Johann Hölzel (German: ; 19 February 1957 – 6 February 1998), better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian singer, songwriter and rapper.
Falco had several international hits, "Rock Me Amadeus", "Der Kommissar", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home (Jeanny Part II, One Year Later)", and posthumously "Out of the Dark". "Rock Me Amadeus" reached No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1986, making him the only artist whose principal language was German to score a vocal number-one hit in the United States (Bert Kaempfert reached No. 1 in January 1961 with the instrumental "Wonderland by Night"). According to his estate, he has sold 20 million albums and 40 million singles, which makes him the best-selling Austrian singer of all time.
Falco was born Johann Hölzel on 19 February 1957 to Alois Hölzel and Maria Hölzel in a working class district of Vienna. Maria would later recall that she had been pregnant with triplets. As it was a dizygotic pregnancy, she miscarried the identical twins during the third month and Falco, who was conceived via a separate ovum, survived. Falco mused that "three souls in one breast sounds a little over dramatic, but I do sense them sometimes. In my moodiness. I'll be really up and then right after I'll be really down."