EuropeCrazy

Euro Charts Update

2012-01-22T12:05:00.004Z

Whilst checking out a few of the European iTunes singles charts I couldn't help but notice the cross-continental popularity of "Ai Se Eu Te Pego!" by popular Brazilian singer Michel Teló. At first I wondered why it was turning up in all the charts. It's the wrong time of year for a "holiday hit" so it couldn't be that. So off I went to do some research and found out that the song became popular after Brazilian footballers danced to it after scoring goals. The song was launched in Europe and off it went up the charts. Everywhere of course except here in the UK, but that's no surprise really *exasperated sigh*

Anyway I love the concept of a pan-European hit, especially one that isn't in the English language!

Another song which has taken forever to reach British ears, but is finally here at last is Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know". Gotye was born Wouter De Backer in Belgium but moved to Australia as a child. The song was initially a massive hit in Australia and I heard it a few months ago, and at that time thought it was so unusual and so different from everything else around at the time. It's also been a big hit in Europe and still doing very well.

One British artist doing better "over there" than "over here" is Marlon Roudette, although hopefully that's due to change. His old band Mattafix were very popular on the continent, especially in Germany, and his solo single "New Age" was a big hit over there some months back. Again, it's the kind of song which eats its way into your brain and given the chance, I think it could become a daytime radio staple.

Over in Norway, MGP contestants Plumbo - who sound like a Norwegian equivalent of Nordman with their mix for rock and folk - are no.1 in the iTunes chart with M*******n (?) whilst their MGP entry, the appropriately titled "Ola Nordmann" is also in the top 10. If this is any indication of their popularity, we just might be seeing them in Baku.

On first listen I was a bit unkind about Donkeyboy's comeback single "City Boy" but I should know by now never to judge a song on first listen as it takes a lot of songs a long time to grow on me. I like it now, although still not as much as "Ambitions" or "Sometimes". The song's still doing very well in their native Norway.

In Sweden, the P3 Guld-effect has taken "The Lion's Roar" by First Aid Kit (Salem Al Fakir's favourite Swedish act of the moment, by the way!) all the way into the iTunes top 10. It's certainly a very different and distinctive song, and for some reason reminds me of late 60s/early 70s folk-singers. (!)

She may not have won the final series of Swedish Idol, but Moa Lignell has her moment in the spotlight this week as her own song "When I Held Ya" is no. 1 in the Swedish iTunes chart. Takida are still very popular and getting lots of airplay so it's no surprise to see their latest single "You Learn" doing well, although for me it's a bit weaker than some of their previous hits. It's not the only song in the charts featuring the distinctive voice of Robert Pettersson though, as he (along with Helena Josefsson) sings the theme to the new Swedish movie "Hamilton: I Nationens Intresse". I've only heard the song a couple of times but I've got a feeling it's going to be popping up on my playlist. Check out this post by Damian about the song over at Swedish Stereo: http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2012/01/robert-pettersson-feat-helena-josefsson.html

The return of Så ska det låta

2012-01-22T11:21:00.007Z

It's been running for 15 years, and tonight sees the start of yet another series of the singing panel gameshow Så ska det låta. Fans of a certain Swedish pop persuasion will find many of their favourites in the following guest list....

Week 1 - 22 January
Jessica Andersson & Jamie Meyer vs Shirley Clamp & Daniel Karlsson

Week 2 - 29 January
Christine Meltzer & Lina Hedlund vs Katrin Sundberg & Per Andersson

Week 3 - 5 February
Sibel & Calle Kristiansson vs Sanna Nielsen & Kalle Moraeus

Week 4 - 12 February
Anders Eriksson & Jan Rippe vs Knut Agnred & Per Fritzell

Week 5 - 19 February
Babben Larsson & Andreas Weise vs Carin da Silva & Andreas Lundstedt

Week 6 - 26 February
Nina Söderqvist & Stefan Gerhardsson vs Sonja Aldén & Oskar Nilsson

Week 7 - 4 March
Elisabeth Andreassen & Alexander Rybak vs Matilda Hansson & Peter Johansson

Week 8 - 11 March
Lili Päivärinta & Susie Päivärinta vs Kim Kärnfalk & Nina Inhammar Allard

Week 9 - 18 March
Pauline & Stephen Simmonds vs Molly Sandén & Danny Saucedo

Week 10 - 25 March
Linda Sundblad & Kristoffer Appelquist vs Lotta Engberg & Chris Lind

Week 11 - 1 April
Sarah Dawn Finer & Samuel Ljungblahd vs Caroline Larsson & Anders Ekborg

Week 12 - 8 April
Gunhild Carling & Christer Sjögren vs Elisa Lindström & Hasse Andersson

Here's tonight's line-up. Photo courtesy of www.svt.se.

P3 Guld 2012

2012-01-22T11:05:00.008Z

The 2012 P3 Guldgalan took place at Lisebergshallen in Gothenburg last night. The presenter of last night's extravaganza was none other than Salem Al Fakir!

Here are the winners of this year's awards voted for by listeners to Swedish radio P3.

Årets grupp: Deportees
Årets pop: Syket
Årets artist: Kapten Röd
Årets hiphop/soul: Ison & Fille
Guldmicken: Kapten Röd
Årets dans: L-Wiz
Årets låt: "Vart jag mig i världen vänder" - Den Svenska Björnstammen
Årets rock/metal: Graveyard
Årets nykomling: Den Svenska Björnstammen

Of course the Guldgalan is as much about the live performances as the award winners, and as usual, they didn't disappoint. Fibes, Oh Fibes!, a long time favourite of this blog premiered their long-awaited new single "Apex of the Sun" in front of their home crowd.

Check out this link for all the live performances from last night: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=3964&artikel=4922308

Oh and one more thing....there have been many memorable P3 Guld performances over the years and here's another one to add to the list. Despite stories before the show that Salem wouldn't be singing, well he surprised us and he did sing after all!!

#totallyinexplicablechoice

2012-01-22T00:08:00.008Z

Tonight was the first (of many) "Super Saturdays" for us Eurovision fans to gather at our laptops and hope for un-buffering streams.

Unfotunately I didn't catch the Danish final till it was almost over, but I saw enough of it to appreciate the fabulous production values and the must-see retro clips. I also wired up my HDMI cable from the computer to the TV which meant that I could watch the remainder of the final on the big screen. Just in time for the final song "Venter" which immediately passed the "mum test". "That's too good for Eurovision!" she declared immediately. Her appreciative tone continued all the way through Alexander Rybak's ESC medley and into the long-awaited appearance by A Friend In London, reprising 2011's DMGP winner "New Tomorrow". She remembered the song immediately although she probably hadn't heard it since last May. She also remembered how good-looking Tim Schou is :)

It's amazing how that song has stood the test of time and if anything, it's got better and better. I'm not sure what was the point of Howie D's guest appearance though?

Unfortunately, the joy of a top quality Danish winner was not to be repeated. Neither Christian and Patrik (dodgy top notes notwithstanding) nor Jesper Nohrstedt (a.k.a "the wee Bieber guy" as I lazily nicknamed him), either of whom we'd have been happy with as Denmark's 2012 representatives, got the call to Baku. Nope, it was Soluna Samay (pictured below) initially dressed up like a Cheryl Cole "Fight For This Love" tribute act - which immediately doomed her at EuropeCrazy HQ before she had even sung a note. The song, "Should've Known Better" turned out to be three minutes in blandsville and immediately recalled Anna Bergendahl's Swedish entry of 2010. Regular readers of EuropeCrazy will know what I thought of that, so enough said.

To summarise: a bad, and totally inexplicable choice of song to represent Denmark at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. I'm now gearing up for a season of inevitable disappointment, 2001-style, as national final after national final produces results which I don't agree with....

Above: Christian Brøns & Patrik Isaksson - it may have been a bit dated sounding, but "Venter" was a hit with the EuropeCrazy HQ jury.

Above: Jesper Nohrstedt - "Take Our Hearts" might not have won, but as a contemporary pop song with an Avicii-style vibe, it's bang up to date and I'd predict that it will go on to be the biggest hit of this year's DMGP.

The Square-Eyed Couch Potato: Archive edition - October-December 2011

2012-01-17T17:38:00.021Z

You know how much I love BBC4, not just for its never-ending stream of Scandi-crime delights. I also love this channel because it broadcasts lots of great music documentaries and theme nights.

"PRINCE - A PURPLE REIGN" was, as you would expect, a documentary all about Minneapolis' finest, one of the most prolific, innovative (and dare I say underrated) artists of our time. There was only one thing wrong with this show - at one hour it was too short, it should have been at least three hours long! Nevertheless it was a treat, featuring interviews with Prince fans and collaborators. Whilst we're on the subject, a very similar BBC documentary from several years back was also broadcast recently on Sky Arts 1, which is also becoming a must-see channel for real music fans. Just as in the new documentary, the vintage "PRINCE OF PAISLEY PARK" didn't actually feature any input from the interview-shy legend but yet again there were lots of contributions from those who have worked with him over the years. And, needless to say, lots of fine, fine music too.

Just as you wait ages for a Prince documentary then two come along at once, so it was around Christmas time that there was no escape from a certain Mr Michael Buble. Who made a Christmas album, of course, so there was a TV special, "MICHAEL BUBLE - HOME FOR CHRISTMAS", which recalled the old-style TV specials from my childhood, when the likes of Val Doonican threw some tinsel over his rocking chair and treated us to some easy listening favourites. In the modern era it's all about the subliminal X Factor-plugging of course: Gary Barlow and Kelly Rowland were among the guests. The combination of Mr Buble and his cosy tunes was perfect fare for curling up pre-Christmas on the sofa.

We may have entered 2012 but in the parallel "TOP OF THE POPS" world on BBC4, we're now into 1977. A landmark year for music indeed. But don't expect wall to wall punk yet on TOTP - you're more likely to get something like "Grandma's Party" by Paul Nicholas.

The end of the year means lots (and lots) of list-shows, which I can take or leave as I get totally sick of the beyond-Z-list so-called 'celebs' commenting on the showbiz events of the year. We still love "THE MOST ANNOYING PEOPLE OF....." (BBC3) which annually does what it says on that particular annual countdown tin. The 2011 edition rolled around just after Christmas and didn't disappoint. Richard Bacon's commentary was very sharp as always, and the contributions entertaining.

Yet another list-show this time on Channel 5. "BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS SONGS" was a chart based on sales figures so there's no surprise that Band Aid topped the list. It was good to see how a lot of the old hitmakers look today. Dave Hill hasn't really changed, but the years haven't been so kind to Greg Lake, or worst of all my beloved childhood crush Ray Stiles from Mud. Oh well. We're all getting old.

"THE UNTOLD TOMMY COOPER" (Channel 4) took a slightly different insight from the usual biographical documentaries, as it used his life-long manager's diaries and correspondence to illustrate the dark and complex life of the comic legend.

Back to Christmas now. Generally the TV over Christmas wasn't anything to write home about, and I'm glad we'd stockpiled a few things to watch. Christmas Day of course is all about the one hour soap specials (predictable) one-off Strictly Come Dancing (which is always a bit lower league compared to its Premiership series equivalent, don't ya think?), and Top of the Pops (serious yuck!) so the only thing I really got excited about was the "DOWNTON ABBEY" (ITV) Christmas special.

I never thought I'd see the day when I looked forward to Downton, but that's how low my life has sunk :) It rattled along at a cracking pace, there were lots of loose ends conveniently tied up and a certain long-awaited happy ending of sorts. Or will it be a happy ending? Bring on series 3!!

Swedish Grammis 2012: the nominations

2012-01-03T18:07:00.004Z

I was too busy before Christmas to post this, but (finally) here is the full list of nominees for this year's Swedish Grammis which will take place on 14th February. Information courtesy of www.grammis.se.

Årets album
ANNA TERNHEIM – THE NIGHT VISITOR
DEPORTEES – ISLANDS & SHORES
ISON & FILLE – FÖR EVIGT
LYKKE LI – WOUNDED RHYMES
VERONICA MAGGIO – SATAN I GATAN

Årets artist
DEPORTEES
LYKKE LI
MELISSA HORN
SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA
VERONICA MAGGIO

Årets barnalbum
DOREEN MÅNSSON – DILEMMAN MED DOREEN
LEKISJAZZ – LEKISJAZZ
NASSIM AL FAKIR – UTE OCH CYKLAR
ORKESTER POP – MÄTA MED SKÄGG
OSCAR DANIELSON – DET KOSTAR PÅ ATT VARA BARN

Årets dansband
BENNY ANDERSSONS ORKESTER – O KLANG OCH JUBELTID
ELISA’S – DET HÄR ÄR BARA BÖRJAN
LARZ KRISTERZ – FRÅN ÄLVDALEN TILL NASHVILLE
LASSE STEFANZ – CUBA LIBRE
ZEKES – VI LYFTER IGEN

Årets elektro/dans
ADRIAN LUX – BOY / ALIVE
AVICII – LEVELS/FADE INTO DARKNESS
LITTLE DRAGON – RITUAL UNION
REBECCA & FIONA – I LOVE YOU, MAN
SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA – SAVE THE WORLD/ANTIDOTE

Årets folkmusik/visa
CAJSASTINA ÅKERSTRÖM – VISOR FRÅN NÄR OCH FJÄRRAN
ERIC BIBB – BLUES, BALLADS & WORK SONGS
LASSE TENNANDER – EREMIT I ETT KOLLEKTIV
MERIT HEMMINGSON – EQ
SOFIA KARLSSON – LEVANDE

Årets hiphop/soul
ADAM TENSTA – SCARED OF THE DARK
ALEXIS WEAK – TILL MINNE AV
ISON & FILLE – FÖR EVIGT
MOVITS! – UT UR MIN SKALLE
TIMBUKTU – SAGOLANDET

Årets hårdrock/metall
GRAVEYARD – HISINGEN BLUES
HAMMERFALL – INFECTED
IN FLAMES – SOUNDS OF A PLAYGROUND FADING
OPETH – HERITAGE
THE HAUNTED – UNSEEN

Årets Internationella album
ADELE – 21
BEYONCÉ – 4
FRANK OCEAN – NOSTALGIA, ULTRA
JAMES BLAKE – JAMES BLAKE
PJ HARVEY – LET ENGLAND SHAKE

Årets jazz
FREDDIE WADLING – WITH A LICENSE TO KILL
GEORG RIEDEL, SARAH RIEDEL & NICOLAI DUNGER – CORNELIS VS RIEDEL
MAGNUS ÖSTRÖM – THREAD OF LIFE
NILS LANDGREN – THE MOON, THE STARS AND YOU
TONBRUKET – DIG IT TO THE END

Årets klassiska
ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER – BERLIOZ: LES NUITS D’ÉTÉ / HAROLD EN ITALY
GUSTAF SJÖKVISTS KAMMARKÖR – I VÅR TID
KUNGLIGA FILHARMONIKERNA/ESA-PEKKA SALONEN/ALAN GILBERT/SAKARI ORAMO – ANDERS HILLBORG – ELEVEN GATES
KUNGSBACKA-TRION – HAYDN: PIANO TRIOS
MALMÖ SYMFONIORKESTER/CHRISTOPH KÖNIG/MALENA ERNMAN – GÖSTA NYSTROEM – SINFONIA DEL MARE

Årets kompositör
ANNA JÄRVINEN – ANNA SJÄLV TREDJE
ANNA TERNHEIM – THE NIGHT VISITOR
LYKKE LI, BJÖRN YTTLING & RICK NOWELS – WOUNDED RHYMES
MELISSA HORN – INNAN JAG KÄNDE DIG
VERONICA MAGGIO/CHRISTIAN WALZ – SATAN I GATAN

Årets låt
AVICII – LEVELS
DEN SVENSKA BJÖRNSTAMMEN – VART JAG MIG I VÄRLDEN VÄNDER
ERIC AMARILLO – OM SANNINGEN SKA FRAM (VILL DU LIGGA MED MIG?)
ERIC SAADE – POPULAR
PETTER & SEPTEMBER – BAKSMÄLLA
SEPTEMBER – MIKROFONKÅT
SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA – SAVE THE WORLD
TIMBUKTU – RESTEN AV DITT LIV
TOVE STYRKE – WHITE LIGHT MOMENT
VERONICA MAGGIO – JAG KOMMER

Årets musikvideo
GUSTAV JOHANSSON – KARL X JOHAN ”FLAMES (UNCOMPROMISED CUT)”
MAGNUS RENFORS – PETER JÖBACK, FILMEN TILL ALBUMET ”LIVET, KÄRLEKEN OCH DÖDEN – LA VIE, L’AMOUR, LA MORT”
MAX VITALI – ROBYN ”CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND”
SLOBODAN ZIVIC – KRIGET ”SUBMISSION”
TED MALMROS/GUSTAF VON ARBIN – PETER BJORN AND JOHN ”GIMME SOME”

Årets nykomling
ADRIAN LUX
ALEKS
DEN SVENSKA BJÖRNSTAMMEN
NEWKID
REBECCA & FIONA

Årets pop
ANE BRUN – IT ALL STARTS WITH ONE
ANNA TERNHEIM – THE NIGHT VISITOR
JONATHAN JOHANSSON – KLAGOMUREN
LYKKE LI – WOUNDED RHYMES
VERONICA MAGGIO – SATAN I GATAN

Årets producent
CHRISTIAN WALZ
JOHAN ECKEBORN
MASSE SALAZAR
SHELLBACK
TOBIAS FRÖBERG

Årets rock
DEPORTEES – ISLANDS & SHORES
ELDKVARN – DE BERÖMDAS AVENY
KEBNEKAJSE – IDIOTEN
ME AND MY ARMY – THANK GOD FOR SENDING DEMONS
SAMLING – NÄR MULLRET DÖVAR VÅRA ÖRON BLIR VI RÄDDA

Årets svenska internationella framgång
AVICII
LITTLE DRAGON
LYKKE LI
OPETH
SWEDISH HOUSE MAFIA

Årets textförfattare
ANNA TERNHEIM – THE NIGHT VISITOR
JONATHAN JOHANSSON – KLAGOMUREN
MAURO SCOCCO – MUSIK FÖR NYSKILDA
MELISSA HORN – INNAN JAG KÄNDE DIG
VERONICA MAGGIO/CHRISTIAN WALZ – SATAN I GATAN

Årets innovatör
AVICII

DEPORTEES

ERATO

VERONICA MAGGIO

2011 in rewind

2011-12-31T10:52:00.022Z

So I'm sitting here at home on the last day of the year. Time for a quick (or not so quick) rewind through 2011.....

