Selfish, I know, but it keeps me alive

Continuing the epic saga of Annie and Anthonio, Anthonio (apparently here given voice by Sebastian of Heartbreak) has just uploaded the audio of "Annie" to YouTube.



"Annie," which actually works pretty well as a song in its own right, is getting a release, backed with the b-side "Angel Face," featuring Annie. Most importantly, though, Annie's single "Anthonio" comes out May 4 (though you'll want to wait on ordering the single if you play on trying to buy one of the super-limited ones that look like the package Popjustice received).

If you missed it earlier, I recapped the drama here, though I neglected to mention the MySpace messages left to Richard X's label Pleasure Masters.

Do you even feel a thing?

Most viral marketing campaigns are pretty lame (even more lame than using that word to describe them). The one tied in with Annie's upcoming single "Anthonio," though, is about as awesome as it is possible for something to be. In case you're just tuning in, here's the story up to now.

Stage One: Annie announces the release of a single called "Anthonio." It turns out to be about a summer love affair who loved her and left her--left her pregnant, in fact.

Stage Two: in response to e-mail inquiries in February about the song (before it had been heard), producer Richard X mentions that the song's release was hindered by efforts by Anthonio, the subject of the song, to prevent it from coming out.



Stage Three: "Anthonio" (the guy) has a MySpace and YouTube account on which he interacts with Annie, complaining about the song's release and befriending a number of other hot Norwegian blondes.



Annie leaves a comment on a photo of Anthonio telling him how good he looks but asking who the blonde he's with is...



...having previously left messages trying to get in touch with him.



Fellow blonde Nordic popstar Sally Shapiro leaves a message on Anthonio's MySpace expressing support for Annie...



...and a message on Annie's saying she's willing to babysit if Annie ever does a gig in Sweden.



Anthonio leaves a comment on Sally's MySpace telling her she's crazy but if she's ever in Brazil to come look him up...



...while Annie thanks Sally for her support.



Meanwhile, Anthonio leaves a message on the official YouTube video of the single "Anthonio" complaining about the song.



Stage Four: Popjustice receives the promotional CD for "Anthonio," which comes packaged as a letter from Norway sent to Brazil but returned to sender (as in the lyrics of "Anthonio").



Stage Five: "Anthonio" (the guy) sends an answer-back song to Popjustice titled "Annie."



What will happen next? We can't be sure of the details, but it's sure to keep proving how brilliant a popstar Annie is. As I said over at XO's, while it's true that this Annie vs. Anthonio drama is mainly amusing twenty people on the Internet, it's doing a really good job at amusing those twenty people...and I'm loving it. If Annie has the resources to not truly worry about how she'll chart in the UK and this campaign isn't really intended to make the single massive--mainly to appeal to the Internet world and pop geeks (which I gladly count myself among)--then I'm absolutely fine with it.

"Anthonio" is released May 4 and should be available digitally internationally (as well as available in a physical version).

Did you even know my name? Did you ever really care?

There is only one thing I've been trying to say
It may come as a surprise:
My baby has your eyes

Annie's new Italo-disco cosmic pop single "Anthonio" is out May 4 and will be available digitally internationally.

(With thanks to Aces.)

Turning fighters into lovers

(Elements of this post have been sitting as a draft for quite some time, so not all of these links are to incredibly recent posts; that just means that they've stood the test of time, though.)

A few songs I was introduced by blogworld that I think are worth your time:

Poptastic posted "Watch This Space," a song from (the Paul-promoted British High-School-Musical-as-TV-series) Britannia High (watch the scene from the show below). It's a great pure pop song with a dance beat underneath the chorus.



PopJustice featured a clip of a song from Alesha's new album, "Let's Get Excited." It's more up-tempo than most of the sampler. Have I said on here that "Colours Of The Rainbow," the track her website is giving away, is enjoyable, too? It is.

#1 Hits From Another Planet wrote about Norwegian project Karatkorn's "The Distance In A Romance," which is lush dance/electro-pop--absolutely gorgeous. Kind of Kylie-esque, but that beautiful spacey side of Kylie, not the full-on disco rush, though it's not a slow song.

MuuMuse introduced me to the latest music from Blake Lewis--he features on a Darude cover of "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. Take it for what it is, an opportunity to hear Blake's vocals on something--don't go in expecting something like his debut album.

