Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. The band features both vocal harmony and instrumental accompaniment. They competed in Unser Lied für Stockholm, the German national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, and placed 5th in the first round of public voting with the song "Masters of Chant", failing to make the Top 3 with 9.06% of the public vote.
Band history
Originally, Gregorian was conceived as a more pop-oriented group in the vein of Enigma. Under this concept, Peterson together with Matthias Meissner and Thomas Schwarz, recorded the 1991 album Sadisfaction, with lead vocals provided by the Sisters of Oz: Susana Espelleta (Peterson's wife at the time) and Birgit Freud. However, this was the only album by the trio in that style.
In 1998, Peterson and his team of Jan-Eric Kohrs, Michael Soltau and Carsten Heusmann re-invented the project to perform popular songs in the Gregorian style. The criteria for song selection were strict; in order to be considered, a song needed to be translatable into the 7-tone scale. For each album, songs were carefully chosen in addition to original songs written by Jan-Eric Kohrs, Amelia Brightman and Carsten Heussman. Twelve vocalists - previously acclaimed session and choir singers - were then hired to record the tracks.
The concept proved to be successful, and the group proceeded to record several more albums in the same style as Masters of Chant. Known as the ten "Chapters", said album releases primarily featured covers of well-known or popular songs (ex. Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", Alphaville's "Forever Young"; Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", etc.) done in the group's chant-inspired style, Their 2004 album, The Dark Side, was a slight departure from the others, featuring a darker repertoire; similarly, the group has released themed albums such as the Christmas-themed Christmas Chants, another dark-repertoire album with The Dark Side of the Chant (2010), and the themed Epic Chants (2012). In 2005, The Masterpieces, a compilation album accompanied by a live DVD, was released.
Tours
thumb|right|Gregorian in 2009Gregorian has toured parts of Europe, China, Russia and Japan; according to one report, the band has performed over 3,000 concerts in 106 countries to 12 million fans.