Swedish~ Stereo~

Effective energy kick for everyone who just woke up or extremely needs to be musically cheered up!
Treadstone, new Swedish rock-band, is ready for release debut album "A New Day Sun" already this September and the first sneak peek we've got is the first single "Six Feet Under".
Band was formed in 2007 and since that hardly worked on material inspired by 60's rock and some modern American rock-bands getting support of producer Peter Månsson (Darin, Neverstore, Markus Fagervall, Kevin Borg, Erik Grönwall, etc.) and were signed by big label Bonnier Amigo. In 2009 they've made some final touches on the album with band's friends Mats Levén (Yngwie Malmsteen, Therion, etc.), Eric Dubowsky (Weezer, Taylor Hawkins, etc.), Johan Carlsson (Carolina Liar) and started touring and prepare public for very close release of forthcoming album.
"Six Feet Under" is very dynamic powerful song with Foo Fighters' vibes, nice tune and whole bunch of energy highly recommending band as one of the last most interesting and promising rock-formations of Sweden.

It was really tough year for Alcazar. First time in their career they've failed to reach final of Melodifestivalen that turned to a big shock for the band, however their song "Headlines" has become another Top-10 hit in Sweden and band started to prepare for Summer Diggiloo-tour when Lina's problems with health turned to be critical and bleedings causing collapce during one of rehearsals forced her to stop work and Andreas with Tess had to keep giving planned concerts without her. However Summer turned to end happily for the band. Andreas has made marriage proposal to his boyfriend Niklas Hogner during interview on the radio and has got confirmation in a few minutes by phone (they plan to get married next year). Lina has got better, come back to work and moved with Nassim al Fakir in their new love nest in Stockholm. So finally they are back, Gods of glamour and disco - Alcazar! Check their performance at Bingolotto (though I never was a fan of this song, Alcazar lifts every song by performance 10 feet higher).

If you've missed earlier few weeks ago Annikafiore (amazing ex-part of Alcazar) debuted as solo-singer singing Official Copenhagen Pride Song 2010 "Forbidden Love" - dark electronic experimental track that got video-treatment that you can watch below (you can also check new Annnikafiore's site). It's difficult to call hit-stuff but every step of this brilliant artist will always be very welcome in Swedish pop fans community and hopefully we'll get other new songs from Annikafiore soon.

Finally I'd like to share with you these few funny old videos which I've discovered recently made by drag show Diamond Dogs, in first one you can see day of Diamond Dogs with Alcazar and in second Andreas protecting his privacy from Diamond Dogs following every his step.

Polar Music Prize is annual event organized by Royal Swedish Academy of Music when two notable musicians (in popular and classic music) from different countries are awarded already more than 20 years. This year awards were given to Björk and Ennio Morricone. Robyn as one of the most successful Swedish artists were chosen to perform cover of Björk's hit "Hyperballad". Robyn as well was invited to perform on VMA-2010 on September 12, by rumours she's gonna perform completely new mix of "Dancing On My Own" in collaboration with Deadmau5 and now you can enjoy this touching performance at Polar Music Prize.

For those who wants to hear something completely new from Robyn here is brand new collaboration "Bad Gal" with Savage Skulls & Douster that by rumours must be released as bonus-track on "Body Talk Pt. 2" and for sure on Savage Skulls & Douster's EP "Get Rich or High Trying" already tomorrow. It's a little funny electonic experiment that should sound very welcome and proper on new Robyn's album.

And I've got something for dessert. Remember I told you about virtual Live-löpet concerts recently? Have missed Robyn's gig? Don't get upset as you can find some of her performances on youtube and right here.

