I've been through hell, got up when I fell

Much as I love Sweden and watch American Idol pretty faithfully, if I had to choose which country has the best songs connected directly to Idol, I think I'd go with Norway. I'm not referring here to post-Idol output, but the songs actually on Idol itself--the winner's song and, in Norway's case, the group song its finalists do. Aleksander Denstad With's "A Little Too Perfect" was one of the first songs I posted on this blog and it's still probably my favorite Idol winner song of all time, I think. I've also shared 2005's group song, "Dreaming," and I think I'll be posting 2006's song, "This Is Life," tomorrow--it's really good (so much so that mentioning it here almost made me swap posts and share it today). Norwegian Idol winner 2004 Kjartan Salvesen's winner's single certainly fits right in with this trend of good songs. Kjartan has released two albums so far, one back in 2004 and another this year.

Standing Tall--written by Espen Lind, this song does still have the "look how far I've come" message that most Idol songs do, but it's far less treacly than anything we get from American Idol, and it's much more focused on past difficulties the singer has faced--that is, it's more, "look at me, I survived" than "look at me, I'm a winner." It's also more mid-tempo than power ballad, and its strong chorus has far more impact than, say, that of "This Is My Now" or anything like that. It probably wouldn't be very difficult at all to turn this into a rock song, but as is, it feels pop--though not "poppy"--through and through, which is a good thing--much as I think guitars can be a great thing, here I think they'd take away from the song's strength.

To buy Kjartan Salvesen's debut album, Kjartan Salvesen, go here (physical) or here (digital), though that physical link will only work until the beginning of November--another of my Norwegian music stores is closing down! Where am I supposed to buy Norwegian music from after that? CDON needs to ship internationally. Edit: oh, it looks like Zailor has their CD section back; hopefully they still ship to the U.S..

Speaking of Norway, a mini-update on some Norwegian artists:

Venke Knutson has another new single out. It's called "Walk The Walk" and, sadly, it's not doing much for me at the moment. You can watch the video on YouTube and make your mind up for yourself, though. The album "Holiday" and "Walk The Walk" come from will be called Crush and I think it's out November 5.

Jorun Stiansen, who won Idol the year after Kjartan, has a new single out. Called "Sticky Hands," the song is of the sort that seems like it's deliberately trying to be unusual. That said, I think I like it, though I don't think I love it and feel very iffy about it. You can listen to it here. Reminds me a tiny bit of Tasha Baxter's "Fade To Black" in parts, though maybe that's just because of a couple of words.

After releasing the single "Adorable" earlier this year, former a1 member Christian Ingebrigtsen has a second solo album out, The Truth About Lies. I guess "Adorable" was OK in a very cheesy pop-rock way, but I don't think it was good enough to compel me to buy the album. There are preview clips of it here. "Wonder Years" sounds OK. The album is available for purchase from most digital music stores, including iTunes stores around the world.

Next up: as mentioned, Norwegian Idol 2006's group song.

No, no, no

The funniest thing I have seen in quite some time.

(You have to have seen the [disappointing, for me and some others] new Girls Aloud album artwork and read the record company's explanation for it, and have heard about the whole Hard-Fi cover artwork thing, to get it, but it's worth catching up if you haven't already, because, truly, it's hilarious.)

Though, speaking of jokes related to said album cover, I quite like this one as well.

Speaking of disappointing, after loving "Sexy! No No No," I'm not thinking much of "Call The Shots" yet--maybe it's something I'll like more after hearing it more times?

Edit: of course--I listened to "Call The Shots" again after this and liked it much more.

Det eneste jeg vil er at ligge her og chill

I'm currently a little obsessed with the following song--no, scratch that; I'm very obsessed. As I find myself doing so often, I have to gratefully credit another blog--here, Don't Stop The Pop--for introducing me to the artist I'm writing about--this time, Anna David. Her adorable single "Impossible" was posted over there during the Danish Pop special and I loved it on the first listen (I completely adore "Impossible" and strongly recommend getting it if you haven't already), but was disappointed to hear that she'd since gone off to pursue a different style (less poppy, more...R&b-y, maybe?) since then (as well as switching over to Danish from English); her megahit "Fuck Dig" was never something I really felt compelled to listen to. The lead single for her second album likewise passed me by without me paying attention to it or being interested to really hear it. Her second single for this album, though, has completely enchanted me.

