Yodeling is still very much alive in the Alps as an essential part of Volkmusik, the alpine folk music, which is sang in High German (mountain German dialect).

My favorite contemporary yodeler is Mélanie Oesch. Born in the Bernese Highlands in 1987, she became famous as a member of Oesch’s die Dritten, (Oesch the Third). The band consists of three generations of musicians from the same family: Melanie, her brothers and parents and grampa Hans (not in the band anymore). Oesch’s die Dritten on YouTube.

Listen to her solo starting at 0:48 in this live yodle fest:

Franzl Lang (1930 – 2015), known as the Yodel King (German: Jodlerkönig), born in mountainous Bavaria, Germany. Sold 10 million records. Buried in beautiful Munich Waldfriedhof, Cemetery.

When I’m blue, I watch Franzl Lang lip-yodle on German TV.

Takeo Ischi, born 1947 in Tokyo, Japan, somehow became enthralled with Alpine music and taught himself the dulcimer and the zither. He also thought himself to yodel using Franzl Lang recordings. He travelled to Germany and Switzerland where he started making a living as a yodeler and never left. He lives in Bavaria, Germany with his wife and five children. He remains one of the biggest stars in yodeling.