TV: Big stuff happened this year - analogue telly was switched off in my part of the world, and the digital switchover went smoothly enough.

One casualty of the analogue switch-off was the demise of good old 888 - in other words, the mighty Ceefax. Here was BBC Scotland's Ceefax on its last night in June 2011. Digital text just ain't got the same magic :(

We finally took the plunge in October and got a flat-screen LED smart TV. Just last week I also realised that you could wire up the PC to the TV via an HDMI cable and watch videos/streamed broadcasts on the big screen - so that will definitely change our viewing habits in 2012.

But as for the traditional way of watching TV, will the programmes be any better than over the past year? I should hope so. TV dumbed-down more than ever this past year with the relentless rise of "constructed reality" shows like The Only Way is Essex, Made In Chelsea, Desperate Scousewives; featuring talentless fake-tanned-fake-haired wannabe airheads who seem to view celebrity as a right and not a privilege, and is a guaranteed ticket to the celeb-reality-show party. Currently on that VIP list: a certain Mark Wright. Yes he's a good looking boy, but what does he actually do?

OK so I moan and groan about dumbed-down trashy telly, then in the next breath go on to say that my most fave TV show of the past year was Louie Spence's Showbusiness. Full of contradictions, I am. My other 'guilty' pleasures (although in my world there's nothing to be guilty of):- Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Top of The Pops 1976, The Hotel, The Apprentice, Showboaters, Seven Dwarves.

The X Factor may have been on a slide, happily trounced by a dominant Strictly Come Dancing, but the XF monster still dominated the tabloids and every magazine on the stands. Just one more thing: why all those months, all that bother, only for the eventual winner to be given the dreariest of dreary cover versions to sing? They could learn from other countries who actually give their winners a decent original song.

We said goodbye to Swedish Idol this year - its final winner was Amanda Fondell, although my favourite contestant was her fellow finalist Robin Stjernberg. Not being ageist here, but the problem with this year's series was that all the contestants were too young, and there was certainly no-one of the calibre of, say, Tove/Amanda J/Linnea/Agnes or Darin/Erik/Danny/Sebastian.

The second series of Så mycket bättre also came and went, but turned out to be a disappointment for me. Too many dreary song choices, Laleh-mania left me cold, and the artists weren't interesting enough. And then TV4 pulled the plug on viewers outside Sweden watching any of their shows. Thanks for that TV4, you are my Killjoys of The Year.

The next big international TV phenomenon, The Voice, is on the way and the best thing about it is that Simon Cowell has nothing to do with it - it was born in the Netherlands, and comes from the John De Mol stable. Which was the home of that other TV phenomenon - Big Brother. Which is still running by the way, not that anyone really cares anymore. Back to The Voice: the various forthcoming international series have some fabulous mentor choices. We get Jessie J and Will.i.am. Enough said.

In 2011, the best TV didn't come from this country. It came from Denmark - Forbrydelsen a.k.a. The Killing; and Iceland - Naeturvaktin a.k.a. The Night Shift. Both of which screened on BBC4, the best of all the BBC channels. The future of this channel is currently under threat, and it would be very sad if the axe fell. Just shut down BBC3 instead please: since the demise of Liquid News (and that wasn't yesterday) that channel has had no redeeming features whatsoever.

Those of us in the STV a.k.a. "not available in Scotland" area finally got the chance to catch up with the Downton Abbey phenomenon as series 1 was finally screened immediately followed by series 2. We're not ashamed to say that EuropeCrazy is totally hooked on Downton - roll on series 3 next year!!

The biggest TV story in Scotland was the demise of The Hour. It was addictive teatime TV nonsense which did well in its slot, but the powers that be decided to move it to a Tuesday night 8pm slot - clashing with that equally addictive local soap River City - and it only lasted 4 weeks before the axe spectacularly fell.

Talking of River City, it continued to be just a bit too gloomy over the past year, and had too many stupid storylines. But we continue to watch the show as it heads into its 10th year. Just one request though - can we have a bit more of the Glaswegian humour which the city is famous for??

Not that you expect reality from soaps though. Prime offender this year: Coronation Street. For every decent storyline there were at least 10 rubbish ones. A bit less time spent in soap prison/soap hospital next year would be nice :) Meanwhile some things never change: EastEnders (which I stopped watching when Dirty Den died the first time) still wins every soap award going, and Emmerdale remains completely underrated.

I continue to love American TV drama - One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy, Parenthood, Fairly Legal, Dexter and the brilliant Harry's Law. I didn't stick with Blue Bloods, Glee or Boardwalk Empire though. One thing's for sure, I'll be casting my eyes across the Atlantic to see what goodies U.S. TV brings us next year.

And in the meantime, I have a lot of box sets to work my way through.....

By the way, the October-December bonanza edition of The Square-Eyed Couch Potato will be published on here before the end of January.

SPORT: Only one sporting event mattered to me this year. The Tour de France was fantastic from beginning to end. (Shame about the winner though). Mark Cavendish's green jersey was a terrific achievement and well-deserved. Otherwise, only in Scotland, the best small-minded country in the world, the issues around football moved from the back page to the front page. Only in this country could you have an ongoing political debate about sectarian and bigoted songs at football matches. My own view is that they should let them keep the songs for the football, and focus on tackling the bigotry and sectarianism outside the football grounds. But that just sounds like a bit too much work for our pampered politicians, particularly a government whose whole outlook is rooted in Braveheart. That's another story....

MUSIC: I spent most of the year digitising my music collection and uploading it to iTunes and filling my iPod. 2011 was all about rediscovering old, lost, forgotten favourite music which inevitably was a million times better than the new music which was on offer this year. Not that you should measure the quality of current music by what's on the radio or in the charts, but if you were just basing it on that then 2011 could be summed up by a song sung by Rihanna, with music by David Guetta, with lyrics about being on the floor in the club with your hands in the air accompanied by a rap by Pitbull and Flo Rida. The saddest thing about this year was the total international dominance of the same 5 or 6 artists in every chart across Europe.

There is a glimmer of hope that the dire r'n'b/urban/grime/autotuned/electro-dance trend of the last 2/3 years may finally be on the slide. On the down side, it looks as if things are going in the opposite direction towards "the new boring". Which probably explains the (to me) inexplicable success of Ed Sheeran over the past year. Never mind the new boring, he's the new Blunt. Enough said. And as for Adele, yes she has a good voice, but her music does nothing for me I'm afraid. I want the return of real pop music, the kind which some may describe as cheesy; I want the return of real dance music, the kind which excited me in the 90s and early 2000s; I want the return of decent guitar bands. Not much to ask for, is it?!?!?!?!

Of course, 2011 brought a well-earned rest for my most favourite artist of all, Salem Al Fakir, who didn't release any new solo material. After the past four non-stop years, three albums and endless touring he deserved a break! Things may have been quieter but that didn't mean a Salem-free year though. His music stayed in the public consciousness - whether it was a contestant waltzing to "Keep On Walking" on Let’s Dance, or Amanda Persson singing the song on the final series of "Idol", or "I’m So Happy" playing out as the theme song to the hugely successful "Solsidan". There were three terrific collaborations - he co-wrote Eric Saade's "Rocket Science", sang on J-Son's "Remedy" and was also guest vocalist on Avicii's "Silhouettes" which has been doing the rounds on the internet for the last few months and surely must get an official release in 2012! Please please!

Salem played orchestral shows at the beginning of the year and his only Swedish summer concert was a sell-out orchestral show at the legendary Dalhalla in August, with special guests Oskar Linnros and September. A big highlight of my year was the opportunity to watch his Helsinki live show which was broadcast live on the web. Salem's other musical project was related to the book "Vad är musik?" which he wrote with his friend Pontus de Wolfe. The guys spent the second half of the year promoting the book and they became a recording act named Earpony, releasing "Jag e frågan du e svaret". Salem also appeared in SVT's "Dom Kallar Oss Artister" at the beginning of the year where he performed a cover of Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" with some familiar friends. The song was released under the artist name "Sally and the Segols".

Salem may not have won any Swedish Grammys in what was a very tough year competition-wise, but he did win one very important award - Sweden's best-dressed man - at the Ellegalan. Talking of awards, Salem will present the 2012 P3 Guldgalan in a couple of weeks. My wish for 2012 is some new material from Salem the solo artist: one thing's for sure, whatever he does next will be well worth the wait.

Something which I always look forward to is Eurovision season. The waiting and the anticipation is better than the outcome. So it was this year. Eurovision ended with one of its most forgettable, insignificant yet inevitable winners in years - "Running Scared" by Ell and Nikki representing Azerbaijan. I still have my reservations about that particular country staging 2012's extravaganza....http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/azerbaijan

The people of Sweden chose Eric Saade to represent them at Eurovision - which in retrospect was probably the right decision, given his good showing at the contest, however it was not my first choice and I might have appreciated the song more without the stupid breaking-glass routine/'faffing about' (© Len Goodman).

However, Melodifestivalen seems to be going through a turbulent time. Which direction should the contest go in? Should it continue to modernise or should it continue to keep the schlager-fans happy? Should it do both? It may be Sweden's biggest TV show of the year, but the event which once filled the Swedish singles charts doesn't have such a significant impact on music sales anymore - check out this excellent analysis by my good friend and top blogger Damian at http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-selling-singles-of-mf-2011.html

Finally, before I go, the usual thanks to all my blogging friends - your friendship and support has been so special during a personally difficult year. I'd like to wish all the readers of EuropeCrazy a very happy and healthy 2012 and you are very welcome to join me in celebrating the fifth birthday of this blog in March!

Love and best wishes to you all,

Laura xx

The 2011-50: the full list

2011-12-11T23:29:00.002Z

Here's the list of my top 50 tracks of 2011 in full:

1. Me & My Drum - Swingfly
2. Like Suicide - Christian Walz
3. Moves Like Jagger - Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera
4. Higher - Taio Cruz feat. Kylie Minogue
5. In The Club - Danny Saucedo
6. Me & My Microphone - September
7. Get You - Alexey Vorobyov
8. Solid Ground - Pnau
9. Let Me Go - Maverick Sabre
10. Bullets - Rebecca & Fiona
11. Good Intentions - Bressie
12. The Moment I Met You - Vincent
13. Oh My God - Le Kid
14. Hot Mess - Chromeo feat. La Roux
15. Coming Home - Sjonni's Friends
16. New Tomorrow - A Friend In London
17. Idiot - Lena Philipsson
18. Judas - Lady Gaga
19. Jag e Frågan, Du e Svaret - Earpony
20. Pumped Up Kicks - Foster The People
21. Loca People - Sak Noel
22. Dance Alone - Love Generation
23. Called Out In The Dark - Snow Patrol
24. Love Love - Take That
25. Love In Rewind - Dino Merlin
26. Rope - Foo Fighters
27. Don't Know Why - Soundgirl
28. Kärlekens Tunga - September
29. Breaking Up With God - The Ark
30. Fest Hos Mange - Mange Makers
31. Lifeline - Jamiroquai
32. Hollywood Hills - Sunrise Avenue
33. Paradise - Coldplay
34. Something In Your Eyes - Jenny Silver
35. Angel In Disguise - Musiqq
36. Taken By A Stranger - Lena
37. Warrant - Foster The People
38. Good Enough - Father McKenzie
39. Depend On Me - Babel Fish
40. No One Else Could - Sebastian
41. Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
42. Traktor - Wretch 32
43. Fade Into Darkness - Avicii
44. What You Want - Evanescence
45. Wall Of Sound - Bressie
46. Not A Love Song - Wonderland
47. Jag Kommer - Veronica Maggio
48. Feel So Close - Calvin Harris
49. Changed The Way You Kiss Me - Example
50. Yeah Right - Dionne Bromfield.

The 2011-50: No.1 - Drama, drama, drama, drama like a soap opera

2011-12-10T11:19:00.004Z

"Me and My Drum" - Swingfly.

And so to my no.1 song. It was always going to be difficult compiling the chart this year due to the absence of any new solo material by Salem Al Fakir, who had previously topped my chart for the past 4 years. Hoping for "normal service" next year of course!

When the line-up of songs and artists for this year's Melodifestivalen was announced, I didn't expect at that time that "Me and My Drum" by Swingfly would end up topping my chart. Yet it quickly became a favourite and post-contest I continued to play it all year. Despite the song only coming 5th in the contest, it did very well in the Swedish charts, in a year when very few MF songs charted for any length of time.

This high-powered pop-rap song has lyrics rapped by American rapper Swingfly (previously best known for "Singing That Melody"), and a mid-song rap by Beatrice Stars. All good so far, but then comes the icing on the cake - former Idol 2007 contestant Christoffer Hiding, who I absolutely love, singing the chorus. I'll never forget that moment he stepped onto the Melodifestivalen stage - one of my favourite moments of the year actually ;)

In what has been a personally very dark year, I thought it would be appropriate that something fun and uplifting should top my chart. Boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-boom-boom :))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHxr4vJmT70

The 2011-50: No.2 - I guess I love the way it burns

2011-12-10T11:06:00.005Z

"Like Suicide" - Christian Walz.

The offputting title/lyrics and bizarre styling at Melodifestivalen probably contributed to him not progressing any further in the competition, but the fact remains that Christian Walz is one of the finest artists to come out of Sweden in recent years.

One more fact: Melodifestivalen will always produce some of my favourite songs of the year and this is no exception. Yes, the ill-advised title should have been changed, but the song as a whole is three minutes of absolute class. Now can we have a new album please, Christian???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbxy682-Tro (audio version)

The 2011-50: No.3 - If I share my secret, you're gonna have to keep it

2011-12-10T10:52:00.002Z

"Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera.

So, I made it through a week of extreme weather conditions, heavy snow and hurricane-force storms in my part of the world, to bring my annual countdown to an end with the final three songs.

It's typical: you wait for a song with "Jagger" in the title and two come along at once. One of them came to symbolise everything that is wrong with music in 2011; the other is an insanely catchy pop song which is so fresh that I never tire of it, and probably never will.

After just one hearing there was never any doubt that this song was going to place very highly in my chart this year. "Moves Like Jagger" has also single-handedly resurrected two floundering pop careers thanks to this collaboration, which came about after Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera participated as judges/mentors on the US version of "The Voice". Definitely my favourite non-European track of the year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEPTlhBmwRg&ob=av3e

The 2011-50: No.4 - I got this high without taking a pill

2011-12-06T23:09:00.002Z

"Higher" - Taio Cruz featuring Kylie Minogue.

Although the prolific Taio has also reached a certain level of ubiquity, he at least manages to put out the odd above-average dance/pop single from time to time: "Come On Girl", "Dynamite" and then this one. Not even the completely unnecessary inclusion of Travie McCoy on an alternate version of the song could ruin the greatness of this pop/dance crossover, which boasts a guest appearance by a certain Ms Minogue. When compiling this annual chart, the higher positions always tend to go to songs which answered my question: "do I still love listening to this song after all this time?" The answer to this, and the remaining 3 songs to follow is a resounding "Yes!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRBS5WZMdik&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.5 - It's Friday night, I barely made it through this week

2011-12-06T22:59:00.003Z

"In The Club" - Danny Saucedo.

OK, what I'm about to say may sound contradictory, but I hope you understand what I mean. "In The Club" may not have turned out to be my favourite Melodifestivalen song of the past 12 months, but it was the one which I most wanted to win that contest.

Despite following Melodifestivalen for more years than I can remember, I still can’t figure out why the results end up the way they do. No offence to Eric, who achieved a very respectable result at Eurovision, but I still believe this should have won MF 2011. Just as 'second time around' was lucky for young Mr Saade, then it might well be the case for Danny as he's having another attempt at the contest in a few weeks' time.

In a year when every second song seemed to be about being "on the floor" or "in the club", Danny actually managed to make the concept interesting and was vocally spot on.

Melodifestivalen performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or_ZIe_-nJw

The 2011-50: No.6 - I wrote it for you, you're the title of my song

2011-12-05T20:36:00.004Z

"Me and My Microphone" - September.

