Swedish~ Stereo~

New set of brilliant performances was shown this weekend on Sommarkrysset. Linda Pritchard performed her new single "Miracle" and it was in my opinion the greatest Sommarkrysset performance that I've seen since Lady Gaga appeared on the stage of Gröna Lund in 2008! E.M.D. has also presented their new single "Save Tonight" that was released a week ago. Another highlight of the show was Stephen Simmonds (very interesting artist that I feel like I need to tell you about later) with his latest single "Adiyeah" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". We've got also some classics of 90s from Dr. Alban performing medley of his hits. And finally Lazee performed big hit of this spring "Calling Out" with Apollo Drive.

Around week ago I told you what's happening now with male part of Da Buzz and now we've finally got a new single "U Gotta Dance" of this great band! It's impossible if you didn't hear before about Da Buzz but if you really didin't in a short story of this project has started back in 90s, Per Lidén worked in the dance-project Freebee with singer Agnetha Kjörsvik (last time we've heard something about her it was on Eurovision-2008 when she was singing behind Charlotte Perrelli), project has managed to make a big hit "True" and soon Per has started his own project with Pier Schmid and Annika Thörnquist as a singer. Since first album Da Buzz was promoted in US, Asia and sure Europe, released 5 fantastic pop-albums, loads of hits (Let Me Love You, Wanna Be with Me, Wonder Where You Are, Alive, Dangerous, Last Goodbye, etc.) and after realising compillation "The Greatest Hits" in 2007 has made a pause for every member to be able to work on its own music and now Da Buzz is back. Though it's kinda weird that only Annika has appeared on the cover of the single, biggest question now is if band's really back together?

Magnus Carlsson releases new single "Feel You" - another amazing disco-anthem from Pitchline sounding like brother of Velvet's "Take My Body Close", Pitchline being young production company has recommended itself like a great team releasing high-level stuff with Velvet, Alice Svensson, Kick and Magnus. Single includes some nice mixes from Pitchline and Ruff & Jam and b-side "Take Me To Your Heart" another dance track obviously inspired by music of Modern Talking (seems like Man Meadow has got a serious rival).

Magnus Carlsson - Take Me To Your Heart

Magnus Carlsson - Feel You (Ruff & Jam Remix)

Fresh RedOne's project Love Generation that I've presented little earlier is officially out and it has already reached Top-10 on Swedish iTunes, girls say that their second single is ready but right now it's time for the first one.

Sweden's ready for a new star though this person is already familiar to Swedish audience. Already in June Anderz Wrethov will release his single "Runaway" and it sounds like it's gonna be a huge hit in a close future. Initially Anderz has started as artist participating in popular show "Sikta mot stjärnorna" that I wrote about in previous post, he won as Bryan Adams' look-alike in 1999 and in 00s has turned from artist to songwriter working with many artists all over the world and sure with Swedish colleagues - Günther, Arash, Frida, Carlito (Dr Bombay), etc. His latest huge European hit "Always" was performed by Arash and Aysel on Eurovision-2010 and his songs (Arash, Günther & The Sunshine Girls "Like Fire Tonight", Frida feat. Headline "Upp och hoppa") were also taken twice to Swedish selection. Debut Anderz' single "Runaway" sounds like great follower of "Poker Face" mixing elecro-pop with hard beat and guitar sound. You can also clearly hear vocals of Johanna Stedt in the end of track (Johanna is often involved in tracks made by Anderz), I'm gonna tell you about this talented and beautiful singer little later and now enjoy with this newborn hit!

I'd like to put your attention on one interesting show being popular in Sweden in 90s. Sure many of you know about Fame Factory (talent-show in the beginning of 00s) and artists which came from it (Linda Bengtzing, Sandra Oxenryd, Magnus Bäcklund, Mathias Holmgren...) but then many of these singers were already not newcomers for Swedish audience participating before in show "Sikta mot stjärnorna". The aim of participants was to imitate different big stars and the winner of every show qualified to the final. The winner of the final was sent to European final. In this amazing show you could see Sandra Oxenryd as Carola, Magnus Bäcklund as Tom Jones, Mathias Holmgren as Nick Kamen, Cecilia Vennersten as Mariah Carey, Caroline Wennergren as Ella Fitzgerald and you can also watch yourself performances of Linda Bengtzing doing Lene from Aqua, Shirley Clamp doing Maria McKee, Bosson as Michael Jackson and Date as Take That.

