Swedish~ Stereo~

Anders Fernette who competed last Saturday at Melodifestivalen with the song "Run" but hasn't qualified further is open for some happier events and announces his new album's "Run" release on March 9th.
It doesn't mean he's over with Melodifestivalen as he's got that taste and eager to come back again due to his blog. But right now it's all about the album and we get two new tracks from Anders - "Echo" and "HeartBeep", both in that anthemic melodic pop-style we'd really like Backstreet Boys to move on (but they don't!) - with huge Swedish-pop schlager-energy and power. We don't know which of tracks we like the most, both tracks are dynamic pop-songs but "HeartBeep" is more romantic with beautiful strings arrangement when "Echo" is more uplifting and fresh by atmosphere. However both are brilliant and you can check them below with current single "Run" and 3 previous singles.

One of our biggest favorites of Melodifestivalen-2011 Loreen has visited studio of XL Live to perform her Melodifestivalen-hit "My Heart Is Refusing Me" with one of her songwriters Moh Denebi in acoustic and to prove one more time what a brilliant singer she is! Tones of broken feelings in every sound and every key especially touching with nothing but guitar and beautiful Loreen's voice. Another performed song was forthcoming single "Sober". Loreen will compete this Saturday in Second Chance round of Melodifestivalen and currently she's the most successful participant of Second Chance on iTunes staying #5 so we really hope she has a big chance to break through to the final.

As probably every week 4th semifinal's has brought us some controversial results, positive for some and negative for some.
Linda Bengtzing completetely unexpectedly has won whole semifinal with her energizer-schlager, song has grown on us with performance that Linda just can't do wrong but we're still a bit sceptic about further Linda's chances remembering about rumours Björkman asked jury not to vote for her in 2008. Nicke Borg was second with rock-ballad and show with holograms which looked effective. Preliminary faves has fallen though. Melody Club winning 50% of public on rehearsal was just 7th leaving behind only Anders Fernette. Julia Alvgard has become the most successful of webjokers but still was left 6th (how I wish it wasn't the end of Julia's career, she was amazing). Dansband-veterans Lasse Stefanz were left 5th and other pre-favorite Love Generation has gone to Second Chance round with Linda Pritchard who was highlight of the night for us. Maybe the song is not Moving On but it was still great and Linda delievered it like world-class diva. By rumours RedOne being impressed by Linda Pritchard's performance is going to meet her in Stockholm for further collaboration. We keep our fingers crossed, Linda deserves it all!

All participants of final and Second Chance are released on iTunes (except "Popular") and Danny is already topping the chart! Nicke Borg is #3, Linda Bengtzing is #4, Loreen is #5, Love Generation is #6, Swingfly is #9 and Sara Varga - #10.

Record of vocal performance of Sara Lumholdt was unleashed by someone from SVT and you can check it here - sometimes perfect, sometimes not really but still we give to Sara's work good response.

You can watch already all performances on SVT channel and decide who will be your favorite on Second Chance round, I'll remind you who will be competing against whom next Saturday.

Yesterday Jenny Berggren has made performance at Danish preselection to Eurovision with brand new song "Let Your Heart Be Mine" that we were excited even before we've heard it first time and the song has turned to be even bigger pop-delight than we expected. Performance was also very interesting with Jenny in gorgeous dress and nice trick of dancers rolling giant lattice behind Jenny that we already really liked! Unfortunately Jenny hasn't gone too far in competition and Denmark has chosen song that sounds like twin of Andreas Johnson's "Sing For Me" but it doesn't make Jenny's song any worse. Check performance below.

