"Vienna" is a song by British new wave band Ultravox, released on 9 January 1981 by Chrysalis Records[4] as the third single and the title track from their fourth studio album of the same name.

The new wave ballad,[2] which features Midge Ure on lead vocals, is regarded as a staple of the synth-pop genre that was popularised in the early 1980s, and remains both the band's signature song and their most commercially successful release.

Written in January 1980,[5] "Vienna" has a dramatic grand piano in the verses and chorus, and a viola solo in the middle of the song.

Other sounds include a solid synth bass line played on a MiniMoog, an Elka string synthesiser and a Roland CR-78 drum machine.

According to Currie, Ure was hesitant about the overly classical romantic feel of the orchestration, and said: "This means nothing to me", to which the producer Conny Plank replied: "Well, sing that then."

[8] Ure said of the track: "We wanted to take the song and make it incredibly pompous in the middle, leaving it very sparse before and after, but finishing with a typically over-the top classical ending.

It was Ultravox's second video, after "Passing Strangers" (also with Mulcahy), and cost £6,000–£7,000, footed by the band after Chrysalis refused to fund it.

[19] The gravestone that is shown in the video and on the single cover is part of the grave of the Austrian piano manufacturer Carl Schweighofer, and is located in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna.

All songs written and composed by Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Midge Ure, except where noted.

Germany: ZYX / 6767-8 In 1992, comedian Vic Reeves (Jim Moir) appeared on the album Ruby Trax – The NME's Roaring Forty, singing a version of the song with different lyrics in the verses.