Fizzy Pop raved about the debut single from British duo Same Difference (and put it in proper pop history context), and with good reason--"We R One" is pure "pure pop" heaven, key change and all. A must-listen, definitely.

Don't Stop The Pop introduced me to Swedish singer Neo, whose song "Flower Power Supergirl"--poppy, uptempo, camp, catchy (not enough men making music like this)--is one I'm eagerly looking forward to being able to buy--album out this week! The same post also included a mention of Rosanna and her excellent song "Gameboy," with a promise to write more about it in the future.

On the non-introducing songs but still excellent front...

Adem wrote a fantastic review of Girls Aloud's "Out Of Control." I'll probably never get around to properly writing up my thoughts on even one of the songs off of it, but "The Loving Kind" and "Miss You Bow Wow" are my favorites at the moment.

Fabtastic Music made me wish Charlotte Perrelli would get to do a tour like a big US or UK act would.

Olga Loves Yuri took us on a tour of Norway with Annie.

XO's Middle Eight gives us more information about Take That's upcoming album, one which I'm very excited for (and I still love the video, cheese and all).

I adore D'luv's personal post about Pet Shop Boys.

Pop Music Notes is such a welcome part of the pop blog scene--you'll read about artists there that aren't really being covered elsewhere (as well as some who are). John's also being making me really jealous by writing about all the concerts he's been to recently.

Gosh, you start on this and you just keep thinking of a million things you want to link to...best to continue later, though, or else no one will bother with any of this.

Every time you leave me wanting more

Things I'm enjoying at the moment:

Annie's "Bad Times." I've been waiting with anticipation for this album just for this song alone. Well, that's not quite right--I've been hoping there would be other great songs too, but it's never a sure thing with me and Annie: sometimes that voice of hers--yes, I know it's beyond cliché to mention this now, but it's still true--is just too slight for me. Luckily, "Bad Times" is a song where that either doesn't matter or her voice works; right now I'd lean towards the latter. "Divine" is the word I used for the preview, and it's the word I'd use now--my favorite song ever from her, I think. Luscious.

Seal's "The Right Life." Not exactly a new development, since the non-US/UK radioplay of this song had alerted me to how much I enjoyed it months ago, but "The Right Life" has been receiving significant play from me recently. I've been waking up early recently, and there's something about wandering down to the basement kitchen, with almost all the lights in the halls and rooms off, that suits this song perfectly, if you're in that kind of pretend-pensive mood. Now, if only I had a lake to look out over.

P!nk's "So What." P!nk's just on a roll with these past few singles, isn't she? And actually, when I tried to describe "So What" to someone, I ended up using both "Who Knew" and "U + Ur Hand" as reference points--some of the attitude and music of "U + Ur Hand" but with a chorus that, in sound and structure and soul, reminded me more of "Who Knew"--because, despite all her best attempts at schoolyard taunting, it's a song that's obviously not purely triumphant, not really fine after this breakup. True fact: "Who Knew" is the song in the world that probably draws the strongest emotional reaction from me, so I'm glad to see P!nk using her voice and her musical style for something with both more musical and emotional substance than "Stupid Girls." Perfect combo.

Eric Prydz, "Pjanoo." Catchy instrumental dance.

The chorus of Lady GaGa's "Poker Face." Love "Just Dance" (with the exception of one section), album's not thrilling. Actually, the song works pretty well overall, but it's the chorus that really sells it.

Sonny Jim's "Can't Stop Movin'." Yes, I've had this for ages, but lovely summer weather has brought about another round of intense playing of it.

Actually hearing September's "Cry For You" on real, non-dance U.S. radio! Love. I think I've screamed louder each time I've heard it.

Actually hearing Van She in the United States--multiple times! Admittedly while out shopping and not on the radio, but hey, I'll take it. Need to buy that album...

David Archuleta's "Crush." So totally getting its own post at some point, but will it surprise anyone that I love it?

CC Martini, "Double Dutch." Not new. Still adore it, thanks to Mike.

Cyndi Lauper, "Into The Nightlife." Also not new (nor is my love for it), but I'm still loving this.

