Music

5 things you should know about Falco

As Red Bull TV pays homage in a new documentary, here are some essential Falco facts.

By Glen Ferris

3 min readPublished on 02/28/2017 · 2:38 PM UTC

Johann Hölzel, aka Falco
© ullstein bild / Getty

In February 2017, Falco would've celebrated his 60th birthday. To celebrate, Red Bull Music Academy’s Junge Römer project recently dedicated one week of club nights, studio sessions, concerts, screenings and lectures to the Austrian icon.

With artists like Carl Craig, Just Blaze, Matías Aguayo and many more working on the original stems of Falco’s first three albums to perform in a series of events in Vienna, the great man’s spirit is very much alive and well.

You can enjoy Reworking Falco, the documentary about Red Bull Music Academy’s project, on Red Bull TV from March 5. Follow this link to watch.

In the meantime, scroll down for an essential primer on the life and times of Falco.

1. He was a musical prodigy

Just like Wolfgang (Rock Me) Amadeus Mozart, Falco showed signs of exceptional musical talent from a very early age. As a toddler, he could keep time with the drumbeat in songs he heard on the radio. At age four, he was given a baby grand piano. At age five, he auditioned for the Vienna Music Academy, where it was confirmed that he had absolute pitch.

2. He was too cool for school

Falco decided that he wanted to be a pop star from an early age, so when he turned 16 he attended the prestigious Vienna Conservatoire. However, he soon became frustrated and left to work for a short time with the Austrian employee pension insurance institute before serving eight months of military service with the Austrian army.

3. Vienna Calling…

Late-1970s Vienna was a hub for counter-culture artists. It was around this time that Falco was becoming part of the Viennese nightlife scene celebrating chaos and satirising politics. He played bass in a variety of bands (under the pseudonyms John Hudson and John DiFalco), including shock rockers Drahdiwaberl. However, Falco’s clean-cut image, shaped during his time in the army and by his love of of sharp suits and Ray-Ban sunglasses, marked him out as a distinct performer.

4. Going solo led to worldwide fame

Eventually signed as a solo artist, Falco started to get serious attention with Der Kommissar, a German-language rap song about drug use. With home-grown rap rare in Europe at the time, it was a smash in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan. As his popularity continued to grow, Falco started to include more English-language lyrics in his music, hitting his stride on the release of his third album Falco 3 and the unleashing of his worldwide hit Rock Me Amadeus. Partially inspired by the Oscar-winning film Amadeus, the track reached number one in over a dozen countries, including the US and UK.

5. His legacy was far-reaching

Following his untimely death in a car crash in 1998, 13 days before his 41st birthday, Falco’s contribution to pop culture began to pop up in unexpected cultural places. While Der Kommissar was covered by After The Fire in 1982 and latterly by Laura Branigan in 1983, Rock Me Amadeus has gone on to have an extended life with covers by Bloodhound Gang, and German rapper Fler, a parody version by Weird Al Yankovic and numerous homages in The Simpsons and American Dad.