Every year a lot of Swedish artists represent country in two huge Polish festivals in Sopot (both are very spectacular and you can see many European big international stars there). This year plans of both festivals were broken with reconstruction of Opera Leśna which was always a place for these events. However though Sopot Festival had to be cancelled, another one - Sopot Hit Festiwal was moved to Bydgoszcz and surprisingly visually it almost didn't affect beauty of this show featuring such stars like Ameerah, Locnville, Lou Bega, Safri Duo, Tom Boxer and others.
This time we could see Sopot-veteran Velvet on the stage, I think Jenny performed almost all tracks of her second album for the last few years of her participance so now it was turn of "Dancing With Tears In My Eyes" that she presented in a torn bridal veil, not that we know for sure but obviously it was made by her jealous rivals and isn't it great that Jenny was able to show such a flawless vocals and nice performance after it? Another Swedish contestant was Pauline with one of her latest hits "Never Said I Was An Angel", it was sweet and funny performance with Pauline walking around the stage like she came out there ocassionally, she was waving to audience and asked "How are you?", audience obviously felt fine and Pauline probably even better. Third Swedish contestant was newcomer Carina Dahl with debut single "Screw" and this performance was otherwise overfilled with concentration and energy of the singer, Carina looked and sounded like she was ready to tear stadium to pieces, very appreciated confidence for newcomer! Though Poland didn't appreaciate it enough and Carina took 13th place, Pauline - 8th and Velvet - 7th. However Ameerah with Didrik Thott's written "The Sound Of Missing You" won first round of voting with Anders Bagge's written "Drip Drop" by Safura on 5th and final voting was won by another Scandinavians - Safri Duo so let's hope next year will be more successful for Swedes as every year they try to provide really worthy artists and songs.

Another famous Swedish artist competing in Polish music contest these days was Anna Bergendahl who performed her hit "This is my life" at Orange Warsaw Festival and took 3rd place, watch fan's recorder performance here.

Jenny Berggren is back with new single "Gotta Go" and OH MY GOD HOW GREAT IS THAT!!!
This moment I need to forget all my doubts about forthcoming Jenny's album "My Story" (planned for this Autumn) being experimental work like her first presented song "Free Me", now I'm sure it's gonna be perfect pop-album that had to be released under name of Ace Of Base and be a real worldwide hit.
The song is pure pop-perfectness sounding like more mature and poppier sister of Kylie's "Get Outta My Way" with dramatic verses, hard drums and guitars blown away by gentle breathe of pre-chorus and coming back with catchy dance-base and amazing tune in a full power. I don't know what I like the most about this song. Probably everything!
First Jenny's single "Here I Am" has reached #14 in Swedish chart, let's wish second single will succeed more.

Another huge Swedish export pride of Sweden Ace Of Base presents video for their debut single "All For You" as well today. Not only premiere of new single but also premiere of new band's staff for many who haven't found changes in band yet. Video is black and white and due to AOB's facebook page there's gonna be another coloured version. Girls in underwear and high heels sexually rolling on their big bed, guys are playing synths, paparazzi are hunting for the band to get their photo and finally Ace Of Base's presenting in front of a huge mass of people. I think it's gonna look completely in colour but maybe black and white video is necessary to mark band's comeback to roots in music direction?

Axwell presents new video for his latest club-anthem "Nothing But Love" and though this is powerful energetic positive dance track the video has simple but dramatic plot, it's about life, death, friendship, freedom and all the serious things which hardly would be understood with this kind of song. But finally track is brilliant, it has big international potential and is already played across Europe and video having really high quality gonna be very welcome on music channels so meet next huge Swedish music export "Nothing But Love".

If you've missed opportunity to watch Carola's tribute concert to Elvis Presley and Barbara Streysand in Dalhalla this July TV4 gives you a chance to see it. These artists meant a lot for Carola and her family so this concert was also devoted to memories of her beloved parents.
Carola has started programme riding to the stage on a bike and singing Elvis' "See See Rider" continuing this rock'n'roll part with "Burning Love", "Love Me Tender" (in acoustic), Elvis-medley ("Blue Swede Shoes", "Tutti Frutti", "That's Alright Mama", "Hound Dog", "Shake Rattle and Roll", "Jailhouse Rock") and "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" that she presented earlier this year at Allsång På Skansen. Next part of programme devoted to Barbara Streysand has started from beautiful performance of "Somewhere" with Carola floating on boat from behind of the stage in fabulous dress singing "Happy Days Are Here Again", "Woman In Love" (truly great cover being one of the highlights of concert in my opinion), "Enough Is Enough" (disco-performance that got really great responce from audience), "Papa, can you hear me?" and finished with Elvis' "Walk A Mile In My Shoes" and "An American Trilogy".
On the stage Carola was supported by band of live band and MF-choir professionals Michael Blomqvist, Anna Nilsson and Joanna Eriksson. Really great show proving Carola's status as one of the biggest Swedish stars, watch it here or right below.

