Die Lollipops

Die Lollipops is a children's band which formed in Germany in the summer of 2000 under the Edelkids label, a division of a German company named Edel Music.  According to the label's website, the primary intended audience for the band is German-speaking children between 4 and 10 years old.

Music 
Their music can be divided into three basic types: 
 Traditional children's songs, whether native or international;
 Covers, or songs in which the melody is borrowed from a popular song (often from the English-speaking world) but the lyrics are unrelated; and
 Original songs invented by the group.  This accounts for the largest number of songs, especially in the more recent releases.

Examples of famous international children's songs whose melody has been borrowed and given entirely new lyrics:

History 
Die is German for "the" (plural); Lollipops is a loanword from English.  The most common German word for lollipop is Lutscher, but Germans now also use Lollipop.  The band debuted in July 2000 with an album called die Lollipops and have released new CDs, videos, and audio books at the rate of about two per year.  As of 2005, their label had sold more than 1.5 million of their CDs and videos, of which 8 made it to gold, and one made it to platinum.  Note that the meanings of the terms platinum and gold are different for different countries: in Germany gold signifies 100,000 sales and platinum 200,000.   

Die Lollipops has featured two singers at a time for most of its history; generally these have been girls between the ages of about 11 and 16.  Because the band has been around for nine years, they must replace their singers with new ones every few years.  The current duet started recording in late 2007 with Susi and Fiona (then 12 and 11 years old respectively).  They released an album called Einfach tierisch in March 2008, and plan to release another one called Immer in Bewegung in July 2009.  Peter Hoffmann has remained the producer since the group was formed.   The band has attracted composers from other bands registered by Edel Music; a singer named Klaus Büchner had written a song about drinking alcohol called Wir feiern wieder Feste in 1987 when he was singing in his own band, called Klaus & Klaus; he then re-wrote it as a children's song about a never-ending party for die Lollipops.  The title of the song is still the same and the syllable rhythms are similar, especially in the chorus. 

Due to the language barrier, the Lollipops are largely unheard of outside the German-speaking world.  Their music can be downloaded via websites such as Amazon.com.

Albums 
 2000: Die Lollipops
 2000: Winterwunderland
 2001: Komm wir geh'n ins Kino
 2001: Sing mit Uns
 2001: Hitzefrei
 2002: Einmal um die Ganze Welt
 2003: Freunde Fürs Leben
 2004: Tanzen, Lachen, Party machen
 2004: Wir Feiern
 2004: Wünsch Dir Was!
 2005: Für Immer Ferien
 2005: Wir Wolln Spass
 2006: Reiterferien sind der Hit!
 2007: Party, Popcorn, Polonaise!
 2007: Zusammen sind wir Doppelt Stark
 2008: Einfach Tierisch
 2009: Immer in Bewegung
 2010: Jetzt geht's ab

Other websites 
 http://www.lollipops-musik.de/
 http://www.edelkids.de/

References 

German pop music groups
Folk music groups
Children's musical groups