Swedish House Diva Therese Grankvist is back! Therese has become famous for Swedish audience back in 90s when she was brought by Dr. Alban to a dance project Drömhus. Drömhus had a lot of entries in charts (like "Du och Jag", "Håll Dig Nära", etc.) but the biggest one was hit #1 "Vill ha dig". In 1999 Drömhus with the song "Stjärna på himmelen" has managed to reach 2nd place on Melodifestivalen right after Charlotte Nilsson-Perrelli who later brought Sweden its last victory on Eurovision. Project's life wasn't too long and Therese has gone solo being faithfull to dance-music though. Her single "Monkey" was noticed by audience in 2002 and "Time" has entered Top-20, in 2003 Therese released her first solo album "Acapulco". Further highlights of Therese' career were different successful collaborations with other projects like Stonebridge ("Put 'em High", "Take me away"), The Attic ("The Arrival"), Danny ("If Only You") and now it's time to come back as solo-artist so Therese's releasing new single "Drop It Like It's Hot" and should I say mention that Therese still stays faithful to her club roots? You can also find nice b-side "Say It (In The Morning)" on this single and you can hear it in Kia Venga commercial as well.

The biggest shock of 2nd semifinal of Eurovision-2010 for everyone was that Sweden won't participate in the final of Eurovision since 1977. Sweden didn't miss the final every year since semifinals-system was introduced in 2004 and this year it's the first time. By my personal observations Swedish media didn't blame Anna a lot, many star bloggers and newspapers showed compassion to her though sure there were a lot of evil remarks. Cruel irony is that we'll see all five songs written by Swedes for another countries qualified to the final + Iceland produced by Swede and Belarus with Swedish Robert Wells on the stage.
I need to say that I was as much shocked as I felt proud for Anna's performance, it was the first time for a long time when Melodifestivalen winner has made her best 100% and it looked incredibly powerful and magical. Unfortunately this year Melodifestivalen didn't have artist with a full pack (song+stable performance+interesting show) so Swedes have chosen talent and sincerity and I don't have any doubt it was the rightest choice. But as every year few brilliant songs are left not qualifying to the final here's no drama at all. Anna is the artist out of schlager-bubble and just like Martin Stenmarck who released his #1 album already in a year after his fiasko on Eurovision or Malena with her sold-out concerts last autumn Anna will be able to walk her own road to the top of charts so I don't worry about her.
We need to see advantages and the biggest one here can be that next year SVT will really try to make selection much better than this year and we'll have a lot of big names with amazing songs and fantastic show. And you know what? Doors of Melodifestivalen-2011 are already open!!! Songwriters can already send their song since tomorrow and rules of next year contest are already publiched. Some interesting moments that I've mentioned:
1) entries must be sent from 29 May through 21 September both to webjoker contest and main contest;
2) songs must be no longer than 3 minutes but no shorter than 2 minutes;
3) and the most interesting is that finally song can be written by foreign songwriters but at least one of authors must be Swede.
So heja Sverige! And let's prepare for a new season of Melodifestivalen that will start to give us some exciting news and actions already in September. And sure loads of luck to sweetest Anna Bergendahl and all Swedish songs in the final of Eurovision-2010.

