Moulin Rouge (named after the French cabaret) is a

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

n popular music group consisting of vocalist Alenka Šmid-Čena and songwriter, keyboardist, and producer Matjaž Kosi.

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Keyboardist Matjaž Kosi founded Moulin Rouge after leaving

n (then Yugoslav)

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

band

Videosex Videosex was a Yugoslav synth-pop band formed in Ljubljana in 1982. The band was established in 1982, but the steady lineup was formed in 1983, consisting of Anja Rupel (vocals), Janez Križaj (bass guitar), Iztok Turk (drums), Matjaž Kosi (key ...

in 1985. Initially, Moulin Rouge consisted of three men; after reorganizing, Matjaž Kosi held an audition for a female vocalist. Alenka Šmid-Čena was chosen as lead vocalist. The band took its 1980s membership of Matjaž Kosi and Alenka Šmid-Čena in 1987. They were active primarily from the late 1980s to the early 2000s, and their work combines elements of 1980s

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

Italo disco Italo disco (variously capitalized, and sometimes hyphenated as Italo-disco) is a music genre which originated in Italy in the late 1970s and was mainly produced in the early 1980s. Italo disco evolved from the then-current underground dance, p ...

Hi-NRG Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the ...

, and

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

. Moulin Rouge entered

Jugovizija Jugovizija, Cyrillic: Југовизија, English: Yugovision, was the Yugoslav national final to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, organized by the Yugoslav broadcaster Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT) and its subnational public ...

, the Yugoslav national pre-selection for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, in 1987 with the song "Bye bye baby," finishing in sixth place, and returned a year later with the song "Johnny je moj," finishing in fourth place. In 2000 Matjaž Kosi released a truly solo album (2010 - title inspired by the sequel of the Stanley Kubrick movie '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' meaning long absence from the music scene). He wrote, played, produced and sang all the vocal parts. The album was for Slovenia only; no English version has been done so far. After working with many other artists, he met Karmen Plazar, a young female singer with a solo album already released. Kosi made a cover version of Moulin Rouge's classic hit ''Prvi tvoj poljub'' (Your First Kiss), where she was introduced as Lady C. After promising feedback from listeners, Kosi invited her to join Moulin Rouge as a vocalist in 2002. The result was the album ''The Best Of 2002'', a remake album of Moulin Rouge's 1980s hits. After that, they returned to international audiences with the single ''Just A Start'', which received very good reviews, but due to lack of promotion and distribution, its success was moderate. The follow-up was ''My Heart Is Beating Boom'', which went viral after the introduction of

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. It was widely accepted by Japanese anime fans, who made their own video versions based on

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

clips. Moulin Rouge has enjoyed notable success among fans of electronic dance music in Germany,

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

, United States, Italy, and particularly Japan. Internationally, their best known singles include "High Energy Boy" (1987) and "Boys Don't Cry" (1988). The latter was covered in a

Japanese-language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been m ...

version entitled Namida o Misenaide (Boys Don't Cry) by Japanese female pop duo

Wink A wink is a facial expression made by briefly closing one eye. A wink is an informal mode of non-verbal communication usually signaling shared hidden knowledge or intent. However, it is ambiguous by itself and highly dependent upon additional ...

in 1989. The cover, with lyrics by songwriter Neko Oikawa,Neko Oikawa
Japanese) reached #1 on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

weekly single chart. In 2016, the band posted new photos on their Facebook page announcing their revival, with Matjaž Kosi as producer and Karmen Plazar appearing as vocalist.

Discography in Slovenia

International discography

References

External links

Discogs
{{Authority control Slovenian musical groups Yugoslav musical groups Musical groups established in 1985 Hi-NRG groups Electronic music duos 1985 establishments in Yugoslavia