And the title of her song was originally Mikrofonkåt, which came out of the original (and best) season of Så mycket bättre. "Me and My Microphone" may have lacked the lyrical twists and turns of her version of Petter's Swedish-language track, but it is still a classic in any language. It's been a long wait, but the song's finally been released in the UK this week, one year after it originally surfaced! One more thing...on a personal note, Petra’s live collaborations with Salem Al Fakir this year inevitably strengthened her legend-status :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie5UiQoQYz4

The 2011-50: No.7 - I rule my world like great men do

2011-12-05T19:55:00.008Z

Get You - Alexey Vorobyov.

One point was proved in 2011: that Eurovision has no regard for superstar reputations. Just as my no.22 song by Love Generation couldn't run away with a Melodifestivalen win, when it came to ESC even the might of RedOne and his team couldn’t push Alexey up the scoreboard. It still remains my favourite ESC entry of this year, however when the contest came around it lost its way, for reasons which I still can't fathom out. Maybe the lighted jackets, I don't know....in the meantime, here's the official video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvX8NaHcdSk

The 2011-50: No. 8 - There's too much worth living for, baby I'll show you

2011-12-05T19:52:00.001Z

Solid Ground - Pnau.

Whilst we wait for the return of Empire of the Sun - which is gonna happen, folks! - Nick Littlemore’s other project filled the gap nicely. And this song perfectly summoned up the EOTS spirit. A summery sound for a non-existent summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1k2xqnS1lU

The 2011-50: No.9 - With you I won't be, a better man

2011-12-05T19:47:00.003Z

"Let Me Go" - Maverick Sabre.

One of the very few good things to come out of the otherwise tedious ‘urban’ music trend of the last couple of years. Inventive use of the Portishead "Glory Box" sample. Vocally he's very reminiscent of Finley Quaye, with a 21st century reboot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVMWgmQA4Ig&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.10 - Don't let me show you how weak you are

2011-12-05T19:38:00.003Z

"Bullets" - Rebecca & Fiona.

Into my top 10 with one of the brightest new musical finds of the past year or so, and needless to say they're Swedish! Rebecca & Fiona came out of the Swedish dance music scene with their own distinctive sound. "Bullets" has sweet vocals and a distinctive guitar sample/hookline which really set this song apart from the rest of the year's more cliched dance tracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWkGrdEdSgI

The 2011-50: No.11 - Judged once but on trial for a lifetime

2011-12-04T19:27:00.004Z

"Good Intentions" - Bressie.

If someone asked me to name my favourite new solo artist of the year, I wouldn't hesitate to name Ireland's very own Niall Breslin, a.k.a. Bressie! "Good Intentions" is the perfect kind of pop-rock song which I love, and it was my favourite track on his debut album. He has a great voice and I'd love to see him become the superstar he deserves to be. Bressie will be one of the judges/mentors on the Irish version of "The Voice" and that should massively raise his profile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZdQcmz5IKw&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.12 - Into the wild Serengeti hills of Himalaya

2011-12-04T18:51:00.003Z

"The Moment I Met You" - Vincent.

He's a huge talent and his comeback was long-awaited and very welcome. Yet Mr Pontare is in danger of being better-known for being Agnes' boyfriend than for his music, as for an unfathomable reason his return to the music scene appears to have been ignored.

Both this and its predecessor "Baby Hurricane" showcase Vincent's effortless ability to craft a classic pop song, which thankfully doesn't have any need to resort to the r'n'b sound of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuqjN2h_aWo

The 2011-50: No.13 - Like a teenage dream it's a love supreme

2011-12-04T17:54:00.005Z

"Oh My God" - Le Kid.

They brought an almighty fun-filled candy shop explosion to this year's Melodifestivalen, but despite dancing sweets and exploding cupcakes it was the wrong "Oh My God" which made it to Globen. Which is a real shame, because this is a fine slice of retro bubblegum pop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCKi587DU9w

The 2011-50: No.14 - Your love is real but I just feel suffocated

2011-12-04T00:33:00.006Z

"Hot Mess" - Chromeo featuring Elly Jackson.

No, it wasn't a cover version of the fab Sam Sparro song, but this collaboration between the eccentric electro-funk duo and the La Roux singer was one of my most played songs during the first quarter of 2011. As you know, I'm no fan of La Roux by any means, but this ice-cold combination was a perfect match, and in a year dominated by mostly inferior electro-dance, this definitely stood out as a quality product.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXRajOCXGlk&feature=relmfu

The 2011-50: No.15 - I just wanna see your face again

2011-12-04T00:26:00.004Z

"Coming Home" - Sjonni's Friends.

Still on the Eurovision 2011 theme....sometimes you just get a simply delightful song which is maybe out of step with the contemporary norm, but who cares about that? The writer of this song passed away before the Icelandic national final, so his friends stepped up with the finest tribute they could pay. Even all these months later it still remains a lovely, joyous, heartwarming treat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2l00PC0JA

The 2011-50: No.16 - And your weapon is your voice

2011-12-04T00:00:00.003Z

"New Tomorrow" - A Friend In London.

Several months down the line, Eurovision 2011 seems a bit strange and disappointing, marked by a totally inconsequential and forgettable (but inevitable) winner from Azerbaijan. There were very few songs I continued to listen to after the contest, but happily this was one of them. There are exciting times ahead for this band and I hope they continue to build on their 5th-place success in the contest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEfUFhx0P68&ob=av2n

The 2011-50: No. 17 - Du kan få bli min idiot

2011-12-03T23:50:00.004Z

"Idiot" - Lena Philipsson.

I've been a big fan of this true Swedish music legend for almost 25 years, and she remains totally fabulous. "Idiot" may not have set blog-land on fire, or thrilled the hardcore fans who were expecting something much more anthemic, yet this fine electro-pop song became one of my most played songs of the year.

Here she is, entertaining the Linköping massive at this year's Melodifestivalen...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLuUF3wZopo

The 2011-50: No.18 - A king with no crown

2011-12-03T23:46:00.003Z

"Judas" - Lady Gaga.

In the rewriting of the Gaga history book, if reviews are anything to go by, it appears that "Judas" is already being consigned to the dustbin of history in the style of a dead Soviet leader. Despite this, it’s still fondly remembered as a Friday night favourite at EuropeCrazy HQ and I'm not ashamed to say that I prefer it to either "Born This Way" or "The Edge of Glory".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wagn8Wrmzuc&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.19 - Kanske det mest omaka paret

2011-12-03T23:26:00.004Z

"Jag e frågan, du e svaret" - Earpony.

This song probably caused more controversy in my head than any other this year, purely because I had to come to terms with the idea that here was a musical project involving Salem Al Fakir which didn’t automatically guarantee top-spot in my annual chart. For anyone unfamiliar with Earpony, it's a duo made up of Salem and his friend (and previous bandmate in The Bloody Romance) Pontus De Wolfe; the duo also published a book this year, "Vad är musik?", and if you need more info, the whole thing was documented over at my other blog Planet Salem.

On first hearing of this song, (live version), I didn’t like it at all, but having listened several times to the studio version, particularly during the preparation of this chart, this lo-fi tune - performed by Pontus (lead vocals/guitar) and Salem (backing vocals/keyboards) really grew on me and I feel it therefore deserves its top 20 spot.

Of course it goes without saying that I am counting the days until Salem finally unveils his new solo material!

In the meantime....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU5d0Wwy1_g

The 2011-50: No.20 - But he's coming for you, yeah he's coming for you

2011-12-03T23:02:00.003Z

"Pumped Up Kicks" - Foster The People.

I may (or may not) have mentioned at some point during the year that Foster The People was probably my favourite new band which caught my attention in 2011. This song was probably 2011's version of "Young Folks" or "Kids" in that it got lots of airplay and "crossed over" into the mainstream, however despite the upbeat style of the song it had a decidedly darker lyrical theme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDTZ7iX4vTQ&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.21 - Johnny, la gente esta muy loca

2011-12-01T22:57:00.005Z

"Loca People" - Sak Noel.

Now I know you may be wondering at this point why something so utterly nonsensical merits a place in my top 50. Well I'm wondering about it too :) Anyway, faithful travelling companion yesterday spookily predicted a place for this song in my chart and he was right. This is a crazy, nonsensical piece of music with some bizarre spoken dialogue and that swear word which of course was edited out of the UK radio version. It quickly became a Friday night favourite at EuropeCrazy HQ, and it ruled the charts all summer, all over Europe, along with Alexandra Stan's "Mr Saxobeat" - and when the musical history of 2011 is written, both songs will go down as the year's biggest 'holiday hits'. Viva la fiesta, viva la noche indeed.

The 2011-50: No.22 - You're a fool if you think that my night's on the brink

2011-12-01T22:42:00.005Z

"Dance Alone" - Love Generation.

So...RedOne + Melodifestivalen = foregone conclusion? Apparently not - reputations, not even that of one of the biggest and most prolific writers/producers on the planet, counted for nothing, and all the hype and favourable draws in the world couldn't help.

Yet despite all that, it was one of my favourite MF songs this year. I still have fond memories of this stompy dancey schlager anthem which I played a lot after the contest and still do. LG of course are now down to a three-piece following the departure of Mikaela, and are making a further attempt at conquering Swedish hearts when MF kicks off in a few weeks' time.

The 2011-50: No.23 - We're not listening and we're not blind

2011-11-28T15:54:00.004Z

"Called Out In The Dark" - Snow Patrol.

Back in 1997 I blamed this band for their role in 'dreary-pop' thanks to the dreadful (IMHO) "Chasing Cars".... http://europecrazy.blogspot.com/2007/08/europecrazy-declares-war-on-dreary-pop.html however I would just like to clarify that I do not judge a band on one song alone. Snow Patrol proved that again this year, coming back with an electronic-flavoured stomper which was anything but boring.

The video for the song was good fun too, featuring none other than Jack Davenport as the band's frontman! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwTXwJg6_VE&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.24 - You're at the gates of human evolution don't you understand?

2011-11-28T15:42:00.003Z

"Love Love" - Take That.

The all-conquering legends continued to prove they're still a force to be reckoned with, although if I'm honest, I wasn't so keen on the Progress-phase of their career. This was in similar style to "Kidz" but in my own opinion it's much better than that song. We'll even forgive them for kidnapping Jenny Silver's illuminated microphone stand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxEVPe7XMcs&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.25 - One to a hundred, multiplied by you

2011-11-28T15:33:00.004Z

"Love In Rewind" - Dino Merlin.

We're at the halfway point of the chart already - doesn't time fly! The Bosnian music legend returned to the Eurovision stage with this very charming, feelgood song which was maybe a bit too old-fashioned for the modern Eurovision Song Contest, but became a very popular number here at EuropeCrazy HQ and a regular post-contest fixture on my iPod. Sito!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPyVQCmGsYo

The 2011-50: No.26 - I thought I'd save my breath for you

2011-11-28T15:18:00.005Z

"Rope" - Foo Fighters.

At a time when guitar bands/rock bands appear to have become extinct in the eyes of TV and radio, it’s nice to see the Foos still flying the flag. I’ve always seen them as a great singles band and this continued that trend, with its stop-start hooks and just the right amount of restraint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbpqZT_56Ns&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.27 - Why does your love hurt so much?

2011-11-28T15:14:00.002Z

"Don't Know Why" - Soundgirl.

The summer hit which inexplicably never was. This is just a great pop record which joyfully plunders Carly Simon’s "Why" and places it in a contemporary girl band context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqd3CkkYAsE&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.28 - Nu är allt sagt och gjort och jag kommer aldrig att få tillbaka dig

2011-11-28T14:35:00.007Z

"Kärlekens Tunga" - September.

She was the breakthrough artist from last year's "Så mycket bättre" of course, and her success deservedly continued throughout this year. After the massive "Mikrofonkåt" this was her follow-up single - her very own inimitable electro take on the Eldkvarn song.

If you want to hear a completely different version of the song, check out this video clip, from when Petra performed with Salem Al Fakir at his Norrköping orchestra show back in March. ("Kärlekens Tunga" is at 3.55.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEZ-oiuJq1I

The 2011-50: No.29 - I've had it with shame, I've had it with sorrow

2011-11-28T14:15:00.003Z

"Breaking Up With God" - The Ark.

This year we said goodbye to one of Sweden's greatest bands of the last few years - no, make that one of the world's greatest bands - The Ark. Ola and the guys decided to call it a day and bowed out with a phenomenally successful final tour, with a final concert in September at Gröna Lund. Along with "The Apocalypse is Over", "Breaking Up With God" was one of two new tracks on their terrific greatest hits compilation "Arkeology" released earlier this year. This song basically sums up everything the band was about - catchy, singalong glam rock loaded with just the right amount of irreverence. I will miss The Ark, but I hope that Ola Salo will continue to grace us with his immense musical presence in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo-u3vQCYHE - video from their interval act appearance on this year's Melodifestivalen.

Melodifestivalen 2012: remaining acts announced today

2011-11-28T12:38:00.005Z

The remaining artists appearing in next year's Melodifestivalen were announced this morning.
Here is the line-up for semi finals 3 and 4.

Seni-final 3 - Leksand - 18th February

"Förlåt mig" - Mattias Andréasson
"I mina drömmar" - Maria Benhajji (webjoker winner)
"Just A Little Bit" - Love Generation
"Lovelight" - Andreas Johnsson
"Mirakel" - Björn Ranelid & Sara Li
"Sanningen" - Carolina Wallin Pérez
"Why Am I Crying" - Molly Sandén
"Youngblood" - Youngblood

Semi-final 4 - Malmö - 25th February

"Allting blir bra igen" - OPA
"Amazing" - Danny Saucedo
"Don't Let Me Down" - Lotta Engberg & Christer Sjögren
"Goosebumps" - Hanna Lindblad
"Kyss Mig" - Axel Algmark
"Land of Broken Dreams" - Dynazty
"The Girl" - Charlotte Perrelli
"Why Start A Fire" - Lisa Miskovsky

The 2011-50: No.30 - Det e fest nu, hos Mange Mange Mange

2011-11-27T18:14:00.006Z

"Fest Hos Mange" - Mange Makers.

In a year characterised by bad music, some may think this is among the worst. You probably wonder why something like this would end up in my annual top 50.
In spite of (or because of!) its obvious off-tune awfulness, Fest Hos Mange and its low-budget video immediately took up a place in my heart. I defy anyone to listen to this and not have a smile on their face. Årets sommarplåga, as they say in Sverige.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVRPngoLHM

The 2011-50: No.31 - Don't you spoil my sweet charade

2011-11-27T17:57:00.004Z

"Lifeline" - Jamiroquai.

Ideally I'd have had the title track of "Rock Dust Light Star" as it was one of my most played songs during the first half of 2011, however it is disqualified due to my rule that if it was released the previous year, it doesn't get in my chart if I was aware of it last year. "Lifeline" is in the chart on a technicality that it was released as a single this year, therefore meeting my 2011-50 chart criteria. Just thought I'd clear that up!!

Whilst on holiday in Pisa in May, I frequently heard this song on the radio and that's what made me rediscover it. "Lifeline" continues in the same mellow mood as previous single "Blue Skies" but has a more jazzy feel to it. The song never troubled the UK chart (surprise surprise) but thankfully they still have a huge international fanbase and that is clearly reflected in the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4wvO9yT5hk

The 2011-50: No.32 - This is the end of the rainbow

2011-11-26T23:29:00.004Z

"Hollywood Hills" - Sunrise Avenue.

Good to see this Finnish band are still around. Although I didn't really like the song to begin with, it eventually grew on me (thanks again to Rix FM for the extensive airplay!)

Following their pan-European breakthrough with "Fairytale Gone Bad", they have continued to enjoy success in several European countries, notably Germany, with their accessible, melodic pop/rock and Samu's distinctive vocals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIzEEhZkthY

Retro Saturday (revisited): Fredericks Goldman Jones

2011-11-26T23:20:00.004Z

It's been a while since I listened to this multinational trio whom I loved in the 1990s, and I decided it was time to rediscover them all over again thanks to the excellent Verves of Europe (http://vervemedia.org.uk/) which played some FGJ a couple of weeks ago.

I'd forgotten just how much I loved "Peurs" from their first album, which I bought in 1998, so I thought it would be a good idea to share this with you tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9RK_1-0WDY

The 2011-50: No.33 - I know the sun's set to rise

2011-11-26T18:26:00.004Z

"Paradise" - Coldplay.

You'd think that I'd be very familiar with the long-awaited and recently released Coldplay album from beginning to end by now. Well, no, actually - my life is just one great big backlog so I'll probably catch up with it during my pre-Christmas holiday.

"Paradise" may not lyrically or melodically be the best thing they've ever done, but it's one of those songs that grows on you eventually and wears you down after prolonged exposure to it (thank you Rix FM). That and a very entertaining video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G4isv_Fylg

The 2011-50: No.34 - Will we be together, will it be now and forever?

2011-11-26T18:13:00.004Z

"Something In Your Eyes" - Jenny Silver.

Or as I like to call it, "the great lost Abba song". It took me a long time to really appreciate this song, as I never really paid too much attention to it during Melodifestivalen. However, the song got a whole new post-contest life on my iPod and I eventually realised that everything about her routine is pretty fabulous really - red hair, glittery dress, Kate Ryan-microphone stand and that hand signal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG7NznM9fOU&feature=fvst

The 2011-50: No.35 - Kill me with killer kiss

2011-11-26T18:06:00.003Z

"Angel In Disguise" - Musiqq.