Idol's team consisting of winner-2008 Kevin Borg, Melodifestivalen-star Sibel Redzep and new public favorites Eddie Razaz and Rabih Jaber have taken part in new season of "Fångarna på Fortet" competing with team of Let's Dance show participants. Sure it was interesting to see these artists climbing the walls, guessing riddles and passing different challenges to earn enough of keys earlier than their rivals to get to a next level. Eddie Razaz was pure star of team winning two challenges (third was won by Kevin) but it wasn't enough and Let's Dance team continued the game without Idols. In next episodes you'll also be able to see other Swedish stars: Anna Book, Arash, Blossom Tainton-Lindquist (Afro-dite), Denise "DeDe" Lopez, Henrik Rongedal, Joacim Cans (HammerFall), Johan Palm, Jonas "Basshunter" Altberg, Pernilla Wahlgren, Regina Lund, Richard Herrey (Herreys), Sara Lumholdt (A-Teens) and Stefan Nykvist (Larz-Kristerz). Check episode with Idol's team rigth below.

It's just 20 days till new Ola's album titled... "Ola"(!!!) will be released on Septemer 15th and we've got cover and tracklist already today. As you can see below it's just 10 songs but I have no doubts it will be totally great stuff at least 4 of songs was already released and they are not less than good but mostly amazing and I'm not leaving hope (or should I?) that "All Over The World" wil be released as single as its clearly one of the best pop-songs of this year. How come we don't have tracklist of EMD's album that's released already tomorrow?

Just to remind you guys:
1) You can already vote for finalists of Rockbjörnen-2010 here. Will Ola be storming Rockbjörnen again? Which one of Melodifestivalen-2010 final top-3 will win more nominations? Anna? Salem? Eric? Will Oskar Linnros become king of Rockbjörnen winning 3 nominations? Have Justin Bieber and Tokio Hotel any chance against Gaga? It's you who decides so come and vote!
2) Tonight (less than in hour) you have ability to watch acoustic concert of Robyn at Live-löpet interactive event. I'll better cite Rockbjörnen Crew about it:

"Tonight, August the 24th, Robyn will perform a unique interactive concert for fans all over the world. The concert is acoustic, a bit shorter than usual, and provides a way for international fans to get a glimpse of the Swedish superstar. The concert is streamed through a never-before-seen digital setting where the audience can interact with Robyn by using different tools, such as chatting with the artist and other people in the audience using Facebook connect, request a song, clap their hands etc. What makes this concert so unique is that the artists can follow the interaction live from the stage and respond directly to the audience. This is made possible by using real-time messaging cloud which connects thousands of people simultaneously and presents live figures of the interactions taking place.
The concert starts at 8:55 PM CET (2:55 PM east coast time). Tickets are free of coast and available here"

Should I place here some of my favorite Rockbjörnen performances? Here is Dilba with her "Every little thing", it's not as much about performance as about the song, it's beautiful, Dilba is beautiful! Oh how much I'd like to write update article about her, but she doesn't give us a reason. Unfortunately :(