Don't forget that tomorrow you'll be able to watch last 4th semifinal of Melodifestivalen in 20:00 by Stockholm time here and maybe tomorrow we'll see the winner of this year. Snippets of rehearsals were presented yesterday and below you can find links and our thoughts about them.
Melody Club - The Hunter - very warm melodic pop-rock track with Spring positive feeling and cool guitar-part, much warmer and schlageristic than we could expect from Melody Club with stable professional performance.
Julia Alvgard - Better or Worse - beautiful ballad performed by sensual Julia's voice with dark blue background and Julia looking very charismatic and nice.
Lasse Stefanz - En blick och nånting händer - "Simply The Best" in dansband-arrangement, sorry, but it's SO not our style.
Linda Pritchard - Alive - song was written by Oscar Görres and Fredrik Kempe so on one hand it's what you could hear from previous presented Linda's songs and on the other hand it's a lot in a style of Linda's "Hollow". It's all about incredible Linda's voice that makes whole pack sounding amazing but remembering that even "Moving On" hasn't reached the final directly we're especially scared for Linda.
Anders Fernette - Run - Anders' dynamic guitar pop that we use to love and this song doesn't seem to be exception, but it's hard to judge by snippet of rehearsal where Anders obviously doesn't feel comfortable vocally, we'll love it in studio-version however.
Linda Bengtzing - E de fel på mig - probably biggest disappointment, it's s classic Linda's track sounding a lot like Värsta schlagern but weaker and without whole-packed performance of Hur svårt kan det vå, still Linda gives it all on the stage but I guess she won't qualify to the final directly.
Nicke Borg - Leaving Home - classic big rock-ballad with loud guitars and everything you can expect, I'm not sure that it's song for Nicke though, I'd imagine it better with some more screaming loud vocal, otherwise it doesn't go whole road for me.
Love Generation - Dance Alone - very effective performance with 90s eurodance song that screams to get into Globen and girls are gonna be on fire this year in Sweden but is the song will be as big favorite as press now claims? I'm not sure, it's still not what Gaga could release but wishing luck to girls, they do great job on the stage and I'm not gonna be against if they'll win whole contest.

After rehearsal due to public voting Melody Club has colected 47% (!!!) of votes today (that is not much less than after Eric's performance), so do we have new favorite that will be able to slip into first place of the final while Danny will be sharing votes with Eric and Sanna with one of schlager-ladies Jenny/Shirley/Linda having big chance to get there? We'll see tomorrow but due to svenskaspel Melody Club currently goes 2nd for the win.

Four new singles covers have come from Danny, Eric Saade, Melody Club and Sara Varga, you can check them above. Melody Club's EP will also contain b-side "Anyone Else" and Joniverse Remix for "The Hunter". Probably now you say - oh my! Is it gonna be the first or the only melomix this year? And I say - no. In a few days mix for Dilba's "Try Again" from Jacob Czitrom is gonna be released and we really like that Romanian-dance sound in verses with dark baseline decorating chorus so fine! And hope it's not the last mix for "Try Again", this song deserves maxi-single after charting so successfully on iTunes. By the way talking about not qualifying songs success in common chart - it's obviously not so well comparing with last year. Week ago Dilba debuted at #20 and Le Kid - at #31, this week chart has only Christian Walz at #30. Hope it'll go better when the rest of the songs will be released after 4th semifinal.

Do you remeber last year's arrival of Viktorious as misterious figure with glam attitude singing about how scandalous he is? If you don't, you can check it in trailer below with snippet of the song "Scandalous" - new Viktorious' present to his fans as part of Viktorious weekends I told you about before.
"Scandalous" turned to be quite intriguing track not failing expectations afterwards and sounding probably like Nine Inch Nails deciding to make commercial pop with heavy synth-production and pretty catchy lyrics "...everybody wanna be Lady Gaga looking twenty in fifty like Madonna...". Really hope song will be next single as it has all hit-signs to me. You can download it here completely for free.

Press has just finished listening to fourth Melodifestivalen's semifinal songs and fourth time we're giving summarizing of what Schlagerprofilerna, Melodifestivalklubben and Tobbe Ek have written.

Melody Club - The Hunter - song sounds more like new Destiny Calling (between The Ark and Toto) with Mika-falcetto but not as strong, it's happy guitar-pop with choruses hard to remember like in Linda Sundblad's song, however fans of Melody Club are gonna like it but chances are absolutely unclear.

Julia Alvgard - Better or Worse - song has got much more proper electrosound-update (than in Jonas' case), chorus is stronger than in many songs this year and could break through in a weaker semifinal but still remembering what a big names compete in this semifinal it may have no chance.

Lasse Stefanz - En blick och nånting händer - as classic dansband-schlager as it can be imagined that sounds a bit in a style of The Boppers and Jerry Williams music in the end of 80s and as it's what Lasse Stefanz are about it can be met very well by their fans but it's not The Playtones and dansband didn't do well last years so it doesn't seem to be top on Saturday.