First successful results of Swedes on Eurovision-2010 were shown by Belorussian team with the help of Robert Wells (famous Swedish piano player and participant of Melodifestivalen-1987 and 2003) appearing in their performance as special guest. And the second proud result was achieved by Icelandic Hera Björk, her song was produced by Niclas Kings (man behind many hits of Kate Ryan and not only) who already updated Icelandic song in 2008 when Euroband also managed to qualify to the final and reached 14th place. Currently Hera's song along with Belgian and German ones can be found on high positions of different iTunes-charts across Europe.
You can see performances of Iceland and Belarus below and tomorrow we'll see another 4 songs (Azerbaijan, Ireland, Georgia, Denmark) written by Swedes and Sweden being represented by Anna Bergendahl in 2nd semifinal of contest. Don't forget to support your favorites!

If you didn't hear the story of this song it's quite simple but touching. Last year schlager-daddy Thomas G:Son gave a birth to the new schlager-anthem and has sent it to Melodifestivalen - the place where all (almost all) schlagers become legends but evil people didn't accept it and threw it out. How dramatical! Well, as long as this world has some hot schlager hearts beating these stories still can finish with happy ends. Two schlager-moms Linda Bengtzing and Jenny "Velvet" Pettersson adopted this pure child and has made it as glorious as only these faboulous ladies can. The story goes and we've got new really nice mix of this song!

Today I'd like to present you new rock-band that showed just a few pieces of their music and it turned to be really promising stuff. This band is Apollo Drive and it was formed in 2008 originally by guitar player Stefan Örn and singer Fredrik Lönngren joined later by the rest of members. Band has started writing songs and touring in Sweden, their demo-stuff has reached famous producer Anders Bagge who was really impressed by Fredrik's vocal and decided that he has to work with this band. In January of 2009 band released their first single "Time" really nice alternative track that wasn't met with as great enthusiasm in charts though. Year later band features Lazee's single "Calling Out" that's turning to a really big hit in Sweden and little later releases their new single "Papercut" on US iTunes and later in March in Sweden. You can also check another new song "If You Only Let Me" on band's myspace, guys prepare another new stuff and this year Stefan Örn together with Anders Bagge have written the song "Drip Drop" for Azerbaijanian representative on Eurovision-2010 Safura, this song is the biggest favorite of the contest that's starting today and final will be shown on Saturday.

Due to information from tv4.se popular boy band E.M.D. consisting of 3 ex-Idol participants - Erik Segerstedt, Mattias Andréasson and Danny Saucedo soon releases second album that's gonna be a tribute to hits of 90s. I should mention that band's life lasts not much more than 2 years but guys has already managed to make 4 #1 singles (+ one #3 and one #22) and #1 album (+ another Christmas album). Was it good idea to make covers-album? You can already judge yourself. First single from album is real classics of Swedish pop - Eagle-Eye Cherry's debut single "Save Tonight" from 1997, world-wide hit that reached #6 in UK chart and #5 of US chart. Cover turned to be incredibly nice and pleasant ballad with very beautiful instrumental part. You can listen to it right now.

Couple of months ago SVT has started new talent-show "Jakten på Julia" in a search of partner for Måns Zelmerlöw in musical "Romeo och Julia". Not longer after last season of Idol viewing figures of this show turned to great fiasko and didn't meet expectations of channel but what have been started should have been finished and finally last Saturday Julia for Måns was found. Real name of Julia is Lisette Pagler, this girl has come originally from Korea and she actually wasn't newcomer in musical playing in Cats and Jesus Christ Superstar before. Reaching the final Lisette had to meet her rival Frida Modén Treichl in final duel with appearance of Måns himself on the stage and though Frida showed her as really strong individual artist with great skills in singing and choreography Måns looked a bit scared of this strong woman and only playing with Lisette they showed that chemistry and love sparkles that made audience believe in this couple and give Lisette victory. Rightful winner and I also really hope that Frida won't get lost.

There's no surprise Swedes care about their health and pop or opera diva can stay in a great shape in any age (biceps of Malena Ernman is one of examples). This time Swedish pop-queen Charlotte Perrelli decided to share the secrets of successful physical tranning publishing her new book "Kan Jag Kan Du" with the help of her trainer Jesper Björck. This book will be out already in August.

