The best song about Zurich and Switzerland: GMZH. The best Swiss music video clip.
Switzerland, a country renowned for its banking secrecy, luxury watches and chocolate, is not typically associated with colourful music videos. However, in 2026, an antidote appeared against the backdrop of Alpine tranquillity: "GMZH" (Guten Morgen, Zürich und Horgen) by VUS dj and LAFESTA. The song is the perfect soundtrack for optimism and enjoying life, despite everything going on in the world.
The music video for "GMZH" was filmed at 34 different locations throughout Switzerland in 2025, including the cities of Zurich and Horgen and the surroundings of Lake Zurich.
Approximately 50% of the video content is real footage shot by DJ VUS with a drone and camera.
The other half was supplemented or processed using various AI-based programmes.
The shoot featured singer Olga Rossi (LAFESTA), DJ VUS (Igor Kussenko) and their friends and acquaintances.
GMZH - Music video and song (Guten Morgen, Zürich und Horgen)
The song "GMZH" (Guten Morgen, Zürich und Horgen), which translates from German as "Good morning, Zurich and Horgen" was written by VUS in his home recording studio without the use of AI and consists of 47 musical parts: wind instruments (trombone, flute, trumpet, saxophone), funk guitars, percussion and drum grooves, VST synthesizers, and backing vocals.
This track combines such musical styles as pop-funk, synth-pop, and soul.
DJ VUS has been creating music for over 14 years, including the unique programme «Electro Opera» accompanied by an orchestra.
Every big city should have its own song that captures its unique vibe.
It looks like the song ‘GMZH’ will be that positive anthem for Zurich in the 21st century (Züri-Hymne).
To some extent, this clip can be used as a visual tour of Zurich with real panoramas of the city and street scenes.
Here are just a few of the famous Zurich locations that feature in this music video: Rudolf-Brun-Brücke, Heiri-Steg, Stüssibrunnen, Limmatquai, Münsterbrücke, Weinplatz, Zürich Storchen, MünsterHof and others.
A kaleidoscope of diverse plots and positive shots make the ‘GMZH’ clip a meme generator. Here you will see cows in a pink jacuzzi in the middle of an Alpine lake, a yellow vintage bathyscaphe on the Limmat, dancing alphorn players and a cheerleading team, a dog with a towel in a bubble bath, swans in a restaurant, a vintage car with a jacuzzi in the saloon, a Swiss shepherd dog in a spa salon, and more than 50 other scenes.
Another special place in the song and music video "GMZH" is the town of Horgen. Not only is the key phrase of the chorus "Guten Morgen, Zürich und Horgen" dedicated to it, but also seven different scenes in the music video itself:
- a man in a diving suit dancing on the Horgen pier (Seegartenstrasse 16-20, 8810 Horgen);
- a white swan-shaped catamaran near the Horgen beach "Badi Seerose";
- a colourful accordionist in front of an old house (Zugerstrasse 20, 8810 Horgen);
- a vintage car with a disco ball parked in Horgen between Bahnhofstrasse and Seestrasse;
- a steamboat sailing near the "Sust Museum Horgen";
- white swans at a restaurant near the "Schwan Brunnen" monument;
- a barbecue near the Musikschule Horgen, located in "Villa Seerose" (Seegartenstrasse 12, 8810 Horgen).
Book DJ VUS for your party, event, or wedding in the canton of Zurich, throughout Switzerland, or in other countries. Also, check out our other original entertainment shows:
Opera diva playing live on a laser harp
Singer in a projection dress
LAFESTA – cover band with exquisite music
Water animation show
DJ VUS duo with singer Olga Rossi and their original entertainment shows
The history of songs about Zurich
The first texts in which Zurich and its surroundings became not just a geographical point but an independent artistic image appeared within the Christian tradition of the early Middle Ages.
The medieval chorale "Salve belligerae celeberrima gloria gentis" praised ‘warrior Switzerland’ and mentioned the banks of the Limmat.
It was inspired by the legend that in the 8th century, while hunting, Charlemagne "discovered" the coffins containing the relics of Felix and Regina, legendary martyrs who were allegedly beheaded in the 3rd century on the site of the present-day Grossmünster.
By the 11th–12th centuries, with the rise of the Fraumünster convent, which attracted noble women from across Europe, secular songs about Zurich began to appear, performed by minstrels in the marketplaces. The archives record "Abiglüte am Zürisee" (Evening Bells at Lake Zurich) – a song based on folk motifs about sunsets over the water, and the song "Zürcher Landschaft" praised the fertile fields by the lake.
