- Tony Holiday
Tony Holiday (
February 24 ,1951 -February 14 ,1990 ) was a German pop singer and songwriter.Born Rolf Peter Knigge in
Hamburg ,West Germany , Knigge began his career initially as a textile businessman and fashion designer. In 1974 he received a record contract withHans Bertram , who rechristened him "Tony Holiday". His first two singles met with little success. Holiday's breakthrough came in 1977 with the German recording of "Tanze Samba mit Mir" ("Dance the Samba With Me") in 1977. The song quickly became a hit in both Germany and Austria, peaking at #4 on the German music charts [ [http://ki.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/~topsi/deu_70st.html Universität Würzburg] ] and reaching the Top 20 on the Austrian music charts [ [http://www.austriancharts.at/showitem.asp?interpret=Tony+Holiday&titel=Tanze+Samba+mit+mir&cat=s Austrian Charts] ] . In 1979 he participated with the title "Zuviel tequila, zuviel schöne mädchen" ("Too Much Tequila, Too Many Beautiful Girls") [ [http://www.eurovision-spain.com/iphp/finales_historia.php?pagina=3&numero=466&ano=1979&pais=Alemania Eurovision Spain.com] ] in the German finals for theEurovision Song Contest and the song finished in ninth place.Between 1975 and 1984, Holiday would perform eleven times on the popular German music television program "
ZDF-Hitparade ". [ [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1517671/ IMDB.com] ]In 1980, Holiday scored a second European hit with "Nie mehr allein sein" which reached the number 15 on the German music charts [ [http://www.funrec.de/charts/Seiten/int52.shtml Chart History] ] . The song was a reworking of "Sun of Jamaica" by the German band
Goombay Dance Band . Holiday subsequently hosted several music programs on television and released several more singles throughout the 1980s.Holiday led a clandestine homosexual life [Huber, Herman J. "Leben, Laster, Leidenschaft: Weitere 60 schillernde Kultstars der Schwulen". Foerster, 1991 ISBN 3-922-25770-4] and died in 1990 of
AIDS in his native Hamburg at the age of 39. [ [http://www.cyber-surfer.de/content.php?action=hiv_memorandum_02 Engagement für karitative und AIDS-Projekte] (German)]In 2000, Tony Holiday's single "Tanze Samba mit Mir" was featured in the
François Ozon directed film "Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes" ("Water Drops on Burning Rocks "), an adaptation of the play "Tropfen auf heisse Steine" by German filmmaker and writerRainer Werner Fassbinder . The song subsequently appeared on the film's soundtrack. [ [http://www.kinoeye.org/03/13/bingham13.php Kinoeye. "Identity and love: The not-so discreet charm of François Ozon] ]Discography
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
