Fantasy

Freiheit achieved some exposure in the USA where the single ‘Keeping The Dream Alive’ was used on TV in the singing talent contest American Idol as a backdrop to video montages featuring contestants on the programme. Formed in Germany in the early 1980s, Munchener Freiheit (as the band were known) enjoyed some commercial success in their homeland with their first three albums. They then decided to aim for international success and began recording tracks in English from two of their previous albums. The result was ‘Romancing in the Dark’ which contained English versions of six tracks from their album ‘Traumziel’ plus their three biggest German hits. In 1988, Münchener Freiheit (or just simply Freiheit as they became known as outside of Germany) released ‘Fantasie’ in Germany and its English counterpart, ‘Fantasy’. Unlike “ ‘Romancing in the Dark’, ‘Fantasy’ contained all tracks from its German counterpart. In Germany ‘Fantasie’ was a great success reaching No.4 on the album charts spending eight weeks in the Top 10 and spawning two big hits singles: ‘So lang' man Träume noch leben kann’ and ‘Bis wir uns wiederseh'n’. ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’ (the English-language version of ‘So lang' man Träume noch leben kann’) became the band's sole hit in the UK, reaching number 14 in the UK singles chart in December 1988. Due to its December release and rich orchestral sound, ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’ still receives a lot of airplay at Christmas time and can be found included on many Christmas compilation albums.