Linda Pritchard - Alive - classic musical ballad between Moving On and Hollow, it's a lot in Kempe's style with big potential to get a great remix for schlager-dancefloor, builds from the beginning till the end with growing tempo and goes a bit too screaming in the end, it lacks hit-potential of Molitva or Is it true, has not so strong choruses and that's what makes it not obvious contender for Globen.

Anders Fernette - Run - sounds a lot in Anders ealier guitar-pop style with long start in first verse and catchy chorus with "Run" repeated many times, it's like Magnus Bäcklund-2011 and gonna be played on commercial radio-stations very well but it's hard to be seen as the song with strong chances.

Linda Bengtzing - E de fel på mig - 100% schlager that sounds like all previous Linda's hits in one, weaker version of Värsta Schlagern or continuation of Hur svårt kan det va? with heavier production. Song about Linda's man who empties her dishwasher and will fix her car but in chorus she dreams about another guy. Probably the biggest schlager-moment of the year but not clear will public get it as good as previous Linda's attempts as it's too classic Linda even for Linda. Loads of pyro can be expected during performance.

Nicke Borg - Leaving Home - classic rock-ballad in style of Takida with gutars and drums passing Nicke's voice very well, reminding a bit Bon Jovi's "Bed of Roses" and it sounds like everything Road Salt wanted to be but hasn't managed and it smells like schlagerscandal-warning this week, very possible finalist.

Love Generation - Dance Alone - song in eurodance-sound of 90s with modern production (with Bubbles and Da Buzz vibes), hardly to be imagined performed by Gaga but Nicole and Alexandra Burke could easily sing it, song is very good but it's a big question if it's winner of the year and if girls will sing it better than Sara Lumholdt and Marie Serneholt not to fall with it.

Today we'll get new press-reviews of Malmö semifinal but it's already too much of news to hold them so I'll give it article. First of all we've got new covers of Brolle, Anders Fernette, The Moniker and Julia Alvgard, we love Anders' one especially and hope that this bad rock-guy style means we'll get some strong pop-rock entry from him.

The Playtones will release new album "Rock 'n' Roll Is King" on March 9th, it's produced by Jimmy Jansson and Karl-Ola Kjellholm (The Pusher) as their MF-song "The King" and you can already check its snippets below. Unfortunately we didn't find something better than "The King" but the key is that it's not our style, still maybe you'll find something for you.

Rehearsals of the fourth semifinal have already started on places and you can check some pics with Julia, Linda Pritchard, Anders and Love Generation.

Linda Bengtzing has new song "Män i Uniform" on her site and song sounds even better than we've found it before.

And finally exciting news that you could already read on Schlagerprofilerna, Poster Girl and Schlagerfiasko blogs but I should mention once again. Today in new QX-issue it was revealed by Christer Björkman and Edward af Sillén that next rare songs will be out on rarities CD in golden pack of MF:
Sarah Dawn Finer - Not a Sinner nor a Saint
Sonja Aldén - Night of Passion
Sonja Aldén - Invincible
Linda Bengtzing - Headlines
Agnetha Kjörsvik - Hero (Freebee, backing singer of Charlotte in Belgrade)
Brandsta City Släckers - En gång för alla
Timoteij - Run (initialy recorded in English)
Jessica Andersson - Jag ljuger så bra
Fredrik Kempe & Shirley Clamp - Du och jag mot världen

Sarah's "Not a Sinner nor a Saint" was presented few days ago on Poster Girl's blog, so here we show you another track that will appear on that compilation and we like it in this version not less than in final version!

Breaking news of popular Summer live-music TV-show Allsång på Skansen!
New season will get new host and it will Måns Zelmerlöw who'll replace Anders Lundin who was host since 2003. Last year has met critically low viewing rates and loads of press claims show needs to change host, format and everything to keep going (read more about it on EuropeCrazy) so Måns' name was constantly rolling along with this negative wave as new host who could save it all. And today it was officially announced that Måns will be new host. What can we say about it? Sure we're glad as Måns is amazing live-artist and hope that it'll also bring some renovations among invited artists. Usually we don't complain but still it would be better to get more starting and younger artists so we could enjoy some really fresh music in orchestral arrangement through Summer music season.

