Very short question:

Are there any famous Swiss popular musicians?

I thought Europe (the final countdown) or Nena (99 red balloons), but they're Swedish and German. I'm after someone who has once released any hit that might be recognised outside of Switzerland. Thanks for any help!

Nope. But the two techno music guys called "Yello" who did the song made famous in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" are Swiss. They live in Zurich. Other than that, DJ Bobo is probably the only other recognizable name.

There was a heavy metal band called Krokus that was popular in the late '70s and the '80s.

Yello's The Moon is the perfect song. I was after something catchy that people have heard, and that film was massive at the time. Thanks

Is this for some sort of project then? If so, I get residual kick-backs for the wunderbarness of my response, yes?

haha - yeah, its a little project that I'll go ahead with if I land my dream job in Zurich.

some flash audio clips:

Andreas Vollenweider
http://www.hitparade.ch/showitem.asp...ht+Clear&cat=a

Stephan Eicher
http://www.hitparade.ch/showitem.asp...st+Of%29&cat=a

Emel
http://www.hitparade.ch/showitem.asp...Sunshine&cat=s

Yello
http://www.hitparade.ch/showitem.asp...ssential&cat=a

im sure the ewiss thinks there are lots, but in the outside world theres none!?? (i think)

I guess by "outside world" you mean anglosaxon countries? Well maybe not but why should there be. I like Mylene Farmer (french) a lot and she's a huge star in France and a few miles across the channel in Britain nobody would know her.

DJ Bobo is the best it gets here and the new "swiss Idol" Fabienne. They are not so known for there enertainment unless you like accordion and yodeling. They still like the 80's here way too much!

I'm not really in tune with swiss pop music or pop music in general but some of the names are Baschi, Gotthard, Plüsch, Züri West - I doubt they feature yodelling what they do (except Gotthard) is called "Mundart-Rock".

* Gotthard
* Patent Ochsner
* Lovebugs
and the classic: Toxic Guineapigs

... although these maybe only known outside Switzerland in... Germany...

In my experience of 6 months in Zurich it's all either DJ Bobo or folk with leather waistcoats playing accordians on mountain tops. It beggars belief.

slightly off topic, but still related - would anyone be able to point me to (what they think) is a great source for new indie music, espcially the british stuff.

¨Tonight is Schupfart. Here you can see swiss rock. With luck one of the groups may become famous outside Switzerland and then you can show off to all your mates back home. You've got to admit I'm an optimist. As for the original question, the only band I can think of is Krokus. They were well known in the heavy metal scene in the 80's

For the metal heads out there, I used to listen to a lot of Coroner, they were a Swiss thrash metal band, not together anymore. Krokus is also well known, I think back in the 80's Metallica opened for them a few times, they sound a lot like AC/DC. As for DJ Bobo...well...it's "music" for 12-14 year olds, innit? bloody chihuahua song....

www.pandora.com but didn't work in CH last time I tried

The essentials of Alt/Indie v2.0

I tend to find most of the stuff I like from those sources - that and of course word of mouth from friends.

IMHO the best Swiss band are the Young Gods, if you like techno/industrial. Actually a british friend of mine told me about them, I didn't even know... shame on me

Things could be worse. Much worse.

Last Saturday I was surfing TV channels and came across a 60s/70s style Saturday Night show (on ORF1 or ORF2, Austrian).

Engelbert Humperdinck would you believe, complete with couples doing ballroom style dancing!

It was soooo bad I had to watch! Fortunately I only caught the end of the show.

Not like this then...

(link is to a funny youtube vid)