Back in 2001 – 2005 the band known as ‘Play’ were one of the few Swedish acts to have success in the USA thanks to some strategic marketing and extensive touring.  To be honest I never gave the group any attention at all.  I found their music too cheesy, childish and annoying even for me!  (and that’s saying something… trust me!)  In fact as far as I’m concerned the only positive thing to ever come from the band is the success of Janet Leon who released her first solo album last year and is featured on my top songs of 2009!

When ‘Play’ announced that they were finished in 2005 let’s just say no one lost any sleep… but that didn’t stop 2 of the original members from announcing late last year that they were re-forming as a trio with a new member for a reality show called “Made In Sweden.”  The concept was pretty similar to ‘Totally Scott-Lee’  (for any of you from the Uk you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about);  the band would attempt to record a new album in 4 weeks and make an impact on the charts with their new songs.  Two weeks ago the show came to and end and the first single was released and has just hit #1 in Sweden!

Let’s just say this song is vast improvement over anything the band recorded previously.  Slightly more grown up lyrics and sound that basically tells the story about how badly the band wants to be famous.  If you’re curious check it out below and see what you think of the new and improved ‘Play.’

Play – Famous

This weekend MGP eclipsed Melodifestivalen with an amazing Finale full of high calibre songs competing in a competition that ended in A1 vs Didrik Stolli-Tangen.

In the end it wasn’t much of a competition as Didrik easily pulled ahead in the final round of voting to take over for Alexander Rybak to represent Norway at Eurovision 2010.

Before I go on I just want to say how much I LOVE Didrik and his song ‘My Heart Is Yours’ which was written in part by the amazing Fredik Kempe.  The Norweigian people definitely chose the best song and I think Didrik should easily score a top 10 placing at Eurovision with this track which is currently my favorite Eurovision 2010 song so far!

As much as I love Didrik, he’s going to get more than enough attention in the next few months and I want to post about another song that really deserves some recognition.  Unlike the first semi-final of Melodifestivalen (Don’t get me started) , MGP was flooded with fantastic tracks this year.  Songs like Rocketfuel, Jealous Cause I Love You, Don’t Wanna Lose You Again and Yes Man all have received heavy airplay at my house.

There is one more song that demands to be noticed and that is the amazing Alexander Stenerud and ‘Give It To Me.’  In his third attempt at Eurovision glory Alexander really hit a chord with me.  This song is PERFECT for Eurovision.  I LOVE Alexanders voice in this track… I don’t know how to describe it… it’s very ‘dreamy.’

But perhaps the best part of the song is that he gives us not one but TWO key changes!    What more could one ask for?  The good news is that although he didn’t win MGP 2010, his new album ‘Pearls’ is now available on iTunes worldwide and includes his previous 2 Eurovision tracks (Always Always is a must have as well!) and is riding high atop the Norwegian album chart!

Alexander Stenerud – Give It To Me

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And here are my top 10 favorite songs of 2009!

#10. Thorleifs – Sweet Kissin’ In The Moonlight

A bunch of creepy old men in suits usually isn’t the kind of act that I go for but in this case I’ll make an exception because this song easily became one of my favorite songs from Melodifestivalen 2009.  The fact that they decided to sing one line in english makes it even better for singing along so I don’t have to continue to massacre the Swedish language.

#9. Backstreet Boys – Bigger

I think I love this song because it reminds me of a simpler time back when pop music was king and bands like the Backstreet Boys were still in their prime.  Instead their new album has been their biggest flop yet, which is a shame because I absolutely love ‘Bigger’ which was written by the musical genius – Max Martin.

#8. The Killers – A Dustland Fairytale

This anthemic song builds and builds until you just can’t take it anymore.  Their live performance of this track with an orchestra on the Letterman show will go down in history as one of the best performances on late night TV.

#7. Hera Bjork – Someday

Good ole Hera Bjork.  This track feels like it’s been ripped from a schlager fairytale and of coarse there is a happy ending with wind machines and key changes and a beautiful sunset!

#6. Sakis Rouvas – Kai Se Thelo

So this track may have been released in 2008 but since I didn’t discover it until 2009 it gets to make it onto my chart.  I loved this song for approximately 3 months straight playing it on a loop for hours on end.  It’s been almost a year since I first discovered it and I still love it to this day.

#5. Brinck – Believe Again

Let’s not talk about his utter failure at ESC 2009 and instead let the song stand on its own as a perfect pop ditty.

