WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Edelweiss

With a little help from ABBA. Edelweiss brought you themselves and then went again. But where?

Edelweiss were an Austrian group that formed in 1988 of Walter Werzowa (b.1960), Matthias Schweger (b.1966) and Martin Gletschermayer along with singers Maria Mathis (b.1967) and Andrea Jilik. Using the melody of ABBA‘s “SOS”, they created the song “Bring Me Edelweiss” in 1988 and topped the chart in their come country with it. For the rest of 1988 and into 1989, the song went top ten across Europe and further afield, peaking at No.5 in the UK and No.7 on the US Dance chart. But the magic of Edelweiss’ first release did not catch on and although they achieved one more No.1 in Austria with “Raumschiff Edelweiss” in 1992, the groups subsequent singles and their two studio albums, “Edelweiss” (1988) and “The Wonderful World Of Edelweiss” (1992), did no more.

The group parted ways in 1993 with just a remix of their best known song surfacing in 2001. Since then, Matthias Schweger worked with the group Bingoboys, best known for their 1990 single “How To Dance”, another song which sampled and freely used other peoples songs, before he became a well known DJ on Austrian radio. Walter Werzowa went on to become a producer and composer of film and television music, most notably the 1996 Arnold Schwarzenegger/Vanessa Williams film ‘Eraser’, as well as being one of the leading authorities on the composer Mozart. Singer Maria Mathis has released a number of solo singles and albums throughout the 1990’s and early 00’s in her home country, but Edelweiss have regrouped more recently than that for a one-off 30th anniversary performance of “Bring Me Edelweiss”!