Another Swedish star who recently decided to properly work on his shape is Markoolio. Preparing for birth of his child in August he has lost 13 kilos (82->69!!!) in 10 weeks with the help of mother of his future baby and his personal trainer Jessica Westergård.

This week Sommarkrysset hasn't left us without another Melodifestivalen-2010 discovery, fresh pop-project and premiere of new single from one popular artist.
If you're really into Swedish pop you couldn't miss great hit of this Spring "Kom" from new girl band Timoteij, band whose album has become golden for one day. Another freshest pop-project that I've been talking about is Rebound!, they performed their successful debut single "Hurricane" with Sara Varga as DJ. And finally Eric Gadd presented his new single "Rise Up!" from forthcoming album "Rise Up" that's gonna be released in July. Host of the show this time was Linda Bengtzing and foreign guests were American Joshua Radin and Scottish Amy Macdonald. Check their performances below.

Eric Gadd - Medley
Amy Macdonald - Don't Tell Me That It's Over
Joshua Radin - I'd Rather Be With You

Not so many bands manage to stay alive 30 years so when it happens it deserves a huge respect. Originally Style was Freestyle and was formed in 80s, getting afterwards a lot of success in 80s participating twice in Melodifestivalen ("Dover-Calais", 1986 and "Hand i hand", 1987) and splitting in 1989. Band came back in 2003 presenting their song "Stay the Night" (familiar title, right?) on MF-2003 but then their activity wasn't really high and last year band decided to fix it releasing new hit single "Vill ha dej, igen" (#2) that helped band to make their album "Vill ha dej igen" #9 in Sweden. After that band decided to return to MF with single "Långsamt", unforunately it was rejected and didn't succeed a lot in charts (#26) but now it's time for a new try with brand new single "Love Killer" that sounds like follower of "Långsamt" with a bit of Roxette's "The Centre of the Heart (Is a Suburb to the Brain)", check it.

Yesterday opening of popular Swedish open-air festival organized by radio-station RIX FM has provided debut of probably most expected pop-project of the year Love Generation. The name behind it is not less than Nadir Khayat world-wide known as RedOne - Moroccan-Swedish producer/songwriter who provided biggest world hits of last years for Lady GaGa and also worked with Darin, Sugababes, Cinema Bizarre, Alexandra Burke, Little Boots, Pixie Lott and many others. Recently RedOne announced casting to brand new Swedish girl band project and finally it's here - five young and talented pretty girls Roshana, Melanie, Mikaela, Cornelia and Charlie Q with their new single "Love Generation". Although release was planned for May but for now we can check only snippet in LG commercial and live performance, I have very positive impression taking into account that I didn't listen to full hq version, the song has classic RedOne's sound, huge catchyness and it has to be great hit of this Summer at least in Sweden.

You can check other performances of Love Generation, Rebound, Timoteij, Broken Door, Erik Hassle and Darin yesterday here and here.

Just a week ago I told you about new Robyn's single "Dancing On My Own" and now video for it is released! The video suits track perfectly, has something common with previous Robyn's videos like "Be Mine" but visually much more interesting with dark shots of dancefloor mass and Robyn in front of the spotlights cameras looking very stylish, beautiful and doing some cool choreography. Well, you'd better check yourself!

One of the most actual names of this Spring Salem Al Fakir releases his new single "4 O’Clock" and new video for it. Quite original, interesting and nice electronic track with verses you probably can compare with some Lykke Li's and Robyn's songs and cosmic synth sound choruses. If you expected something in the key of "Keep On Walking" (Salem's previous single that made him runner-up of this year Melodifestivalen), it sounds different but mixes will help you to understand the taste of it better. Especially I recommend you to give a listen to a mix of Adrian Lux, another one was made by Damien Adore, also there's cool mix of Claes Rosen. Don't forget to check brilliant Salem's performance of "4 O’Clock" in Nyhetsmorgon and to visit our dearest blog-friend Planet Salem for loads of interesting information about this talented artist.

