Swedish~ Stereo~

New Arash's single "Melody" is out and you can not just download it for free on his site but even take part in his new video filming yourself singing along with this song.
Advert of this company deserves special atention containing Basshunter, Lovestoned's Emilie, Velvet and Keenan Cahill singing "Melody", you can watch it below.
Talking about the song - if you're our constant reader you can find it familiar and you'll be right as before it was released as "Josephine" by DJ Mendez earlier this year. Arash has made it more electronic and has brought his own Eastern vibes into it so hope he'll manage to make it summer hit before summer has gone.
Thanx for the tip to Ehsan and check arashfans.com for more information.

If you told me in the beginning of this year that Eric Amarillo will be all over Swedish TV whole summer I probably wouldn't believe you because we were waiting for The Attic's comeback too long and even if they'd be back we can't imagine dance club-project could be such a huge folk-favorite in Sweden even if it's all sorts of genial. However yesterday we had Eric appearing at Sommarkrysset and performance obviously had a great audience response. It's especially pleasant to see Jessica Marberger at backing vocals after her participation in Shirley's Angels and singing behind Azeris at Eurovision, don't you think? Sanna Nielsen has performed her newest single "Can't Stop Love Tonight" (expectedly) and Robyn's "Be Mine" (absolutely not! But very emotional, strong and bringing reasonable schlager-doze into a whole thing). Finally schlager-veteran Tommy Nilsson was singing two of his biggest hits - "Öppna din dörr" and "Dina färger var blå" with Eric Amarillo accompanying with flute.

Sanna Nielsen - Be mine
Sanna Nielsen - Can't stop love tonight
Eric Amarillo - Om sanningen ska fram
Tommy Nilsson - Dina färger var blå
Tommy Nilsson - Öppna din dörr

You should remember about Kat Krazy remix of Rye Rye and Robyn collaboration "Never Will Be Mine" that we were so positive to, now the team has come up with whole promo pack of mixes and you know what? This pack feels really tight and there's no fillers actually, our fave is R3hab remix - more dance, more Robyn and less rap, that's how we start our Sunday morning!

This year hasn't started successfully for Sebastian Karlsson, after he has missed Melodifestivalen final and his latest single "No One Else Could" hasn't charted Sebastian needs much more work to bring him back on a way to massive audience and he works on it preparing new stuff for upcoming album that will be due to his own words more synth-sounding. Today he has performed new tracks "Growing again" and "Under the fire" in Nyhetsmorgon, it was in acoustic so final version can sound quite different but at least we can confirm that due to what we've heard new stuff's gonna be at least pleasant but hopefully properly strong - not less than "No one else could" that we still consider as one of Sebastian's best songs.

Sebastian Karlsson - No one else could
Sebastian Karlsson - Growing again
Sebastian Karlsson - Under the fire

Ex-Highlights vocalist Andreas Wistrand is going solo. His story in the band has started right after Andreas' participation in Fame Factory back in 2004, they've founded it with successful Melodifestivalen-songwriter Henrik Sethsson ("Something in your eyes", "Lyssna till ditt hjärta", "Vindarna vänder oss", "Innan natten är over") and finally last year Andreas has got a chance to enter the contest supporting webjokers MiSt lifting the song up to a new level but still it wasn't enough to qualify to the final.
This winter Andreas and Highlights has gone different roads and here we have new Andreas' solo-single "Over Now" showing his new music image.
"Over Now" is a beautiful ballad with classic piano-based verses going modernized "Last Christmas" meeting "Anyone Of Us" in the chorus, warm and lovely track presenting charming Andreas voice very well.

Ulrik Munther's acting superstar presenting stuff from his upcoming album track by track but this boy is superstar for real! It's less than month before album release and we already heard 6 of 11 songs and can say that album's getting more and more exciting.
New track "Alburn Road" holds pop-rock direction of whole album, summerish candy for American radio stations, we love it and with all that promotion Ulrik currently gets visiting the most popular Swedish tv-shows like Allsång på Skansen and Lotta på Liseberg we can guess (at least we really hope) everything's gonna go well for Ulrik's debut.
By the way below you can watch Ulrik performing another new song "Sticks and stones" and his biggest hit "Boys don't cry" at Sommarlov.

New Avicii's hit "Fade Into Darkness" previously flowing around as "Penguin" is oficially released and gets a nice video.
When we've heard it in instrumental version for the first time we honestly were not properly excited but have given it more attention when Leona Lewis has presented it as her new single "Collide" and now when we get vocal version performed by Andreas Moe we're finally convinced this is really gorgeous dance anthem that's gonna be worthy club-hit of this season.

