He has seen it all: the film business, the rock n’ roll scene, celebrity status and media hype. He played for hundreds of thousands of fans. He wrote songs that made German music history. German rock legend Marius Müller-Westernhagen made his mark on entire generations with hits like «Freiheit», «Willenlos» or «Johnny W.» and he knew how to play to huge stadium audiences in gargantuan rock shows, but he didn’t let that go to his head. He decided to quit his stadium tours and chose quality instead of quantity. He comes to Basel with his powerful, sweaty rock hits in tow, but also with a large portion of humour and honesty.

Belgian storyteller Milow has taken the listening public by storm, yet he remains down-to-earth. He tastefully captures the spirit of the times with fascinating lyrics and

ever since he came out with an acoustic pop version of the club hit «Ayo Technology», the Belgian singer has been at home on the charts worldwide. Milow goes deep into the core of pop with his evocative, airy sounds. It seems that there is no better place to proof his unerring instinct for good pop than in the unique club-style atmosphere of AVO SESSION Basel.

Accomplished singer-songwriter Katie Melua makes her second appearance at the AVO SESSION festival. She presents her new, mysterious and profound album «Secret Symphony». Like the rain of gold and platinum with her earlier albums, this album has been at the top of the charts for many weeks. It shows that even superstars have hard times, like Katie Melua with her burnout. Her art was making this crisis into a source of creativity by turning it into new songs. This great music dynamic speaks for the quality of her new works. She mixes pop, jazz and folk intuitively and adeptly, her songs are heartfelt, natural and unpretentious. Pop and poetry don’t get any closer than this – as you will see at this evening at AVO SESSION Basel.

Alice Cooper brings his new album «Welcome 2 My Nightmare» to the AVO SESSION Basel. The star, who rightfully can call himself the world’s most easily identifiable music brand, brings his legendary and bombastic black rock show to Basel. Alice Cooper shocked audiences with boa constrictors and guillotines, now he does it with spider costumes and horror masks, but the good old 70s rock has remained a constant. That’s Alice Cooper’s remedy for the irritations and confusions of our time: spectacular electric guitars, old school style. The shock rocker brings our dark side back to the stage.

Football, religion and politics do not interest Dieter Meier, but when it comes to his stories, music lovers have to stop and listen. Stories literally pour out of him; he is a waterfall of clever ideas, sometimes slightly crude remarks and unsettling descriptions. Meier is art. His experiences are endless: singer in Yello, organic farmer in Argentina, watch designer, director, book author, poker player, innkeeper, photographer and performance artist, among other things. It makes sense that his new music project Out of Chaos (where he is joined by Nicolas Rüttimann, guitar, Ephrem Lüchinger, piano, Tobias Preisig, violin, Thomas Wydler, drums and Ralph Sonderegger, bass) is hard to describe with mere words. Perhaps like this: accomplished musicians from the jazz and rock scene, unusual instruments, no genre boundaries and at the centre: Meier. He sings, screeches, whispers and talks. And he tells stories, sometimes without any music at all.