her to undertake the role of musical missionary.
Tajci and Cameron with the Pope
The two then set out on a picaresque cross-country trip in a minivan, entertaining and musically preaching at Catholic churches across the USA as they went.
After her failure to revive her pop career in Hollywood, cynics may say she was essentially making an opportunistic virtue out of necessity.
But three children, a decade and a half later, half a continent away from LA in Cincinnati, Ohio, Tajci continues those very musical missionary endeavors.
She forays out on two concert tours a year, designed to correspond to the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar (Lenten Tour and Advent Tour.) The venues are almost exclusively Catholic Churches or places designated by a local church.
Tajci composes and performs her own devotional music dealing with such subjects as Christ's agony on the cross (Eli, Eli), his resurrection from the Dead (Alleluia), the Blessed Virgin Mary (Magnificat), Roman Catholic catechismic beliefs with an almost verbatim musical rendition of the Nicene Creed (I do believe) and the concerns of a mother and wife during Christmastide (How I Love the Christmas Season).
To her great credit, she adheres strictly to religious themes and steers clear of the annoying Catholic tendency to left-wing pop sociological and neo-Marxist Liberation theology themes, which have so contaminated much of the Roman church's post-Vatican II musical fare. (Does anyone still remember that ridiculous Kumbaya which was such a favorite of Novus Ordo nuns in the 60s?)
Tajci's music today defies classification into a particular genre. It is not what Billboard considers "Contemporary Christian" in that it doesn't overtly mimic the mainstream secular style de jour, ala Amy Grant or MercyMe.
But Tajci's compositions do contain elements of the American showtune style, likely a function of her having studied that during her New York days -- and it is there where she is at her best, most notably with her poignant and very moving composition about a harried Christian housewife during Christmastime, How I Love the Christmas Season.
Additionally, Tajci has written, produced and performed in a play, My Perfectly Beautiful Life, about the travails of mothers leading a Christian life, which was performed at a community theatrical venue in Cincinnati, Ohio..
Her current 2012 Lenten tour will be taking her soon to several church venues in the Chicago area, including St. Joseph's in Downers Grove, St. Cecelia in Mt. Prospect and St. Patrick's in Yorkville as well as to a number of cities from Pennsylvania to the Dakotas.
Here from her first career incarnation, is Tajci's 1990 Eurovision Song Contest entry, Hajde Da Ludujemo (Let's Go Crazy):
Here is one of her nicest compositions from her post-pop era, How I Love the Christmas Season":
Here Tajci sings a paean to her adopted home, Irving Berlin's classic, God Bless America:
Thanks to Ralph Bellendir, CSMR reader and Catholic Lay Minister of Communion at St. Margaret Mary's Church in Chicago, for the excellent suggestion that we profile Tajci.
KLAGENFURT am WORTHERSEE, AUSTRIA-- Swiss schlager star, Francine Jordi and Swiss rocker, Florian Ast have publicly come out and acknowleged their mutual attraction and have moved out of the residences that they shared with their respective spouses.
Francine Jordi (L) is leaving husband Tony Rominger
to hook up with Swiss rocker Florian Ast (R)
Rumors about the Jordi-Ast affair had been swirling around European music circles for some time, but this past summer, the Berner Zeitung came out publicly with a confirmation.
The two reportedly told their spouses back then of their mutual affection. Jordi moved out of the place she shared with her husband, Tony Rominger, taking with her their Labrador retriever, Theo, and moved to a location nearer her parents home in Worb.
Ast is leaving his wife of 9 years, Esther, a makeup artist, and Jordi hasn’t yet reached her third wedding anniversary with the Danish-born, European bicycle racing champ, Rominger, who, at age 51, is 16 years older than Jordi.
The two Swiss music stars first met nine years ago while recording their smash duet ballad, Trane (Teardrop) which reached #1 on the charts and remains one of the best selling records of all time by a Swiss duet.
Jordi and Ast reignited their flame in February of last year while recording a duet album. They have yet another joint musical effort planned for release in 2012.
Jordi and Ast haven’t publicly discussed plans for divorce and/or remarriage.
Popular sentiment over abandonment of their spouses by Jordi and Ast is hard to assess, but judging from the letters to the Berner Zeitung, it would appear that Swiss public sympathies lay on the side of the jilted partners.
Here are Jordi and Ast performing Trane (Teardrop), the ballad they made famous 9 years ago:
CHICAGO, USA -- Christa Fartek has labored on the periphery of schlager for years and next month will be releasing her first solo album.
Given the powerfully sweet resonance of her voice and her crisp, catchy schlager/dance compositions the only question should be: why did it take this long?
The woman is a consummate talent. She plays guitar and keyboards, composes compelling lyrics for herself and others and she sings -- boy, does she ever sing!
Fartek began performing on-stage at age 16 as the lead vocalist with her two older brothers, Alois and Ewald in a little group called AMOR, which attained modest success.
Later, while working days in the fashion industry, she studied voice and worked as a vocal coach and songwriter for such schlager acts as Andreas Gabalier, her friend Tina Anders and a number of others.
Three years ago, Christa decided to go for broke and began working full time in the music industry -- as a resource for other performers as well as recording on her own.
In her forthcoming debut solo effort, she exudes a certain sultry, worldly cynicism reminiscent of the great Peggy Lee -- particularly evident in Du Bist Intensiv.