Two years have passed since Sofia Berntson's performance at Melodifestivalen with her hit "Alla" reached the final but since that it was quite silent around Sofia. Now we've got a sneak peak of her new music.
This year Sofia tried to get into the final of Greek pre-selection to Eurovision in duo with artist Apollon and the song "Vacancy" written by Dimitri Stassos and Gerard James Borg, unfortunately TV-company has preferred other songs (including two by Swedish authors - "The Time is Now" by Johan Ramström, Patrik Magnusson, Martti Vuorinen and "I Don't Wanna Dance" by Jonas Saeed and Pia Sjöberg) but the song will get its release in Greece however and Sofia has already performed it in Sweden as well.
Though it's a snippet without chorus we really like how epic and at the same time schlageristic it sounds, truly stunning comeback from one of our most beloved artists.

It's just a month before one of the brightest export-bands of Sweden - The Sounds will release their new album "Something To Die For" and seems like though first single from the album was "Better Off Dead" band has started promotion with title track "Something To Die For". Recently The Sounds have visited Oslo to perform song in front of tv-audience and it turned to be quite sweet and enjoyable perfomance that you can watch right below.

Last Melodifestivalen semifinal week is starting and what interesting do we have except the fact that this semifinal is gonna be the toughest one by names (but not the fact that it'll be strongest by songs). Well, oddsmakers think that Melody Club and Love Generation have the biggest chance to get tickets to final, when Linda Pritchard, Linda Bengtzing and Nicke Borg have equal chances to be on top but not as big. Lasse Steffanz with Alexander Bard's song are not considered as huge rivals and Anders Fernette with web-joker Julia Alvgard due to bookies are not those you should put your money on.


Biggest favorite of semifinal Melody Club and Linda Pritchard have visited radioshows last days to perform some of their songs in acoustic. You can watch Melody Club singing new song "Dreamers Wasteland" here and Linda with last year's MF-reject "Glorious" here. By the way you can already check new singles covers from both Lindas below and above (thanx for the tip to Poster Girl).


Tomorrow we'll know if 4th semifinal will give us strong rival for Danny, Sanna and Eric by press reviews and today I'm leaving you with new MF-trailer with Brolle.

Mark March 11th in your calendar in red as it's the day when new Danny's album "In The Club" will see the light and do you have any doubt it wil be less than great? We have not as we heard already half of songs and like every of them!
Album will contain previously released Danny's cover of "In Your Eyes", sure Melodifestivalen single "In The Club", "Catch Me Of You Can" performed earlier this year in Poland and surprisingly "Just Like That" (I wonder if this track is in the same version that was released on previous album?) + 4 new tracks that we can't wait to listen to but for now we just can already be excited by the fact of getting studio-version of "Catch Me Of You Can" in our player. What a song!

It's a big week for The Ark as on Wednesday they release their final compilation of best hits "Arkeology" and appear on tv-event that has become probably the biggest highlight of their career (and maybe start of its end?) - Melodifestivalen.
As it was officially announced earlier band will be touring during this year promoting compilation and later will break up forever.
Undoubtfully compilation has become huge present for fans collecting all hits of The Ark and except single "Breaking Up With God" it has included another song "The Apocalypse Is Over" - warm melodic pop-rock track with sing-along chorus you can imagine being performed in company of good friends, probably the best desicion for a final track - to wave goodbye smiling and not leaving fan-army in tragedy but with a feeling of light sadness.
Thanx for the tips about track to Being Blogged.

As we already told you earlier this year Ace Of Base ex-vocalist Jenny Berggren will try her luck in Danish pre-selection to Eurovision and final will be held already this Saturday.
Jenny competes in selection with the song "Let Your Heart Be Mine" written by Swedish Thomas G:Son (author of numerious Eurovision and Melodifestivalen songs) and Danish Jeppe Federspiel (who worked on some latest hits for Medina and Rasmus Seebach and many other Danish artists). But is there anything you could expect from Schlager-G:Son or Medina's author? Not really! Jenny does her own thing and her voice plays a big part in it making the song sounding like Ace Of Base of new generation with modern dance-production and loads of pain and passion in vocal. Thomas G:Son can be very flexible to artists he works with and this time obviously he worked with Ace Of Base-Jenny. Do we like result? Damn, it's brilliant! Though we didn't expect anything less after Jenny's solo-album that we still consider as one of the best pop-albums of 2010. No ideas how far it will go in selection but really hope Jenny's performance will open window to Denmark for her.