Chill--don't be fooled by the title--this song is in Danish. It's absolutely one of those songs that manages to make the language barrier not matter at all, though. "Chill" has to be one of the happiest, most feel-good songs I've heard this year; every time I listen to it, I feel a desire to sway back and forth while singing it. Preferably while sitting outside on a sunny day. The first time I heard it, my first thought--well, no, my first thought was "I love this!", but my second thought was the paranoid "Is this a cover?" (a worry that sneaks up on me often now--as I said, I'm paranoid), but, though I have no idea if it is or not (though given the writing credits for her first album, I'd guess not), I've given up caring, because I'm having too much fun listening to this light breezy track which has a little bit of a retro feel. Complete with "ooo"s and "yeah"s and "woah"s and giggles, tambourine, and cute little shiny electronic noises (I'm a sucker for these--I've got to figure out a better name for them), the song moves along at mid-tempo (though the verse has a nice rapidfire delivery to its words) and has a chorus that is pure poppy joy--stick it out at least to that and then I defy you not to be taken with it.

Since this is a new(ish--well, not really, but it's still charting) single, it'll only be posted for a few days.

To buy Anna David's second album 2, go here (physical) or here (digital). If you'd told me a year ago I'd be very very tempted to buy an Anna David album (that wasn't a reversion to her original sound), I'd have been shocked, but I am--from previews, it sounds like at least several other songs on the album are really good.

Next up: maybe something else from Denmark.

Ain't it crazy how after all this time...

File this post, like the one on Ola's "S.O.S", in the "horribly out of date but I didn't want to post it at the time because everyone else was (though I did write about it a lot) and then the single was coming out and I didn't want to hurt it in any way (even though that's silly because it's not as if my blog would do much, and especially not when the song's already all over the Internet), but I still really want to write about it because it's one of my favorite songs of the year" category. I'm truly convinced that Shayne Ward's "If That's OK With You"/"No U Hang Up" double A side single was one of the year's best releases. He's also sort of my ideal popstar, or at least doing a type of music I love and am so relieved to have someone doing. The X Factor winner's upcoming second album, entitled Breathless, is due out November 26, with second single "Breathless" (a ballad which you can listen to a high quality clip of here; thanks to PubliSpain for the heads-up) coming out earlier in November, and I can't wait to get a copy of it. Shayne's style is very pure pop, I'd say, and luckily this second album is reported to have far fewer ballads than his first one (though his cover of "No Promises" from that album is fantastic and one of my favorite songs of 2006; "Next To Me" is also very good as well). I just hope he can keep selling as well as this latest single has--as of last week, it was still at #4, which really surprises but pleases me.

No U Hang Up--I know I've written a lot about this song before, but I have to feature it again--it really is one of my favorite songs of the year. The lyrics are still dorky but adorably so (much like this photo), and the song is so cute, so smooth, so catchy--I've lost track of the number of times I've had "we got that 'you hang up' 'no you hang' kinda love" stuck in my head, but I don't mind at all. It's got great production as well--all those little background sound effects very much help make the song. Not cool in any way, shape, or form, but a fantastic pop song nonetheless.

To preorder Shayne Ward's second album Breathless, go here (physical). Speaking of the album, Amazon and other sites have the following picture with the album, though I'm not sure whether it's the official cover or not.


It's a cropped version of a promo photo we've seen before.

Next up: maybe a German group.

I saw you dancing and I couldn't get you off my mind

I love it when iTunes' free song(s) of the week is great. And yes, I realize that that's not exactly the most creative way of discovering new songs or artists, but sometimes they're too enjoyable not to share here--Jesse and Joy's "Espacio Sideral" was one such case, and Metro Station's "Shake It" is another. I've not listened to their full album yet, but they've certainly intrigued me enough to consider doing so. Amusingly, one of their key members is Billy Ray Cyrus's son and Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus's brother. I imagine he's deliberately trying to separate himself from his father's (and, later on, sister's) music and baggage by going for a supposedly hipper sound, trying to play up the whole underground/alternative thing, but really, ignore that (and ignore their image, which could use some more work)--the following song is just a nice combination of synth-pop and pop-with-strong-guitars. "Seventeen Forever" (which is on their MySpace) is also worth a listen. (Edit: I just found out that the other key member of the band is the brother of another actor who appears on Hannah Montana.)

Shake It--to be honest, if something is catchy, it'll probably win my approval. I also imagine the true hipsters, the market I think they're chasing after, would brush this off as derivative. But that doesn't matter at all--all that matters is how much I want to jump up and down shouting along with the "shake shake, shake shake shake it!" part (preferably surrounded by a bunch of people doing the same thing), or find somewhere playing it at full volume so that I can dance along with it. I have a lot of time for bands mining this vein of sound, this synth pop-with-guitars type of sound, and "Shake It" is a good example of that. They don't sound like what you get American radio, but I'd swap this subgenre of pop-with-guitars for, say, the Panic! at the Disco-type subgenre any day. It's not just that this comes from a family of music I like, though; this is a really good song as well--as I said, catchy, and, though the lyrics are maybe sort of dubious if you think about them, the song is fun and upbeat enough that you really don't do that, except maybe once...and those synths certainly don't hurt its appeal at all either. I love it and can easily see myself being obsessed with it for a while...well, at least for a little bit. Now, let me go listen to how the chorus dissolves into those shouty "shake shake it"s one more time...