Army Of Lovers' La Camilla and Dominika Peczynski performing together on the stage! Just idea of it should already sound all sorts of fab for any Army Of Lovers' fan!
Recently girls joined Miss Inga to perform their latest collaboration "Don't Try to Steal My Limelight" at QX event in Stokholm and we completely forgive them miming all the way, you know how great they still can do it after watching the video and it was definitely pleasant to see again.

Broken Door who released their latest single "Hey You" this April calls Mattias Rask who was one "Angel" remix EP contributors and has mixed "In The Shadow" as well to create a new pack of this song's mixes.
I should say it's absolutely anthemic! Actually we weren't disappointed by any of Mattias' works before but it's such a grand floorfiller that we have no words, you should listen!

Look!!! Look!!! Look!!! Our girl goes international!
Alex Saidac that we still consider as the best Swedish pop-newcomer of 2011 after release of her incredible single "We Shine" teams up with such a massive names like Pitbull and Benny Benassi to create amazing dance record "Put It On Me" which has recently leaked and has immediately spread like a virus all over the web.
For now we don't have idea how it will be released but we know how big Pitbull these days and Benny Benassi's name weighs not less and we're glad Alex becomes part of this inevitable success!

Today Sommarkrysset was visited by another three popular pop-guests of different genres - September, Anne-Lie Rydé and The Moniker.
The Moniker with newly grown huge beard was performing his Melodifestivalen entry "Oh my God!", Anne-Lie Rydé was singing medley of her old classic hits and September... It was all about September for us!!! God bless Swedish TV for inviting Petra as with Allsång På Skansen's performance this was another one for a long time when Petra could present "Party In My Head" and "Mikrofonkåt" with big dancers gang making fab choreography and looking absolutely amazing! It's just too good, check yourself.

September - Party in my head
September - Mikrofonkåt
Anne-Lie Rydé - Medley
The Moniker - Oh my God!

Back in April we told you exciting news about BWO's ex-vocalist Martin Rolinski's comeback. It feels like it was yesterday but autumn is soon and like it was promised new Martin's track "Blame It On A Decent Matter" is ready to mark new solo-era of Martin's music career and it's presented today!
And guess what? Martin is signed to Alexander Bard's label SoFo Records and due to snippet of "Blame It On A Decent Matter" he's not going to change his music direction as the song sounds really BWOesque, it's electronic, it's poppy and only listening to this snippet we've realized that actually we're missing BWO (though last years of project's existance we were supporters of their break and developing members' own careers).
Next week Martin is gonna be one of Lotta på Liseberg's guests so we expect him to perform new song live and we can't wait to see new image of Martin (hope it'll be somewhat new though if you're hardcore BWO's fan you probably hope it won't).

First time we've heard this collaboration we were expectedly not so impressed. Take one of the biggest hits coming from Sweden and cut part of the song out replacing it with completely not interesting rap-part.
Now Rye Rye's single built on Robyn's old track "Be Mine" gets Kat Krazy Remix-treatment and it gets so much better to our ears! It's not just a dance mix, it's a really good modern dance mix you should always release if you need to save your single for real. Girls, you should've started with this!

Oooh, look, what a fab opening this year's Gothia Cup games have got!
Swedish House Mafia's monster-hit "Save The World" was covered (isn't it complete amazingness already?) by Andreas Wijk! And with Andreas' vocal it has become even more interesting.
We said before and we say again this guy has star quality appropriate to the level of Swedish pop-boys who always used to get loads of international attention with their stuff and professionality so Andreas pop-blast turns more long-awaited but inevitable.

In June we told you about the latest Anderz Wrethov's single "One Love One Goal" that has become Sweden's anthem at FIFA Women's World Cup this year.
Single was released and got the video with Anderz finally getting chance to present himself visually for the wider audience. As Sweden has taken third place in championship he also was invited to TV4 celebration ceremony to perform the song and has taken our sweetheart Johanna Elkesdotter to support him on backing vocals. Lovely performance and amazing team!