Look who's on fire today! Popjustice has just posted the article about new single of the last eurodance-discovery of Catchy Tunes label - Baby Alice. This project is just on the way to make a buzz in Sweden and surprisingly it's already 5 years since guys has started to work on their songs and their first hit "Mr. DJ" was released on Warner Music Sweden, unfortunately it didn't become properly big by sales (that is actually a big shame as it's brilliant and I'm ready to reserve a place in my player for it at least till the end of summer) and recently band has moved to another label releasing their new single "Hurricane" and "Piña Colada Boy" now. This is very warm summer beach hit that you're undoubtfully gonna love if you miss Mr. President, Vengaboys and Basic Element eurodance-vibes.
You can also check some mixes for "Piña Colada Boy" on official myspace of the band.

It was really crazy spring for young artist Eric Saade who has made successful debut on Melodifestivalen-2010 with platinum hit "Manboy", few days ago I told about his Past so now time has come for his Future and this Future is his first solo-album "Masquerade". If you like what you've heard from Eric before tracks from this album will get your players for a long time. I would describe it as mix from Kempe-goes-Britney-disco-pop (Masquerade, Manboy, Sleepless, Upgrade, Radioactive), BWO+September's electro-pop (It's Gonna Rain, Why Do We Need Fashion) and classic boy band stuff that you could expect from What's Up (Say It, I'll Be Alright), next planned single is "Break Of Dawn" that sounds for me like young modern sister of Peter Jöback's "Hollow" and some classic Blue/Westlife ballad. Sounds interesting? Well, probably it's better if you'll check our preview of this album below.

Credits list of the album:
Masquerade (Eric Saade, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad & Tony Malm)
Upgrade (Alexander Jonsson, Björn Djupström & Charlie Mason)
Break of Dawn (Eric Saade & Fredrik Kempe)
It's Gonna Rain (Fredrik Kempe)
Manboy (Fredrik Kempe & Peter Boström)
Say It (Gustav Efraimsson, Hayden Bell & Sarah Lundbäck)
Sleepless (Fredrik Kempe & Peter Boström)
I'll Be Alright (Eric Saade, Dimitri Stassos, Mikaela Stenström & Jason Gill)
Radioactive (Dimitri Stassos & Mikaela Stenström)
Why Do We Need Fashion!? (Eric Saade, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad & Niclas Lundin)
It's Like That With You (Alexander Kronlund, Stephanie Bentley, Gustav Efraimsson, Hayden Bell & Sarah Lundbäck)

Yesterday SVT showed the last part of "Inför ESC 2010" that you can watch here. Jury discussed the rest of 2nd semifinal and finalists of this year. Germany, Norway and Croatia has become today's favorites.



Common results of the 2nd semi:
Israel 24
Sweden 21
Croatia 19
Armenia 16
Denmark 16
Turkey 16
Bulgaria 15
Lithuania 15
Romania 15
Georgia 13
Ireland 13
Switzerland 13
Azerbaijan 12
Cyprus 12
Ukraine 9
Netherlands 2
Slovenia 0

Rehearsals in Oslo are already in a full mode and yesterday was the first day of Swedish rehearsals, Anna Bergendahl received positive feedback from press in common and jumped up to #6 by odds.



Also check press-conference with Anna (part 1, part 2).

This year contribution of Swedes in Eurovision is especially massive, we have five Swedish songwriters playing for other countries, two songs produced by Swedes and even one Melodifestivalen participant at the stage.