#4. Erik Hassle – Hurtful

Erik has easily become one of my new favorite male singers in 2009.  His album is amazing and is vying for my favorite album of the year status.  I feel like he still hasn’t reached the superstar status he deserves though.  “Hurtful’ is amazing but still hasn’t broken him internationally like it should have.  With releases in the Uk and US this year let’s hope he gets the recognition he deserves.  If you haven’t purchased his album yet you need to get on it!

#3. Same Difference – Right Between The Eyes

I just posted this song recently and as you can imagine it’s one of my favorite songs of the year.  It has every ingredient I look for in a song from a band that has to be one of the nicest and sweetest acts around.  Their new album will be released in mid to late 2010 and all reports indicate that it’s going to be one hell of a pop album.

#2. Glee Cast – Don’t Stop Believin’

As far as I see it… the massive success that Glee has had around the world wouldn’t have been possible without this song.  By far the best song from the show so far (although there are some other fantastic ones and some not so fantastic ones as well) this song is responsible for plucking a song out of obscurity and making it cool again.  Glee may be responsible for bringing pop music back into the spotlight in the US.  It’s one of the most downloaded songs of the year with good reason if you still haven’t discovered Glee this is the song to get you started.

#1.  Alcazar – Stay The Night

And here they are… Alcazar on top with ‘Stay The Night’ – the song that should have won Melodifestivalen 2009 and in my mind did win.  I’m actually dissapointed that Alcazar are returning to Melodifestivalen 2010 because I fear they won’t be able to live up to this track. There isn’t a lot I feel like I can even say about this song because I can’t find the words to desribe how much I love it.  It’s become my anthem of the year and no other song could have taken the top spot from this song.  If they play their cards right they may end up with my favorite song of 2010 as well!

I think my friend and I should be the newest members of Alcazar!

2009 is over and already 2010 has brought some fantastic new songs that I can’t wait to share with you all.   Until then turn on some Alcazar and have a great weekend!  I’m off to Mexico in 4 hours and I’ll be back in one week!

We’re getting to the top of the list now and it’s getting harder and hard to choose my absolute favorites of the year.  Some of these songs are so fantastic.  If you haven’t given some of these songs a chance yet it’s time to get with the program and give them a chance.

#19. Tone Damli Aaberge – Butterflies

The youngest contestent to ever make it onto Norwegian Idol where she ended up as the runner up and went on to release 3 hit albums.  She continued her streak of ‘runner up’ status when she came in second place to Alexander Ryback at MGP 2009.  Well Tone… you can smile knowing that at least you beat out Alexander on the You Don’t Know Pop top songs of 2009.

#18. September – Can’t Get Over

This song is perhaps the oldest song on my 2009 countdown as it was first officially relased back in 2007 in Sweden!  But due to success in the Uk the track was re-mixed and released in March and a little tweak here and there was all that was needed to take this song from good to POPTASTIC!

#17. Girls Aloud – Untouchable

I remember when I first heard this track I didn’t ‘get’ it’s awesomeness right away.  Even after it was released as a single I dismissed it and never really gave it a chance.  Then, once the album had died out and people had moved on from the last album I went back and gave the song the chance it deserved and it immediately earned heavy rotation status on my iPod.  The track is very classy and is the kind of song you can relax to when you’re feeling depressed or a song that you can get up and dance to if you’re planning a night out.  The song is unique and different from a lot of songs that were released in 2009 and that may have worked against the girls as it was their worst chart performing single to date.  Although Uk fans are trrying to change that this February with a campaign to get the track back into the top 10 based on downloads.

#16. Alcazar – One Two Three Four

In their first appearance on the chart this album track which only recently showed up on the special edition of ‘Disco Defenders’ has already become one of my favorite songs of the year.  This track rounds out one of the best years for Alcazar with a lot to be proud of including an album where every single track was listenable and pure unapologetic pop.

#15. Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

The photo says it all…. me and Lady Gaga!  She was amazing and this song is bloody brilliant.  I’m sure the song will top a lot of charts this year and it could have easily fit in a higher position than 15 but the competition is so tough that she ends up at #15 for me.

#14. Frankmusic – Confusion Girl

Where did this guy come from?!  I randomly happened upon this video while surfing online and was taken by complete surprise.  I had heard his name and see some photos but never took the time to find out who he was and that was a huge mistake.  It’s bouncy and fun electro-pop without taking itself too seriously, it’s easy to listen to and very mainstream although it’s not a great indication of the kind of music you’re going to get on his album.

#13. John Schmidt – Love Story Meets Viva La Vida

Two of the biggest songs of the decade… experience them as you’ve never experienced them before.  AMAZING!

