If I asked you who the best selling Norwegian act of all time is would you ever have guessed A-Ha? The band has been around since the early 80’s and has sold over 35 million albums and many of those came in the last 10 years as the band continues to release music.
Most North Americans might be surprised to hear that A-Ha is still around as not a lot has happened for them here since the early 90’s. In 1994 the band went on hiatus and it wasn’t until 1998 when the band was invited to perform at the Nobel Peace Concert that the band officially re-united and released “Minor Earth Major Sky” in 2000, marking a return to pop music. In the last 10 years they’ve released 4 hit albums and 15 singles! Although not one of those has been a hit in North America.
The band have spent the last 10 years promoting and touring extensively. It was announced late last year that after a world tour in 2010 the band would call it a day after the tour. The final show is scheduled for Dec. 4th 2010 and the band have released a goodbye single to mark the occasion.
‘Butterfly Butterfly’ (The Last Hurrah) is everything that I loved about A-Ha. The track is subtle and haunting. It’s the kind of song that makes you feel quite reflective and relaxed. I think it’s the perfect end to a fantastic career. I couldn’t imagine them ending with anything else.
Here’s to the last Hurrah! If you get a chance to check out the final tour definitely do so and shoot me a message to tell me about it!
So Melodifestivalen may be over and done but things are about to start getting exciting as the artists from this years competition start releasing their new albums. Lovestoned and Timoteij are next in line to release theirs and anticipation is extremely high for both of these!
Since Melodifestivalen ended I discovered a track that completely passed me by in the lead up to the competition. Turns out Andreas Johnson had released a new single prior to the contest called ‘Escape’ which was included on the ‘We Can Work It Out’ single. When I first heard it all I could think of was… why didn’t he enter this track instead!? The song isn’t ground breaking or anything but it’s catchy enough and it’s been getting solid rotation on my iPod since I found the remix!
So play this and imagine him singing this on the Melodifestivalen stage instead of the boring and lifeless ‘We Can Work It Out.’
Ladies and Gentleman please welcome back… Brian McFadden.
In what has become one of the biggest surprise comebacks in awhile Brian has revived his career with a revamped sound which has hit a nerve down under where the new single ‘If You Say So’ is riding atop the charts in Australia. This may sound like a bit of a surprise to fans in the Uk who haven’t heard much from McFadden since his debut album. But Brian had some success with his second album ‘Set In Stone’ which hit top 5 in Australia and since then has been focusing his efforts almost exclusively there.
This Friday his new album ‘Wall of Soundz’ will be released in Australia and this is an album you’re going to want to check out. The album is really a labor of love for McFadden who has spent the last year and a half working on the album. For me the album takes everything that I loved about his debut album and adds a modern twist of electro pop to give his sound a whole new kick.
This is an album you should seriously consider adding to your collection. Songs to check out include Sign Of The Times, Less Talk, Not Now and the duet – Mistakes with Delta Goodrem.
Finally… after 3 number 1 singles in Ireland one of the most exciting new acts to emerge in the last few years is preparing to launch their career in the Uk. The band is Industry and if you haven’t realized that you love them yet this is your chance to catch up.
They’ve relased 4 singles to date and proved that they can sing absolutely anything. And now the band is enlisting their fans to help them with their next single choice. 2 one minute clips have been relased and fans can give feedback on which song they want released in the Uk.
Your choices are Drown In The Music and Kill The DJ. Both songs offer a new club friendly vibe and both songs are FANTASTIC!
Imagine this… The first Semi-Final at Melodifestivalen. The lights dim and the spotlight hits the stage as a familiar face begins to sing. It’s “Velvet’ back for 2010 after ‘The Queen’ failed to make it to the finals in 2009… then a second spotlight hits the stage and the one and only Linda Bengtzing steps onto the stage singing in English for the first time at Melodifestivalen! The two stars have come together for a one of a kind duet called ‘Victorious!’
Wouldn’t that have been AMAZING?! Well the bad news is that it could have happened. This song exists and it was submitted for Melodifestivalen 2010 and was turned down! As we’ve seen already the focus was to bring in a lot of new talent that hadn’t competed in the competition before. Unfortunately we’ve seen the result of that gamble because although there have been a few surprises, most fans are looking for great songs from established acts or song writers. Poor Linda is rejected from the competition for a second time (Her duet with Markoolio also failed to enter the contest, although the song was a massive hit and topped the charts in Sweden.)
The good news is that you can now hear the track! Now I’m clearly gutted that Linda didn’t make it to the competition this year but after hearing the song I think maybe it was for the best. The track is cool because it’s Linda and Velvet together… but I don’t know if it would have been strong enough to make it direct to the finalen, instead I think it would have gone to Andra Chansen and perhaps lost there. And as much as I want to see Linda back in Melodifestivalen. I only want her back if she can go to the finalen with a massive hit single.
That doesn’t mean the song is bad by any means! I would describe it more as a Velvet song with Linda singing on it rather than a Linda song with Velvet singing on it even though it’s credited differently on the single. The chorus is catchy but I’d love to hear the track with a building schlager backing track rather than a simple dance backing. The line “We’re Going To Be Victorious” needed to have music that was a bit more hard hitting.
So what does this mean for Linda? Are we going to have an album from her in 2010 or will she wait until 2011 when she can give Melodifestivalen another go?
Well this is perfect timing! Just the other week I was thinking to myself… what ever happened to the Star Pilots?! Today I checked out the Swedish singles chart and surprise surprise Star Pilots are currently sitting at number 24 with their new single – I’m Alive.
