Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Who's gonna fill the space in my place

I know that anyone who follows Swedish music will probably know this band and this song, but it's too fun to not post for anyone who might not have heard of it or them before. Swedish band Barbados (they're a "dansband," which translates to "dance band" but just reflects the kind of music they do). They've been releasing music since the early 1990's, and have had two lead singers who've gone on to solo careers: Magnus Carlsson (who went on to join Alcazar) and Mathias Holgrem (who had been a contestant on Fame Factory). They've also entered Melodifestivalen, Sweden's contest to determine their Eurovision representative, multiple times, though they've never won.

Bye Bye--this song was Barbados's Melodifestivalen entry in 2003, the year Fame won with "Give Me Your Love" (and also the year Alcazar entered with "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint"). It's also from Mathias Holgrem's time as lead singer. I'm pretty sure "Bye Bye" must be the happiest-sounding breakup song ever; it's got a bouncy, singalong chorus that you might just have stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Actually, the whole song might be stuck in your head the whole day. Incredibly poppy (and with a UFO analogy that I still don't understand), "Bye Bye" leaves a big impression on you, even if it doesn't have a huge crescendo like some Melodifestivalen songs. I don't think that we can call Barbados a boy band, but any boy band would be thrilled to have recorded a song like this.

To buy Barbados's album Hela Himlen, go here (physical) or here (digital).

Next up: maybe a remix of a song by a Swedish singer.

2 comments:

Paul said...

and don't they look totally boyband? how did i not know about these boys? I am getting more obsessed with magnus by the day. Surely i will be posting on him soon???

Poster Girl said...

Magnus has done some great songs! As have Barbados, with and without him (though I'll admit my familiarity with Barbados only comes through their greatest hits--they have so many albums that I wouldn't even know where to begin!). There are so many opportunities to write about him, but I have to keep holding back so that every third post isn't about him :) Maybe reading about him if you write about him will allow me to live vicariously!