#12. Alcazar – Burning

I remember when it was announced that Alcazar were back as a threesome with a new member.  To be honest I wasn’t really impressed or excited.  I was what I would call a periferal fan… watching from the outside.  I enjoyed some of their songs and even bought an album of theirs but I had never been completely sold on the band.  So to hear that they were back I really wasn’t expecting much.  Plus I had started to really enjoy Magnus and thought that for Alcazar to re-form minus 2 great members wasn’t going to work.  Since I had already made up my mind about them I really didn’t give a lot of thought to ‘We Keep On Rockin’ even though I may have secretly liked it.  When ‘Inhibitions’ was released I was impressed that they had actually managed to get a second single out but when I first heard it I thought ‘I knew they couldn’t pull it off.  Then it happened… I heard ‘Burning’ for the first time and from that moment on I had officially jumped on the Alcazar train and I’ve never looked back.  The song, the video, the dance routine, the pink glasses, the rollerskates in the dirty bathroom stall… it’s all too perfect.

#11. Janet Leon – Let Go

Classify this as another great surprise of 2009.  If someone would have told me that I’d have chosen a solo single by a singer from ‘Play’ as one of my favorite songs of the year I never would have believed it.  ‘Let Go’ has all the ingredients for one of my favorite tracks… it builds and builds as it goes along… it’s got a tick tick tick sound (All the best songs have tick tick ticking in them don’t you know… just ask Sarah Dawn Finer!) and it’s sung with a lot of heart.  So congrats Janet on a very pleasant surprise in 2009.

SVT announced today that the 3rd Wildcard entry will be none other than ‘Peter Joback’ who they’ve tried to get into the competition for years now since his debut in Melodifestivalen back in 1990.  The song ‘Hollow’ is written and composed by Anders Hansson and the amazing Fredrik Kempe who says “I really think this is my best song ever!”  Better than Empty Room, Hero, La Voix?!  Let’s just say expectations are running high with this one.

Peter Joback has been around for ages but I first heard of him in 2002 with the release of his second english album which spawned the hit single – Sinner.  Since 1990 he’s released over 25 singles.

That means 3 wildcards have been announced and all 3 have gone to male singers.  So we can only hope that Lena Ph is indeed the final wildcard announced on Monday.

If you don’t know who Peter Joback is check out Sinner below.

Peter Joback – Sinner

I first heard of Sakis Rouvas when he was announced as the representative of Greece at this years Eurovision Song Contest.  I looked him up and listened to the three song choices  and I liked what I saw.  So when the  night came for the song selection I tuned in to watch the show live online.

Now for someone that has never watched any selection show besides the Uk and Sweden I have to say that the Greek selection show was the most boring and drawn out process I’ve ever seen.  I actually had to stop watching because I couldn’t stand it anymore and that was before he even sang the 3 songs that were competing!  The good news is that something good did come of the show.  I’ve discovered my absolute love of Sakis Rouvas!  At the selection show they started by having Sakis sing a megamix of his old hits.  One song in particular grabbed my attention and I loved it so much I ordered the album online that same night.  The song is “Kai Se Thelo” and it premiered at the 2008 MAD Music Video Awards.  That night he won Best Male Artist and when the song was released in July it topped the Greek Airplay charts for 10 weeks!

By now most of you that follow Eurovision will have heard his song, and it’s not bad but it’s definitely not what made me fall for him.  For those of you that do not know who he is, Sakis is considered one of Greeces most successful aritsts of all time.  He is definitely no stranger to Eurovision having won a 3rd place spot for Greece in 2004 and hosting the event in 2006.  Sakis has had a spectacular career which began in 1991 and has continued on non-stop since then with 20 albums being released and 84 singles being released to radio throughout his career.  He is well known not only for his music but for his work in film and television as well as for embracing his heart throb status which you can see for yourself based on these photos.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen any other singer with as many shirtless photos as Sakis.

Once Eurovision is said and done it is believed that Sakis will release a new english album which will include the english version of “Kai Se Thelo.”

Download: Sakis Rouvas – Kai Se Thelo

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While vacationing in Stockholm last week I had the chance to meet up with Sweden’s #1 band – E.M.D.  The band were so impressed with my knowledge of Swedish Pop that they invited me to join the band!  After our first photo shoot I decided that E.M.D.T just didn’t have the same ring to it neither did T.E.M.D.

As you all know E.M.D have had a huge month with Melodifestivalen and their single ‘Baby Goodbye’ which has become the bands 4th #1 single in a row!  This week the band re-released their album with some new tracks as well, if you haven’t picked up the album yet this is definitely the time to get on that!

