As part of their 50th anniversary tour, iconic German rock group Scorpions will make its debut in China on May 1 at the Changjiang International Music Festival in Zhejiang.
Klaus Meine, Scorpions' lead vocalist, said the band will perform several songs they have not played for a long time as well as their bestselling hits such as "Big City Nights," "The Zoo" and "Rock You Like a Hurricane."
They will also play songs found in their new album "Return to Forever."
"We know we have many fans in China. I am sure our Chinese fans will know some of our songs by heart and hopefully they will sing along," said Meine, adding the show will not have many special effects.
"It will be more about music, about the communication between the band on the stage and the audience."
Meine previously visited Beijing in 2008 to attend the opening ceremony of a Sino-German medical research program.
"I was surprised there was such amazing interest in the band playing in China. We know there is a very strong music scene with many Chinese bands," the 66-year-old singer said. "We want to give the fans a taste of European music, of the Scorpions' music"
"This might be just the beginning but that is up to our Chinese fans. We hope there will be another opportunity to come back and perform in Beijing, Shanghai and in many other cities," he added.
One of the longest existing rock bands in history, Scorpions was founded by guitarist Rudolf Schenker in 1965, followed by Meine in 1969 and guitarist Matthias Jabs in 1978. Drummer James Kottak and bassist Pawel Mciwoda joined subsequently.
Meine attributes the longevity of the band to the chemistry between the members, teamwork and their friendship.
"Since the beginning, the Scorpions were a live band. We always wanted to be onstage and share our emotions and music with our audience. We never lost the passion for rock music and for what we are doing, for being songwriters and creating new songs," he said.
The band released a documentary on itself, "Forever and a Day," in Europe along with their new album to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
"Back in the '60s and early '70s, five kids from Hannover from West Germany started singing in English and taking the music all over the world. English is not our mother language so it was a very unique story of success. Nevertheless, we have always believed in ourselves, in our talent. We wanted to live our dream. As you can see even after all those years we are now celebrating 50 years of Scorpions," said Meine.
"So we still live our dream and visit places where we have never been before. We still feel this excitement, but probably one of the best parts is that our music was reaching out to the young generation of rock fans as well in the last couple of years."