Congratulations from Swedish Stereo go to amazing Anna Nordell aka Anorah - one of our most beloved Swedish singers! Little earlier this Summer Anna with her husband Samuel Engh gave birth to their first child Zelda and you can already see this nice baby on a picture above. We wish this new family all the best and hope that little sweet Zelda will grow as talented and beautiful as her mother!
If you didn't hear about Anorah a lot I'm gonna list reasons why I love this artist so much.
- Vocals for last E-Type's albums "Loud Pipes Save Lives" and "Eurotopia" ("The Predator", "Dans La Fantasie", "Ding Dong Song") and for one of the best Bomfunk MC's singles "Turn It Up"
- Cool duets "Drømmer jeg?" with Danish singer Johnny Deluxe and Finnish Mighty 44 "This Love".
- Participation in Da Buzz side-project Random with 2 very nice singles ("Fly Into The Sky", "Miracles").
- Multiple participation on backing parts of truly greatest Melodifestivalen entries "Hero", "Hope & Glory", "La Voix", "Vad Du Än Trodde Så Trodde Du Fel" and "Finally" (when Anna appeared on the stage herself with Fredrik Kempe).
- Glorious Danish MGP performance with the song "Laying down my cards".

- Loads of vocal contributions for some great releases of Kate Ryan, Da Buzz, Lindsay Lohan, Diana DeGarmo, Celine Dion and many others.
- Single "Där finns du än" that I've received just a few weeks ago and that I really love.
- And finally her absolutely fantastic debut album "Like He'd Do" that unfortunately never was released physically.
Another highlight of Anna's career was last year when after few years of rejects at Melodifestivalen her song "Never Heard Of Him" has leaked to myspace and...was received to MF! Sure soon leak was discovered by SVT and the song was disqualified.
Sharon Vaughn among other songwriters use to work with Anna and recently we could hear new beautiful demo-song "Dreamers Don't Get Much Sleep" sung by Anorah on her myspace page, soon it was deleted and replaced with another Anorah's demo for Delta Goodrem's "The Guardian" that sounds even more emotional and beautiful than final version so come and check it and "Dreamers Don't Get Much Sleep" right below.

This time I'd like to present you quite well-known eurodance-act inside of Sweden but still not so popular outside (except Norway).
Kobojsarna was formed in 2003 by Mikael Danielsson, Emil Carlin and Richard Pettersson and in 2006 they've made a huge breakthrough with hit "Sång om ingenting" marking themselves as new promising followers of Basshunter's and Cascada's direction being immediately signed by Warner Music Sweden. Next singles "Studentsången" and "Jag vet du vill ha mig" in a similar key were released a bit later in 2007 and have also entered Swedish chart.

And though in 2008 band has fallen out of my spot and didn't appear in charts anymore they've been touring, recording, progressing and releasing new singles ("Bambi", "Another One", "Unbelievable").

This year they've started to experiment more with rock-sound (that they've already explored in "Another One") mixing it with club music in new single "Burn It To The Ground" and pure eurodance-joyful "La Perla" - crazy mix of most brilliant moments of Cascada, Basshunter, E-Type, Waldo's People and other modern classic eurodance-acts with killer-beats, computerized vocals and beautiful synth-layer. Debut album of Kobojsarna "World Domination" is planned for the close future and you can legally download "La Perla" here from official site of the band.

This is what's gonna make your morning/day/evening/night a bit happier!
Having no waste comments for it, just watch! :)

Last show of Sommarkrysset-2010 is unforunately over and this time we've got few fresh debutants, few schlager-comebacks and few modern rock-stars.
Amazing Tove Styrke performed her debut single "Million Pieces" and obviously was very welcome by public, girl is still need a bit more confidence working with public but we don't leave any doubts that she's new real diamond of Swedish music. Mohombi currently topping Dutch iTunes chart performed his Summer hit "Bumpy Ride" with a huge charm and brilliant choreography unforunately lypsynching choruses but receiving great public response. Simone Moreno (participant of Melodifestivalen-2006 with the song "Aiayeh (the music of the samba") has blasted Gröna Lund with brazilian rhytms and carnaval spirit spreading tons of energy around. Another ex-participant of Melodifestivalen (talking about 1978 we probably need to write EX in capitals) Pugh Rogefeldt performed retro-schlager "Stockholm". Danish Eurovision duo Chanée & N'evergreen performed their famous hit "In a moment like this" written by Thomas G:Son, Brolle presented his last single "Anything she wants" as popular rock-band Takida with their currently promoted "Never alone always alone" (from the last album "The Darker Instinct") that they recently released in new version.

