Takasa

Takasa
From left to right: Katharina, Jonas, Christoph, Sarah, Emil and Michel
Background information
Also known as	Heilsarmee
Origin	Switzerland
Years active	2012–2013
Labels	HitMill Records
Website	www.heilsarmee.ch
Members	Sarah Breiter Jonas Gygax Katharina Hauri Christoph Jakob Emil Ramsauer Michel Sterckx

Takasa was a Swiss musical group that represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The group consisted of six Salvation Army soldiers.

The band, originally named 'Heilsarmee', participated in the Swiss national final with the song "You and Me". They qualified to the national final through the online selection organized by SF. On 15 December 2012, they won the Swiss national final, therefore they represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.

On 17 December 2012, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the band would not be permitted to compete under the name 'Heilsarmee' (German for 'Salvation Army') at the Eurovision Song Contest, in accordance with the rules of the contest forbidding political and religious content. In March 2013, the group announced that they would be known as 'Takasa' for the contest; officially, the name was taken from the Swahili verb "to purify," but it has been noted to be an acronym of "The Artists Known As Salvation Army" (an allusion to The Artist Formerly Known As Prince). This is also similar to the time when the Sex Pistols toured under the name 'Spots' (Sex Pistols On Tour, Secretly.)

The members of the band have a major age difference as the oldest member—bassist Emil Ramsauer—was 95 (born 1918), and their youngest member—singer Sarah Breiter—was 22 (born 1991), at the time of their Eurovision performance. The band also wore different outfits for Eurovision, barred from wearing Salvation Army uniforms by the same rules.