Marianne & Michael

Known for their traditional attire and innocent charm, Marianne & Michael stood as the archetypal German volksmusik pair. Marianne Reiner and Michael Adolf Hartl first encountered each other in Munich in 1973, where an immediate rapport prompted them to build a body of authentic German folk material. Their joint efforts eventually produced more than twenty studio albums together with multiple honors. After marrying in 1979, the duo entered the preliminaries of the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest and presented a series of volksmusik-focused television shows, among them Lustige Musikanten, Feste Feiern, and Heimatmelodie. Performances, recordings, and television work by Marianne & Michael extended well into the 2000s.