"Moskau" is a German-language single by the German pop act Dschinghis Khan released in 1979. The band also recorded an English version, which they released in 1980 as "Moscow".
Versions
Moskau – the German-language version
"Moskau", the German-language version of the song, appears on their 1979 self-titled albumDschinghis Khan and their 1980 album Rom. The album version is six minutes long, while the single version is four and a half minutes long.
The band, under their English-language band name Genghis Khan, released a version of the song with English lyrics entitled "Moscow" in Australia in 1980, the year of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. 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. The song became a massive hit in Australia, staying at #1 for six weeks.
History
The song also achieved 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. 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. On September 15, 2006, the song was uploaded to YouTube, and it quickly became an internet meme. Since then, the song is known as 'The Moscow Moscow Missile Meme song'.
Covers
The song has been covered by a German rock band named Attila der Partykönig.
In Finland "Moskau" was covered by Juhamatti with the title "Volga" in 1980. "Volga" has since been performed by artists such as Kari Tapio and Frederik.
Also in 1980, Cassiano Costa made the Brazilian Portuguese version, named "Moscou".
An Estonian band Meie Mees covered the song as "Moskva" in 2006.
This song was also covered by Hong Kong pop singer George Lam as "Olympics in Moscow".
In China, a version with altered lyrics called "Fen Dou" was made by Da Zhangwei.
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.
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.
Swedish group Vikingarna recorded a cover in Swedish, "Moskva", in 1980.
Since 2008 or earlier, Russian Armed Forces military bands have occasionally played the song at public events in Russia. Channel One Russia's New Years 2013 program included a version of the song sung in both German and Russian by the Alexandrov Ensemble.
In 2013 song was covered by a French band Dancing Bros. and used in the video game Just Dance 2014.
American power metal band Last Alliance covered "Moskau" in 2011. The song was made available as a free download in 2018 to celebrate the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted in Russia.
In early 2020, Dutch DJ & Producer Thommy van Straalen started rising to fame after releasing a Big Room House Festival Mix as a collab with his neighbour Likkerstan 'LSTN' Ten Nogmeer. It was deleted midway through May after a copyright problem with Dschinghis Khan.