Contemporary (in a pleasant sense of the word) Latvian Eurovision entry which I liked from the first time I heard it. Unfortunately some bad styling and inappropriate use of stools killed its chances of progressing beyond the semi-final stage. A particular shame, when you think of some of the more inferior songs which made it to the final.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBTMLCloxBw&ob=av3n

The 2011-50: No.36 - Stranger things are starting to begin

2011-11-25T20:12:00.004Z

"Taken By A Stranger" - Lena.

Ms Meyer-Landrut returned to the Eurovision stage to represent Germany for the second consecutive year, however couldn't repeat her winning form two years running. Maybe because this fell short of the greatness of "Satellite" - however it does have an appeal of its own, thanks to its brooding, dark feel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoRPuk756qU

The 2011-50: No.37 - Fear is like your best friend

2011-11-25T19:54:00.004Z

"Warrant" - Foster The People.

In a year where exciting new musical discoveries were extremely rare, and bands seemed to become an endangered species, then let's celebrate a band who landed on our radar with a highly acclaimed debut album which got played a lot here at EuropeCrazy HQ. There is one well-known track from it which may make an appearance later in my chart...however, this piano-driven track is a particular stand-out on the album and if any of you out there are pining for the return of Salem Al Fakir's solo material, then this should fill the gap nicely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nt4Lujk9NE

The 2011-50: No.38 - That's good enough for me

2011-11-25T19:41:00.005Z

"Good Enough" - Father McKenzie.

They're a Finnish-Swedish band who caught my attention earlier this year when they supported Salem Al Fakir at his Helsinki gig which was also webcast. They also competed in the Finnish national selection for ESC with this song, which was "good enough" (pardon the pun) to come third in the contest. It's an appealing mix of Britpop style and piano-pop - two of my favourite genres, and was one of the best songs in any of the national finals this year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937jLNWZ5AI

Melodifestivalen 2012 - Semi-Final 1 & 2 act announced

2011-11-21T21:29:00.002Z

This morning SVT revealed the names of the acts who will be singing the songs in the first two MF semi-finals.

Semi-final 1 - Växjö 04.02.2012
Loreen - Euphoria
The Moniker - I want to be Chris Isaak
Thorsten Flinck & Revolutionsorkestern - Jag reser mig igen
Dead by April - Mystery
Abalone Dots - På väg
Marie Serneholt - Salt & pepper
Sean Banan - Sean den förste banan
Afro-Dite - The boy can dance

Semifinal 2 - Gothenburg 11.02.2012
Andreas Lundstedt - Aldrig aldrig
Top Cats - Baby doll
Mimi Oh - Det går för långsamt
Thomas Di Leva - Ge aldrig upp
Sonja Aldén - I din himmel
David Lindgren - Shout it out
Ulrik Munther - Soldiers
Timoteij - Stormande hav

The 2011-50: No.39 - Sleep, baby sleep, stars are shining above you

2011-11-21T20:07:00.003Z

"Depend On Me" - Babel Fish.

Yes it was slushy and over-sentimental, but this father-to-son lullaby surprisingly thawed my hard heart during MGP 2011. Typical of 2011's long line of disappointments, this year's MGP was a very disappointing contest. And whilst "Haba Haba" was an uplifting, vibrant winner, one can only wonder how this defiantly timeless pop ballad would have done at ESC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdItdPhwSJo

The 2011-50: No.40 - You always come through, you always stay true

2011-11-21T19:52:00.003Z

"No One Else Could" - Sebastian.

It was one of my most long-awaited moments of the year: the return of Sebastian Karlsson to Melodifestivalen. And whilst the end result (IMHO) fell short of the greatness of "When The Night Comes Falling" and didn't have a very long post-contest life on my iPod, it was still great to see him back again with this Killers-lite piece of pop-rock. It didn't lead to an album...but that could hopefully be something else to look forward to in the next 12 months.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJi1BnRHvzE

The 2011-50: No.41 - Everyday I'm shufflin'

2011-11-21T19:45:00.003Z

"Party Rock Anthem" - LMFAO feat.Lauren Bennett & Goon Rock.

Yes I know. At this point you're probably thinking that I've completely lost the plot. Well: I lost the plot a long time ago, and sometimes you can't help enjoying certain tracks even though you probably shouldn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6zr6kCPj8&ob=av3e
285 million people can’t be wrong. Or can they?

The 2011-50: No.42 - You'll never catch me on the Jeremy Kyle Show

2011-11-20T17:37:00.002Z

Traktor - Wretch 32.

One of the few rap songs I could really be bothered with this year. It's one of those records which I've never been able to work out the reasons why I actually like it at all, I just do. The lyrics are a bit cliched and had to be seriously censored for public consumption, but there is this great little moment at 2.30 in the song which makes the whole thing worthwhile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCivYv4HqiI

The 2011-50: No.43 - We'll be OK, just keep the faith

2011-11-20T17:15:00.003Z

"Fade Into Darkness" - Avicii.

You will probably recognise the riff here. Yes, this is the original vocal version of the song which sparked all that late summer hoo-ha, when Leona Lewis sampled the instrumental version - "Penguin" - for her comeback single "Collide". Anyway I prefer this original by Avicii - aka Tim Berg, the Swedish DJ/mixer whose international reputation continues to grow.

(By the way, I've not included "Silhouettes" in my 2011 list, much as I wanted to, for the simple reason that it hasn't been officially released yet, Which therefore makes it eligible for next year's list. If it ever gets released of course....!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yg3dLEDWqs&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.44 - Hello, hello, remember me?

2011-11-20T16:54:00.004Z

"What You Want" - Evanescence.

A rockin' comeback which immediately grabbed me from first listen, but predictably missed out on an appearance in the UK singles chart.

It's good to have them back again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVWazHTunSI&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No.45 - And now we are slammin'

2011-11-19T18:33:00.004Z

"Wall of Sound" - Bressie.

First (but not last) appearance in my chart for one of this year's brightest new solo artists. Of course Niall Breslin isn't really 'new' at all, having fronted The Blizzards, but the London-based Irish singer launched his solo career earlier this year, and released his rather fab debut album "Colourblind Stereo" in September. Whilst his musical style is mainly in the pop-rock genre, "Wall of Sound" conjures up fond memories of old-school rave, which is always close to my heart. In a different musical climate, he'd be a megastar.

The 2011-50: No.46 - Save it for someone who likes it like that

2011-11-19T18:18:00.005Z

"Not A Love Song" - Wonderland.

On paper, this girl band formed by Westlife's Kian Egan and Louis "you made that song your own" Walsh should have zoomed up the charts, helped along by a behind the scenes ITV2 series. But if there was proof that you can lead a horse to water, then Wonderland is the perfect example. "Not A Love Song" was their debut single, a nice piece of country-flavoured pop which would probably appeal to Taylor Swift fans for example. But it all went horribly wrong, and their lack of commercial success led to the band being dropped by their record label and ultimately led to a split. They were talented as well as pretty, but their attempt to swim against the current musical tide was their downfall. Right band, wrong time.

The 2011-50: No.47 - Jag är "Lucy in the sky", jag är högt över molnen

2011-11-19T18:01:00.004Z

Jag Kommer - Veronica Maggio.

Veronica made her long-awaited comeback this year to both critical and popular acclaim. This catchy pop song was the first single released off "Satan i Gatan", and was co-written with another one of my fave Swedish artists, Christian Walz. By the way, look out for an appearance from Mr Walz later in my top 50 ....

Veronica always manages to combine the worlds of commercial pop and credibility, and no doubt she will do very well when award season comes round.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjZwz3yxS9I

The 2011-50: No.48: Your love pours down on me, surrounds me like a waterfall

2011-11-18T22:21:00.006Z

"Feel So Close" - Calvin Harris.

Did someone mention Calvin Harris????

'Disappointment' was one of the most appropriate words to sum up 2011, as many of my favourite artists failed to deliver. Disappointment followed disappointment, and unfortunately one of these was one of my favourite dance artists of recent years, the one and only Calvin Harris. Nothing he released this year approached the greatness of his "Ready For The Weekend"-era releases. "Bounce" was OK, but that's all. Even Calvin had to resort to a Rihanna-collaboration, which totally pushed me over the edge, as I've had enough of this over-exposed (in every way) songstress. (Faithful travelling companion will disagree, I'm sure). So I'm going for this one, which doesn't rely on any collaborations, and which is as close to the euphoric house sound which has served him well over recent years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGghkjpNCQ8&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: No: 49 - But now I want off this ride cause you're scaring me

2011-11-18T22:15:00.005Z

"Changed The Way You Kiss Me" - Example.

Apologies to the man here, but I'd always viewed Elliot Gleave - a.k.a Example - as a low-budget version of Calvin Harris. Despite that, he achieved massive success with his catchy electro-pop-rap tunes this year, and this was the most successful one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLXt3yh2g0s

The 2011-50: No.50: I mean honestly, you lied to me like I'm not there

2011-11-18T22:00:00.007Z

"Yeah Right" - Dionne Bromfield.

15 year old Londoner Dionne Bromfield is probably best known for being the god-daughter of the late great Amy Winehouse, who sadly passed away in July this year; and significantly, Amy's final live performance on stage was with Dionne, three days before her death.

The Winehouse connection may have opened the door to the music business for Dionne; however the young singer has enough talent of her own to guarantee a potentially successful career to come. For the moment though, "Yeah Right" shows immense promise; she's a young soul singer with a voice beyond her years, and thankfully this timeless soul song managed to avoid all the obvious cliches of 2011, with no David Guetta, Flo Rida or Pitbull in sight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiXCpP-B7bU&ob=av2e

The 2011-50: introduction - and EuropeCrazy's 2000th post!

2011-11-18T21:32:00.011Z

Firstly, this is my 2000th post on EuropeCrazy, so it's highly appropriate that it should be devoted to introducing what has become an annual feature on this blog - my annual countdown.

Unfortunately, 2011 has personally been a bad year in so many ways, with very little in the way of redeeming features. This also extends to music, as I found so little to excite me. A lot of this had to do with spending much of the year not actually listening to new music, but rediscovering lots of old forgotten favourites in the course of filling my iPod. One more thing...2010 had been such a busy year for me, particularly with regard to my other blog, that by the time 2011 arrived, I needed some time out to read books, watch TV, de-clutter EuropeCrazy HQ....everything but listen to new music.

So I'm surprised that I actually managed to gather 50 songs together for my top 50 songs of the year. Usually I have over 100 songs to short-list down to the final 50: this year I only had 55. That said it all really. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy my "final countdown" to say farewell to a year which, in the words of the great philosophers Steps, is "better best forgotten".

Above: EuropeCrazy HQ's resident Swedish moose contingent, Salem (left) and Måns (right) help me choose the playlist :)))

Eurovision 2012: something old, something new

2011-11-18T19:48:00.009Z

Today Serbia and Belgium announced the names of the singers who will represent their countries at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.

Due to financial constraints, there will be no Serbian national final in 2012, but instead they have decided to internally shortlist some songs and the singer will choose which one he wants to sing.

Serbia will be represented by a very familiar name to ESC fans: Željko Joksimović, who represented Serbia & Montenegro in 2004 with the big fan favourite Lane Moje. I know I'm probably going to be shot down in flames for even suggesting this, but I always thought this song was overrated and boring. He came back two years later, as writer of the Bosnia & Herzegovina song, Lejla. There's a pattern developing here: another fan favourite, and (IMHO) another overrated and boring song. He wrote the 2008 entry Jutro (ditto fan fave/boring song) when Belgrade hosted the contest, and this was a particularly annoying outcome as there was a perfectly wonderful poptastic song that year which would have made a great Serbian entry - "Beli Jablan" by Aleksa Jelić & Ana Štajdohar.

So in this blogger's opinion there is a very strong case against Mr J. However I have not completely written him off and would hope that he might try something a bit different this time - I'm not expecting him to go all Ovo Je Balkan on us, but something more uptempo would be nice.

Over to Belgium now. It's Flemish-speaking VRT's turn to choose the Belgian entry, which in recent years would mean one of my favourite national finals - Eurosong. However two years ago, VRT went with an internal selection which resulted in a very successful result for Tom Dice's "Me and My Guitar". So they probably thought, why change a winning formula? I had hoped for a big Flemish star name this year (I was hoping for a return for Kate Ryan) but it was a rather surprising choice - Iris, a.k.a. Laura van den Bruel. Of course all of us Lauras have to stick together, so I guess I'll have to support her!

16 year old Iris' musical style is a little reminiscent of Taylor Swift if her hit single "Wonderful" is anything to go by: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QGIT9kklEY and her song will be chosen from a list of songs submitted by a number of top songwriters.

Over in Slovakia, they also revealed their singer two days ago. Or did they? Their choice for 2012 was supposed to be big-haired rock singer Miro Šmajda, but now his participation is seemingly in doubt, due to an alleged 'misunderstanding'. Either way, it's sad news for faithful travelling companion as the TWiiNS won't be making a return visit....

Musikförläggarnas Pris 2011

2011-11-11T23:22:00.003Z

The annual Swedish Music Publishers awards took place on Friday 11th November at Berns in Stockholm, honouring the country's most successful songwriters and composers covering the period 1st July 2010-30th June 2011. The ceremony was hosted by Niklas Strömstedt.

The big winner was Veronica Maggio, who took home the awards for best composer, best lyricist and song of the year for "Jag Kommer".

The honorary prize went to Mikael Wiehe, who's been making music for the past 40 years and is currently starring in season 2 of Så mycket bättre.

Songwriting duo Max Martin and Shellback were awarded for another year of international success.

Big congratulations to two of this blog's favourite artists: Daniel Adams-Ray voted best breakthrough artist, and the year's most played song was "Från Och Med Du" by Oskar Linnros.

List of Prizewinners:
Composer of the Year
Veronica Maggio/Christian Walz

Lyricist of the Year
Veronica Maggio

Honorary Prize
Mikael Wiehe

International Success of the Year
Martin "Max Martin" Sandberg/Johan "Shellback" Schuster

Song of The Year
"Jag Kommer" - Veronica Maggio/Christian Walz/Stefan Olsson

Breakthrough of the Year
Daniel Adams-Ray

Most Played Song of the Year
"Från Och Med Du" - Oskar Linnros.

Melodifestivalen season is underway!

2011-11-09T22:42:00.005Z

Today brought the exciting announcement of the song titles and songwriters for Melodifestivalen 2012. This is the guesswork stage, where we all try to match the songs to the possible performers! One very noticeable thing is that almost half the songs are in Swedish, which is very nice.

Aldrig aldrig (Niclas Lundin, Maria Marcus, Randy Goodrum)
Allting blir bra igen (Michael Sideridis)
Baby Doll (Mårten Eriksson, Lina Eriksson, Susie Päivärinta)
Det går för långsamt (Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Niclas Lundin)
Don't Let Me Down (Lasse Holm, Lars "Dille" Diedricson)
Euphoria (Thomas G:son, Peter Boström)
Förlåt mig (Mattias Andréasson)
Ge aldrig upp (Thomas Di Leva)
Goosebumps (Hanna Lindblad, Linda Sundblad, Tony Nilsson)
I din himmel (Sonja Aldén, Bobby Ljunggren, Peter Boström)
I mina drömmar (Nanna Svensdóttir, Thomas Cars)
I Want To Be Chris Isaak (This Is Just the Beginning) (The Moniker)
Jag reser mig igen (Thomas G:son, Ted Ström)
Just A Little Bit (RedOne Team)
Land Of Broken Dreams (Thomas G:son, Thomas "Plec" Johansson)
Lovelight (Andreas Johnson, Peter Kvint)
Mirakel (Fredrik Andersson, Björn Ranelid)
Mystery (Pontus Hjelm)
Porslin (Björn Olsson, Martin Elisson)
På väg (Abalone Dots, Viktor Källgren)
Salt & Pepper (Lina Eriksson, Mårten Eriksson, Figge Boström)
Sanningen (Michael Clauss, Martin Bjelke)
Sean Den Förste Banan (Sean Banan, Joakim Larsson, Hans Blomberg, Mårten Andersson)
Soldiers (Ulrik Munther, Johan Åberg, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, David Jackson)
Stormande hav (Kristian Lagerström, Johan Fjellström, Stina Engelbrecht, Jens Engelbrecht)
The Boy Can Dance (Figge Boström, Catrine Loqvist, Johan Lindman)
The Girl (Fredrik Kempe, Alexander Johnsson)
To the Sky (Fernando Fuentes, Tony Nilsson, Danny Saucedo, Peter Boström, Figge Boström)
Kyss mig (Axel Algmark, Mattias Frändå, Jonathan Magnussen)
Why Am I Crying (Molly Sandén, Aleena Gibson, Windy Wagner)
Why Start A Fire (Lisa Miskovsky, Aleksander With, Bernt Rune Stray, Berent Philip Moe)
Youngblood (Fredrik Kempe, David Krüger)

First thoughts: I can't wait to hear "To The Sky" and "Förlåt mig" of course. Hope the other Peter Boström songs might be big dancey tunes too! The Lisa Miskovsky song also sounds interesting, with its Norwegian writing team. Also looking forward to "Goosebumps". Of course there are some very familiar names in there - schlager royalty G:son, Holm and the ever-present Kempe, to satisfy the schlager fans. Is it too much to ask for the return of Jenny Silver? I'd prefer her to Charlotte, to be honest. And much as I've liked Johnson/Kvint's contributions in the past, the thought of Andreas competing again would probably be a step too far....and I'm completely underwhelmed by Thomas Di Leva.

