MTV Unplugged – Live in Athens

MTV Unplugged – Live in Athens is the sixth live album by the German hard rock and heavy metal band Scorpions, released in 2013 by Sony Music. In late 2012, MTV proposed that the band take part in the MTV Unplugged concert series, an offer the members had previously declined on two occasions for various reasons. Once the project was confirmed, both parties agreed to hold the first open-air show in the series' history, for which they chose the theater on Mount Lycabettus in Athens. The decision to hold it in this city was due to several factors, although the main reason was that the band wanted to somehow reciprocate the unwavering support of their Greek fans.

During pre-production, guitarist Matthias Jabs and record producers Mikael Andersson and Martin Hansen selected and arranged the songs. The inclusion of new instruments allowed them to change the sound, tempo and musical genre of some of them. In total, three concerts were scheduled for 11, 12 and 14 September 2013, but only the first two were recorded. For the event, the band was supported by over a dozen musicians, including the producers, a string section and three guest vocalists.

Upon its release in several formats, including a double CD and DVD, it received generally positive reviews from the music press. The most highly praised aspects were the musicians' performances, the arrangements, the sound, Klaus Meine's vocal quality and the set list. In contrast, some reviewers had mixed opinions about the participation of the guest vocalists. Commercially, it achieved moderate positions on major music charts worldwide. Its success was primarily in Germany, where it reached number 5 on the Media Control Charts. Additionally, both the audio and video recordings received gold certification from the Bundesverband Musikindustrie.

As part of the album's promotion, Sony released three promotional singles in certain countries: the live versions of "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Still Loving You" and the studio version of "Passion Rules the Game". Furthermore, they released music videos on YouTube for "Dancing with the Moonlight", "Where the River Flows", "Passion Rules the Game" and "Rock You Like a Hurricane", although the latter featured brief footage from the making-of. Due to the album's success in Germany, the band performed the acoustic show live in 2014 only in Kempten, Munich, Cologne, Hamburg and Stuttgart.