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).

It happened so that 2 of my favorite rock-covers of world hits came from Sweden and are made by All Ends ("Apologize") and Lillasyster ("Umbrella") (I should also mention blixx - though this guy is from Finland but don't hesitate to check his youtube page to see what a cool rock-covers can some of your beloved pop-songs get). Recently I've found 2 new great covers and both belongs to young Swedish popmetalpunk band Blowsight.
Blowsight was formed 7 years ago by Flavia Canel (guitarist of quite famous rock-band Drain STH), lately she's left but band didn't stop breaking through, in 2007 they were signed and released debut single "I'll Be Around" and quite strong melodic rock album "Destination Terrorville". Last winter Blowsight one by one released covers of two monster-hits previously performed by Britney Spears and Lady Gaga and both became utterly tasty. Right now band's promoting their new single "Bandit For Life" but I'd like to show you previous singles.

Earlier this year popular hardrock-band H.e.a.t. that participated in Melodifestivalen-2009 with the song "1000 Miles" has announced that frontman Kenny Leckremo is leaving group because of problems with voice, moving to UK and therefore having no ability to be a part of H.e.a.t. However the rest of the band decided to move on and immediately started search for a new vocalist. What a huge surprise it was when today H.e.a.t. oficially announced winner of the last Idol season Erik Grönwall new vocalist of band! Erik turned be very successful Idol-winner, 6 of his live covers already got to singles-chart during his participation in Idol, debut covers-album released right after the final reached #1 of albums-chart and second album "Somewhere Between A Rock And A Hard Place" peaked at #2 so probably noone supposed Erik to join some band at least so fast. However both Erik and H.e.a.t. look very optimistic about their union and new H.e.a.t is ready for record of new album and new European and Japanese tour.

Peter Jöback is really on fire this year, being one of the most respectable and beloved singers of Sweden with 20 years career he immediately became central media character when he was announced as participant of Melodifestivalen-2010 with the song "Hollow" of not less than Fredrik Kempe and Anders Hansson. But luck didn't follow Peter till the end and though he was odds favorite right till semifinal where he was unexpectedly beaten by Anna Bergendahl he finished right where previous Peter's song "En sensation" participated in 1991 - at #9 of the final and entered Top-10 of singles-chart.
However Peter was honoured to sing both on the concert devoted to Princess Victoria wedding and later on Victoria's day traditional concert (to be favorite of Royal family is not that bad thing at all, right?), he also got married and the only sad thing is that he doesn't seem to care a lot about his further releases for now. We still don't lose hope and can enjoy his last single "Hollow".

As well I need to share with you this STUNNING cover of "Hollow" made by young artist Marcus Örjehag. Marcus hasn't official page filled with info about him yet, only some Eurovision covers on youtube and this nice meeting with Hera Björk at Stockholm Pride. I bet this guy has very successful future career with such great voice so let's wish him luck!

And finally don't forget to check this pleasant performance of Peter in Grensen with one of his hits "Stockholm i Natt", he seems to be well-known in Norway so it's very nice to see warm responce from audience.

Finally we've got ability to watch Robyn's live performances made for iheartradio in great quality and it's 4 brilliant performances of Robyn's most significant last singles "Hang With Me", "Dancing On My Own", "With Every Heartbeat", old classics "Show Me Love" and cover of Alicia Keys' "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart".
Thanx for the tips to We Are Pop Slags blog.