I wouldn't mind seeing another Andreas (Mr Lundstedt) back at MF though! And I wonder if the mighty Magnus Carlsson is in there, as previously rumoured? H.E.A.T. have also been mentioned - it would be nice to see them back, hopefully with a song as great as "1000 Miles".

There are also some very familiar song titles in there as well...."Youngblood" just makes me think of E.M.D., and I wonder if RedOne's entrant will be channelling Gina G???

Finally, run for cover - The Moniker is back! And who let Sean Banan in????

Time for another break....

2011-10-25T21:57:00.002+01:00

The backlog of blog posts are all written and posted, and my work here is done.

Yes, I'm going to take another blog-break until mid-November, during which time I'll sit down, get my thoughts together and try to come up with the 2011-50 as well as some other end of year stuff.

I'll still be hanging around Twitter though :)

Melodifestivalen 2012 rumours...

2011-10-24T13:38:00.009+01:00

...yes it's that time again to start reading the Swedish tabloids and guessing how many of the rumours are true.

Today Aftonbladet posted a list of some of the artists said to be competing in next year's MF - http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/melodifestivalen2011/article13827444.ab

I froze in terror at the news of Charlotte Perrelli returning with a Fredrik Kempe song - no offence Charlotte or Fredrik, but isn't it about time someone else was given a chance??

Danny Saucedo will also be back as a solo artist, but his E.M.D. bandmates Mattias Andréasson and Erik Segerstedt have also submitted their own songs in different musical styles. I'm quite surprised about this as I'd hoped/expected E.M.D. to return to MF next year.

Molly Sandén will also return, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her boyfriend Eric Saade and be chosen as Sweden's representative. I wonder if she'll get a big ballad or an uptempo song?

There is also someone called Thorsten Flinck, allegedly with a G:son song?! This could either go straight to the final or totally bomb.

Finally where would Melodifestivalen be without a dansband? This time it's Top Cats, although I thought Elisa's might have been a more obvious choice?

Of course it's all a mix of rumours and leaks at this stage so anything is possible! As usual the most interesting entrants at MF can be the ones you didn't really expect anything from - like Loreen or Swingfly from this year's contest for example.

Verves of Europe!

2011-10-24T13:13:00.003+01:00

Regular readers of this blog will be aware of how much I loved "Sounds of Europe" which was a weekly radio show on student radio station GU2. The show, presented by superstar DJs and blogging legends Rachel and Keira, ran from 2008 until 2010 and was essential listening every week. The show introduced me to a lot of European singers and songs which I hadn't heard before.

Yesterday Rachel introduced me to "Verves of Europe" a weekly radio show hosted by James and Fey who are students at London Metropolitan University. I had a listen last night and was hooked. This show resurrects the spirit of "Sounds of Europe" and if you loved that show, you will love this too.

If you go to http://vervemedia.org.uk you can hear the show online by selecting it on the radio player. It is broadcast weekly for an hour and a half. More info at http://vervemedia.org.uk/radio/verves-of-europe

Album Review: "Colourblind Stereo" - Bressie

2011-10-24T12:20:00.003+01:00

I previously blogged about London-based Irish singer Bressie (Niall Breslin) back in September, http://europecrazy.blogspot.com/2011/09/introducingbressie.html and decided to buy his just-released debut CD "Colourblind Stereo" during our recent trip to Dublin.

Bressie was previously the frontman of a very popular Irish rock band The Blizzards, however he is now getting in touch with his pop side on a very good debut. The album kicks off with "Can't Stay Young (Forever)" which was his debut single as a solo artist.

The radio-friendly "Breaking My Fall" (not sure if this is going to be a future single) and "She Ticks All The Boxes" keep the momentum going.

Fans of The Script may enjoy Bressie's mix of big anthemic pop-rock songs, although Bressie avoids that over-wrought trap which The Script fall into at times. The mood is consistently upbeat and positive.

I particularly want to highlight "Android Heart" as one of the album's highlights - the robot metaphor lyrics may be a bit too cheesy, but it's a very pretty song. Bressie is a clever lyricist, although some of his lyrics can be a little on the cheesy/corny side at times. Nevertheless he knows how to craft a good pop song.

"Good Intentions" was of course the song which brought Bressie to my attention, and it's the one which still stands out on this album. It's the kind of song which would sound great on British radio, if they removed the endless urban rubbish and "the new boring" and go back to a time of good quality pop music which didn't need to resort to lyrics about being on the floor, in the club, 'featuring' all the usual suspects. This album is refreshingly free of any of that.

Amongst the pop-rock there are some electronic touches, and "Wall of Sound" particularly evokes some old-school dance memories. It just proves Bressie's talent and versatility that he can turn his hand to different musical styles. He has co-written all of the songs on this album and his compositions may soon be turning up on other artists' albums too, as he's currently part of the 19 Entertainment stable and is involved in songwriting and production there. Bressie cites Dr Luke and Max Martin amongst his production heroes so there's no doubt that there's a very strong pop heart beating inside this rock star.

To date, "Colourblind Stereo" has only been released in Ireland however I wouldn't bet against an international release at some point - especially when the tide eventually turns away from the dross which has passed for "pop music" over the past couple of years. Hopefully we will hear a lot more from this very talented guy in future.

The Square-Eyed Couch Potato: October 2011

2011-10-24T11:29:00.020+01:00

If the rumours are to be believed, this could be the last series of "HARRY HILL'S TV BURP" (ITV1, Saturday). I suppose all good things should really come to an end, so maybe it would be the right time. So far, this series isn't really vintage Burp, but it's not a disaster either - maybe somewhere in the middle, on automatic pilot.

One of Harry's recent targets was "SHOWBOATERS" (Sky 1, Sundays) which was a must-see for me as over the past year I've developed an obsession with going on a cruise. Basically this is X Factor at sea, with a group of hopefuls are all fighting for one place in the Thomson Dream's show team. They missed a trick though, as the eliminations should have befitted the theme, i.e. man overboard/walk the plank :) Anyway it's pretty unmissable, if only for the reason that none of them were particularly good...the series is nearing its end so hopefully they'll make the right choice.

Whilst on the subject of cruises, I enjoyed the first part of "PAUL MERTON'S ADVENTURES" (Channel 5, Wednesdays) which saw him take to the Caribbean on the Allure of the Seas. It was a pleasant travelogue and pretty favourable about the ship itself. I'm looking forward to his forthcoming adventures.

I would never have called myself a Steps fan, although will admit to particularly liking a couple of their songs ("You'll Be Sorry" and "Deeper Shade Of Blue" to be specific). Anyway, body language/psychology experts would have had a field day if they watched "STEPS REUNION" (Sky Living, Wednesdays) an addictive fly on the wall documentary series,where the five members of the band were reunited, with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The tension was cranked up as the five members of the group confronted the issues which led to their split. Acrimonious didn't even begin to describe it. As we all know, H and Claire famously quit the group on the last night of their tour and the band announced their split on Boxing Day 10 years ago. Now they're back together, their new greatest hits compilation went straight to no.1 and their reunion tour is selling out. Although on the evidence of this TV show I wouldn't be too confident buying a ticket, as it couldn't be more obvious that Claire Richards doesn't want to be there. Or is this maybe fodder for a follow-up series - Steps Split II?

A few months ago I wrote about STV's decision to axe "THE HOUR" from its daily teatime slot. In September, the show relaunched in its new 8.00 pm Tuesday slot - which was a disastrous scheduling decision to begin with, since it clashed with the long-running Scottish soap River City on BBC1. Then they teamed up existing presenter Michelle McManus with sharp-witted radio presenter/journalist Tam Cowan, and the format completely changed from the easy-going teatime magazine with a lot of different features, to a bog standard low-budget chat show. 4 weeks into its run, STV axed the show for good.

After the axe fell, Tam Cowan let rip in his Daily Record column:
http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/tamcowan/2011/10/darkest-hour-tv-bosses-barely.html

STV have no-one but themselves to blame. It wasn't perfect, but if the format had remained the same, and broadcast in a different slot, the show might have survived, instead of being consigned to the telly dustbin of history.

Ironically, STV's other Tuesday night programme has been must-see TV over recent weeks. "SCOTLAND'S GREATEST ALBUM" has featured a different decade each week, starting with the 70s, and the basic premise of the show is for the viewers to choose three tracks each week from the list of 12 pur forward by a panel of experts. It's been a pretty enjoyable and surprisingly credible journey so far.

OK we couldn't have a review at this time of year without mentioning "STRICTLY COME DANCING" (BBC1, Saturdays). As usual I start off every year with no favourites, but events conspire to make me change my mind, as in most cases I end up resenting the "chosen ones" (except last year, when Kara Tointon and Matt Baker totally deserved the praise). This year's recipients would appear to be adopted-national-treasure Jason Donovan, and the charisma-free zone that is Holly Valance. Here at EuropeCrazy HQ we are throwing our support behind the underrated Chelsee Healey and her professional partner, Stictly newbie Pasha Kovalev. The couple have been consistently good since the beginning, and Chelsee is a bubbly little firecracker who seems to be genuinely enjoying the experience. And of course it goes without saying that we're also supporting the always-wonderful Flavia Cacace, who's been teamed up with none other than the legend that is Russell Grant :)))

Russell was expected to be this year's John Sergeant/Anne Widdecombe, but the ultimate car-crash this year is Nancy Dell'Olio, whose fame is solely based on dating that Sven bloke. I never thought I'd ever say this, but poor Anton. Although I'm enjoying the show as usual, I'm getting a bit concerned about the number of 'theme weeks' being introduced, with all the accompanying silly props and costumes. As a result it feels like the show is moving away from the basic dances towards show-dances, and that's not a good thing.

Finding music on TV is so rare these days (apart from the dull and repetitive music channels) and finding intelligent discussion about it is even more rare. So three cheers for "THE JO WHILEY MUSIC SHOW" (Sky Arts). I enjoyed the first one, maybe a bit too much chat about Nirvana though. Anyway, thanks to this show, my mum has now become a Maverick Sabre fan!

Good old BBC Four never lets us down with its theme nights, and recently we had an evening devoted to Creation Records, the label founded by Alan McGee. "UPSIDE DOWN" was an absorbing feature-length documentary about the label's history and the bands signed to it. The most depressing thing about it was seeing my beloved Mark Gardener from Ride, who had wonderful floppy hair back in the day. Now he's hardly got any. :(

The Dublin Diaries: Day 3 - Wednesday 21st September 2011

2011-10-23T22:40:00.005+01:00

On the second day of our holiday, poor faithful travelling companion was floored by a very nasty stomach bug which made him very ill, he couldn't eat or drink but thankfully was well enough to get out and do some exploring.

Today it was time to go north of the river, for a walk up O'Connell Street, as far as Parnell Square...

On the way back down we came across an amusing art installation which invited the public to write what they're afraid of. "I'm afraid of Jedward" particularly raised a chuckle!

Needless to say we wandered into Carrolls Gift Store yet again and purchases were made. Of course you can't resist the looped soundtrack of Irish classics, although I doubt whether the shop assistants would share our enthusiasm for "Seven Drunken Nights" if they have to listen to it about 3 times per hour every day of their working lives :)

If you go to Dublin you'll inevitably find your way back to Temple Bar. Here is a picture of one of its mega-pubs, the Oliver St John Gogarty. However we didn't have a drink in there this time, so that's on the to-do list for next time, as is Gallagher's Boxty House!

Last time we were in Dublin, we had coffee at Insomnia Coffee, which is like an Irish version of Costas/Caffe Nero, but one definite 'must-do' for this holiday was a trip to Bewley's Oriental Cafe on Grafton Street. It's big, but there's lots of different rooms/areas and we managed to get a seat and enjoy a cappuccino.

Tonight was the last night of our holiday, we decided to keep it very low-key. It was also a very cold night, yet that didn't deter some very hardy people from alfresco dining in Temple Bar.

Despite my poor man getting sick, we did have an enjoyable time and the hotel was fab. We resolve to return to Dublin next summer, all things being well, when the nights are lighter and the weather is warmer, and hopefully in happier and healthier times.

Exciting times ahead...

2011-10-22T23:43:00.003+01:00

We are only 7 days away from the launch of the 2nd series of one of the most exciting reality TV formats ever!

http://www.tv4.se/1.2137245/2011/05/14/har_ar_artisterna_i_sa_mycket_battre_2011

Jason "Timbuktu" Diakité
Laleh Pourkarim
Martin "E-type" Eriksson
Tomas Ledin
Mikael Wiehe
Eva Dahlgren
Lena Philipsson

Go Tomas & Lena!

The Dublin Diaries: Day 2 - Tuesday 20th September 2011

2011-10-19T22:53:00.005+01:00

Lots of good intentions to get up very early failed to materialise. (Oh, and talking of 'good intentions': my plan for today was to hit the record shops in search of the Bressie CD. More about that later).

Until this morning I hadn't tried the much-hyped soda bread. My verdict: disappointingly stodgy, and my view is prejudiced due to the fact that I'm no fan of brown bread. Disappointment aside, we have some exploring to do and head out past the very busy Trinity College area. Nope, still haven't seen the Book of Kells and won't be doing it this time either. Maybe some day when we decide to do all the tourist haunts. Ditto the Guinness Storehouse.

Anyway you won't be surprised to hear that the main thing on my agenda was shopping! And there are lots, and lots, and lots of shops and shopping malls in the Irish capital, with something for everyone.

When in Dublin, you are possessed by this irrational urge to make repeated trips to Carrolls Irish Gift Stores, of which there are many, many branches in the city. Walk through the door and your ears are assaulted by the rolling soundtrack of Seven Drunken Nights, and Molly Malone, and Whiskey in the Jar, Lord of the Dance etc etc. All day, every day. There is this subliminal voice inside your head telling you to buy daft leprechaun hats/Guinness souvenirs - everything from Y-fronts to Guinness flavoured HP sauce, and the ubiquitous, colourful, Wacky Woollies multicoloured sheep which you'll already know about if you saw this post http://europecrazysrandomramblings.blogspot.com/2011/10/wacky-woollies.html

Anyway, whilst Carrolls perpetuates the Irish myth of leprechauns, fiddly music, sheep and Guinness, modern-day Dublin is a different place altogether. The service industries seem almost exclusively staffed by young Eastern European males and females and so far we've hardly heard an Irish voice! The mix of tourists and migrant workers makes for a very cosmopolitan city which is refreshingly different enough from the UK, even though we're only an hour's flight away. The same goes for the radio stations which I tuned into - sure there's the top 40 fodder but there is also a refreshing variety of music, including lots of rock music which you never seem to hear on mainstream British radio.

We explore the area around Trinity College and Merrion Square and check out the parliament buildings, which have some neat topiary going on...

There's a good selection of eating options on and around South William Street, so we have lunch there.

Visitors to Dublin will encounter some well-known statues of the likes of James Joyce and Molly Malone, but I wasn't aware that there was a statue of a more contemporary icon - Phil Lynott - which you can find in Harry Street (off Grafton Street, outside the Bruxelles bar)

After lunch we head back down Grafton Street and inevitably end up at HMV, where I finally purchase Bressie's "Colourblind Stereo" CD. I also buy "Domino Effect", a CD by The Blizzards which is the band he was previously in. Yes, I'm suffering from Bressiemania. I notice that dreary acoustic guy Ed Sheeran will be making an appearance at the store the next day, but I decide to pass on that one.

Eventually we return to St Stephen's Green, where we watch the ducks, and the seagulls pretending to be ducks, and hilariously go in search of a non-existent waterfall. It's a lovely park though and a great place to escape from the city buzz.

St Stephen's Green also boasts a big, fab shopping mall called the St Stephen's Green Centre.

Lots of walking today meant very sore leg muscles by the end of the afternoon, so back to the hotel for a rest before going out for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst, as poor faithful travelling companion was about to be floored by a nasty stomach bug/food poisoning-type-thing....

This week's "Idol" songs

2011-10-14T00:01:00.002+01:00

Courtesy of Aftonbladet, here's what the contestants will be singing this week...you'll have guessed that the theme is Swedish-language hits.

ANDRÉ: Lilla Lady - Daniel Adams-Ray
MOLLY: Satan I Gatan - Veronica Maggio
ROBIN: Alla Vill Till Himmelen Men Ingen Vill Dö - Timbuktu
AMANDA P: Utan Dina Andetag - Kent
MOA: Vem Ska Jag Tro På – Tomas DiLeva
AMANDA F: Det Hon Vill Ha – Plura
EMIL: Jag Är En Vampyr – Markus Krunegård
OLLE: 17år - Veronica Maggio
LINNI: Om Sanningen Ska Fram - Eric Amarillo
DENISE: Från Och Med Du - Oskar Linnros

I'm still not too excited by this year's line-up of contestants, but it's early days and that might change. Or maybe not. They are all extremely young - especially this year's favourite Molly Pettersson Hammar, who is only 15 years old!! When did this become Junior Idol???

If you force-feed it, they will come

2011-10-11T23:02:00.004+01:00

Lots of thoughts going round in my head today which I thought I'd pull together into some kind of blog post.

Been thinking about my annual top 50 rundown (the 2011-50), which is due to start in precisely five weeks' time. Usually at this time of year I would be filled with excitement at having to narrow about 100 songs down to a shortlist of 50. This year, however, things are very different indeed. The main reason being that I haven't listened to as much new music as usual, having spent the year rediscovering a lot of old, forgotten favourites, and feeling a general sense of disappointment at the new music which has been on offer. At the moment I'm sitting with approximately 38 songs so will need to find another 12 in the coming weeks; it also has to be said that if some of the contenders had been around 3 or 4 years ago they'd have struggled to get anywhere near my top 50.

