Swedish~ Stereo~

Could there be any better New Year gift for schlager-fans than brand new single from Shirley Clamp? Brand new dance single in English!
Recently Shirley was working on her shape hard after she's got envolved in advertising company, she has obviously got quite thinner and looks gorgeous being ready to come back on the stage with a fresh stuff.
Her new single "Little By Little" was written by Oscar Holter and Jakke Erixson and it's definitely Shirley you've never heard before - much dancier and modern than old good Shirley-schlagers from previous albums, but it's still purest pop in its best with catchy guitar riffs in verses and shiny exploding choruses.
Single is officially out on January 9th but you can already check it online.

Can I not to mention release that includes credits of Fredrik Kempe, Bobby Ljunggren, Thomas G:Son, Kristian Lagerström, Oscar Holter, Henrik Wikström and other biggest names in Swedish music? Sure not!!! Especially when it's as good as new album "Mihalis" of Michalis Hatzigiannis.
In a short Michalis is 30-years old Greek-Cypriot who participated in Eurovision-1998 and since that has become incredibly popular artist selling tons of records in Greece and Cyprus and receiving multiple awards in these countries.
This year Michalis decided to record his first English album and he has got hard support of Lionheart team with it. The album turned to be amazing summer soundtrack, a little bit late for the end of August but always in time for all the lovers of classic Swedish pop-tunes wrapped in modern sound and flavored with Michalis special vocal. This is really one of the most worthy albums of this year - strong from the first track till the last and as one of the sickest MF-rejects detectives I couldn't not to suspect that Lionheart presented some great rejected song to Michalis and seems like I was right. Song titled "Do You Really Wanna Love" was rejected in 2008 and 2009 on Melodifestivalen and we have song with such title on this album, moreover it's written by Pontus Hagberg (Evan), Thomas G:Son and Bobby Ljunggren and it's less than 3 minutes, so now try to convince me there's any ability it's not MF-reject.

You're More Than Beautiful (Oscar Holter, Bobby Ljunggren, Kristian Lagerström)
I Raise My Hands (Fredrik Kempe, Bobby Ljunggren)
Favourite Mistake (Rob Davis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Adrian Zagoritis)
Do You Really Wanna Love (Pontus Hagberg, T. G:Son, Bobby Ljunggren)
Everyone Dance (Nikos Moraitis, Rea Garvey, Michalis Hatzigiannis)
Suddenly (Adrian Zagoritis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Nikos Moraitis)
One In A Million (Michalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali, Adrian Zagoritis)
In The Middle Of The Night (Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström, Kristian Lagerström)
Heart Surrender (Nikos Moraitis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Adrian Zagoritis)
Eyes Of A Sinner (Michalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali, Adrian Zagoritis)
Let’s Call It Love (Henrik Wikström, Niklas Edberger, Kristian Lagerström, Bobby Ljunggren)
Now That You’re Gone (Adrian Zagoritis, Michalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali)
Kiss On the Breeze (Mihalis Hatzigiannis, Eleana Vrachali)

Check this impressive list and remember that most of the songs without Swedish songwriters were produced by Jörgen Ingeström ("Favourite Mistake", "Everyone Dance", "One In A Million", "Eyes Of A Sinner", don't have information about the rest) who worked before with Martin Stenmarck, Sonja Alden, Sanna Nielsen and Charlotte Perrelli. Also you can hear backing vocals of Lars Säfsund (voice of Star Pilots in "I'm Alive") and schlager-veteran Britta Bergström in some tracks (here is credits-list for part of this album).

Seems like year before Swedish pop-princess Marie Serneholt asked to disconnect and un-attach her too realistically as Swedish audience understood it literally. Marie (ex-A-Teens, independent solo singer with amazing Top-10 debut album "Enjoy The Ride" that you need to listen right now if you didn't manage before and girl of Måns Zelmerlöw that you can see in post below) has made comeback with song "Disconnect Me" written by Peter Boström & Tony Nilsson for Melodifestivalen-2009. Though she entered as joker (special participant with the biggest attention to her and impressive backgound) she finished 6th in semifinal and single has peaked only on 46th place of Swedish chart, beautiful video also didn't help. After it comeback of Marie as pop-singer was hidden from public (though she told about new songs written with Tony Nilsson) and girl decided to try some new directions - she became SVT's Eurovision staff expert in show “Inför ESC 2010″, was a host of Swedish National Day and has made debut as artist in musical "Grease" along with Sebastian Karlsson (Idol-2005). Due to rumours she rejected offered song "Spinning" that was released in the end of last year by Gathania and currently "Disconnect Me" is promoted in the mix of Oscar Holter in Russia. But we're still waiting for your new stuff, Marie!!!
By the way Marie is diligent blogger, you can follow her active life here.