Electronic duo The Sound of Arrows consisting of Oskar Gullstrand and Stefan Storm has made a lot of buzz in 2009 after release of their successful track "Into The Clouds" that has gathered a lot of attention in UK and since that moment international pop-community didn't leave hope to get some more. But it has taken pretty lot of time before getting something real, though guys were involved in making mixes for among others Lady Gaga and was recording new stuff for their debut album and today we get first taste of forthcoming album with new single "Nova" to be released on 25th April.
To say "Nova" is all sort of delight for fans of light melodic electopop is to say nothing, it's almost perfect example of what needs to get massive response of Internet pop-world with amazing Swedish-tastic tune put in mix of gentle synth-sound and soft male vocals. Very fresh and lovely, check video for "Nova" right below.

Last Summer Vanessa Falk has appeared with loud premiere of her debut single "Private Party" on Allsång På Skansen and it's really not usual case when you can see on this show debut of young artist with dance-single but it really deserved to be there. Vanessa has impressed us a lot with her stunning vocals and club-track that we couldn't wait to get as new release and finally it's ready to come out along with video that's already presented.
As Vanessa has great vocal for live performance studio-version turned to be not so different. "Private Party" is dark pulsating club-track with Vanessa's sexual vocals and pretty catchy melody packed with "Just Dance" sort of video from private party we wouldn't refuse to be invited to if we could get there listen of other Vanessa's new songs which are due to her Facebook page on the way.

Good news for everyone who's managed to fall fo fresh and amazing artist Viktorious! From now during 7 weeks he'll be making every weekend a bit happier for you with presentation of his new song that you'll be able to download absolutely for free (just for posting notification on your Facebook wall).
First presented track is "Instant Virtuality" - loud energetic pop-rock song sounding like colourful tv-advert soundtrack, for now it's hard to say how recognizable it is for Viktorious, he's just forming his musical image but it's pretty different from what we've heard from him before and it's great he provides this diversity.
After all tracks will be presented Viktorious will release EP "Best Of Viktorious Weekends" with all songs and will go out on tour.
You can download "Instant Virtuality" here and check new small rehearsal video below.

Keeping this year Melodifestivalen tendence to give win in semifinal to preliminary favorites strongly beloved by many Eurovision fans Eric Saade today has got victory in Linköping with his big show and Fredrik Kempe's song "Popular". Unfortunately I haven't fallen for this song and think that Fredrik with Eric are able for much stronger stuff but there were too much of strengths, preparations and sources in this performance so expectedly it was rewarded by public votes. The Playtones have got another ticket with song "The King" also by Fredrik Kempe and I consider it as breakthrough, I'm not a fan of rockabilly but there was pretty a lot of natural drive in this song and performance was colourul, not trivial and confident. Sara Varga (unfortunately I also couldn't fall for her song) along with Shirley's Angels has got ticket to Second Chance. Angels have given as much as it was expected from the biggest professional veterans of MF working in schlager-bubble many years, and it looked much more effective than during rehearsal with girls making some unbelievable active choreography never losing breath or hitting the wrong note. I consider this project as something made just for MF as I don't actually see people buying classic schlagers of Shirley under new name but for MF it was brilliant comeback. On the other hand Sebastian looked more like artist showing new concept what he was currently about outside MF with stylish but static performance and more radio than competition song, he was left 5th. Linda Sundblad with her lovely performance and my personal favorite song of this semifinal was 6th, stunning looking Sara Lumholdt with again really good modern song but maybe again too radio-friendly than for MF was 7th and Simon Forsberg with beautiful ballad sounding like male "För att du finns" - only 8th. However I've got a strong feeling that Simon's song is gonna get heavy rotation on Swedish radio this year, song is really beautiful but this year people don't vote for traditional ballads so we'll see.
Diamond of this evening was schlager-icon Lena Philipsson singing her new single "Idiot" and English rock-version of "Dansa i Neon" - "Dancing in the Neon Light" with Dead By April, really wow-moment of two big professional acts joining forces to outshine whole semifinal, this song is released as single on iTunes (with instrumental as b-side) as all not qualified songs (only Sebastian's single has b-sides - instrumental and singback version), you can watch covers of Linda Sundblad, Lena and Sara Lumholdt which I didn't show you before above.

