ALL BEGAN AT 1979

Ralph Siegel, and Dr. Bernd Meinunger had a vision which should become reality at the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 1979 – A SONG FOR ISRAEL. 

The vision was called – DSCHINGHIS KHAN.

The artists Wolfgang Heichel, Steve Bender, Edina Pop, Henriette Strobel, Laszlo Mandoki and the talented dancer Louis Hendrik Potgieter became the pop group DSCHINGHIS KHAN.

Within 6 weeks only – thus under immense pressure of time and with extreme financial effort the first single record production Dschinghis Khan and Sahara was recorded in the Siegel studios.  The hip costume designer, Mark Manó, created the exotic costumes. The internationally acclaimed makeup artist, Heidi Moser, created the distinctive makeups. The professional television choreographer, Hannes Winkler, developed the show for stage dancing and the Dschinghis – Khan - artists worked every day in the studio  and rehearsed continuously until the show was perfect. 

On March 17th , 1979 the premiere took place at the Rudi-Sedlmayr-Halle in Munich. The pop group Dschinghis Khan participated at the German pre selection for the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST – A SONG FOR ISRAEL with the correspondent title DSCHINGIS KHAN.  Dschinghis Khan had only three minutes time to show the German television viewers and the members of jury that they had the best song to represent Germany in Israel. For the counting method the organization had chosen a special procedure. 600 television viewers, that were previously contacted were allowed to vote by phone and computers of an independent institute summed up all the results.

The first votes that were made late at night at the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, on that memorable March 17th , 1979 already proved that Ralph Siegel had the right vision. Almost everything was decided after only one minute. Second and third place changed several times, but the winner was: DSCHINGHIS KHAN. 

So the newcomer DSCHINGHIS KHAN won first place and was selected to represent Germany in Israel at the EUROVISION SONG CONTEST.

To read the full history of Dschinghis Khan please download the file below: