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He was Austria's biggest pop star, one of the most important European musicians of his time, many say: the first white rapper.
Falco was an absolute superstar and achieved world fame with his hit Rock Me Amadeus.
Falco's cultural legacy is more influential than that of any other German-speaking singer.
His intelligent, often sarcastic lyrics are ingrained in the collective cultural memory.
And his commercial success is also unique in the German-speaking world.
The young Hans Hölzel, as the future pop star is called in real life, comes from a working-class district of Vienna and takes his first musical steps as a bassist in various bands.
He develops the fictional character "Falco" and is discovered when he performs his first own song Ganz Wien as an intermission program.
From then on, the hits followed one after the other, crowned by Rock Me Amadeus at the top of the US Billboard charts - to this day the only German-language title ever to achieve this.
But fame has its price.
Cocaine and alcohol destroy every one of Falco's relationships, whether private or professional.
Soon hardly anyone wants to work with him.
His career hits a dead end and several comeback attempts fail.
Falco is just 40 years old and drunk as a skunk when he crashes his car into a bus in 1998.
In the documentary "TOO young TO DIE: Falco - Dying to live", friends and companions such as Falco's manager Horst Bork and Dutch producer Ferdi Bolland tell stories about everyday life and working with the eccentric artist.
The woman who thought Falco was her father for seven years also talks about the not always easy life as the daughter of the capricious pop star.
Private video recordings by Falco's friend Conny de Beauclair provide a glimpse behind the scenes.