NORWAY

Didrik Solli-Tangen - My Heart is Yours
[Hanne Sørvaag, Fredrik Kempe]
(MF-veteran Mr. Kempe and Norwegian-Swedish Hanne Sørvaag who already composed German song in 2008)

DENMARK

Chanée & N'Evergreen - In a Moment Like This
[Thomas G:son, Henrik Sethsson, Erik Bernholm]
(Thomas G:Son is another legendary name, Henrik composed Eurovision song for Friends)

IRELAND

Niamh Kavanagh - It's For You
[Niall Mooney, Mårten Eriksson & Jonas Gladnikoff, Lina Eriksson]
(Jonas participated before in pre-selections of Malta, Ireland and Denmark and you could hear loads of great stuff from Eriksson family on MF before)

GEORGIA

Sopho Nizharadze - Shine
[Hanne Sørvaag , Harry Sommerdahl, Chistian Leuzzi]
(Hanne was lucky twice to fight for 2 countries this year and Harry is also Swedish songwriter who worked before with Robyn and BoA)

AZERBAIJAN

Safura - Drip Drop
[Stefan Örn, Anders Bagge, Sandra Bjurman]
(Anders has written and produced songs for Madonna, Janet Jackson, Santana, J.Lo, Nick Lachey, Jessica Simpson, Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias)

ICELAND

Hera Björk - Je Ne Sais Quoi
[Örlygur Smári, Hera Björk Þórhallsdóttir]
(Producer of the final version is Niclas Kings who gave tons of hits to Kate Ryan and participated before as songwriter of Belgium-2006 and producer of Iceland-2008)

MALTA

Thea Garrett - My Dream
[Jason Cassar, Sunny Aquilina]
(Producer of this song is Johan Bejerholm who produced Azerbaijan-2009)

BELARUS

3+2 - Butterflies
[Max Fadeev, Malka Chaplin]
(Famous Swedish pianist Robert Wells will perform on the stage with Belorussian band)

On his long road of music career Anders managed to change names not once, it all started from Anders J. who released back in 2001 few really nice singles like "Oslagbar" sounding like high-level international pop of that time.
In 2003 Anders have transformed into Anders Johansson and took participation in legendary "Fame Factory" that gave Swedish music not less stars than Idol gives recent years. It really pushed up his career and gave him his #1 single "Without You" and successful debut album "If It's All I Ever Do", he released some other Top-10 hits ("When I become me", "If It's All I Ever Do") and second album "When I Become Me" that reached #13, common style of Anders' music was already built then - fresh, uplifting, energetic pop with guitars, Swedish feeling and smell of the best Backstreet Boys' and Westlife works (by the way he was actually singing backing vocals on Westlife's album "Face to Face").
Third Anders' album "Anders Johansson" was released in 2006 but turned into absolute flop on #54 of albums' chart. Later in 2007 Anders has released Heart's cover "Alone" on his own label and again it reached only #42. But next try with single "Ready To Fly" was more successful and the song got to the radio. Soon after Anders decides to change his name to Anders Fernette and career goes up again with Eric Carmen's cover "Hungry Eyes" becoming #5 hit in Sweden and next single "Tell Me Why (So Incredible)" at #16. Time has come for a new single "Lola", it sounds quite different from previous Anders' stuff and goes RedOne direction and soon we'll receive video for this single. You can listen to the stream from Anders' official site below:

Probably new name for you but last days new single of Oskar Linnros has extremely tightly got #1 of Swedish iTunes chart and it means we need to give him our attention. Before decision to show himself as solo-artist Oskar was involved in some popular projects like hip-hop duo Snook and another hip-hop project Maskinen (the biggest success band achieved in 2009 with their single "Alla som inte dansar") but probably the closest to his new solo music he made with Veronica Maggio. In 2008 they written together Veronica's album "Och vinnaren är...", the album has become platinum and spent 77 weeks in albums chart. Impressive? So imagine Veronica's light summer pop with male vocal and you'll get new Oskar's songs. First single "Ack, Sundbyberg" was released back in January but only the second one "Från och med Du" has shot immediately and you can get a taste of it below. Oskar's album "Det är första gången för mig med" will be released very soon and you can check its trailer here.

Don't you think we didn't hear about Da Buzz (one of the greatest Swedish pop-projects ever) thousand or million years? No? Well however I do (though it's just 3). Recently I was more than excited to read on scandipop twitter that soon we can get a new single. Before it I was quite sceptic about their return at least this year. The reason is quite hot activity of side-projects of both Pier and Per (what a shame Annika couldn't break through solo during this pause), today I'd like to present them as they are really brilliant.

