Among Austrians active in popular music, few have generated as much attention as DJ Ötzi, the performing name of Gerry Friedle. The peroxide-haired native of Tyrol ignited a craze toward the end of 2001 by reshaping well-known party anthems into electronic dance numbers, thereby attracting millions of purchasers and a vast audience. At the same time, critics—particularly those writing in Britain—frequently dismissed his output as ephemeral and shallow. Early ambitions to work the land ended abruptly once Friedle discovered an insurmountable dread of cattle; he next trained as a chef before abandoning that path to wander as a vagrant. The itinerant period proved brief, for he soon found himself drawn to singing and performance, securing regular engagements as a DJ across rural Austria. A diagnosis of testicular cancer in 1998 placed his life in jeopardy, yet he overcame the disease and promptly entered the recording industry.
The debut release “Anton Aus Tyrol” achieved widespread success across Central Europe in 2000. One year later “Hey Baby (Uhh, Ahh)” displaced Madonna at the summit of the German singles chart; the track maintained strong positions throughout the continent, even supplanting Bob the Builder at number one in the United Kingdom, while Friedle simultaneously introduced his own line of flavored milk. His follow-up single “Do Wah Diddy” replicated that European reach, again including British success. Further buoyant dance releases—“Burger Dance” in 2003, “Sieben Sunden” in 2006, and “Ein Stern” in 2007—each entered Austria’s Top Three. The 2008 album Hotel Engel became his second chart-topping long-player. Although Du und Ich and Der DJ Aus den Bergen registered lower peaks, Ötzi regained the summit in 2012 via the Bellamy Brothers collaboration Simply the Best; the subsequent 2013 set Es Ist Zeit reached the Top Ten in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. His sixteenth studio album, Von Herzen, arrived in 2017 and included the single “Geboren um Dich zu Lieben” recorded with Nik P.
