| Markus Haider | |
| Alias: | Michael Mende |
| Birth Date: | 1974 July 23 |
| Birth Place: | Vienna |
| Origin: | Zwölfaxing, Austria |
| Instrument: | Vocals |
| Associated Acts: | The Gang Guys, Mister & Mister Swing |
Markus Haider is an Austrian singer part of The Gang Guys, who dub themselves "the Austrian Rat Pack", a tribute band to the original Rat Pack.[1] He is known for his performance of Dean Martin's Sway that is commonly but mistakenly thought to be performed by Frank Sinatra.[2]
Haider's cover of Sway was a part of a tribute show to the Rat Pack performed at Entropolos Theatre, it is believed that the date of the performance is somewhere around 2009.[2] [3] The black-and-white hue of the video was later added to the video by Niki Lappas - the band's editor - giving the performance a more dated look, resulting in confusion as to the date of the performance and the identity of the performer is, with many uploaders mistakenly classifying it as a Frank Sinatra performance,[4] [5] despite there being no known Sinatra performance of the song. The cacophonous audience featured in the video was spliced from a Beatles performance on February 9, 1964.
In 2011, Haider tried a Schlager project and released a CD titled "Auftritt"; he used the artist name "Michael Mende" in this project. Even though the CD was not ready to be produced by that date, the singer's producer Johnny Matrix submitted a track called "Bella scusami" to the Alpen Grand Prix in Italy, in which he won 2nd place.[6] [7] [8] The track was available on Belgian National Radio for eight weeks.[9] Schlager-Charts with highest ranking on #19.[10]
Markus Haider also appears as an actor in several movies. Nicolas Neuhold“ is a close friend of Haider's, and, together, they made a project called „Cannes - through the eyes of the hunter“, which was Neuhold's final assignment. This short film was nominated for the Students Television Awards 2000 by the Royal Television Society.[11]