Per Lidén has started his rock-project Renegade Five back in 2005 but their successful debut album "Undergrounded Universe" (#8 + Grammis nomination as Best Hard Rock) was released only in 2009 with a bunch of fantastic singles (Save my Soul, Darkest Age, Running in your Veins, Love Will Remain, Shadows) with hard rock sound but the same catchy lovely tunes which you can expect from Swedish songwriters (you could listen "Seven Days" originally on Helena Paparizou's album before). Band has already started to record their second album with Roberto Laghi (producer of In Flames) and promise its release very soon so I'll come back to them very soon and wanna tell about another project.

This year time has come for Pier Schmid's project and he also decided to reject his dance-pop roots for showing his rock-side in a new band Broken Door that started quite successfuly as well. Actually Broken Door is duo consisting of Pier and Tobias Östlund and Pier here also plays the part of composer leaving vocals for Tobias. This is less aggressive and more romantic and poppier rock with great melodies and powerful vocal, sure you can hear the touch of emotional and beatiful Da Buzz's pop here also and it's amazing. Single "Angel" being released in April has reached #29 in official chart and constantly floated around in iTunes chart also. The band also plans another single "Sunday Morning" as international release, let's wish guys all the luck with it!

As it happens every year this summer we'll be able to catch many open-air tv-performances on Swedish TV, probably it won't bring as much joy to pop-followers as attendance of famous Rix-FM festival and if you come to Sweden in closer few months I extremely recommend you to visit it. Well, those who can't visit Sweden can follow shows like Sommarkrysset, Allsång på Skansen and Lotta på Liseberg (to name a few). Yesterday we could see first show Sommarkrysset this year from park Gröna Lund in Stockholm and it has given us premiere of Orup's new single "Tiden Bara Gick", spring hit of this year "Manboy" by Eric Saade and performance of Swedish pop-queens Velvet and Linda Bengtzing with "Victorious" in all their fabolousness and amazingness with guest performance of the winner of Brittish X-Factor Alexandra Burke, not less than EMD were the hosts of the show yesterday and next week show will be hosted by fröken Bengtzing with performance of Timoteij, Eric Gadd and Rebound.

Orup - Medley (Live Sommarkrysset 2010)
Eric Saade - One Summer (Live Sommarkrysset 2010)
Alexandra Burke - Bad Boys (Live Sommarkrysset 2010)

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.

Maria Haukaas Storeng's preparing release of her new album "Make My Day" (release is appointed to 14th of June). This year she's managed to start comeback quite successfully with her hit single "Make My Day" in Norwegian pre-selection to Eurovision managing to qualify right to the final. After it she decided to involve her previous year Melodifestivalen rival - Måns Zelmerlöw to the next step so recently they released cover of Phil Seymour's "Precious to me". Not that it became a big hit yet but Maria and Måns don't give up and you can see their recent performance in tv-show "God Morgen Norge" as clean and perfect vocally as only such professional artists are able to make.

It wasn't easy for Ace of Base fans to wait for some absolutely new release from their beloved Scandinavian icons 8 years! Band has released new compilation "Greatest Hits, Classic Remixes and Music Videos" with new mixes of old classics in 2008 and another compillation "Platinum & Gold" in 2010 but sure everybody waited for new songs. In 2007 Linn Berggren left band and in 2010 Jenny Berggren announced starting her solo-career though band denied all the rumours about band's break-up and replacing Jenny with new female members (due to most recent rumour Ulf Ekberg decided to work with Clara Hagman (Idol-2009) and unknown singer Julia - though it's unclear if they will be performing as Ace Of base or completely new project). First experimental step of Jenny was song "Free Me" that wasn't released but video for this song was shot and out in web. And now Jenny releases her new single "Here I Am", great energetic pop-anthem with big chorus and Ace Of Base classic but modernized sound, and premiere of video is today, watch it below!