In her new CD offering, the native of the Austrian Tyrol also demonstrates her linguistic versatility by including a couple of songs in English -- a very nice dance tune, "Enjoy our world" and a somewhat forgettable ballad, "Good Time, Good Life." There are unfortunately no videos for these yet, but they can be heard in MP3 on her website
Here is a lively cut from Fartek's upcoming CD which has "hit" written all over it, (although one of our writers voted the video portion to be the worst schlager video of the year) Sieben Schritte (Seven Steps)
Here is Du bist so intensiv, (You're so intense):
And here is a live performance from several years back of Liebe für die Ewigkeit (Eternal Love) which went to #7 on the Austrian charts in 2009:
Schlager music as a distinctly Germanic genre was, in no small way, a nationalistic reaction to the infiltration of foreign -- particularly American and British -- popular culture.
Still, the ubiquitous American pop music managed to infuse itself into Germania. This most notably happened in the person of 60s American pop icon, Chubby Checker.
Born in the backwash of Spring Gulley, South Carolina and raised in the public housing projects of Philadelphia, Checker took the pop world by storm with his 1960 dance craze megahit, "The Twist."
The tune skyrocketed to #1 on the US charts that year and spawned a worldwide dance craze. It is the only pop song in history to have worked its way to #1 on the Billboard top 100 chart in two distinct years -- 1960 and again in 1962.
Checker had a number of sequel hits, notably "Let's Twist Again" and "Twistin' USA" in 1961, "Slow Twistin'" in 1962 and "Twist it up" in 1963.
He also spawned imitators including "The Peppermint Twist" which hit #1 for Jody Dee and the Starlighters.
But by 1964 America was ready for something new -- it was all twisted out, you might say -- and it embraced the more sophisticated rock sounds of the British invasion, spearheaded by the Beatles.
Checker had been so typecast by his association with the Twist craze that he was unable to readily gain popular credence as he tried to adapt to new sounds and by '64 he was pretty much washed up in the US market.
That same year, Checker married a Dutch woman, the former Miss Universe, Katherina Lodders, and pulled up stakes for Germany. There he jump-started his career with a number of twist-styled hits sung in German, including "Autobahn Baby,""Twist doch 'mal mit mir" (This Time Twist with me),"Der Twist Beginnt," (The Twist Begins - to the tune of Let's Twist Again.)
So profound was Checker's popularity in the German and other European markets that his influence can be found there even today -- and even in the schlager genre.
Here Austrian international ski champ and schlager star, Hansi Hinterseer sings his late 90s hit, "The Ski Twist" with Germans twisting in the background:
Here Croatian pop sensation (and now a US citizen)Tajči sings her 1990 hit- Moj mali je opsana (My little dangerous one) with Croatian words set to Chubby Checkers' "Let's Twist Again":
And here is Chubby Checker, the man who started it all, singing,"Der Twist Beginnt," (The Twist Begins - to the tune of Let's Twist Again), during the German expatriate phase of his career:
Nina Stern: Chart topping singer, TV host,
Movie actress and calendar girl
By Tom Faber CSMR Editor
CHICAGO, USA -- Bavarian born, ethereally voiced Nina Stern, has combined an alluringly seductive charm with a relaxed, almost nonchalant stage presence and has emerged as a significant force in central European entertainment.
Not only has she turned out an impressive string of hit records over her 14 year singing career, but she doubles as a TV host, has appeared on the big screen in a 2011 film and with her husband, Gerry Seebacher, operates a successful record label and music promotion firm.
Nina Stern is also an ardent animal lover, often photographed with her omnipresent canine companions and she is a frequent contributor to international animal rescue endeavors.
Born Nina Schwemmer in the Bavarian town of Hirschau in 1979, as a girl she studied international trade at the secondary school level, but also took training in voice, drama and dance.
She competed in a number of local talent shows and her strikingly ethereal voice led to a recording contract in 1998. That same year she cut her first CD and made her first radio and TV appearances.
An ardent animal lover, Stern
supports numerous animal rescue projects
Since then she has produced a steady stream of singles striking gold with "Schau nicht weg, wir sind die Zukunft" ("Do not look away, we are the future") in 2005 and again in 2010 with "The Miracle of Lyoness".
In the midst of this, Stern hosted several variety television shows in Austria, where she now resides, has performed in a television dramatic series and has acted on the big screen in a European-made movie, interestingly entitled, "Mafia, Farewell to the Godfather."
But music remains Nina Stern's central focus and with her husband she founded the the music publishing and record label Tibi and she continues to write, produce and record.
Seemingly not content to let grass grow beneath her her feet, Stern, from time to time, strays from schlager to experiment with a variety of pop styles. She has even recorded a bluesy rendition of the American depression-era pop standard, Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, originally popularized by the African-American blues legend, Billie Holiday.
Our spies in Europe tell us that Stern is considering yet another move in the direction of the chanson genre at the present time, which would make sense, considering her breathy vocal style.
Here is Nina Stern performing her very nice 2007 schlager hit, Ich Will (I Will):
Here is Nina Stern in a 2010 performance of her first solo hit Langzeitlover (Long Time Lover):
Here, accompanied by one of her beloved pups in a bucolic wintry setting, she performs a ballad from 2005, Lieb mich noch einmal (Love me again):
Here she displays her formidable vocal range and linguistic versatility in a recent English language cover of the 1930 American pop standard, Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone:
Nina Stern is definitely one of the nicer and more vibrant acts that we have profiled and you can hear more of her music and learn more about her upcoming endeavors at her website: http://www.ninastern.at/