It's nothing to do with getting older, but I've never felt so disillusioned/disenfranchised with the music scene as I am now. I'm tired of radio and TV stations force-feeding us the same style of music, the same 'artists' day in, day out. And it's not just a British problem either - go to any European singles chart, for example, and you'll see the same names time and time again, the international superstars who dominate the airwaves leaving no opportunities for decent new local artists to break through, with the only outlets being the now very stale format of talent shows. The problem with force-feeding is that eventually you will surrender and that's what's happened, worldwide. But I'm not waving the white flag just yet.

Having suffered through the 'urban' music explosion of the past couple of years, this has now mutated into a repetitive parade of songs about being in the club/on the floor/put your drinks in the air/party all day/party all night (delete as appropriate) mainly orchestrated by the three-headed monster that is Pitbull, David Guetta and Flo Rida. I'm particularly disappointed by David Guetta's lowest-common-denominator output at present, as I used to be a fan of his music, but now he's right up there with Rihanna in the ubiquity stakes. I have always loved dance music, but this current variation has nothing new to offer, and will be forgotten in a few years' time when the DJs are still playing 'old school' and 'rave classics'.

I wanted to write something about how the 'alternatives' to the current club-obsessed sound have also failed to excite us. However, I'll just point you in the direction of none other than Popjustice legend Peter Robinson. Whilst on my break at work today I was browsing the Guardian's website and discovered this post which he had written and which I would encourage you all to read: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/oct/08/adele-new-boring-ed-sheeran?commentpage=3#start-of-comments

Admittedly, there was that 'wow' moment during the Brits, when Adele's performance came as a welcome contrast to all the urban nonsense which dominated that ceremony. Here was a "proper singer" who didn't need to cavort around with minimal clothing and maximum dance routines. However, all these months down the line and we are still under assault from "Someone Like You" at every turn. A song which, to quote its own lyrics, turned up out of the blue uninvited and couldn't stay away. It has taken over from "Chasing Cars", (which I previously declared on this blog in 2007 to be the national anthem of Dreary-Pop) soundtracking every mournful, tearful moment on every reality show.

Adele's massive worldwide success could initially be viewed as a reaction to all those empty international pop superstars - yet ironically she has now become part of the problem rather than the solution. Her music has been promoted as aggressively as, say, Rihanna or Katy Perry, but is tapping into the "adult" music market, "music for couples" as I used to call it - the kind of people who don't really like music but buy those stupid 'acoustic'/'feelgood' compilations. Which presumably include the likes of Ed Sheeran a.k.a. the new James Blunt with added collaboration-credibility bells on. Most of the current crop of tedious artists are only popular because we have been force-fed them. It's time for a change!

Scandipop comes to British TV!

2011-10-06T20:37:00.002+01:00

One of my favourite blogs is Scandipop. Now the blog is about to become a TV show from tomorrow.

Dance Nation TV (channel 376 on Sky) will broadcast an hour of the finest Scandinavian pop and dance music on the following days/times:

Fridays at 10.00 am
Saturdays at 4.00 pm
Mondays at midnight.

I never thought I'd see the day when we'd ever see a Linda Bengtzing video on British TV, but one of the videos this week will be none other than her duet with Velvet - ‘Victorious’!

Must remember to set my HDD recorder tomorrow morning :)

The Dublin Diaries: Day 1 - Monday 19th September 2011

2011-10-05T20:38:00.011+01:00

Three years on from a chilly November weekend, we returned to the Irish capital for a brief late summer break. It may be a long way from the boiling temperatures of Turkey, but it didn't matter as we were just lucky and thankful to be there at all.

Weather? Well, the previous week, Ireland and Scotland had been hit by the tail end of a hurricane, and judging by the high winds on our arrival it was taking its time to blow itself out!

One of the best things about a short break in Dublin is that it's a short flight - it takes longer to get to the airport than it does to fly over - and you only need hand luggage, thus avoiding the inconvenience of checking in baggage and all the rip-off of the extra charges involved.

After checking into our hotel, it wasn't long before we headed out into a dry (but still very windy) Monday evening from our base in Dublin 2. If you haven't been to Dublin before, I'd recommend that you are based south of the river, which is within walking distance of all the nightlife, restaurants and shops. Of course there's plenty of these north of the river, where accommodation may also come cheaper, but let's just say it's a bit more "gritty" up there.

South of the river, the main nightlife is centred around the Temple Bar area which is packed with pubs and restaurants from beginning to end. At the weekends this is stag party city and is absolutely jumping....but what's it like on a Monday night? Empty? Deserted? No way! Even on a Monday night in September, it's jumping. And there was a particular buzz in the city that Monday night, after the city's Gaelic football team 'The Dubs' won the national cup final at the weekend. Thousands of fans gathered in Merrion Square to salute their heroes, and we spotted a few of these jubilant fans on the way.

Above: one of the city's most photographed pubs, Temple Bar's very own....Temple Bar.

One of our unfulfilled Dublin ambitions was to get a table in the famous Gallagher's Boxty House, but tonight it was no can do. Nothing changes around here :)

Ireland has been particularly hammered in the current financial recession, and the restaurants in Dublin have had to offer meal deals to get the customers in. 'Early Bird' menus (pre-theatre as we know them) are now commonplace in what is still a massively expensive city. However, there are limited choices on most of these menus so if you're a chicken-eating almost-veggie like myself you end up resorting to the a la carte. But when meals are as good as this one, the money doesn't matter.

One of the best restaurants in Temple Bar is the Quays Restaurant, upstairs from the bustling Quays Bar, and serving some good quality fare to an appreciative clientele of mostly tourists. We were certainly appreciative of our meal and left with our stomachs filled to capacity!

But Dublin being Dublin, you have to try out some of its legendary bars. We managed to fit in a couple before bedtime - one of these being the famous Arlington Hotel near O'Connell Bridge, which puts on a nightly show of Irish music and dancing. The best seats are saved for those who have paid for dinner, but you can still see and hear the show from a more restricted view even if you've just popped in for a Guinness (faithful travelling companion) or a Bulmers Irish cider (me). By the way, why is it Bulmers Irish Cider in Ireland yet it's Magners over here? Just wondered. Anyway we took in some Irish folk music and a bit of Riverdance/Lord of the Dance. Yes it's a tourist trap but so what? It's Dublin after all, soak it up.

Talking of soaking, the rain had come on by this time so we headed to another bar before ending our first day in Dublin. It's good to be back.

Part 2 to follow over the weekend...

Book Review: "Mylène Farmer: The Single File" by Steve Cabus

2011-10-02T16:48:00.009+01:00

In the "old days" when I had much more time to blog than I do now (although I really don't know why I don't have as much time anymore!) I wouldn't have taken my eye off the ball when it came to celebrating the 50th birthday of my most favourite French female singer of all time. But unfortunately that's what happened this year and I've only recently remembered that she reached this big birthday milestone on 12th September. So a belated happy birthday Mylène!

However, as I was searching the web for Mylène-related stuff last week I came across the first-ever book to be published in English about the notoriously reclusive superstar. Needless to say I bought it! I have only just started reading the book so can't really call this a proper review, but I wanted to tell you all about it in case you didn't know about the book's existence.

"Mylène Farmer: The Single File" by Steve Cabus avoids the traditional biography format and instead takes an intensive look at the singer's career from the beginning in 1984 right up to the present day, single by single. Steve Cabus is a native French speaker but in his introduction he tells us that he has been speaking English exclusively for the past 23 years. Therefore he is perfectly qualified to convey all the aspects of what it's like to be a Mylène fan in the English-speaking world. Don't expect a big professional presentation - there are no pictures of Mylène, for example, just front and back cover art illustrations, and the title font in good old Comic Sans MS. But the old saying goes "don't judge a book by its cover" as it's what's inside which really counts.

The author is without doubt a superfan who is very knowledgeable about his subject. He spends a lot of time in each chapter listing the various formats/remixes etc available for each single, and vividly describes the making of each video and what it's about. Of course if you're a Mylène fan you will know that her music and videos are loaded with controversy, dark themes and "after-the-watershed" content - this is an excellent reference book about each song/video and will definitely be a "go-to" book whenever I'm listening to a Mylène song or watching one of her videos.

You can buy the paperback book (priced £12.99) on Amazon in the UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Myl%C3%A8ne-Farmer-Single-Steve-Cabus/dp/190810578X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317570241&sr=8-1
there is also a Kindle edition available if you're that way inclined - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Myl%C3%A8ne-Farmer-Single-File-ebook/dp/B005EQ86K6/ref=kinw_dp_ke?ie=UTF8&m=A3TVV12T0I6NSM

Also if you Google the book's title and author you should be able to find other online bookstores which stock this book in your country.

Retro Saturday: Riverdance

2011-10-02T00:30:00.002+01:00

In keeping with the Irish theme which has dominated recent weeks, I thought it would be very fitting to feature the ultimate Irish music/dance phenomenon which was premiered at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin 17 years ago. Music by Bill Whelan, and fantastic dancing by Jean Butler and Michael Flatley.

What else but...Riverdance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWyhH5z92ps

(Oh and by the way, I haven't forgotten about the Dublin Diaries: they will be published on here at some point this week.)

Tomas Ledin - it's "Showtime"!

2011-09-26T18:18:00.007+01:00

On 22nd September, Tomas Ledin began his 55-night residency at Rondo in Liseberg, Gothenburg. The 1 hour 50 minute show mixes live performance of Tomas' hits from 1969 to the present day, clips from Tomas' lifestory, and anecdotes from the man himself. The Swedish press have been reviewing the show as follows:
Svenska Dagbladet - http://www.svd.se/kultur/scen/projektioner-ger-lyft-at-ledins-scenshow_6495948.svd#after-ad

Aftonbladet: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/musik/rockbjornen2011/article13669326.ab

Expressen: http://www.expressen.se/noje/musik/1.2569390/tomas-ledin-klar-i-sin-mogna-rock

Göteborgs-Posten - http://www.gp.se/kulturnoje/musik/1.730237-tomas-ledin-rondo here is the setlist which is also courtesy of Göteborgs-Posten.

Vi är på gång
500 dagar om året
Helt galen i dig
Medley 1969-1980 (Too many days, Då ska jag spela, Knivhuggarrock, Festen har börjat, Minns du Hollywood, Vi ska gömma oss i varandra, Never again, Just nu, m.fl)
Genom ett regnigt Europa
Atlantkustens kyliga smekning
En dag på stranden
Blå blå känslor
Äl u oäten
Sommaren är kort
Hon gör allt för att göra mig lycklig
Det ligger i luften
Du kan lita på mig
Encore:
En del av mitt hjärta
Sensuella Isabella
Knivhuggarrock
På vingar av stål
Snart tystnar musiken
I natt är jag din

(picture courtesy of Svenska Dagbladet http://www.svd.se/)

Swedish Charts Update

2011-09-25T23:30:00.004+01:00

It's been a while since the last one so what's been happening in the Sverige Topplistan charts?

In the album chart, Melissa Horn is at no.1 with her latest album "Innan Jag Kände Dig". Her style of intense acoustic/folk music doesn't really appeal to me, but she is very popular so it's no surprise that her album has outsold all others in its first week of release.

Then there is the ubiquitous Adele at no.2 with "21". Is there now anyone in the world (apart from me and faithful travelling companion) who does not own a copy of this album??? Swedish acts still have a healthy presence in the album charts though - Eric Saade, Benny Anderssons Orkester, Veronica Maggio, Ulrik Munther, September, Takida and The Ark, who played their final gig earlier this month at Gröna Lund in Stockholm.

What I love about European countries is that they have a much broader musical taste and sometimes very surprising names will crop up in the album charts. I was very surprised to see Nick Lowe entering at no. 9 with "The Old Magic" which I checked out some snippets of on iTunes. It's a collection of almost country-flavoured ballads which might appeal to a certain section of the record buying market I guess. Intelligent singer-songwriter fare by a man who is growing old very gracefully indeed.

Nils Landgren meanwhile is a jazz singer and trombonist whose latest album "The Moon, The Stars and You" is dedicated to the late great Esbjorn Svensson. Nils has been around for years but I hadn't heard of him till now. He is not just a talented trombonist but he also has a very lovely singing voice. The album includes some interesting covers of "Moonshadow", "Moon River" and "Till There Was You", and if you need some laid-back jazzy mood music then this could be the perfect album for you. www.nilslandgren.com

Just as I never really understood the success of "Om Sanningen Ska Fram" then in a similar vein “Vart Jag Mig I Världen Vänder" by Den Svenska Björnstammen also made it to no.1 in the Sverige Topplistan singles list. I prefer their next dancey anthem "Allting Kommer Bli Bra" - check it out at http://www.densvenskabjornstammen.se/ Their no.1 song was deposed by "Moves Like Jagger", but Oleg is not too far behind with "Elektropop" which sounds like a Melodifestivalen entry! One other notable Swedish act in the top 10 is Avicii with his original version of the song "Fade Into Darkness" which was of course sampled by Leona Lewis on her current hit "Collide". I have to say I prefer Avicii's song to Leona's, but they both share a good backing track :)

I've been out of the loop of Swedish music for most of the summer so am just catching up with some of it now. Kapten Röd is a new name to me, who has brought some welcome reggae sounds into the chart.

One song which has probably been around for ever is "Fest Hos Mange" by Mange Makers, which I still have a completely unhealthy obsession with. The off-key singing and the "Mange kom igen nu!" may probably be too much for some people, but I am not ashamed to say I still love it. Mange mange!

Newkid is another new name to me. He is a new entry further down the chart with "Jag Gråter Bara i Regnet" which reminded me a little of Daniel Adams-Ray/Oskar Linnros so if you're a fan of their recent stuff you might like this as well, even if it's a bit too much autotuned for my liking.

Over the past year or so there has been a welcome increase in Swedish-language pop/rock/rap/dance music. Long may it continue!

The skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave

2011-09-25T22:24:00.005+01:00

Whilst we were over in Dublin, I heard the news on the radio that R.E.M. had split up after 31 years together as a band. Their amicable split acknowledged that the band had reached the end of its natural life. 31 years is a long, long time for a band to stay together which says everything about Michael, Mike, Peter and Bill's enduring friendship as much as it does about their musical bond.

Here is their statement which announced the split:

To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening. R.E.M.
MIKE : 'During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, 'what next'? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.'
'We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this--there's no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We've made this decision together, amicably and with each other's best interests at heart. The time just feels right.'
MICHAEL: 'A wise man once said--"the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave." We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we're going to walk away from it.'
'I hope our fans realize this wasn't an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.
'We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It's been amazing.'

PETER: 'One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.
'Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it's only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19 year olds trying to change the world.'

I stumbled upon R.E.M. in 1984, when they appeared on a Radio 1 '"In Concert" and a TV appearance around the same time. "Pretty Persuasion" and "So. Central Rain" completely blew me away and they became my new favourite band, whilst I waited for new music from my other favourite band (New Order).

I bought "Murmur" and "Reckoning" which I still have on vinyl, although I'm surprised these albums had any grooves left as I pretty much wore them out at the time. Everything about this music appealed to me - the jangly guitars which recalled The Byrds, Michael Stipe's unique, passionate voice, and the songs which were a mix of the deliciously melodic and the totally obscure.

At that time, American rock was a pretty big deal, but R.E.M. still remained outside the mainstream. No big hit records, classed as "college rock" in the States and still unknown over here.

Then 1985 came along, and my two favourite bands released my two favourite albums of the year. New Order's "Low Life" and R.E.M.'s third album "Fables of the Reconstruction/Reconstruction of the Fables" were the most played on my turntable that year, and for a long time to come. It is well-documented that the band don't like this album, but I still love it.

By the time "Lifes Rich Pageant" came along, I was still a massive R.E.M. fan, although my inevitable reaction was of disappointment that it wasn't as good as the previous album. Then as the years went on, R.E.M. released a number of albums, some good, some great, some disappointing, some overrated. Draw your own conclusions on which is which.

I know I'm going to sound like one of those music buffs who go off a band when they get famous, but I just feel that R.E.M. made their best music between 1983 and 1985. Having said that, "Automatic for the People" did soundtrack a special time in my life so it will always be an important album for me.

The massive worldwide success the band enjoyed in the 1990s inevitably faded, leaving them to continue to uncompromisingly make the music they wanted to make, which took a more experimental turn in the last decade. My interest in R.E.M.'s music probably ended around the time of "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" and "Up", and a lot of people probably thought they had disappeared, but their loyal fanbase continued to appreciate the music. Inevitably, the release of their forthcoming greatest hits compilation 'Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982 – 2011' will put the band will be back in the album charts and remind everyone how great they were.
So in no particular order, I bring you my own personal list of R.E.M. favourites, which I limited to 15 songs although there are so many more which I like too. But please note the omission of those overplayed radio playlist staples "Everybody Hurts"/"Losing My Religion"/"Shiny Happy People" - the latter may have been one of their biggest hits but it is actually one of our least fave R.E.M. songs at EuropeCrazy HQ!

Talk About The Passion
Radio Free Europe
Perfect Circle
Pretty Persuasion
So. Central Rain
Can’t Get There From Here
Driver 8
Begin The Begin
These Days
Fall On Me
Sweetness Follows
Find The River
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Ignoreland
Man On The Moon

La Tasca - the party's over?

