Swedish~ Stereo~

Actually I wanted to give you update later waiting for press' reviews of first Melodifestivalen semifinal but here 2 updates I'd like to share right now.
We've got another single cover this time from Jenny Silver, very lovely and sweet cover marking Jenny going from dark and authentic to softer and lighter side.

Linda Pritchard has written yesterday on twitter that her album will be ready today, something that many fans were waiting whole year since many Linda's songs were out last Spring and pretty stunning to expect a lot from her album. Today we've got another delicious piece of Linda from Schlagerprofilerna - her demo of "Hollow" that was sent to Melodifestivalen-2010 and finally given to Peter Jöback. I'll remind you that when Peter was announced there was a lot of buzz around winning song and it's not surprising as demo sounds very beautiful, massive and as Linda was then new artist without any expectations on her it really was taken as big favorite. New Linda's song is also written by Fredrik Kempe but this time co-written by Oscar Görres ("Hollow" was co-written by Anders Hansson).

Few days after presenting brand new single "Better Off Dead" that we've fallen for immediately The Sounds reveal title track of their forthcoming album that sounds not less awesome but in its own way.
"Something To Die For" is pop-rock song and it's not so obvious which part is dominant here. Verses sound like a rockier version of "Get This Party Started" and choruses go very Max Martin to me (but it was written and produced by the Sounds), very Swedish but very commercial radio-friendly gutar sound with amazing melody. We take it, we love it and officialy announce us new fans of The Sounds!

Indie-artist Andrea Kellerman more known as Firefox AK prepares her third album "Color The Trees" for release and the first single from it is "Boom Boom Boom" with new video directed by Robin Kempe Robinovich.
Firefox AK has recommended her with latest releases as artist performing in dark electronic but delicate music softened with her light vocal and gentle tunes. As absolute highlight of Firefox AK music I'd recommend you her collaboration with LAID on track "Once I was like you" from second Andrea's album "If I Were A Melody" - stunning club meditative trance-track that turned to be one of our favorite tracks of 2008. Another great electro-track I'd recommend you is "Winter rose" recorded with Tiger Lou.
New single keeps the line of dark melodic and stylish electro-tracks with lighter chorus but still hypnotizing atmosphere quite accessible for those who isn't into this sort of music too much. "Boom Boom Boom" is produced by Andreas Mattsson (Popsicle/Hello Saferide etc), Lasse Mårtén and Björn Yttling (from Peter Bjorn and John) who was responsible for some records of Robyn, Lykke Li, Anna Ternheim, Lisa Miskovsky and many others.

When whole world of legal music buyers waits for new Roxette's album to be released on February 11th hardcore fans already enjoy leaked full-length tracks on youtube and other sources. So if you can't wait for official release you can check some diamonds of new album already now (videos are getting deleted by EMI pretty fast so these videos can disappear already when you read it).
After reviewing earlier presented samples we actually don't change opinion about favorites. It's "Speak To Me" - dark atmospheric ballad with epic choruses in a style of "Wish i Could Fly", "Only When I Dream" - another beautiful pop-track with expressive choruses starting with old-school pop-rock Roxette exploding with heart-breaking choruses and more dynamic "Big Black Cadillac" with life-asserting beat and dynamite energy.

Well, guys, I've missed our daily MF-update only once and it's already whole pack of news, I need to share with you immediately.
Tomorrow press will listen to songs for the first time and we'll hear first reviews that I'll sure share with you in English. What if we have the winner in the first heat? Dilba? Danny? Le Kid? We can't say for sure but bookmakers already consider Le Kid and Danny as coming winners of semifinal! Like for example unibet.com

Aftonbladet readers take Danny as the biggest favorite though. Pernilla Andersson follows him.

You can also watch Danny rehearsing choreography with famous choreographer Nick Bass here.

By the way Pernilla is the next artist who has presented her single cover. Her re-release of the latest album "Ö" with competing single "Desperados" and 2 new songs will be released on February 28th. She considers Melodifestivalen as first of all opportunity to present new song in front of the big audience with stylish band, guitar and "Desperados" that she thinks is a real hit. Recently Pernilla appeared at Guldbaggegalan 2011 with 3 other popular indie-ladies of Swedish music - Marit Bergman, Rebecka Törnqvist and Titiyo performing Tim Hardin's Swedish cover of "If I were A Carpenter".

Another coming Melodifestivalen-release belongs to Melody Club, last week they performed two new songs "Sweet Disaster" and "Dreamers Wasteland" in XL-live sounding very nice in acoustic and should be even better in studio version on forthcoming band's album.

If you thought that Anniela is completely newcomer in schlagerland you're wrong. 7 years ago she participated in kids-show Super Troupers with Amy Diamond, Anna Bergendahl and Jonathan Fagerlund. The host of the show was not less than Charlotte Perrelli and among judges you could see Christer Björkman, Anniela's rival Shirley Clamp and Nina Inhammar from Friends. Anniela was singing Celine Dion's "The Power of Love" and pretty good for 14 years old girl I should say. Check yourself!

Expressen this year following example of already traditional Schlager-bible from Aftonbladet publishes its own special Schlager guide with Shirley, Sanna and Linda on the cover. You can check cover above and watch photoshooting with girls below, Shirley as always delivers loads of fun, though Linda too, above you can see her not the best photo from that session that unlikely will be published.

If you know Swedish well don't forget to check Telia's interviews with such schlager-stars like Eric Saade, Linda Pritchard, Swingfly, Julia Alvgard, Loreen, Melody Club, Sara Lumholdt, Sara Varga and Simon Forsberg here.

And I'm leaving you with opening act of this year Dilba performing her latest single mix of her old hit "I'm Sorry" on SVT. Isn't it proof that girl can sing dance music not less amazing than she used to sing her soul-music.