New large portion of music from Gravitonas is oficially delivered and we're immediately checking what new group's EP "The Hypnosis" is made of!
First track of EP is "Religious" that's gonna be released as the second single of Gravitonas and I would call it light brother of previously released single "Kites" that sounds more mystical and dark. "Religious" is gently starting with touching piano-part full of "My Immortal" sadness constantly growing with a dance beat flashing out with choruses based on choir singing "religious", track is on the same meditative frequency as "Kites" but prefers to charm listener in its own way. After religious meditation "Realm Of The Senses" is more directly appealing, life asserting track that wakes you up with a hard beat and infectious chorus. "Shameless" presented before at Love Stockholm 2010 was expected to be great track but even more - it turned to be the greatest track of EP in my opinion, powerful gutar-based rock-choruses with ecstatic culmination mark completely new side of Alexander Bard's music obviously influenced by rock-roots of Andreas. "Live Wire" sounds quite different from all the rest of EP, it's rhytmic joyfull pop-song with Tarantino-guitar, vibratto-filtered Andreas vocal and alien-computerized "taram-tam-tam" catchy chorus, leaving proper taste to be eager to listen all the rest of tracks of forthcoming Gravitonas' album that's gonna be released very soon!

We've been waiting for this release half of year and finally we've got it! Lucky Twice's new single "Love Song" has leaked on youtube and though the quality isn't fantastic you can really enjoy this track with the sound of debut album of Lucky Twice. If you loved it you will like this song a lot as well!
Just to remind you about Lucky Twice. This Swedish pop-duo was born back in 2006 consisting of Hannah Reynold and Sofie Larsson and being supported by one of the best Swedish producing team (brothers Von Der Burg and Anoo Bhagavan) working with talented manager Victoria Ekeberg (September, Gathania, Nexx) girls immedately rocketed with debut single "Lucky" all over Europe and even on Far East in Vietnam with next single "Hop Non Stop". This one and third "The Lucky Twice Song" single were released and succeeded a lot in Spain but unfortunately weren't received very well in homeland. However debut album "Young & Clever" has become pure pop-joy for all the lovers of September's beats, catchy tunes and tons of sweet Swedish melodics. Since that Sofie Larsson has left the band (currently she's working on new project Twisters wit her brother Johan) and she was replaced by Emelie Schytz, Lucky Twice took quite long pause but didn't break up.
Last winter scandipop announced breathtaking news that brand new band's single "Love Song" is preparing for release, unfortunately something went wrong with it and seems like producing team has changed their minds about release of the single and decision is quite understood as the song is good old Lucky Twice in all their perfectness with joyfull Abbaesque melodies, infectious baselines and great beats but probably band needs some changes to come back different and evaluated. So getting this little tasty pop-piece we're ready to wait a little bit more for girls to come back!

Anna Bergendahl's releasing video for the second single "The Army" from her debut album "Yours Sincerly". Song is written by the same team of Bobby Ljunggren and Kristian Lagerström standing behind her biggest hit "This Is My Life" and the song was album's favorite of many. Quite rightfully I should say. The song goes in the same style as previous single, it's very tender pop-song with magic, fragile atmosphere starting to grow from part of acoustic gutar, march-like drums and Anna's voice lifting energy with beautiful strings and touching, powerful melody in chorus. Video for the song is very summerish, Anna looking gorgeous in a beautiful dress that she presented recently at Sommarkrysset and new hairstyle is sailing in a boat, falling asleep in a grass and walking on a riverside along with her white army of young people with waving flags. Very high-standard work that you could expect from the winner of Melodifestivalen.

Sommarkrysset keeps presenting some great hits of this Summer along with amazing performances. Firstly I should mention premieres of new Darin's song "Microphone" - one of the greatest tracks from just released album "Lovekiller" (Darin also presented his last single "Lovekiller") and comeback-single of Patrik Isaksson "Mitt Stockholm" - quite pleasant melodic song in usual Patrik's style. Lovestoned promoting currently single "Rising Girl" in Sweden has provided joyful performance of the song. Folk's favorite Ola who's ready to release his next album has sung his Summer hit "Overdrive". Fabulous schlager-diva Sanna Nielsen obviously beloved by the crowd presented her Summer single "Devotion" with choir and Celine Dion's "That's The Way It Is". Broken Door performed their hit "Angel" behind girls providing the most weird angelic choreography that could be imagined if real angels came down to dance at Gröna Lund stage but however it didn't make the song less brilliant and I should notice that soon band will release new single "In the Shadow". Rock-band Johnossi has also decided to perform well-known hit of this Summer "What's the point" as Oskar Linnros with "Från och med du" and Kikki Danielsson with "Let this light shine forever". Flo Rida was invited as foreign guest and being very well met by public performed David Guetta's produced "Club can’t handle me".