New week - new pleasant summer evening in Skansen with Måns Zelmerlöw and his star guests.
This time bunch of artists was completely uncategorizable. Bo Kaspers Orkester performed their hits "Undantag", "I Samma Bil" and "En sländas andetag". Melodifestivalen-2011 participant Pernilla Andersson was singing her "Desperados" and "Som en ö". Vocalettes (female trio that you probably haven't heard about but you should know one of its members - schlager-veteran Caroline Jönsson) and Lena-Maria Klingvall were covering old songs. Petter was making "Stockholm i mitt hjärta" with Vanessa Falk. What?! Oh, Vanessa!!! It was unexpected!
Finally fantastic Malena Ernman was as fantastic as she usually is presenting her new single "I det fria" and making fantastic performance with Måns! You can watch whole show here.

Recently I told you about utterly sad news about Faye Hamlin leaving Play and Emelie Norenberg replacing her and forming new Play with Sanne and Anaïs. We didn't have any chance to check what Emelie was about before, just saw her performing with Sanne behind E-Type in the end of last year but it was lip-synching performance and it didn't help us actually.
Now we get this chance to get to know Emelie and it's not Play's new single.
Stellar Project in collaboration with Swedish artist Elodie presents brand new dance single "Strong" featuring Emelie's vocals and it's quite stunning dance track! Imagine Daisy, Velvet and new dance-Dilba in one pack, it smells with expression and tunefulness of Swedish pop, breathes with Romanian fresh club-trend and in common gives just what we were missing a lot lately. So we give warm welcome hug to all three artists and wait for some new goodies from them.

Remember few days ago I've presented snippets of mixes for a new September's single "Party In My Head". Full versions have surfaced very soon and they are absolutely adorable.
Our fave here is Adam Rickfors' one though Coucheron mix is not that worse actually and Punchy remix is quite interesting. Ah, we love them all and you can choose your fave right now!

Lykke Li's creative flow seems to be just endless lately. We've got whole bunch of singles, videos and finally absolutely amazing album artist presents on different festivals during this summer. Critics love Lykke, audience loves Lykke, we love Lykke as well!
In response to all this love Lykke presents another single from her album "Wounded Rhymes" - "Rich Kids Blues", quite logical choise and one of the strongest tracks on the album, slightly Tarantino-atmospheric and icluding deadly sticking chorus.

Let's start new week with some refreshing sounds from Veronica Maggio.
DJ King Rollo has made really nice mashup of Veronica's grand hit "Jag Kommer" with Lady Gaga's "Judas" and it's something that's gonna light your day up a bit.
If you're in a mood for something more melancholic and romantic you should check new Veronica's cover of Petter's "Måste vidare". She worked with Petter before on a track "Längesen" and this is another example of how good this artistic combination can function.

Some releases are just too good and too Swedish-related to keep them away from our blog and if it's not some new Max Martin penned Britney's single that you can read about anywhere but still utterly pop-delicious, here we are!
American artist Jeff Marino a.k.a. Qpid, ex-half of duo QWAN, starts solo-career and make a wise step coming to Sweden to work with local songwriters on his new stuff.
His first single "Under the Radar" is written by not less than Tony Nilsson, Darin and Teddy Sky (RedOne's collaborator on latest JLo's album) and produced in RedOne’s Cosmos Studios by Tony. You can't directly recognize any of these people if I'd ask you but it's a stunning dance track with clearly felt Swedish influences.
Can we expect something like this from Darin's comeback? I really hope so!

Amazing fresh dance-artist Vanessa Falk attracts more interest in Swedish media and public in common. Completely not surprising for us. Even if you release two brilliant singles like "Private Party" and "Beg Like A Dog", it's always hard for dance-acts to break through from scratch in Sweden. But there's definitely progress in Vanessa's growth as a star and this time she was invited to Nyhetsmorgon to perform both of her singles.
Vanessa used to perform "Private Party" in acoustic before so this time we were delighted to hear it and "Beg Like A Dog" in original versions with fantastic Vanessa's live performance.

Around month ago we've told you about big news coming from both pieces of ex-Rebound Rabih and Eddie and now we have the first result of their solo-attempts - debut single of Rabih Jaber.
"Millionaire" is modern pop-track produced by Raaban (new rising name and very productive songwriter in Swedish pop-music) that sounds in pretty recognizable Rebound style flirting with Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again", still dancey and powdered with Rabih's special voice we always loved so much.
"Millionaire" video is featuring Ana Gina, old Rebound friend. If you remember they've made funny video for "Hurricane" before.
Solid debut and fresh Swedish pop-star we're gonna keep our eyes on waiting for the new stuff.