To buy Metro Station's debut album Metro Station, go here (physical) or, if you live in the U.S., you can buy it from iTunes.

(By the way, there are five people in this picture, but apparently only four in the band, so I'm guessing it's not the most recent of pictures...if it is actually them.)

Speaking of pop with synthesizers, I've been meaning to mention this for a while now, but I've been in absolute love with Dot Dot Dot's "Take That Away" ever since #1 Hits posted it--definitely go listen to it! It's absolutely fantastic. And they're (shock) American!

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer.

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.

Know I talk too much, but for you I'd hush

I can't say that I've ever listened to much Sweetbox, though "Over And Over" is great and "Addicted" is OK. To be honest, I can't see too much changing with the new solo career of former Sweetbox singer Jade Villalon, currently going by the name Jade Valerie. And I'm not even sure how much I like the following song--I imagine I'll be over it in a few days. Still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't listening to a decent bit at the moment. It looks like the song I'm posting was originally released in a dual language version and was a collaboration between Baek Ji Young and Jade, but it's been recorded in just English and with just Jade's vocals for her new mini-album and the full album that'll be coming out later.

Crush--all right, yes, this features some pretty dubious lyrics (that first verse and its rhymes come to mind, but you could choose just about any part of the song), and yes, it's still working the Sweetbox thing of sampling classical music and using it for modern pop (in this case, it's "In The Hall Of The Mountain King," I think...maybe). "Crush" is trying to be a track with attitude, and probably trying to be a little urban-influenced, though any song that everyone seems to hear as sampling Inspector Gadget (even if that's not the case) really stands no chance in the coolness sweepstakes. It's more enjoyable if you don't take it all seriously. By the way, the sound quality of this is subpar--sorry about that.

To buy Jade Valerie's mini-album Out Of The Box, go here (physical).

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer.

I'm trying every frequency, but so far there's no answer

I apologize in advance, as this post is far from the cutting edge, but given all the times I've written about Ola's second album material, I really can't restrain myself from actually posting something from it, and, save for a radio rip, I haven't actually done so yet, sort of surprisingly. #1 Hits From Another Planet covered "Can't Get Enough" (co-written by Tony Nilsson and produced by Bassflow) and You Don't Know Pop covered "If You Gave Me Your Love" (co-written by Gary Barlow), "Natalie"'s been around since last spring now, and if "Baby I'm Yours" had a little extra something--maybe a better chorus--I'd post that (shamelessly upbeat mid-tempo pop with strings and gospel-esque backing vocals? I'm sold!), but as is, I'm just going to be uncreative and post one of the year's best singles, with apologies to those who've already covered it. Plus, given that Tony's name has shown up among this year's Melodifestivalen composers and there's got to be a good chance Ola will be singing the song (called "Love In Stereo"), it's probably worth taking a listen to some of his work--he's one of the writers of this song--in case you somehow haven't heard any of it yet (which I admit is probably pretty unlikely, given that I think I was writing about him every other day for a while there). Speaking of "Love In Stereo," the other co-writer of it is Mirja Breitholtz, who has a MySpace here.

S.O.S.--I know I just linked Ola to Melodifestivalen, but even if you couldn't care less about that contest, take a listen to this, because it's fantastic pop of the very poppy, very catchy sort, the sort that still feels young and bubbly and cute and simultaneously quality. There's nothing cool about it, but it's not cheap either, something which can be really difficult to achieve. Uber-quotable and singalongable as well. This is exactly the sort of thing that would stand zero chance in the U.S. or U.K. but is worth searching the world for.

To buy Ola's second album, Good Enough, go here (physical). I know I've written about it fifty million and a half times by now, but his version and Tony's original version of "Natalie" are completely worth seeking out as well. The blogs I linked to earlier did a great job of picking out good non-singles and are worth checking out, too, as is The Zapping's review of it.

Next up: maybe another Swedish singer or an American one.

(BTW, D'luv, yes, I am expecting your Robyn comment; bring it.)

Baby, it's here, the arrival of love

The songs for 2008's Melodifestivalen have just been announced (except for the four wildcards), along with their composers. I'll edit this post with deeper thoughts when we actually have a list I can go back and look over again, but for now, I just have to get this out of my system.

