"Live Is Life" is a song originally recorded in 1984 by Austrian group Opus. It was a European number-one hit in the summer of 1985. The single also reached number one in Canada and was a top 40 hit in the US in 1986. It has been covered by many artists throughout the years.
Background and chart performance
After having released several singles "Live Is Life" achieved huge success in 1985, topping the charts of many countries, including Austria, Germany, France and Sweden. In France, the song is the 149th best-selling single of all time with about 857,000 units sold. The song was created during a concert in Oberwart, on 2 September 1984, while the group celebrated its eleventh anniversary. It was recorded in a live version with the audience singing along in the verses. In the lyrics, the song expresses "the enthusiastic attachment of the group to the stage". The song was performed during the 1985 charity campaign, "Austria für Afrika". In 1994, on the occasion of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Opus released another version of "Live Is Life", which made it again into the top ten in Austria. The song was re-recorded once more by the group in 2008, both in a solo version and featuring Jerry.
Maradona's warming up
On 19 April 1989, during the warming up in Munich before the UEFA Cupsemi-final return between FC Bayern Munich and S.S.C. Napoli, Diego Maradona did a keepie uppie exhibition, to the rhythm of the song, while the song was heard on the stadium's loudspeakers. This has become a classic among football fans. Some confusion persists by those who dispute that it took place in Munich. Among others, Jürgen Klinsmann claimed that it happened during the final in Stuttgart:
There were 70,000 people in the stadium and Maradona went on the field. We’re on the other side of the field, warming up like Germans: seriously, focused. There's music playing, the song "Live is Life", and to the rhythm of the song Maradona started juggling the ball. So we stopped our warm-up. What's this guy doing? He's juggling off his shoulders. And we couldn't warm up anymore because we had to watch this guy.
Belgian sports anchor :nl:Frank Raes|Frank Raes, who edited the video and distributed it via YouTube, always asserted that this warm up took place just before the semifinal in Munich. According to Raes, this can easily be verified by visual cues in the clip, such as the advertisements around the pitch, for example the numerous Commodore boards which were one of Bayern's main sponsors at the time. By 2013, Frank Raes' Maradona video clip had garnered almost two million views on YouTube. The 25th anniversary of Maradona's warming up was noted internationally, with newspapers commenting on his skills and on the transformative effect he had on Napoli and southern Italy.
Slovenian avant-garde band Laibach recorded two covers of the song on their 1987 album Opus Dei. The first version, "Leben Heißt Leben" was sung in German. The second version, "Opus Dei", was promoted as a single, and its promotional video was played extensively on the American cable channel MTV. Opus Dei retained some of the original song's English lyrics, but was delivered in a musical style that left the meaning of the lyrics open to further interpretation. Laibach's subversive interpretation turned the feel-good anthem into a triumphant, rolling military march. With the exception of the promotional video, the refrain is at one instance translated into German, giving an example of the sensitivity of its lyrics to context.
The Hermes House Band and DJ Ötzi released a version of the song in 2002. The single had his highest peak position in France, where it reached number two for five weeks. The song was used as a soundtrack for the German youth film Das Jahr der ersten Küsse. As of August 2014, the song was the 23rd best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 537,000 units sold.
Track listings
CD single
"Live Is Life " – 3:30
"Live Is Life " – 3:33
CD maxi
"Live Is Life " – 3:30
"Live Is Life " – 3:33
"Football's Coming Home" by Hermes House Band – 3:48
"Everytime You Touch Me" by Hermes House Band – 3:21
"Hey Mama" by Hermes House Band – 3:10
Enhanced Multimediatrack : "Live Is Life" – 3:30
Charts and sales
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Sales and certifications
Other versions
The song was covered by many other artists, including Stargo, Starkoo and Quebec singer René Simard covered the song in French, "La vie chante". A modified version with the chorus changed from "Life is life" to "Geiz ist geil" is used in radio ads for the German electronics store chainSaturn. Sofia Carson's "Love Is the Name" features an interpolation of "Live is Life".