By the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, minnesingers (singers and poets) had spread throughout the German-speaking world, including Switzerland.
They were mainly from the knightly class and wrote and performed songs about sublime love, loyalty to their suzerain and religious ideals.
The famous Manesse Codex (Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift) has been preserved. It is believed that this collection of poems was compiled in Zurich around 1330 by the noble Manesse family and contains texts by approximately 140 minnesingers.
In other words, the city itself was an important centre for the recording and transmission of their poetry.
The economic position of the city as one of the key points on the trade route from Italy to the Netherlands gave a different dimension to musical imagery.
The songs no longer sing only about water and bell ringing, but also satirically describe everyday life.
For example, "Es wohnt en Buur am dunkle Bach" (A farmer lives by a dark stream) mocked the fishermen of Limmat.
The collection "Züri-Lieder Libu", compiled later by folklorists, confirms this evolution: Lake Zurich is no longer just a symbol of religious or economic prosperity, but a setting for lyrical and love stories.
Hard times for secular music began during the Reformation movement of the 16th century.
The leader of the Zurich Reformation, Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531), began to pursue an extremely radical policy regarding musical instruments in churches.
Instrumental music was banned, and even organs were dismantled from Zurich churches in 1524–1525.
The paradox was that Zwingli was a talented musician who could play the flute, harp and lute, and composed psalms himself.
One of the popular psalms of the time, "Eidgenössisches Heldenlied" (Hymn of the Confederates), mentioned the "Zürioberländer" – the hills above Lake Zurich.
During the Napoleonic Wars (1798–1815), the song "Zwüsched Berg und tüfem Tal" (Between the Mountains and the Deep Lake) about the battle of Rapperswil, a town on the shores of Lake Zurich, became popular among soldiers.
In 1959, composer Paul Burkhard wrote one of the most popular songs about Zurich in the 20th century: "De Himmel vo Züri" (The Sky of Zurich). It goes, "Mis Dach isch de Himmel vo Züri. Ja, das isch mis Paradeis" (My roof is the sky of Zurich. Yes, that is my paradise). The song became the soundtrack for documentaries about the city and was performed by almost all local choirs and folk music groups.
Modern songs about Zurich:
2005: Radio 200k – Im Huus (rap)
2006: Dodo – Leu vo Züri (reggae)
2013: Züri by Linez - Züri City (reggae)
2014: Schnittmann MC – Summer ide City (hip-hop, rap)
2018: Gorillaz – Lake Zurich. At the moment, this is the most popular song about Zurich, with almost 10 million views on YouTube.
The key idea of the song: "In the morning, it came to me Build a tunnel from Zurich to New York".
2022: THCF – Zürich (tropical rap)
2026 VUS dj & LAFESTA – GMZH (soul-funk, synth-pop)
The History of Swiss Music Videos
Since the mid-20th century, Switzerland's visual music culture has undergone a transformation from simple television clips to professional video works, recognised with specialised awards such as the "Best Swiss Video Clip". This evolutionary leap reflects not only technical progress, but also the search for national identity in sound and image: from yodelling to electronic futurism.
Early experiments in 1957 in the television project "Music of the Swiss Alps" set the standard: yodellers in traditional costumes sang against a backdrop of projections of Alpine panoramas.
The 1970s were marked by a dialect shift: Polo Hofer and Rumpelstilz accompany the Swiss-language music video "Ohoi" with street footage of Zurich. This emphasises local identity in contrast to the dominance of English and American rock`n`roll.
In the 1980s, the Zurich duo "Yello" (Boris Blank and Dieter Meier) shook up the show business world with their unconventional synth-pop song "Oh Yeah" (1985) from the album "Stella". It became the soundtrack to the film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", which made the song particularly popular. But it was the video clip with its projection effects that elevated the Swiss duo to the status of icons of the MTV era. Many years later (in 2022), "Yello" received the "Swiss Grand Award" for their pioneering work in electronic video.
The launch of MTV Europe (1987) and VIVA (1993) spurred the industry on, and Swiss music videos became more professional. Stress won "Best National Music Video" at the "Swiss Music Awards" for their dynamic urban video "Mais où?".
Subsequently, the "Best Swiss Video Clip award" was organised for original music videos (as part of FONDATION SUISA and the Solothurn Film Festival). Although the prize fund is not large (2,000 Swiss francs for each of the five finalists and 5,000 for the winner), it is a nice bonus for the winners of this category.
Concert by DJ VUS and LAFESTA accompanied by their orchestra