It's Friday and Lykke Li who will release new album "Wounded Rhymes" just in two weeks rewards all who's gone through this tough week with one of her favorite tracks from the album - "Love Out Of Lust".
As we said before every new little music piece of Lykke Li intrigues us like it never was on previous records and this one is not exception, it's much slower melancholic song comparing with two singles "Get Some" and "I Follow Rivers" but though it's dark it's more relaxing than depressive illuminating with hopeful rays of light and containing loads of Lykke's delicate esthetics.
We love it and get as the best treat for this Friday evening.

Is there any other rock-band in Sweden that can do such a brilliant schlager-rock like The Poodles? I don't really know but their 80s melodic stadium rock always works for me so fine that I can't miss their new release.
This year band prepares new album "Performocracy" (meaning "The power of Performance" or "Rule by Performance") that will be out on April 15th with plans for release in North America as well. First single "Cuts Like A Knife" goes to the radio next Monday and will be released on March 3rd.
"Cuts Like A Knife" is traditional The Poodles-song with ballad piano-intro turning into powerful melodic rock-track with all expression you can expect from this band. Can I not to mention it has pretty cool key-change also?
Vocalist of The Poodles Jakob Samuel will be involved this Spring in Körslaget so this is a good way to promote new album by Körslaget and promote Jakob on Körslaget by new stuff.

Previews of third Melodifestivalen semifinal are out and what do we think about them? Actually I think it feels like the weakest semifinal this year, no big breakthroughs or candidates for the win in my opinion.

Linda Sundblad - "Lucky You" - guitar-pop sounding a bit like sweetness of "Oh Father" (that actually was the biggest Linda's hit in Sweden) with more expression of Pink's "Raise Your Glass", song needs more wild energy otherwise Linda makes it very kind that can be not advantage on Saturday but chorus-tune is very catchy and hope Linda will qualify.

Simon Forsberg - "Tid att andas" - schlager-ballad sounding like male version of "För Att Du Finns", it's big epic and Simon sings it good but without that goosebumps factor of Sonja that puts Simon's chances under the question.

Sara Lumholdt - "Enemy" - when songwriters of this song (who also wrote Eric's "Still Loving It") were published I wished Sara's song would sound in the same style and it does! It's not as dramatical, but modern and with nice show I really wish luck to Sara but it feels like a case when modern commercial songs are left 5th (though chorus in "Battlefield" style is quite catchy).

The Playtones - "The King" - song for rockabilly and dansband fans with hardly memorable verses but strong chorus that sounds like Manboy with high temo and rockabilly arrangement, I'm sure it will qualify to the final or AC, it's stable, atmospheric and catchy.

Shirley's Angels - "I Thought It Was Forever" - classic Shirley-shlager, absolutely what you expect when you hear words "Shirley" and "schlager", chorus really contains power of Shirley schlagers and I love it, but performance lacks something extra to convince me that public will vote for new "Min Kärlek" again. They voted for Sanna but she had more effective performance and more modern arrangement. Don't know what to say about chances.

Sebastian - "No One Else Could" - it's more complicated and more stylish song comparing with last brit-pop try, Sebastian performance with rolling camera around him remains his last perfomance a lot. I found song not so catchy from the first listen though and if it doesn't grow quite good all 3 minutes it can fall.

Sara Varga - "Spring för livet" - very jazzy and atmospheric song, as I'm not so good in Swedish to catch lyrics directly I think strength of the song is there. But Sara looks quite nervous on the stage and I feel like it's not gonna be so easily bought by audience like in Pernilla's case.

Eric Saade - "Popular" - starts with Boney M's "Rasputin" claps and verse breathing "It's Gonna Rain" ended up with chorus that you can sing along with lyrics of Lili & Susie's "Oh Mama" (I wonder if it will cause the same reaction of audience that story of Danny's song sounding like that Nicaraguan band's song). For me it's clearly far from "Manboy" and not entry to win in the final. As I think on Saturday "Popular" will be taken out online you'll still be able to enjoy his song in Lili and Susie's performance here :)

If you previously heard before any of Kleerup's hits ("Longing For Lullabies", "With Every Heartbeat", etc.) what would you expect if you heard about new Kleerup's project Me And My Army? I bet some dark melodic electro-music. At least that's what I expected and what a surprise it was listening to pure indie-pop without hint of overproduced electronic arrangement. Project has appeared last year releasing single "The Only One" and EP "Me And My Army" that marked mostly acoustic indie-sound and now they deliver new album "Thank God for Sending Demons" that goes in the same key of melodic pop-rock music. We thought and we do think that Kleerup is musician who can write very nice tunes but unfortunately not amazing singer and I guess that's what band has learnt from EP mixing now Kleerup's vocal with backing ones and invited singers that undoubtfully was a big improvement.
Today band presents video for Me And My Army's "The Only One" - nice half-acoustic track with nice instrumental, warm melodics and cozy melancholic atmosphere.

