#33 Tamta, "Agapise Me"

Ya poso kairo ya poso kairo
tha anteho na mi s'eho
ya poso kairo ya poso kairo
tha matono ego mono
ya poso kairo...

If this list was for the best songs of the year and not just my favorites, "Agapise Me" (as well as Jenni Vartianen's "Ihmisten edessä") would be crashing into the charts very near the top. I still love it, though, and every time I listen to it I get completely transfixed. It's got such an attention-grabbing opening, and not in a big kind of way; there's just this mysteriousness to the song, especially in its electro backing, that I find addictive. Class through and through, "Agapise Me" (meaning "Love me") is an achievement of a song, but not in a stuck-up way at all; the fact that it's very dance-friendly surely helps with that as well. It's a heck of a calling card for Tamta and marks her out as an artist I'll without doubt be paying attention to in the future.

Find it on: Agapise Me

Speaking of Tamta, also of note (even if more for the concept than necessarily the result) is the below (slightly risqué) performance, a blend of Mika's "Relax (Take It Easy)" and her "Agapise Me" which also, at the costume change, reveals that her giant curly hair is (at least sometimes) a wig (and also has kind of a bizarre backing).

είσαι ότι έχω ονειρευτεί

With apologies to PopSound, which I know has featured this song before, I'm writing about Georgian/Greek (Georgian in birth and upbringing, and Greek in where she's chosen to focus her music and career and where she's lived since she was 22, which would mean she's been there for about five years or so) singer Tamta. A runner-up on Greece's version of Pop Idol, she was also one of the candidates to represent Greece in Eurovision 2007; she took third out of three, losing out to Sarbel and "Yassou Maria," who took first, and Christos Dantis and "No Madonna" ("you had the chance, you had the honor, but baby, you're no Madonna"--apparently leaving girls because they can't compare to Madonna is big this year), who took second, and I'm not complaining about that result at all--I quite liked those two songs. Still, her lead single for her second album (if we exclude the national final song "With Love")--far from new at this point, and recommended earlier this year (thanks!)--has me toying with buying her second album, just to see if there's anything else as good as this on it.

Agapise Me--which would be "Love Me," maybe? "Agapise Me" is fantastic--it's got a light electro/electronic backing that, along with its mysterious opening, instantly hooks you in, but it's subtle as well, sophisticated--maybe anything with a hint of mystery in the music automatically wins the description of "sophisticated" (though it's possible few in Greece itself would see her or her music in that way), and that certainly helps, but any classiness certainly doesn't prevent this from being an accessible and catchy pop song. It's a very refreshing sort of song, one that it's easy to just let wash over you, and I mean that in a good way. By the way, though it's in Greek, it doesn't sound "overly Greek," if that makes sense--not that it sounds un-Greek, but it can appeal to those who don't see themselves as fans of Greek music, I think.

To buy Tamta's second album Agapise Me, go here (physical) or here (digital).

Next up: maybe an Australian singer or American group.