Dschinghis Khan |
Dschinghis Khan (Pronounced Jingis Khan) was a Germany Pop music band created in 1979 to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. The name of the band is the German language spelling of Genghis Khan (with an added h ), and was chosen to fit the song of the same name written and produced by Ralph Siegel with lyrics by Bernd Meinunger.
Members of the group were: *Steve Bender *Wolfgang Heichel *Henriette Heichel *Leslie Mándoki *Edina Pop *Louis Hendrik Potgieter (1951-1996)
=History=
[[Image:D-khan.jpg|right|frame|Back row: Wolfgang Heichel, Henriette Heichel, Louis Hendrik Potgieter Front row: Edina Pop, Leslie Mándoki, Steve Bender]] They took fourth place in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979, and their song was a big national and European hit. Even though the band was most successful in Germany and all the songs were in German, the producer Ralph Siegel also made an English language version of every released song (including Moskau). The band was most successful (apart from German-speaking countries) in Eastern Europe, Australia and Japan.
In 1985 the band dissolved after they released several more albums without much commercial success. In 1987 they attempted a comeback with a slightly different lineup and the new name Dschinghis Khan Family . However they failed to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, and dissolved again shortly after that.
The band s lead singer, Louis Potgieter, died of complications from AIDS in 1996.
In 2004, Dschinghis Khan s 1979 single Moskau became a surprise hit on the Internet due to the sharing of a performance of the song from the band s glory days. Blogging viewers of the video have commented that the wild disco dances, retro instrumentation, and happy German vocals are hilarious or oddly uplifting. The song has also become one of the longest-running and most popular features on YTMND.
The band s first hit single, Dschinghis Khan , is still well-known around Japan; it is one of two German-language songs available in every karaoke-box (the other is 99 Luftballons by Nena). The song also appeared in Konami s Bemani arcade game Pop n Music 10 . The evident resemblance of Koi-no dance site , one of the smash hits of J-pop band Morning Musume released in 2000, to Dschinghis Khan suggested to many observers plagiarism.
=Discography=
==Longplay==
==Singles==
(only German releases) *Dschinghis Khan (1979) *Moskau (1979) ( Moscow ) *Hadschi Halef Omar (1979) ( Hadschi Halef Omar ) *Rom (1980) *Pistolero (1981) *Loreley (1981) ( Lorelei ) *Wir sitzen alle im selben Boot (1981) *Klabautermann (1982) *Der Dudelmoser (1982) *Himalaja (1983) ( Himalaya ) *Olé Olé (1984) *Mexiko (1985) ( Mexico )
=External links=
*[http://www.dschinghis-khan.de German fan page] *[http://www6.plala.or.jp/arabesque/candy_pop/dschinghis_khan.htm Dschinghis Khan Japanese Page] *[http://members.surfeu.at/dschinghis.khan/main.htm Austrian fan page (German)] *[http://opendir.mine.nu/stuff/week_26/Dschinghis%20Khan%20-%20Moskau.mpg Dschinghis Khan video for Moskau ] *[http://www.unbuffered.com/moskau.html Flash version of Moskau video] *[http://moskaudance.ytmnd.com/ Dschinghis Khan YTMND!] *[http://moskautothefullest.ytmnd.com/ Dschinghis Khan YTMND! (Full Version)]|
|