Alphaville & Sandra in Ostrava

Alphaville is a German synth-pop band formed in Münster in 1982 by Marian Gold, Bernhard Lloyd and Frank Mertens. The group is best known for the songs “Forever Young,” “Big in Japan” and “Sounds Like a Melody,” all released on the debut album Forever Young. Alphaville gave its first live concert in Beirut in 1993, years after its early records had established the band’s audience. The band marked its 25th anniversary in 2009 with a concert at Prague’s Žofín Palace.

Sandra is a German pop singer born in Saarbrücken in 1962, known for synth-pop and Euro-disco records produced with Michael Cretu. After singing with the trio Arabesque, she began a solo career led by “(I’ll Never Be) Maria Magdalena” and followed it with “In the Heat of the Night,” “Everlasting Love” and “Heaven Can Wait”; The Long Play and Mirrors are central albums in that catalogue. The 2008 Sopot International Song Festival featured Sandra in a concert devoted to 1980s pop, part of the revival-event circuit that became an important setting for her later performances. She later appeared at the recurring Legends of Retro FM festival in Moscow.