No.50: "She's After My Piano" - 2Fabiola featuring Loredana.
They say you should never go back. Proof of this was Ovi and Paula Seling's disappointing return to ESC this year with "Miracle". Meanwhile, over in the Belgian national selection, there was another song co-written by Ovi - this one, which is very clearly influenced by "We No Speak Americano" and if you liked the sheer daftness of that then this will also appeal to you. By the way, Ovi and Paula also recorded a version of the song. Maybe they should have sent that one to Eurovision?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QZa5niWIng
No.49: "Anywhere For You" - John Martin.
In case you didn't know, John was the featured singer on the Swedish House Mafia's "Save The World", "Reload" and notably "Don't You Worry Child". I liked all those songs so eagerly awaited John's debut single earlier this year and wasn't disappointed. I wonder what he will come up with next?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWw_5PYu58I
No.48: "Traum" - Cro.
Back in the very early days of this blog, in 2007, I was a big fan of the "Pop X-port" show on DW-tv, this was a show exclusively devoted to German hits, chart acts and new artists. In 2014 I rediscovered this show, which is now on 'My Channel' (on Sky Digital) along with a lot of other DW-tv programmes. It's where I discovered this rather groovy and funky rap song by the mysterious masked rapper. Like many other hit songs this year, it made great use of the saxophone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WQMBv2deYQ
No.47: "Younger (Kygo Remix)" - Seinabo Sey.
The original version of this song turned up at the end of 2013, but it took the Kygo remix to make a lot of people sit up and take notice. This version also featured in this year's House of Fraser Christmas TV ad campaign too. Seinabo, formerly backing singer for Oskar Linnros, is one of Sweden's brightest new musical talents .....and if you take a look at the songwriting credits on her songs to date you will find two of Sweden's astoundingly talented artists, Vincent Pontare and Salem Al Fakir, both of whom gave up their solo careers to write and produce for other artists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx4rsZkCCss
No.46: "To The Sky" - Tijana Dapcevic.
This dance-pop number was one of those songs which grew on me after the competition was over. Many of us were won over by Tijana's quite frankly bonkers personality during her BBC Three semi-final interview. Unfortunately not enough of Europe's voters were not won over by "To The Sky" to take it "to the final", so FYR Macedonia missed out yet again. Maybe they should have tried it in its native language?? Like our next song, for example....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BqLPMF8Xdc
No.45: "Moj Svijet" - Sergej Cetkovic.
And now something else beginning with M = Montenegro. Sergej gave an excellent vocal performance of this at ESC. As you probably guessed I'm getting rather fed up with songs translated into the English language at ESC so I was delighted to see this song qualify to the final. This song also completely went up in my estimations when one day, earlier in the year, I was going through a very unhappy and turbulent time. I was waiting at a bus stop and this song started playing on my iPod and totally calmed me down. So for that Sergej, I thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_fKzZodQOE
No.44: "Ugly Heart" - GRL.
This song mixes pop, dance and country, with a catchy chorus and empowering lyrics. It provided a nice change from the usual sub-r'n'b fare which you expect from a 21st century girl band. This song also has some poignancy about it as shortly after its release, one member of the band passed away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxRQNO8vg2Y
No.43: "Wanna Be Loved" - Michael Rune featuring Natascha Bessez.
See, what did I tell you about the saxophone? Here it is again! This time, Danish "sax maniac" Michael teamed up with American bombshell Natascha and the result was this catchy, Mr Saxobeat-influenced tune which made it to the superfinal in this year's DMGP. Extra points for the "as the dawn is breaking/over Copenhagen" lyric.
Sorry, no video clip here: it's been blocked on copyright grounds :(
No.42: "Freak" - Molly Sanden.
I had never really been a fan of Molly until this song, which stopped me in my tracks this year. You don't expect such dark, self-loathing lyrics from a pop ballad but this absolutely delivered, and from now on I'm going to take more notice of her music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMjDne_Z4Gs
No.41: "Carry You Home" - Zara Larsson.
So, still in the same vein as our last song, here's an artist who I wasn't really enthusiastic about before, as I really couldn't stand that "Uncover" song. This, however, was a very pleasant example of country-flavoured pop which I will particularly remember from around the time of my spring holiday as it got a lot of airplay on Rix FM. She is certainly a very promising young singer with a talent beyond her years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVO2byp-tWg
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