In a time when E.M.D are deep in promotion for the album re-release and Melodifestivalen both Erik Segerstedt and Danny both released new singles this month as well!  Now I don’t know if that’s a good idea exactly but I think they’re hoping the success of the band will help promote the individual singles as well and it definitely can’t hurt.

Now I absolutely LOVE Dannys new album”Set Me Your Body Free” but I am really impressed with Eriks latest single.  The track was originally intended for E.M.D but when they went with “Baby Goodbye” Erik ended up releasing the track on his own.  Does this mean that we’ll get another album from Erik?  I imagine it depends on how well the track does but Erik told me personally that he is going to record an album and is hoping it will be out in the autumn.

Erik Segerstedt – Saturday Night (Acoustic Version)

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It’s Tuesday morning in Stockholm, the glitter microphones, hydraulic platforms and wind machines have been packed up until 2010 and we begin the long wait until the winter when the planning for Melodifestivalen 2010 begins.

This was my 3rd trip to M’Fest and was the best yet!  I managed to stalk almost every star this year and probably scared acouple of them as well.  Mans Zelmerlow and E.M.D all know my on a first name basis now

I’m just at the airport waiting for a flight to the Uk where I’ll spend one more week before going back to Vancouver.  On Wednesday I’m off to see Gareth Gates in ‘Joseph’… Secretly I hope that at the end of the show he comes out and sings ‘Anyone Of Us.’

Once I get home I’ll have a bunch of new music and stories to share but I couldn’t wait before posting this track.  I don’t really know much about him but Erik Hassle is a singer/songwriter from Stockholm who took part in the 2008 Metro Music Challenge and came in second place.

The track is rocky pop and I’ve been listening to it on repeat since I got it the other day.  I don’t know who I could compare him to… think McFly perhaps?  It’s really catchy and he’s got a great voice.

Download: Erik Hassle – Hurtful

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Today at 6pm I’m hopping on an Air Canada flight and heading to London England to begin my annual trip to Melodifestivalen.

I’ve loaded up my iPod with all my favorite Swedish track to get me in the mood.  Seeing as I’ll be on a plane to the Uk for the next 9 hours I’ve added Scooch – Flying The Flag to my iPod as well and brought my portable speakers.  I’m going to see if I can’t entice the cabin crew to give us a little show in the air.

I’ve already started planning my events in Stockholm which will include stalking as many stars as I can.  On the “must meet” list this year is E.M.D, Velvet, Alcazar and Shirley Clamp.  It looks like I’ll get to meet a few of them already so you can expect some great pictures when I get back.

For those of you that live in London you better be at the Harcourt Arms on Saturday night to watch Andra Chansen live!  It’s tough but I’m voting for Star Pilots and Sarah Dawn Finer to go to the finalen.  I hate to say that because I really want Lili and Susie to get through as well… but there’s only room for one and Sarah Dawn Finer blew me away with her performance last week.

So there won’t be a lot of updates and no new music while I’m gone… BUT as always I’ll be bringing back a bunch of new music when I come home and you will all benefit from that.

To keep you busy while I’m gone here are some gems for you!

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Star Pilots – Higher

It’s basically a 95% copy of their debut single but better!  The singer featured on this track is Johan Becker who won Sweden’s Fame Factory in 2004.  He is unbelievable live and together with the Star Pilots they put on a fun show.  So fingers crossed that they do well on Saturday.

Pussycat Dolls – Jai Ho (You Are My Destiny)

I STILL haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire because everyone I know went and saw it without me so hopefully I’ll get to see it overseas.  I’m not a huge PCD fan but they’re guaranteed a hit with this catchy track from the movie as their new single.  The band are re-releasing their last album with Jai Ho to try and drum up more album sales since the album hasn’t done as well as expected.  You’ll probably start hearing this track a lot in the next few weeks.

That’s it for now!  Remember you can always reach me by e-mail at lanocty@hotmail.com

OH MY GOD!!!

I JUST FOUND OUT THAT I’M GOING TO SEE THE A1 REUNION SHOW LIVE IN LONDON ON MARCH 7TH!!!!

I THINK I JUST PEED MY PANTS!  I’m already on cloud 9 that I’m going to Melodifestivalen but now seeing A1 is almost too much!  Same Old Brand New You, Take On Me, Be The First To Believe, Caught In The Middle… A1 produced some of the best pop songs of the last decade and now they’re back!

It’s only a matter of time before Steps re-form!!!

Anyone else in London gonna catch the show at G-A-Y?!