March 1986, United States

Classical music from Austria is renowned worldwide, and the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the most widely broadcast global TV events in the calendar. Austrian rock and pop on the other hand though, is largely unknown outside the German-speaking sphere. However, there was one big exception, Falco, who had a series of international hits in the 1980s. He was most famous for his 1986 rap Rock Me Amadeus which reached number one in the American Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Top 40, and which potentially owed its success partly to its homage to Falco’s fellow ‘rockstar’, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.