Sibel doesn't stop to positively surprise us with every new single.
Not that we didn't like her debut album that was really pleasant warm melodic schlager-album showing all strength and beauty of her voice but what Sibel shows now is really modern international stuff that I think she's more about. After trying Gaga-sound in "The Fall" she turns to different side with powerful guitar-driven pop-track "Wake Up" with delicious production of verses sounding with Rihanna attitude and blasting choruses a bit Pink-way. Gorgeous track and by rumours from Tobbe Ek's blog new Sibel's album will be released soon.
Before I told you about Sibel making amazing piano-covers for some contemporary hits and this time she hasn't left us without this treat performing piano-version of "Wake Up", you can chack it below with full studio-version.

Anders Fernette who will perform next week at Melodifestivalen with the song "Run" written by Desmond Child is almost ready for a new album that due to preliminary tracklist is already packed with some truly stunning hits like "Lola", "Tell Me Why" and "Hungry Eyes". Among songs we saw title "Headlines" raising up so many memories connected with last year Alcazar's meloentry but we couldn't even suppose what Schlagerprofilrna has revealed today!
Anders will release his demo-version of "Headlines" (also recorded by Ola, Linda Bengtzing and Caracola before Alcazar has got it) and it sounds if not better then almost as good as Alcazar's one, doesn't it? Finally "Healdines" is pop-masterpiece and artist with so tasty vocal like Anders can't spoil it. We can't wait to hear "Run" next week as Anders constantly proves great taste in pop-music and undoubtfully his album will be super-delicious.

Killabite after pretty successful release of new single "Follow Me Home" that's currently rolling quite well in iTunes chart has shot new video (that we didn't count to after previous animated cut but underestimated these creative guys).
Video is quite nice and the song has grown even more on us, though it would be weird if project of Alexander Kronlund and Axwell didn't work, so you can already check it below and don't forget to watch their live set with other Killabite's songs on their Facebook page.

It's Wednesday and it's time to read what Schlagerprofilera and Tobbe Ek think about 3rd semifinal of Melodifestivalen-2011.

Linda Sundblad - "Lucky You" - radio-friendly gutar-pop in Miley Cyrus style (with Linda's voice making it a bit Agua but without plastic sound), very light and not easy to keep in mind long time. Middle-eight contains "Hollow" heartbeat. Difficult to see it in top.

Simon Forsberg - "Tid att andas" - classic schlager-ballad sounding a bit dated and reminding MF-ballads of Sonya, Shirley and Erik Linder but it grows more interesting and chorus sounds powerful. In the end we get a loud choir that in a whole pack is gonna give goosebumps if Simon will manage to sing everything on a high level or go to bottom if public will get it like new Erik Linder.

Sara Lumholdt - "Enemy" - modern midtempo slightly breathing with 90s but sounding very fresh with good production, string "You're the enemy, enemy, enemy" sticks very well. You can get it as mix of Rihanna and Evanescence but it needs great attitude and performance.

The Playtones - "The King" - exactly that sort of music you could expect from The Playtones. On one hand it sounds a bit Rednex, on the other hand it's like soundtrack to Batman with strong chorus given to any of Dansbandskampen-bands. Fans of this style will be very pleased.

Shirley's Angels - "I Thought It Was Forever" - midtempo starting from Bond's melodics (sort of Ace Of Base' "The Juvenile") going to something like Barbara Streisand's "No more tears" (also comparison with Enrique Iglesias' "Could I Have This Kiss Forever". Nice production, catchy and strong chorus making whole pack candidate for schlagerfans favorite and modern try to make new "Min Kärlek". Can go road either of Sanna or Bettan.

Sebastian - "No One Else Could" - more powerful and positive uptempo comparing with previous Sebastian entry that reminds earlier music of Melody Club and sometimes The Killers, anonymous verses but strong chorus with wistling line. However it needs really good performance.

