Global Kryner

Global Kryner is a six-piece Austrian folk band, consisting of clarinet player Christof Spörk, trombonist Sebastian Fuchsberger, guitarist Edi Koehldorfer, trumpet player Karl Rossmann, accordion player Anton Sauprügl, and vocalist Sabine Stieger. The youngest member, Ms Stieger is also a recent addition to the band, which was formerly fronted by singer Anne Marie Höller. The group have been selected to represent their country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, to be held in Kyiv.

Related Topics:
Austrian - Eurovision Song Contest 2005 - Kyiv

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Global Kryner were founded by Christof Spörk, a political scientist as well as musician. The band's avowed raison d'être is firstly to root themselves firmly in the tradition of the hugely popular Oberkrainer sound pioneered by Slovenian Slavko Avsenik in the 1950s, but then to do nothing short of elevate it to the status of a 'serious world music genre', while simultaneously preserving its familiar quirky, whimsical facets. They have further ambitiously resolved to demonstrate that the genre is versatile enough to extend its scope to any song, from any musical tradition in the world - hence the 'global' part of the name. To this end, they have already set about giving their distinctive Alpine treatment to tracks as improbable as Madonna's "Like a Virgin".

Related Topics:
Slovenian - Slavko Avsenik - 1950s - Madonna

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In early 2005, the band were one of five competing acts in song.null.fünf, Austria's national pre-selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, which was a curious affair in that each act was required to put forward two songs. Global Kryner?s offerings were "Y Asi" and "Dreaming". The competition's unusual format gave rise to the unsettling possibility that, by putting in a strong performance of both songs, an act could effectively rob themselves of victory by splitting their own potential vote. One of Global Kryner's rivals, Austria's 2003 Eurovision representative Alf Poier, attempted to reap the benefits of the situation by stating that if his song "Hotel, Hotel" won, he would refuse to travel to Kyiv, thus giving his supporters a less-than-subtle steer towards the song he thought had the better chance. The event duly crystallised into a titanic battle between "Y Asi" and Poier's favoured entry, the bizarre and controversial "Good Old Europe is Dying". Poier's song actually recorded a greater number of raw votes, but the regional points system used translated those votes into a narrow victory for "Y Asi", which therefore goes forward to represent Austria in Kyiv.

Related Topics:
2005 - Eurovision Song Contest - 2003 Eurovision - Alf Poier

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The song is an archetype of the band's global philosophy, interspersing Latin-style music with yodelling, and is sung in a mixture of Spanish and English. Not only that, but the lyrics knit together to relate a rudimentary love story, which inventively mimics the interface between different cultures and musical traditions that the song itself represents, together with the exhilarating results the band hope to demonstrate can naturally flow. The 'story' tells of a Cuban girl who falls hopelessly in love with an Austrian man on account of his expert yodelling, and then happily discovers that all she is required to do to leave him similarly bewitched is indulge in some rhythmic Cuban dancing.

Related Topics:
Spanish - English

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Given the evolution of Eurovision in recent years, and the growing mass of evidence for which tactics tend to earn most points in an era of televoting, many are confidently anticipating that Global Kryner will complement their already colourful song with a visual display that fully flaunts their proven flair for injecting humour into a performance. A signpost to what could be in store can be seen in the band's 'signature photo', which has also been roughly replicated in the form of a cartoon-style picture. In it, the band members wittily differentiate themselves in the starkest gender-specific fashion, with all five men covered up by nothing but black shorts and their respective musical instruments. In complete contrast, as the lone female member of the group, Sabine Stieger is seen in full traditional folk dress, albeit with a compensatory modicum of cleavage on prominent display. Should the band opt to take to the stage in Kyiv wearing these - or similar - 'uniforms', it will mark a thoroughly startling reversal of the international audience's expectations, based on the familiar ratio of clothing coverage between male and female performers in a typical Eurovision act.

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However, the preview video for the song (which is partly based on the bizarre 1952 movie 1. April 2000) points in a strikingly different direction, with the Cuban heroine being shown making a rather incongruous arrival in a flying saucer-style craft, directly drawn from the darkest imaginings of the 1950s. This would appear to be a testing stunt to replicate in Kyiv, not least because with so many musicians in the band, Eurovision rules would prohibit the participation of any additional performers on stage. But whatever visual gimmick the band ultimately try, a successful attention-grabbing ploy could well prove to be particularly necessary in the 2005 Eurovision, especially since Global Kryner will enter the contest at the highly competitive semi-final stage on May 19, when twenty-five countries will be scrapping it out for just ten qualifying spots. Should the group manage to produce whatever it is that is required, they will then proceed with the other qualifiers to compete against the fourteen countries with guaranteed places at the grand final on May 21.

Related Topics:
May 19 - May 21

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