This year Rockbjörnen seems to collect more pop-names than rock ones. Ola, Anna Bergendahl, Oskar Linnros, Salem al Fakir, Eric Saade, Kent, Mando Diao and foreign Tokio Hotel, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber look especially on fire. I don't even have a clue how Justin Bieber got to (as I thought) Swedish category but seems like this guy has really powerful fanbase in Sweden. Linda Sundblad is going to be host of Rockbjörnen and you can watch interview with Rock-bear and her here.

Best female artist
Robyn
Melissa Horn
Amanda Jenssen
Anna Bergendahl
Agnes


Best group
Kent
Mando Diao
Hoffmaestro & Chraa
The Ark
In Flames


Best Swedish song
Från och med du – Oskar Linnros
Keep on walking – Salem Al Fakir
Unstoppable – Ola
Nothing without you – Mando Diao
Manboy – Eric Saade


Best breakthrough
Oskar Linnros
Eric Saade
Anna Bergendahl
Justin Bieber
Andreas Grega


Best male artist
Salem al Fakir
Oskar Linnros
Lars Winnerbäck
Eric Saade
Ola


Best foreign song
Tokio Hotel - World behind my wall
Lady Gaga - Bad romance
Justin Bieber - Baby
Lady Gaga - Telephone
Lady Gaga - Alejandro

Best concert
Tokio Hotel
Mando Diao
Lady Gaga
Kent
Lars Winnerbäck

Best festival
Peace & Love
Getaway
Sweden rock
Metaltown
Arvika

Creative activity of Eric Saade this Summer is quite high to hardly follow all of events he participates in and it's obviously effective as his album keeps in Top-20 since its release in May and currently its at #5. Surprisingly third Eric's single "Break Of Dawn" didn't succeed quite well and as debut "Sleepless" has spent only one week in chart but one position lower - at #45 and though his team released new mix version of the song being made not less than Le Kid it didn't help a lot. You can check Le Family remix below and convince yourself it's a really worthy track.

Right now Eric starts promoting his new single - effort to comeback to his Manboy-pop with a song "Masquerade" written by Eric with Anton Malmberg and Tony Malm of Le Kid. In my opinion it's not as successful choice as "It's Gonna Rain" but still it's a good radio-pop song - modern, catchy, well-produced and finally it works very well with just released video. Plot of the video continues previous video for "Break Of Dawn" with Eric playing role of servant fallen in love with the noble girl and coming to masquerade ball rushing all of his passion right on her. Surprisingly noble family's not so enthusiastic about this schlager-orgy right in front of all the guests and right after Eric's losing his head on a ball he's losing it literaly in the end of the party.

Last week Eric was also honoured to present his new single on tv-show Lotta På Liseberg and as always performance turned to a huge entertainment for obviously happy audience with nice choreography and costumes.

And finally great news! You have a chance to visit Eric's concert virtually. Set of concerts is organized by Aftonbladet's awards Rockbjörnen and right here you can book your free ticket to Eric's concert that will be held on August 18th at 21 of local time. Among other performers who will also arrange such virtual concerts that you can get tickets for are Mando Diao, The Ark, Salem al Fakir, Ola, Robyn and Anna Bergendahl.

One of the biggest export hopes of Sweden Mohombi with his debut single "Bumpy Ride" gets remix treatment from one of the biggest Swedish dance-acts (am I wrong saying "one of"?) Swedish House Mafia. It's just extended dub-mix and as usual you can't get a real taste till release of vocal version but it already sounds quite promising and includes some epic moments which should come out in all of their brilliance when we'll get radio version. It's out in October and we're adding it to our tips to check in a few months.