Sara Varga - "Spring för livet" - soft voice and vibratto in singer-songwriter pop in Lisa Ekdahl style and bossa nova rhythm sounds like nothing in this semifinal and can surprise by result. Touching lyrics about person who has hurt partner really works.

Eric Saade - "Popular" - so obvious finalist that Eric can even not to come to Linköping. It's stronger than "Manboy" and not so direct, though Eric sings "Popular" not less times than he sang "Manboy". This modern Kempe-pop track starts with Boney M's "Rasputin" beat but you can catch a lot of 80s melodics in it (close to Lili & Susie's "Oh Mama"). So Erik feels like real Danny's rival for the win in the final.

As bonuses take cover of Anniela's single that still keeps in iTunes Top-10 with Christian Walz. And schlager-training video with Simon Forsberg and Anders Fernette here.

Also now it's known who will sing winning song of last year and it's rock-band Dynazty - project of Peter Stormare. A bit weird that they've chosen another hardrock-band after last year Casablanca making "La Voix" but hope Dynazty will make it completely different.

It's time for new schlager-heroes to visit Linköping this week to fight for tickets to Globen and we're getting probably harder pack of names than it was in first semifinals. Eric Saade looks like even bigger favorite by odds than Danny was before 1st semifinal followed surprisingly by The Playtones (because of Dansbandskampen win + Fredrik Kempe's song I guess), Shirley's Angels (oh, this project looks more and more interesting!) and again surprisingly newcomer Sara Varga (Sara sounds very Anna Bergendahl these days so probably repeat of Anna's success is expected here as well). Simon Forsberg, Sara Lumholdt, Sebastian and Linda Sundblad go close next. There are no outsiders by bookies and no outsiders by good sense. Everyone has strong background, songwriters or label support behind. Tomorrow evening we'll hear first press-reviews and maybe then we'll get first winner-feeling responses (what I miss for now).

Takling about news of participants.
Linda Bengtzing joins artists already announced about wish to release new albums before Melodifestivalen-final, her compilation "Min Karusell" except MF-hits/MF-rejected hits ("Hur svårt kan det va", "Värsta schlagern", "Alla flickor", "Jag ljuger så bra", "E de fel på mig", "Victorious") will also include fan-favorite "Not that kind of girl", duet with Brolle "Varför gör du som du gör", "Kärlekens barn" released on separate EP in 2009 and brand new song "Man i uniform" that you can already listen in the end of this video. Some karaoke-tracks are already included as bonuses.

Linda Sundblad after making soundtrack for "Let's Dance" show on TV4 year ago this time has recorded soundtrack for another TV4's "Sveriges mästerkock" show. As we always love Linda the most with a bit rockier sound (yes, she's gonna stay Lambretta-Linda forever for us) we really like it!

Talking about other news. Love Generation's leak this time doesn't seem to cause any consequenses due to Thomas Hall's response to escsweden.com.

If you remember this year we'll get CD with rarities celebrating 10 years of new Melodifestivalen, Sarah Dawn Finer has revealed that it'll include demo for Alcazar's "Not A Sinner Nor A Saint" recorded by her. And you can already listen to that demo on Poster Girl blog!

The Moniker in recent chat with Aftonbladet's readers revealed that he's album is on the way.

Anniela's album will be out on March 14th and MF-single "Elektrisk" will be released there in English version.

Brolle and Anders Fernette also record new albums and Anders already has preliminary tracklist on his blog (with "Lola", "Hungry Eyes", "Tell me Why" but unfortunately without "Don't Stop").

Loreen also revealed she has so much stuff that she could release three albums but for now her closest aim is to release next single "Sober", you can check its acoustic version below. Very beautiful song!!!

Simon Forsberg who will compete this Saturday in Linköping seems to be ready for the fight and due to pics from rehearsals he's gonna be alone on the stage, we'll know for sure later. Check also video from rehearsal and other pics on Schlagerfiasko.

Few weeks ago Erik Hassle has announced about his new album "Mariefred Sessions" to be recorded with not less than Kent musicians, truly exciting colaboration that can't be anything but big future hit and now we can listen to full version of first single "Are You Leaving".
Due to previously published pieces we were waiting for some perfect combination of Kent's arrangement, Erik's voice and melody partly recognizable for both artists and it tuned exactly like we wanted. Very radio-friendly pop-rock track with ultra-tasty electronic sound and our appreciation of Kent's earlier releases spirit in Erik's lovely performance. Check it below!