Live Is Life


"Live Is Life" is a song by Austrian pop rock band Opus, released in 1984 by labels Polydor and OK as the first single from their first live album, Live Is Life. It was written by the band and produced by Peter Müller, and also included on the US version of their fourth studio album, Up and Down. The song was a European number-one hit in the summer of 1985, and also reached number one in Canada and the top 40 in the US in 1986. It has been covered by many artists.
The title is sometimes mistaken as "Life Is Life": Standard German phonology has final-obstruent devoicing, so that the word "live" sounds like "life".

Background and chart performance

After having released several singles, "Live Is Life" achieved huge success in 1985, topping the charts of many countries, including Austria, West Germany, France and Sweden.
The song was created during a concert in Oberwart, on 2 September 1984, while the group celebrated its eleventh anniversary. It was recorded in a live version with the audience singing along in the verses. In the lyrics, the song expresses "the enthusiastic attachment of the group to the stage". The song was performed during the 1985 charity campaign, "Austria für Afrika".
It was re-recorded as the theme song of the 2024 European Women's Handball Championship in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland to mark the fortieth anniversary of the original song.
It is the current goal song of Team Canada during the 2025 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships being held in Ottawa, Ontario. The song had been used by Team Canada in the 2023 Gretzky Hlinka Championship and 2024 IIHF U18 World Championship. The Ottawa 67s also used it as their goal song during the 2023-2024 season.

Maradona's warm up

On 19 April 1989, during the warming up in Munich before the UEFA Cup semi-final return between FC Bayern Munich and S.S.C. Napoli, Diego Maradona performed an impromptu keepie uppie exhibition synchronized to the rhythm of "Live Is Life", as the song happened to be playing over the stadium's loudspeakers during warm-ups.
Some confusion persists by those who dispute that it took place in Munich. Among others, Jürgen Klinsmann claimed that it happened during the final in Stuttgart:

There were 70,000 people in the stadium and Maradona went on the field. We’re on the other side of the field, warming up like Germans: seriously, focused. There's music playing, the song "Live is Life", and to the rhythm of the song Maradona started juggling the ball. So we stopped our warm-up. What's this guy doing? He's juggling off his shoulders. And we couldn't warm up anymore because we had to watch this guy.

Belgian sports anchor Frank Raes, who edited the video and distributed it via YouTube, has asserted that this warm up took place just before the semifinal in Munich. By 2013, Raes' video clip had garnered almost two million views on YouTube. The 25th anniversary of Maradona's warming up was noted internationally, with newspapers commenting on his skills and on the transformative effect he had on Napoli and southern Italy.

Personnel

  • Herwig Rüdisser – lead vocals
  • Ewald Pfleger – guitar, vocals
  • Niki Gruber – bass, vocals
  • Kurt-René Plisnier – keyboard, vocals
  • Günter Grasmuck – drums
  • Günter Timischl – percussion, vocals

    Track listings

1985 release

  • 7" single
  1. "Live Is Life" – 4:15
  2. "Again and Again" – 3:51
  • 7" single
  1. "Live Is Life" – 4:15
  2. "Up and Down" – 3:49

    1994 release

  • CD maxi
  1. "The Power of Live Is Life" – 3:58
  2. "Live Is Life" – 5:06
  3. "The Power of Live Is Life" – 6:33
  4. "Live Is Life" – 3:16

    2008 release

  • CD single
  1. "Live Is Life 08" – 4:17
  2. "Live Is Life 08" – 3:38
  • CD maxi
  1. "Live Is Life 08" – 4:17
  2. "Live Is Life 08" – 3:38
  3. "Live Is Life 08" – 3:56
  4. "Touch the Sky" by Opus – 3:47

    2011 version

  • Digital download
  1. Live Is Life – 4:09
  2. Live Is Life – 4:57

    Charts and sales

Weekly charts

Chart 1Peak
position
Austria 3
Iceland 7

Chart Peak
position
Poland 58

  • 1 "The Power of Live Is Life"
  • 2 "Live Is Life 08", featuring Jerry

    Year-end charts

Chart Position
Canada Top Singles 78

Certifications

Hermes House Band version

The Hermes House Band and DJ Ötzi released a version of "Live Is Life" in 2002. The single had its highest peak position in France, where it reached number two for five weeks. The song was used as a soundtrack for the German youth film Das Jahr der ersten Küsse. As of August 2014, the song was the 23rd best-selling single of the 21st century in France, with 537,000 units sold.

Track listings

  • CD single
  1. "Live Is Life " – 3:30
  2. "Live Is Life " – 3:33
  • CD maxi
  1. "Live Is Life " – 3:30
  2. "Live Is Life " – 3:33
  3. "Football's Coming Home" by Hermes House Band – 3:48
  4. "Everytime You Touch Me" by Hermes House Band – 3:21
  5. "Hey Mama" by Hermes House Band – 3:10
  6. Enhanced Multimediatrack : "Live Is Life" – 3:30

    Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Sales and certifications

Other cover versions

The Slovenian art collective Laibach recorded two retitled versions of the song for their 1987 album Opus Dei, one in English which was used as the album's title track, and the other in German under the name "Leben heisst Leben", with guitar solo included. Both were arranged in a distinctly darker and militaristic style typical of the group's music. The song, along with their cover of Queen's "One Vision" on the same LP, gained the band mainstream airplay on outlets including MTV and The Chart Show.
The song was covered by Stargo, whose version reached number 10 in France in 1985. Sofia Carson's "Love Is the Name" features an interpolation of "Live Is Life".
The song was also adapted by Liverpool F.C. fans as a football chant about their then manager Jürgen Klopp early in his tenure at the club. The song was reused by Liverpool fans for a chant about Klopp's successor Arne Slot.