I was pretty excited because I was a huge fan of ‘Higher’ and ‘In The Heat Of The Night’. ‘I’m Alive’ picks up right where the last two singles left off lifting similar parts of the previous singles and sneaking them into the arrangement of the new single as well as using classic song titles in their lyrics; the entire song is basically one giant copy cat! That being said it’s definitely their sound and is a fun song to dance to but it isn’t nearly as good as it should be considering how long it was between singles. I’m curious to know if Johan Becker is still signing vocals for the group.
The return of Sanna Nielsen is upon us and it has definitely been worth the wait! Last week Sanna Nielsen released the first single from her next album and it’s definitely a step in the right direction. What makes this track great is that it’s different from anything else being released right now. We already know she can belt out a ballad and sure I’d love an album full of Vagar Du, Vagar Jag’s but since that’s never going to happen I’m going to say that this is a great song for her. The only thing I will say is that I think the song is missing a really strong and hard hitting climax. Sure there is a key change in there but I think it definitely could have been a little stronger and arranged differently.
I think it’s funny that she’s releasing this track right in time for Melodifestivalen and it’s awfully close to the 3 minute mark required for the competition… was this song rejected from the competition perhaps?
But my verdict is two thumbs up! Let’s hope there are some other big upbeat tracks in store when the album is released.
Who is Suzie McNeil and why have I never heard of her? Yesterday I went bowling and this track came on the radio and it immediately got stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Since I still don’t have Shazam I had to google the lyrics until I found the right track and this is it!
Turns out Suzie McNeil is a fellow Canadian and has been around for awhile now. Her big break came on the 2005 reality show Rockstar:INXS where she vyed for a positon as the new lead singer of INXS where she came in 4th place.
Since then she’s become a relative star in Canada after releasing 2 albums and 8 singles, appearing on various Canadian television shows and being nominated for a Juno award.
This track probably isn’t the best representation of what Susie McNeil is all about. It’s a radio remix which answers the question what if Lady Gaga and Pink were to merge? The answer is catchy and upbeat and could easily be a hit around the world.
So I’m WAY BEHIND with these two track and not only has every pop blog featured this track but it was the Song Of The Day on ‘Popjustice.com’ and is now available on the UK iTunes Store. Hearing Linda Bengtzing sing in English is one of the biggest treats of 2009 and while she won’t be back to Melodifestivalen 2010 I’m betting we’re going to hear from her again in 2011. This song wins the award for best use of the word ‘Wacko’ in a single.
Speaking of songs that completely passed me by… I only JUST heard Nanne’s ‘Otacksamhet.’ I was pretty busy this summer and had no clue this has even been released. But it’s never too late for a little Swedish Schlager. So if you missed this track as well you can play catch up with me.
And I’d like to make a prediction right now that Elin Lanto is about to release one of the best music videos of the year when the video for her new single ‘Love Made Me Stupid’ is released. You can listen to her new single on her Myspace page. Turns out Elin Lanto was in the running for Melodifestivalen 2010 and we’ll find out very soon if she will be singing at the competition when the acts are announced.
Why didn’t Jennifer Brown sing this at Melodifestivalen 2009? I was never a fan of her song ‘Haven’t Been Here Before’ and never really gave her any attention until this summer with the release of ‘Mr. Running Man’ which I featured here on my blog. Now I hear a song like this and think why didn’t you send this instead?! I think a song like this would have easily made it to the finals! This song has just jumped to my most played track of the week.
Here is someone you probably never expected to hear from ever again! Flashback to 1998 when Jennifer Paige had a number 1 smash hit across the globe with the infectious ‘Crush.’ While she followed it up with 2 other singles and a second album due to poor promotion and mis-management she never saw much more success and parted ways with her record label in 2003. It’s a shame as well because despite what I thought was a boring first album, her second album ‘Positively Somewhere’ had some great pop tracks that deserved to be recognized.
After her career imploded Jennifer Paige stepped back from the spotlight but continued to write music for other acts until 2007 when she signed with an inde label and as a result she released a new album last year in several European c0untries releasing 3 singles which were actually quite impressive.
Next week her 3rd album is being re-released with a few bonus tracks including a new single which could be the song that finally puts her in the upper reaches of the charts again over 10 years after her first and only number 1 single.
‘Beautiful Lie’ is a strong effort from Ms. Paige. It’s not a ‘big comeback’ track by any means but it’s a fun song that will re-introduce a lot of people to her music and hopefully garner some interest in her album. Something about the songs feels a little dated to me like maybe it should have been released back in 2003? Does anyone else feel like that?
Either way the song is fun and if you read my blog you’ll know one of my all time favorite songs is from Nick Carter, so I definitely don’t mind hearing him in this track.
Speaking of the Backstreet Boys I’m pretty dissapointed about their new single. ‘Bigger’ has to be one of my favorite songs of the year and was the track I was most looking forward to from their new album. It was written by musical genius Max Martin and I could listen to it all day on repeat and quite frankly I already do What has me frustrated is that they took an amazing track and absolutely destroyed it with a horrible horrible video which is basically their home videos from a recent trip to Japan. Seriously?! That’s your music video?! UGH. Did someone from their camp pull out the old Westlife – I Lay My Love On You video and think… wow… Westlife really knew what they were doing with this video… let’s re-create it! Our first single bombed so I really think a home video montage would be perfect for this track.
So please don’t watch the video… just enjoy the track.
If I asked you who the best selling Norwegian act of all time is would you ever have guessed A-Ha? The band has been around since the early 80’s and has sold over 35 million albums and many of those came in the last 10 years as the band continues to release music.
What has me frustrated is that they took an amazing track and absolutely destroyed it with a horrible horrible video which is basically their home videos from a recent trip to Japan. Seriously?! That’s your music video?! UGH. Did someone from their camp pull out the old Westlife – I Lay My Love On You video and think… wow… Westlife really knew what they were doing with this video… let’s re-create it! Our first single bombed so I really think a home video montage would be perfect for this track.