What are you gonna do if you're 61 years old schlager-veteran and you're invited to the show where Eric Saade and Jedward use to perform? Well, you can try to sing Lady Gaga to keep it trendy and funny.
What if your angels have left you but you're gorgeous pop-diva with old Melodifestivalen hit still beloved by folk? Just do what you have to do, babe, and don't forget to make it all a bit more creative with, for example, Håkan Hellström's cover!
What if you're Takida and you've got to one stage with Christer Sjögren and Shirley Clamp? You're in trouble guys. It's Sommarkrysset. Probably the weirdest ever.

Christer Sjögren - Bad romance
Shirley Clamp - Min kärlek
Takida - Haven stay
Shirley Clamp - Kom igen Lena!

It feels like September's comeback in the end of last year has gone not quite like it was planned but not bad at all.
Petra Marklund's first fresh single "Resuscitate Me" was released simultaneously with her incredible explosion "Mikrofonkåt" in Sweden. It has built strong Swedish hit-base with "Kärlekens tunga" and post-Så Mycket Bättre‏ duo with Petter "Baksmälla".
Now September's back to presentation of her original English "Love CPR"'s material and next single to be released is "Party In My Head" co-written (just like "Resuscitate Me") by Wayne Hector, Cutfather and Lucas Secon with Daniel Davidsen and Peter Wallevik.
Initially last September's album was all about Patric Sarin + Jaakko Salovaara produced "Heat Rising" and "My Emergency" for me - absolutely mindblowing powerful dance-tracks that I still do hope will be released as the next singles.
"Party In My Head" is not that sort of songs striking you directly, it's modern disco-track softly charming with special mix of lyrics, Petra's attitude and gentle electonic sound. It's purring, it's light and it's finally winning you over.
Below you can check samples of coming mixes pack (from here) and they sound more than promising!
Currently September's on tour across Sweden and if you miss September live below you can check lovely set shot in Borås, thanx for the tip to our lovely friend Nata.

After mostly male line-up of last Allsång På Skansen this week Måns' had loads of female guests and every artist has made big breakthrough this year.
Melodifestivalen finalist Sara Varga was singing her monster radio-hit "Spring för livet" and new song "Förlåt mig älskling", Veronica Maggio presented "Välkommen in" and "Jag Kommer" from the last album, Dansbandskampen winners Elisa's performed main track of their album "För det här är bara början" with some other dansband-covers (Elisa looked fierce in a Sanna way I should say!). And especially interesting was to listen another big hit of this summer - Eric Amarillo's "Om sanningen ska fram" in rockier live-arrangement and brand new song "50 kvm" (very Orup-sounding). Måns' cover of "Human" was also quite adorable.
Karaoke with folk wasn't interesting this time but you can check it along with whole show here.

I haven't told you about some last MF-rejects for ages. Since SVT has stopped publishing Top-100 entries lists it has turned difficult to speculate finding some equal songs titles on new Swedish pop-albums. But thanx God some artists and songwriters reveal information and sometimes even songs which were not accepted and it's a positive step to promotion the stuff in our opinion. Much better than leaving track on a shelf when you can find the audience realizing SVT was wrong rejecting it and falling for it while last MF's spirit is still warm.
Today I'd like to tell you about MF on the wait candidate Erika Selin (we all know she'll be there sooner or later, right?).
Lionheart's Marcus Persson (CC&Lee, Zekes, Drifters, Donnez, Baby Alice and mixes for Måns Zelmerlöw and Basshunter), Robbin "Raaban" Söderlund and Irini Michas ("I'm in Love", "Alla", "La noche es para mí") have written a song "Rise" for this year's Melodifestivalen. It was performed by Erika Selin. Unfortunately song wasn't accepted but Markus has published the track and you can listen to it now.
"Rise" is emotional massive r'n'b ballad sort of Linda Pritchard's "Glorious" (that was rejected one year before by the way) performed with all the power and beauty of Erika's fantastic voice. If Ryan Tedder was from Sweden his songs would sound like this. We love it, promise you will also!

Danny has become a new guest of Sommarlov this week.
Schlager runner-up of Melodifestivalen-2011 enjoys all folk's love which use to go to all schlager runner-ups every year and popular tv-shows don't miss a chance to invite him. Surprisingly it was lip-synched performance that was quite weird for us as we know that Danny can sing very well live. We've got loads of energy and two great latest Danny's singles "In The Club" and "Tonight" instead and we're ok with it.