2011-09-25T20:31:00.005+01:00

Any posts about food and drink would usually be found over at Random Ramblings, but in this instance I felt that it would be more appropriate over here, as it fits in very nicely with this blog’s obsession with all things European.

Our 10 year love affair with La Tasca began in 2001, when we began visiting La Tasca in Glasgow. Coincidentally, that was also the year we visited Spain for the first time (Barcelona) so it was a good introduction to tapas, a type of food which we were previously unfamiliar with.

Although it was a chain restaurant, La Tasca had a unique personality and ‘buzz’ about it. Every trip to La Tasca was an assault on the senses, every space on the bright orange walls was filled with bullfight and flamenco posters, paintings of bulls, and all kinds of Spanish-related artefacts, coloured plates and ornaments; wrought-iron chandeliers, dark brown wood panelled walls with bright orange/yellow Spanish tiles, and dark wooden chairs and tables. Then there was the music - a non-stop party soundtrack of the Gipsy Kings’ greatest hits, as well as Ricky Martin, Alejandro Sanz, Juanes and the Spanish pop hits of the day. You’d also hear Brazilian or Cuban music too; it all just added to the atmosphere. A visit to La Tasca was a sun-soaked escape from a cold, rainy day, a little piece of Spain in the middle of the city.

Back in those early days we also had our favourite waiting staff....La Tasca was a ‘hot’ destination in more ways than one :)

But what about the food? OK so it may not have been "gourmet" but who needs that? You were always guaranteed some tasty tapas, and for an almost-veggie like myself there was a good choice of vegetarian options in addition to the red meat/chicken/seafood tapas on offer. A good selection of Spanish wines and beers were also available, and of course the all-important sangria to bring back the memories of a Spanish holiday. Maybe that’s why La Tasca was so popular in Glasgow and elsewhere - you could uniquely recapture the summer holiday feeling.

Maybe it was this need to recreate that holiday experience, or just the unique buzzing party atmosphere, but whatever it was kept the crowds coming back, time after time. We were proud to call ourselves "regulars" who visited over and over again. The prices increased over time which drove some customers away, but then the various deals were introduced and they came back. There were some changes over the years - a slight decluttering of the walls, a change of menu, the departure of our favourite waiters/waitresses....yet it was still ‘our’ La Tasca. You knew what you were getting every time you walked through those doors, yet familiarity never bred contempt. We even tried other branches, at the Silverburn Shopping Centre and also in Edinburgh. Those were also very good, and I have some particularly fond memories of the waiters too ;)

We hadn’t been to La Tasca recently so it was inevitably time for a return visit. But then on Friday I discovered this article which brought the dreaded news that the powers that be think La Tasca is a ‘tired’ brand and it’s time for a rebranding and makeover. Oh really? Well they say ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. La Tasca ain’t broke, not in our book. There was lots of life left in the old-style La Tasca, which has influenced many other tapas bars which have sprung up in recent years. We’ve tried some of them, they are good but they just didn’t have the magical atmosphere of La Tasca.

But now, out goes the old decor and in comes the dreaded ‘contemporary’ styling. In my book, ‘contemporary’ in restaurant terms equals bland and personality-free. We like the decor of restaurants to reflect the cuisine served there. If we’re in an Indian restaurant we want pictures of elephants and people in traditional Indian dress on the wall. If we’re in a Chinese restaurant, bring on the dragon murals. And if that sounds tacky, so what? Better than the dreaded ‘contemporary’, all laminated floors, cream walls and beech wood tables = blandsville. The article said that Glasgow was going to be one of its first group of restaurants to get the makeover.
One day after discovering the news of the makeover, we headed to La Tasca to grab one final tapas lunch before it became this unrecognisable place. But it was too late. The restaurant was closed to the public and was in the middle of the makeover. White chairs and tables and a giant mural of red chillies on the wall, workmen going in and out. It’s La Tasca, but not as we know it. Even the name has been changed to La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar & Kitchen...all very ‘contemporary’ indeed.

The main reason for visiting a restaurant is for good food of course, but the La Tasca experience was so much more than that. It was a Latin party and everyone was invited, but now it looks like the party’s over and La Tasca will never be the same again. We can only hope they’ve kept our favourite menu items, and haven’t swapped the likes of "Djobi Djoba" for contemporary restaurant snoozefest music, with Adele on repeat. We will give the new La Tasca a chance, and reserve our judgement until our next visit, but I fear the worst. (Anyone want to reassure me otherwise?)

In the meantime, remember them this way...here are some photos which I took between 2006 and 2010 in La Tasca in Glasgow.

Above: three of my favourites - champinones al ajillo, patatas bravas, patatas a la pobre.

Above: tapas by night, December 2010.

Above: Christmas lights, December 2010.

Above: Pisto manchego.

Above: the iconic patatas bravas.

Above: more champinones al ajillo.

Above: faithful travelling companion's bravas, montado de lomo and calamares andaluz.

Above: February 2006. Wine bottles recycled as candlesticks :)

Above: November 2008.

Dublin tomorrow :)))

2011-09-18T18:16:00.002+01:00

So we're off to Dublin for a short break tomorrow. This blog will be back next weekend.

Introducing...Bressie

2011-09-16T12:57:00.004+01:00

Whilst researching the Irish iTunes chart to get some inspiration with a view towards possible purchases during my forthcoming Dublin trip, I was initially disappointed as the curse of pop globalisation had struck again. Although I was cheered up by the fact that "Moves Like Jagger", one of my favourite pop songs of 2011, had been at no.1. There are very few Irish artists in the singles/albums chart, and the ones which are there didn’t inspire me (sorry Jedward). Anyway some further digging lower down the singles chart led me to a song called "Good Intentions" by Bressie, a name I hadn’t heard before. I had a listen and was immediately impressed. If you want a musical comparison, he reminded me of Erik Hassle. Yes, that good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZdQcmz5IKw&feature=relmfu

Further investigation revealed that Bressie, or Niall Breslin to give him his full name, was previously the lead singer of a very popular Irish band called The Blizzards. Musical comparison time: think Snow Patrol, only with much more uptempo/cheerier tunes and not a dreary-pop dirge in sight.

Bressie launched his solo career with "Can’t Stay Young (Forever)":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX59pwDWe90&feature=relmfu
　
He also moved to London to write and produce music for himself and other artists and is signed to Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment. I’m not sure if an international launch is on the cards, but I’m guessing it’s highly likely that his music will get a UK release at some point. If the trend will ever swing away from tiresome r’n’b- urban-pop-dance crossover and X Factor contestants towards quality pop music, then I would foolishly predict that Bressie could become a very big star.

Official website: www.bressiemusic.com

His debut album "Colourblind Stereo" will be released today, so voila! CD purchasing problem resolved!

Or if you're one of these modern people who likes this new-fangled downloading off iTunes thing, get it at http://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/colourblind-stereo-bonus-track/id463808142

Big holiday announcement time!!

2011-09-14T23:59:00.003+01:00

Drum roll......

We're going to Dublin next week for a few days' break!! Very excited! Needless to say, "The Dublin Diaries", with all the usual gratuitous food photography, will be published on this blog at some point :)

The Square-Eyed Couch Potato: August 2011

2011-09-12T18:01:00.013+01:00

Two weeks late, but it's here anyway...

BBC Four had a 'foreign pop' themed night, the centrepiece being "Anyone For Demis?" an entertaining enough documentary about foreign/foreign-language songs and artists who broke through into the British consciousness, although it maybe spent a bit too much time on the post-war years and had a very limited focus on the modern pop era. During the programme, someone made a comment that there are no big Europop hits breaking through anymore, "because there's no room for them". Which I found a bit sad really.

The documentary was followed by "Exotic Pop At The BBC" (BBC Four) which featured most of the music from the documentary - and our highlight was "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco!!

The critics may have branded it exploitative, yet I don't feel so guilty about enjoying "Seven Dwarves" (Channel 4) because (a) it lets the seven little actors appearing in Woking's panto speak for themselves; and (b) no-one made them do it. Each weekly programme focuses on a different member of the gang, all of whom have an interesting story to tell.

Back to BBC Four now, which had yet another theme night - this time focusing on one of the best singer-songwriters of the 1970s, Gilbert O'Sullivan, who has been overlooked when the history of pop has been written. In the documentary "Gilbert O'Sullivan - Out on His Own" you got the feeling that he felt a little cheated, that he should have had more success than he did. He still wants success, but seems quietly defiant that this should be on his own terms. The closing scenes of him playing to a packed house suggests that there's still a lot of love out there for his music.

Another legendary singer-songwriter who achieved massive 70s success, Gerry Rafferty, was fondly remembered in the documentary "Right Down The Line" (BBC Scotland). Gerry sadly passed away at the beginning of 2011. Despite enjoying massive success with the classic "Baker Street" (from the brillliant "City to City" album which I still love) Gerry found all aspects of fame uncomfortable, even performing live, and concentrated on being a creative musician right up till the end.

Unfortunately we are into "X Factor" season which is already dominating Saturday nights on ITV. We'll have to wait till the end of September/beginning of October till "Strictly Come Dancing" arrives on our screens. If I can be bothered, I'll do weekly write-ups of SCD then. But only if I can be bothered of course. (Last weekend there was a launch show, which introduced the usual mix of ex soap stars, chat show hosts, ex pop stars and sportsmen to their professional partners).

Anyway back to the entertainment drought which is Saturday nights on ITV. Recently however we broke our boycott to watch "A Night With Will Young" which was basically an hour-long commercial for his new album and a celebration of his (almost) 10 years since winning Pop Idol. Nothing wrong with that: we're not ashamed to say it, we're Will fans here at EuropeCrazy HQ, although he has come a long way since those early days and is probably the best solo artist from this country to come out of any of these talent shows. Although Chico will probably disagree ;)

I didn't see Forbrydelsen, the original Danish-language version of "The Killing" (Channel 4) so can't compare it to the US remake - however it's now being repeated on BBC Four and ends this week. Ive been recording it and will catch up eventually...Anyway back to the American version. Critics may not love it, but I've been well impressed and have consistently watched it week after week, although with two episodes to go I understand that all the unanswered questions won't be answered at the end of the season??? Loving Holder (Joel Kinnaman) though. He should get his own spin-off show.

It's not on TV at the moment in this country, but I thought I'd mention Season 1 of "Damages" from a few years back. I borrowed it from from faithful travelling companion and have been watching over recent weeks. As with "The Killing" it's one of those shows which piles on the red herrings, keeps the tension coming and always leaves you wanting more. It's also quite a demanding show thanks to the flashbacks/flash-forwards, which along with the double -crossing are a necessary part of what makes this show so special. I wonder if season 4 will ever be shown in the UK?

Retro Saturday: Wales Special!

2011-09-10T22:34:00.005+01:00

In the words of one of the 1980s most hideous hits by Charlene, "I've never been to me". Now what does that have to do with this week's Retro Saturday, I hear you ask. Well it's just a silly link to introduce this week's trip back through musical history. For I have never been to...Wales, (although if a certain person reading this has their way, that won't be the case for too much longer!!!) anyway this week's Retro Saturday is inspired by that conversation last week about Welsh music and how many bands/singers could you name, which immediately jogged my memory...

Of course no Welsh retrospective is complete without Tom Jones, who had his own musical revival at the end of the '90s with the "Reload" album which gave us "Burning Down The House" with the fab Cardigans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYuFIrSLD84 and who could forget his duet with Mousse T - Sex Bomb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkV65jUWYXk

Then there is the legend that is Green Gartside, the main man behind Scritti Politti, = the most beautiful man of the 1980s and underrated musical genius -
"Perfect Way" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs7Jy2y-33A
"Absolute" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHqHmnXnhE&feature=related
"Boom There She Was" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7qCaCcfjXg
(from the brilliant "Provision" album, which, along with the Pet Shop Boys, kept me sane through the college years :)))

Young Marble Giants
No video, but just wallow in the minimalistic....minimalism of it all, and the understated brilliance of Alison Statton.
"Wurlitzer Jukebox" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xob9tLR18s&feature=related
"Include Me Out" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvNhjWZTi_E&feature=related

The Manic Street Preachers are IMHO the best band ever to come out of Wales, and their long career will soon be commemorated with the release of an extensive best-of compilation.
"La Tristesse Durera" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJzwIFyZfck
"Revol" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf91dTrLkgA&ob=av2n
"A Design For Life" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfEoVxy7VDQ&ob=av2e

During that late 80s/early 90s period of classic dance music, one Welsh act made their name - K-Klass rose to fame with hits like "Rhythm is a Mystery" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIzU7_Iavk4

Welsh acts reached their peak during the Britpop era, a period of music which will always have fond memories for me. Catatonia had their finest hour with "Mulder and Scully" cashing in on X Files mania.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOdPSzVYt_o and then Cerys Matthews teamed up with the (non-Welsh) Space (another fab underrated combo from that time) to pay tribute to the one and only Tom Jones! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9zL9wlMvZE&ob=av2e

Super Furry Animals also enjoyed their finest moments during the glory days of Britpop, my favourites being "Play It Cool" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27jB6MvX4mQ and "Demons" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkosCOhDCYs

Goldie Lookin' Chain provided much hilarity with "Guns Don't Kill People Rappers Do" and went on to carve out a career as list-show talking heads and Celeb BB contestants - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ83KXUloP8&feature=fvsr "I seen it on a documentary on BBC2" lol :)))

Finally, one of the obvious answers to "name some Welsh singers" - Charlotte Church, who initially achieved fame as an opera star and then became more famous
She did however make a couple of decent tracks during her short-lived pop career - "Crazy Chick" -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csL5mu05Xy0 and my favourite, the underrated "Moodswings (To Come At Me Like That)" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPnmlfB6jqM

Retro Saturday: The Alarm

2011-09-03T23:43:00.003+01:00

You may (or probably may not) ask yourself what makes me choose the songs/singers for Retro Saturday. Sometimes it's just a song which pops into my head, other times it's a "do you remember that song/band?" conversation.

During a conversation with faithful travelling companion earlier today he mentioned The Alarm and I immediately said "that's one for Retro Saturday!"

"68 Guns" from 1983 was their biggest hit in the UK charts, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR20uChph7c&feature=fvsr but they came to my attention before that with "The Stand" which is probably my favourite song of theirs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMXSiL56QR4

And let's not forget "Rain in the Summertime": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D6pPgwafq0&ob=av2e and "Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIX3DLQiH7s&feature=related

By the way, that conversation this morning also gave me an idea for a Retro Saturday special - check back here same time next Saturday night :)

Retro Saturday: Cajsalisa Ejemyr

2011-09-03T23:34:00.005+01:00

I first heard "Alla Behöver Nån (Nångång)" by Cajsalisa Ejemyr a few years ago now, but it has stayed fresh and I never get bored with it. Here is a clip of her doing the song on TV4 back in 1999. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkYONqrplE8

Cajsalisa also competed in Melodifestivalen 1997 with Du Gör Mig Hel Igen which was written by the one and only Robyn! A bit of a nervous performance and maybe the song might have done better if Robyn herself had performed it? Or maybe not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1ZWqK5OR6M&feature=related

Retro Saturday: Anders Glenmark

2011-09-03T22:47:00.005+01:00

Almost 4 years ago to the day, I wrote an appreciative post about Gemini, the duo comprised of Swedish brother and sister Anders and Karin Glenmark, who enjoyed success in the 1980s:
http://europecrazy.blogspot.com/2007/08/remember-how-ive-loved-you-all-these.html

In that post I wrote "some day I'll do something on this blog about Anders, as he does indeed merit a blog post of his own." I never did get around to that post, so let's sort that. I've recently got into watching 80s Melodifestivalen clips which fill the gap nicely till 'on-season' starts again....anyway I recently came across "Det är mitt liv - det är jag" which he wrote and sang at Melodifestivalen 1981. The song placed 4th out of the 5 finalists that year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdHYF1I4acg Of course the Melodifestivalen of 30 years ago was a long long way from the MF of today, but I still miss the orchestra and the backing singers etc etc.....

The Anders Glenmark of 1981 didn't have the distinctive vocal style we associate with him - but that was in evidence by 1984 when he returned to MF, this time alongside his sister Karin, and chalked up yet another 4th place with "Kall Som Is". They look like a couple of bank clerks who dropped by the SVT studio on their lunch break, but hey, it's the 80s! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWABTlBqKZk

Ask anyone outside Sweden who Anders Glenmark is, and outwith the Swedish pop lovers/Melodifestivalen fans/Abba fan community it would be fair to say that most people will not have heard of him. But listen to the chorus of that massive 80s hit "One Night In Bangkok" by Murray Head - that's Anders Glenmark singing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDIZTmH6Qsw

Anders' biggest commercial success came in the late 80s and early 90s with hits like "Hon har blommor i sitt hår" and "Greyhound Bus" and even a further attempt at Melodifestivalen in 1989 with "Upp över mina öron" this time duetting with Orup. They came 2nd with what was in my opinion one of the best MF songs ever, and the duo went on to form a successful musical partnership along with Niklas Strömstedt, as Glenmark Eriksson Strömstedt (GES). The trio recorded the 1994 World Cup song for the Swedish football team. As World Cup anthems go, this is one of the best ever - maybe because it's not a boring old traditional football song, but it's a perfect musical snapshot of three Swedish musicians in their prime. Over the years Anders Glenmark had not just become an accomplished singer/songwriter but had also established a very specific production style which carried on through his own work and that of GES. I featured "När Vi Gräver Guld I USA" on the blog before, but it's always nice to revisit an old favourite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgeCt4bX878

I don't know what Anders is doing musically these days. The last we heard of him was 5 years ago, as co-writer (with Niklas Strömstedt) of Magnus Carlsson's Melodifestivalen entry, the distinctively Glenmark-styled "Lev Livet" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNOG6rpJtMQ I hope that one day, Anders Glenmark will come back and make music again.