Keri Hilson, "Energy." Another not new song that I've long loved but have never, I think, mentioned on here. It keeps getting compared to "No Air"--for my money, it's better.

The Saturdays, "Up!" Girl group pop. Not yet in the brilliant category or anything, but I like it. When can we finally get Red Blooded Women's "Colour Me Dirty"?

Bananarama, "Your Love Is Like A Drug." Also not new, but that doesn't make it any less fantastic. May also inspire its own post.

Things that aren't necessarily in the full-on "love" zone yet but are maybe worth a mention:

John Legend's "Green Light." I don't know that this is a song that'll ever get much play from me itself, but boy, does it feel like it would suit its purpose--and I like in that context.

Andermay's "Uh Oh Oh Oh" (in English or Spanish). Cute! Not as good as "Entre tú y yo," but then, not much in the world is.

Agnes's "On And On." I'm kind of surprised I don't feel compelled to put this in that first category, but I'm not entirely sold on the title line in the song itself musically. Could possibly be a big favorite in time, and it's a great direction for a singer I'm glad to have back. Speaking of Idol contestants and their new direction, Anna Abreu of my much-loved "Ivory Tower" and "End Of Love" is back with the pop-dance song "Vinegar." I admire the ambition and enjoy the song (I think), but it's not quite "international-quality" for me yet.

Things I'm not enjoying:

The latest McFly album. It's not that it's awful--it's just that I've not listened to it in full yet. What a change from the days of yore, eh? They've just failed to capture my attention with the music so far.

Things I know of but am not commenting on/can't common on:

South Africa's most recent Idol winner Jody Williams just released her debut album. I'm most interested in the seeming "Don't Stop The Music"-inspired "Wind It" from the clips.

Magnus Carlsson released a cover of "I Was Born This Way."

David Tavaré finally released his debut album. More on this later (though that doesn't mean you all need to listen to it).

I don't know if this is what it seems

Well, I never would have seen this coming...

The composers and song titles for the Norwegian national final, the Melodi Grand Prix, were announced today. All of the composers are Norwegian, and I have to admit I'm not all that up on my Norwegian songwriters, but a few names jumped out at me.

The one I'm kind of most surprised at? Fred Ball and Hannah Robinson have a song called "Baby, Don't Stop The Music." You might have heard of Fred Ball through his Pleasure project--the song "Out Of Love" got some blog buzz for a while. He's also worked with Bertine Zetlitz. Hannah Robinson has done stuff with Rachel Stevens ("Some Girls"!), Annie ("Chewing Gum"!), and Sophie Ellis-Bextor ("Me And My Imagination"!), among others; for the sake of my continued attempts to promote Lorie's new album 2Lor En Moi?, it's also worth mentioning that she (along with Richard X and a bunch of others) co-wrote the fantastic "Le Bonheur À Tout Prix !" (though interestingly, she and Richard X [as well as Thierry Sforza] are only credited as "auteur," not "compositeur"--that's Paul Harris and Ian Masterson--which is the opposite of what I would have expected; I kind of think that can't be right...I must be misunderstanding it or something). "Baby, Don't Stop The Music" will definitely be a song to look out for, even if you don't usually pay any attention to the whole Eurovision thing.

Other names I recognize? Anne Hvidsten has written a song ("A Little More") for the contest--she released a solo album some years ago and has written songs outside of that, too. The songs I know her from are pretty much ballads, but she has a great way with ballads.

Paul should be pleased to see that Christian Ingebrigtsen has co-written a song for the MGP; it's called "Eastern Wind" and was written with Eivind Rølles.

I've heard of Mira Craig, but never gone out of my way to listen to her. Anyway, she's got a song called "Hold On, Be Strong" in it; she's definitely got her own very...distinct style.

At least two guys from 70's/'80's-sounding rock band Wig Wam have songs in the competition; guitarist Trond Holter has a song in it called "Get Up" (he wrote last year's "Wannabe," performed by Crash) and singer Åge Sten Nilsen has a song called "Would You Spend The Night With Me."

Moving beyond songwriters, it looks like Lene Alexandra must really be in the MGP--really, "Sillycone Valley," which I remember reading about (can't remember whether it was rumor or confirmed at the time), can't be for anyone else. There's been some talk about who's performing what, but there's been no big announcement of all the performers as of yet.