Maybe the thing that jumped out the most? Alexander Bard has (along with some other writers, including Henrik Wikström and Bobby Ljunggren) an entry; it's called "Lay Your Love On Me." That's not necessarily the song I'm most excited about, though--if anything, that title probably goes to the songs by Fredrik Kempe and/or Henrik Wikström (and there's at least one written together); I think both had a really good year last year and have a pretty consistent record in the past. Other names that jumped out? Ingela "Pling" Forsman, of course, known for her lyrics and for schlager; Bobby Ljunggren; Tony Nilsson (one of the writers of "Love In Stereo" and who I'm hoping is the Tony Nilsson of "Natalie" and "S.O.S."; if it is, then there's a chance that Ola Svensson could be singing the song--though he could sing something else as well--and either way it's a song to look forward to); Aleena Gibson (I really liked "Anything But You" last year, but she's also given us "We're Unbreakable" and "This Woman" [performed by Anna Sahlene]; both those songs were co-written with Bobby Ljunggren, who co-wrote this year's "Empty Room" with her); and Tobias Lundgren and Tim Larsson (on the same song, along with at least one other writer whose name I missed, though I imagine there's a good chance it's Johan Fransson), who've been involved in far too much amazing stuff to even begin to get into.

Back in a bit with more thoughts! They'll be edited into this post.

The first of what will surely be many edits: Aftonbladet has confirmed that BWO are going to be in Melodifestivalen with that Alexander Bard-penned track.

And another edit: Aftonbladet also suggests that Charlotte Perrelli will be singing the Fredrik Kempe and Bobby Ljunggren song "Heroes" (which I thought I heard as "Hero," but maybe not) and quotes a source as saying the song is so good that she could win Eurovision again.

Edit: the full list of tracks and composers.

Edit: all via Aftonbladet, Bert Karlsson, in article complaining about some of the songs that were rejected (including Sara Löfgren's), mentions that currently Linda Bengtzing, Velvet, the Poodles, and Christer Sjögren all have a song, though that could change. Fredrik Kempe says that "Hero" is his favorite (out of the songs he's got in, I think).

Edit (again): it's definitely worth checking out the comments for this post--Alex has got a bunch of guesses, many based on songwriters I didn't pick up on or don't know--Pontus Hagberg's stage name, for example, is Evan, and given that "When You Need Me" has the exact same writing time as "Under Your Spell," it's a good guess that Evan will be performing it. Missed out on noticing Patrik Isaksson's name as well, though I think now I remember them announcing him at the end, maybe that he was definitely a performer or something? At any rate, "Under Mitt Tunna Skinn" is by him. The country-pop group Calaisa is credited as one of the writers for "If I Could" (didn't recognize their names individually), Martin Eriksson (E-Type) is one of the writers for "Line Of Fire," Frida (of "Dunka mig gul & blå," not of ABBA) is one of the writers of "Leva Livet--and, well, really, just check out his guesses.

Edit: tickets go on sale October 18.

Edit again: just got a chance to look over at Expressen--they're saying that Christer Sjögren will be doing "I Love Europe" and that the composers are hoping to get Helena Paparizou and Sanna Nielsen (in addition to Charlotte Perrelli) to participate. Lasse Lindh's ""Du behöver aldrig mer vara rädd" is described as being a midtempo love song that sounds a little like Snow Patrol and is typical of his sound. They do say E-Type is doing "Line Of Fire," but I'm not sure if that's certain or not, and they mention Linda Bengtzing, Velvet, and the Poodles again.

A very late edit: via QX, some more facts and speculation about the songs. "Den första svalan" is uptempo pop-rock and Alexander Schöld from Fame Factory sang the demo (though that doesn't mean he's doing the actual song). Mickey Husic sang the demo of "Never Fall In Love (Izdaje)," which is a ballad, and is interested in singing it in the actual contest, but nothing is set. "Kebabpizza, Slevovica" was written by Andra Generationen. "Deja Vu," probably for Velvet, is a "euroexplosion" and is compared to last year's "La Musica" by Verona in that it basically has everything that song lacked. The article points out--as Len did earlier in the comments--that the writers of "Hur svårt kan det vara?" did "Alla Flickor" and "Diamanter" for Linda Bengtzing. "Hur svårt kan det vara?" is said to be schlager, though there's also a reference to "Grace Kelly" thrown in. And I don't think I mentioned outside of the comments yet that Patrik Isaksson wrote "Under mitt tunna skinn"--he did the lovely ballad "Faller du så faller jag" in 2006, though I always think of "Hos dig är jag underbar" with him (which is good--it's got one of those half-blowout chorus thing), probably just because I really like that song. "Smiling In Love" is linked with girl group Caracola, though I'm not sure whether that's speculation or sure. "That's Where I'll Go" is linked to Sibel Redzep (another Idol 2005 contestant) and said to be a power ballad. Michael Michailoff from Fame Factory wrote "That's Love," which I think is compared to Andreas Johnson's work. Fronda's song "Nobody Feels So Good" is rap or hip hop-like.

And if you really want to know, Schlagerprofilna has some of the "almost made the cut" songs, though without composers.

(This is my first year paying attention to this part of the process and I'm still a newbie to Melodifestivalen, so I'm sure there are things I've not noticed that I should have!)