Oskar Linnros changes direction...

2011-08-07T12:08:00.002+01:00

In an interview in Allt om Stockholm, http://www.alltomstockholm.se/start/article2544021.aos one of our favourite Swedish artists Oskar Linnros has revealed that he plans a change of direction in his music and he will no longer be playing the soul-pop style of music which has brought him so much success since 2010. Oskar will play a concert at Gröna Lund on 01.09.2011 and this will bring the first phase of his solo career to an end. Oskar said in the interview that he doesn't want to reveal what he will be doing next musically, and he doesn't know when he will release any new music although he is writing all the time - but that he will be changing direction away from soul-pop.

I'm looking forward to hearing what he does next, as he is an extremely talented artist, but I can't help feeling a little sad that he is ditching his current musical style, which is both credible and accessible. Although I'm sure that Oskar will not let us down!

The Square-Eyed Couch Potato: July 2011

2011-08-07T11:10:00.009+01:00

My July viewing was totally dominated by the Tour de France, which was totally fabulous this year from beginning to end, spoiled (IMHO) only by the eventual winner. However one thing we can all agree on is the brilliant coverage of the race by ITV4. Their established team of Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen, Chris Boardman, Ned Boulting and Gary Imlach is knowledgeable and authoritative, whilst always making the race as accessible as possible to the viewing public. The only gripe I have is Phil's Cadel Evans obsession, but again that's just me I guess. It's a very rare occasion where I have a reason to praise ITV but I will say well done ITV4! And thank you for another month of superb broadcasts and also the daily iTunes podcasts too!

Firstly, it’s not big or clever, but we’re still enjoying "ODD ONE IN" (ITV1, Saturdays) which is perfect viewing for these summer Saturday nights with its (increasingly bonkers) identity parades!

I always enjoy music documentaries, especially as there is so little music on TV now. "SECRETS OF THE POP SONG" (BBC2, Saturdays) was a short series taking a look at how three types of songs are written - the ballad, the breakthrough hit and the anthem - and provided a very interesting insight into the songwriting process with hit songwriter Guy Chambers collaborating with three different artists. Unfortunately I don’t remember the breakthrough hit or the anthem, but the Rufus Wainwright ballad collaboration "World War III" with its "don’t bore us, get to the chorus" hookline (that line always makes me think of Roxette) is still stuck in my brain. And I don’t even like ballads, but that’s the power of Rufus!

We’re still catching up with a recorded backlog of episodes of "THE RESTAURANT INSPECTOR" (Channel 5, Mondays) which is just like The Hotel Inspector only with a bloke, and with restaurants instead of hotels. Yes, the formula on all these shows has gone stale with little new to offer, but we continue to lap it up.

It’s like a more refined, British equivalent of "RAMSAY’S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES USA" which is into its umpteenth series and continues to follow the same format: restaurant in trouble, Gordon Ramsay shouts a lot, people cry, Gordon Ramsay shouts a lot, restaurant gets a makeover, success/failure/success, people cry again (with happiness this time) and chef Ramsay rides off into the sunset having helped yet another struggling restaurant back to life. Voila!

"CORONATION STREET" (ITV) is going through a bad patch, I think we’ll all agree. Even those of us who have watched the show since the year dot are now seriously considering reaching for the off button, with one sensationalist storyline after the other. Not so long ago, former EastEnders actress Michelle Collins, who played Cindy Beale for many years, was brought into Corrie as new Rovers manager Stella. The press was full of controversy about a southerner playing a northerner, and the criticism regarding her accent soon spun out of control, to the point that she is now unfairly being made a scapegoat for the show's decline. It's not her fault, but the fault of the producer and script/storyline team who have taken the show further and further away from what we used to know and love, and which has lost so much of its trademark humour and likeable characters. The decline of Corrie was brought into focus even more by "THE CORRIE YEARS" (ITV, Wednesdays) a clip show which took a look back at the most headline-grabbing and influential stories over the years. Or it should have been called "The Barlow Years" as it seemed to focus on the adventures of Ken and Deirdre and their offspring. What was controversial and unique back then, now seems to be a weekly occurrence and the show is all the worse for it. Please bring back the humour and ditch the disasters and serial killers - thank you!

Food is, of course, the subject of "THE GOOD COOK" (BBC1, Fridays) which I inevitably forget to watch every week and have to watch on BBC iPlayer instead. Anyway, it does what it says on the tin (makes me think of Jim from The Apprentice) and delivers some nice recipes, beautifully filmed with a very nice musical soundtrack.

Being on this little blog-break meant that I hadn’t written about the outcome of the latest series of "THE APPRENTICE" (BBC1, Wednesdays) so I’d better mention it now....geeky inventor and all-round nice guy Tom Pellereau upset the odds and walked away with Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment, when everyone expected hot favourite Helen Milligan to win. Maybe if the show had stuck to the old format, Helen would have run away with it, but she was let down by her business idea and stood no chance against an already established inventor, which was just perfect for Lord Sugar. Anyway well done Tom! Proof that the nice guys don’t always finish last.

"THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD" (BBC2, Mondays) was a landmark documentary series, which was informative and respectfully presented by Rageh Omaar, with knowledgeable input from various Islamic scholars which I found very enlightening, as I knew nothing about the origin of Islam nor the Prophet himself. It was an informative change from the usual coverage of the Islamic world which we usually see on TV, and was also beautifully filmed too.

Season 8 of "ONE TREE HILL" (E4, Mondays) continues, and I’m still of the view that its best days are behind it. Too much time spent on Quinn and Clay, not enough of the original cast and I’m also missing some of the older characters/parents too. Even evil Dan....

Teatimes are just not the same anymore, if you live in Scotland. For the last couple of years, "THE HOUR" has been required telly viewing in the ‘captive audience’ 5-6pm slot. Usually for all the wrong reasons of course, and the daily "what is she wearing??" analysis of presenter Michelle McManus' fashion sense has become a sport of almost Olympic proportions in this part of the world. Yes if you ever wondered what has happened to the former Pop Idol 2 winner, she has become a TV presenter. Anyway the decision was made to end the show in its Monday-to-Friday format. It was great fun to knock The Hour, and I never thought I'd say this, but I'm missing STV’s attempt at the daytime TV format with chat, food and drink, fashion, filmed items and the occasional acoustic number from a musical guest. But wait...The Hour will be resurrected in the autumn in a once-weekly prime time slot. And guess what? Michelle McManus will still be the presenter, so we will once again be able to sit in judgement of all those fashion faux pas :) Hope you get a better stylist this time round Michelle - you deserve it!!

Still on the subject of local TV, BBC4 took the opportunity to take a look back at the golden days of "REGIONAL TV - LIFE THROUGH A LOCAL LENS" when the TV regions got the opportunity to make their own low-budget but occasionally legendary programming.

Finally season 5 of "DEXTER" (FX, Fridays) continues....however I’m not 100% impressed with the emphasis on the Lumen character this time, maybe that’s to do with the fact I’m not really keen on Julia Stiles and might have preferred another actress in the role.

All of the above pictures come from various internet media sources too numerous to mention. If you wish any of these pictures to be removed please contact me and I will do so.

Review: "Midnight Tango" - King's Theatre, Glasgow 30th July 2011

2011-08-07T11:01:00.004+01:00

It was a sizzling Saturday afternoon in Glasgow. Outside, the temperature continued to rise (yes, believe it or not, we’d had a couple of weeks of very warm weather!) And inside the King’s Theatre we could have done with some air conditioning as the heat became a bit unbearable at times. Then, before the show even started, we were all evacuated after a fire alert! Happily, all was well and we were allowed back into the theatre, with the show’s start time only delayed by 10 minutes.

And it was about to get hotter when Midnight Tango took to the stage!

A few years ago you couldn’t have imagined a tango show selling out theatres all over the country. But now, when you have the pulling power of Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, the Argentine Tango champions who have wowed us over the years on Strictly Come Dancing, then we shouldn’t be surprised. It was clear that most of the (mainly middle-aged) audience were here to see Vincent and Flavia, but were appreciative of all the performers involved and there was a standing ovation at the end.

Midnight Tango is set in a bar in downtown Buenos Aires, where the natives come to drink and live the passion of the tango, to the sounds of the tango band. In this case, Tango Siempre and singer Gullermo Rozenthuler, a very talented collective. I loved the way they were part of the show, rather than being hidden away beneath the stage. Their presence on stage added to the authenticity of the show. The musical soundtrack is indeed very authentic, with some classic old tango favourites mixed with new material.

The supporting dancers are all Argentine tango specialists, even if they don’t quite have the same speed or sparkle as the two stars. But they certainly create a very busy environment on stage and you even miss some of the dancing as there is so much going on!

There is also a sub-plot involving the bar owners, played by Teddy Kempner and Tricia Deighton. At the beginning, the romance has clearly gone out of their relationship - but it is re-ignited through the power of tango and they get their chance to shine with their own tango number. They were very popular with the audience too, as they provided some comedy moments away from the drama of the tango.

The main plot is basically boy meets girl, they fall in love, along comes the bad guy and then there’s a TANGO FIGHT!! Anyway boy tries to win back girl from the bad guy and you can guess the rest.

It’s Vincent and Flavia’s show of course - they get the best costumes for example - and when they dance together they convey all the passion of the Argentine tango whilst also connecting with the audience. And no offence Vincent, but the absolute star of the show is Flavia. She is an amazing dancer with terrific technical ability, and she looks amazing too. And I won’t spoil it for those who have still to see Midnight Tango, but she also reveals another very surprising talent later in the show!

Midnight Tango is a high-quality product with incredible dancing from beginning to end - which you’d expect when one of the producers is none other than Arlene Phillips - and with a few tweaks and some development, it could potentially develop into a theatrical phenomenon which could do for Argentine tango what Riverdance did for Irish dancing. However it wouldn’t work in massive arenas as the intimacy of the show requires a smaller stage, and the King’s Theatre was a perfect venue. Even if it was too hot!
　
Midnight Tango has been on a nationwide tour which ended with the Glasgow evening performance on 30th July. The next stop will be London’s West End where the show will be based from January to March 2012, before embarking on yet another nationwide tour. And the good news is that there’s going to be a DVD of the show released on 14th November
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Midnight-Tango-DVD-Vincent-Simone/dp/B005C43G2I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1312710726&sr=8-1 so that’s one for the Christmas list this year!

(the above picture is courtesy of www.midnighttango.co.uk)

Retro Saturday: Cock Robin

2011-08-06T23:13:00.005+01:00

Either my search facility is not working properly, or I can't believe I haven't featured this 80s pop classic on the blog before now.

1986 was a very strange year for me, which began with a back injury which developed into a debilitating disease and I couldn't do very much apart from listen to music...happily I recovered by May/June though.

One of the songs which I always remember from those 'sick times' was "The Promise You Made" by Cock Robin. It became a massive European hit and also made an impact on the British charts. Even now, 25 years on, it still sounds pretty fabulous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pk3A_QSINI&ob=av2e

Lead singer Peter Kingsbery went on to have a big hit in France with "Only The Very Best" from the Starmania soundtrack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bf96l01sds

Retro Saturday: Flesh

2011-08-06T23:07:00.002+01:00

Another 80s rarity which continues to haunt me...a soulful delight by Flesh, entitled "You Can't Help (Sentimental Sunday)" which at the time screamed hit record, but like so many other great pop songs....it wasn't. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1EFGyWfUYY

Retro Saturday: The Motors

2011-08-06T23:02:00.002+01:00

So many destinations, faces going to so many places where the weather is much better....a very topical tune for holiday season I think you will agree!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_oBTUZYJg&feature=related

Zelmerholt is over :(

2011-08-04T21:14:00.003+01:00

I just had to interrupt my blogging break with some sad news from Swedish celeb-land today.

Our favourite Swedish pop couple (apart from Vincent and Agnes of course) - Måns Zelmerlöw and Marie Serneholt - have split up. According to Expressen http://www.expressen.se/noje/extra/1.2516718/mans-och-marie-har-gjort-slut and Aftonbladet http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/klick/article13411990.ab the couple's split is amicable and they will remain friends.

Above: M & M in happier times (picture courtesy of www.posh24.se)

Whilst we're on the subject of Måns, the cynic in me felt that it would only be a matter of time before the Swedish tabloids started their usual carry-on about Allsång, and inevitably, that time has arrived. Viewing figures are dropping, which is usually expected during the hot summer nights, when people have better things to do than watch TV, and then they rise again. But it's not happening this time, and SVT are trying to find a reason...http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/article13417224.ab

Summertime: a round-up and a temporary farewell

2011-07-18T21:09:00.009+01:00

Firstly an apology.

My plan for 2011 was to take EuropeCrazy right back to its early days, to publish more regular updates etc (especially as Planet Salem has been on a break). I hate breaking promises, but unfortunately I've had to break this one. Due to other commitments, time restrictions, personal circumstances, health problems etc etc, this hasn't been possible.

I need a bit of time out now, so I'm putting this blog on hold for a while. Hoping to be back at the end of September (following my summer holiday). Don't worry, EuropeCrazy is not closing down - I love doing this blog too much! But at the moment I'm just not able to put the hours in to make this blog what it should be.

A couple of things to mention before we go....

The Swedish TV summer extravaganzas are in full swing. And here's my verdict.

1) I'm loving Måns on Allsång, he's great! He is an absolute natural in the presenting role - and has managed to do the impossible and shut up the Swedish press from their usual critical coverage which we expect every summer. Well done Måns!! Great to see him singing on the show too. It helped that this summer's series started on a high, with Danny and September among the guests. It was also very interesting last week to see Veronica Maggio - Swedish music's woman of the moment - make a triumphant return to the show. I remember seeing her on the show back in 2008, and thinking how uncomfortable she looked! Things have changed so much....Allsång is now the show to appear on, and the hottest acts are queuing up.

2) Best thing about Lotta på Liseberg this year? Swingfly, Christoffer Hiding and Pauline. Fab, fab, fab.

3) Let's not forget about Sommarkrysset: Jedward-mania and Christer Sjogren singing "Bad Romance"!

Tour de France: two weeks down, one to go

Crashes, drama, Thor Hushovd in yellow, Wiggins injured, Contador below par, Cavendish winning stages, more crashes, motorbikes running riders over, cars running riders over, more crashes, more injuries, Thomas Voeckler in yellow, Mark Cavendish in green, Team Schleck in waiting.....

Loving every moment of it. The best thing about summer.

OK I'm outta here....have a fun summer everyone and I'll see you all back here in a few weeks.

Laura xx

Retro Saturday: EuropeCrazy's Sounds of Summer!

2011-07-16T22:29:00.005+01:00

OK let's try this one :)

I previously mentioned a few of these songs in my Holiday Hit Lists on here but as it's summer, I thought it might be worth revisiting a few of them.

Amsterdam 2002: K-Otic: Falling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkSo4YnCwHU
A video which caught my eye thanks to very regular play on the Dutch music TV channels during our summer 2002 trip to Amsterdam. K-Otic were one of the first manufactured 'TV bands' from that Popstars-era, and much loved by the great Acer Ben who was one of my biggest blogging influences. Come back Ben, we miss you!

Biarritz 2002: "En Apesanteur" - Calogero
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO1LqqP9w3I
Extremely saucy video clip! All I will say is, do not get into an elevator with this man, you never know where it will lead..... ;)))

Biarritz 2002: "Come Back To Me" - Cunnie Williams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiB4dupT2Io
I'd forgotten just how much I love this! A totally fabulous tune which (if you're old enough to remember) totally recalls Barry White's 70's soul hits. And if you're not old enough to remember....well just enjoy it for what it is - a great soul/pop song.

Prague 2005: "On My Head" - Dan Barta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NByQ2bWgLbM
OK so this isn't a summer holiday song, it's a spring holiday song but I can bend the rules can't I!! This is a nice pop/rock song which got serious amounts of radio airplay at the time. And from what I can guess it's from a film about snowboarding. Now that's not very summery, is it???

Nice 2005: "Love Generation" - Bob Sinclar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0NSeysrDYw
At that time this song was best known as the new theme to Star Academy 5; I became obsessed with it and much later it was eventually played to the point of irritation, when I didn't want to hear it anymore. Yet it remains a fresh, feelgood, summery dance anthem, free of any of the dire ingredients which make today's dance music so formulaic and tedious.

Cologne 2006; "Klar" - Jan Delay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjoZnHyQpso
Long before he reached Eurovision interval-act notoriety, I was watching this on German music channels during my holiday in Berlin and bopping around the hotel room to this extremely funky tune.

Nice 2008: "Comme Avant" - Sheryfa Luna & Mathieu Edward
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKUdRzcxFeo&feature=fvsr
Two products of the French reality-TV-pop system - from Popstars and Star Academy respectively - duetting on a very fine r'n'b pop song which has stood the test of time.