Moskau (song)

"Moskau"
Single by Dschinghis Khan
from the album Dschinghis Khan
B-side	Rocking Son Of Dschinghis Khan[3]
Released	1979
Genre	Disco
Length	4:43[4] 5:58 (Album)
Label	BMG
Writer(s)	Ralph Siegel
Producer(s)	Bernd Meinunger
Dschinghis Khan singles chronology
"Dschinghis Khan" (1979) "Moskau" (1979) "Wir sitzen alle im selben Boot" (1980)

"Moskau" is a German-language single by the German pop-act Dschinghis Khan (known as Genghis Khan in Australia and other countries^[5][6][7][8]) released in 1979. There was also an English-language version released in 1980 which was entitled "Moscow".

Versions

Moskau – the German-language version

"Moskau", the German-language version of the song, appears on their 1979 self-titled album Dschinghis Khan and their 1980 album Rom. The album version clocks six minutes, but the single version is four and a half minutes long.^[9]

Moscow – the English-language version

The song was released in an English-language version entitled "Moscow" in Australia in 1980, the year of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.^[4] Australia's Channel 7 used the song as the theme to their television coverage of the Moscow Olympics, and the single was issued locally in a die-cut Channel 7 paper sleeve.^[10] The song became a big hit in Australia, staying at #1 for six weeks.

History

The song also achieved an enormous underground popularity in the Soviet Union. A 15-second clip of the song's performance was shown as a part of the New Year holiday lineup on the state-run TV, leading to the immediate dismissal of the network's director.^[11]

In 2006, the song made its video game debut as a playable song in Taiko no Tatsujin Portable 2. It is also a featured track in Just Dance 2014.

It was also played at the opening at Eurovision 2009 at Moscow, Russia for Semi Final 2.

Covers

• The song has also been covered by German black metal band Black Messiah.^[12]
• In Finland "Moskau" is very well known as "Volga" and it has been recorded numerous times by various artists like Juhamatti, Kari Tapio and Frederik.
• An Estonian band Meie Mees covered the song as "Moskva".
• This song was also covered by Hong Kong pop singer George Lam as "Olympics in Moscow" (Chinese:世運在莫斯科).
• In China a version with altered lyrics called Fen Dou^[13] (奋斗) was made by Da Zhangwei (大张伟).
• Georgie Dann made a Spanish version in 1980^[14]
• John Carpenter covered the tune for his movie The Fog.
• In live performances of their song "Sacrament of Wilderness," the symphonic metal band Nightwish plays a riff from Moskau at about the three-minute mark of the song.^[15]
• In the Czech Republic, the parody band Los Rotopedos produced a cover of the song in 2012. Los Rotopedos subsequently qualified to the top ten in the Český slavík song competition.^[16]
• Swedish group Vikingarna recorded a cover in Swedish, "Moskva", in 1980.^[17]
• In 2011, an 8-bit version of Moskau with a clip from the game Star Fox where the character Skippy tells the player to do a barrel roll became viral.^[18]
• In 2013 song was covered by Dancing Bros. and used in the video game Just Dance 2014.
• In 2014, the song was used in a viral video "Voldemort's Amazing laugh song" where a snippet of laughter from Voldemort, the villain in the well known Harry Potter series, was sampled and put on top of the Moskau melody.^[19]
• Since 2008 or earlier, Russian Armed Forces military bands have occasionally played the song at public events in Russia.^[20]

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics (n.b. German-language lyrics only)