Mohombi is here, Mohombi is there...
Weekly Mohombi update, guys! This year's Norwegian representative Stella Mwangi has released lovely album "Kinanda" that's going to please fans of her African rhythms and has turned her music direction to more dancey comparing to previous hip-hop album, it's quite worthy for everyone who liked her grand single "Haba Haba".
One of the tracks guests is our beloved Mohombi.
"Hula Hoop" is absolutely adorable compromise between Stella's recitative manner verses and Mohombi-style catchy choruses. Both artists has amazing talent to create utterly infectious tracks so I warn you - "Hula Hoop" is gonna get deadly stuck in your head. Think twice if you're gonna risk to listen to this song.
Regarding other news - earlier we told you about Mohombi's fantastic leaked track "In Your Head", recently another version "In Your Bed" has surfaced, it's got more dance but easily recognizable RedOne new sound. It's regularly uploaded and taken down from youtube so you should google if you want to check it.

International success alert!!! In a moment like this I ask myself why Sweden having best artists and songwriters in the world doesn't provide dozen of new international stars weekly.
Chris Mhina who previously was noticed as actor and was featuring some other rap-artists tracks presents his debut EP "Chapter One – Paper Work" produced by Lukasz Duchnowski, K.J., Leonard Halling and K-One (we told you about his fantastic track with John L month ago). EP has become double shock for us, firstly because it has turned to be incredibly qualitative mix of r'n'b and dance music we could expect from some big international names, secondly because you can download it for free on Chris' site.
Track that completely has blown our mind is K-One produced "Last Dance" - real diamond of EP including both r'n'b and dance sides of release into international hit-sounding track artists like Ne-Yo would kill for.
I also extremely recommend clubby track "Do You Wanna" and don't forget to check previous Chris' single "Taking Pictures".

New alliance of Danny & Freja keeps on preparing ground for music breakthrough in UK with once again reborn hit "If Only You" from Danny's debut album.
Single will be released on July 22nd and will include Vegas Baby!, Silcox & Eyes and Club Junkies mixes, you can already check samples here. Recently Silcox & Eyes Dubstep Remix was presented in web together with 7th Heaven mix and new acoustic version of track presented.
We use to fall for this sort of acoustic versions so we absolutely couldn't miss it, all mixes are undoubtfully worth attention so hope you'll enjoy all the stuff.

Ex-Army Of Lovers member Michaela de la Cour strikes with another new single "Robot Lover".
Michaela doesn't seem to even try to make anything mainstream in her solo-career, every new track goes experimental in this or that direction. Firstly we had rock-attempt "Back On Earth", later clubby "HomoSapien" and now another dance-track that goes dancey again but sounding like heavy club-mix of some Madonna's dance track - dark, hot and mysterious.
"Robot Lover" is written by Michaela with her boyfriend Stefan Axelsson and due to her blog they have more stuff to come.

Melodifestivalen-2011 finalist Brolle has become one of Sommarkrysset guests this week, Swedish reincarnation of Elvis was going long road to schlager and schlager has accepted Brolle and his song "7 Days And 7 Nights".
Like all schlager-finalists Brolle hasn't missed a chance to release new stuff after the contest and his album "Burned By Fire" has become his best charted one (#4). After Elvis-overdose in "7 Days And 7 Nights" I was afraid I won't be able to be unbiased to this album quite long (though I really like some of previous Brolle's pop-rock songs). However today I've made me sit and listen to this disc in its full length. And you know "Burned By Fire" has become quite strong compillation of The Cure's melodic rock ("Shotgun"), Andreas Johnson's catchy guitar pop ("Sweet Josephine"), summerish acoustic-based tracks ("Lover's Battlefield", "Since You've Been Gone") and 60s inspired rock'n'roll ("Inch Of You", "Anything She Wants"). One of album's highlights is track "Burned By Fire" that sounds so much like Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" that you can't smile listening to but along with another ballad "Johnny Cash" they made some especially precious and aesthetically beautiful part of the album.
You can check Brolle's performance below together with Kikki getting schlager-veterans Jessica Marberger and Caroline Jönsson behind and foreign guests Jedward.

Brolle - Shotgun
Jedward - Under pressure (ice ice baby)
Jedward - Lipstick
Kikki Danielsson - Wagon wheels
Kikki Danielsson - Varför är kärleken röd

Popular Swedish project Teddybears is back with new material and new commercial strategy.
Patrik Arve, Joakim Åhlund and Klas Åhlund. Even if you didn't hear these names before you definitely should've heard Klas' hits for Britney Spears, Ke$ha, Jordin Sparks, Kylie Minogue, Sugababes and other huge names in music industry. But the latest big success of Klas undoubtfuly was Robyn's album "Body Talk" that became huge success in Sweden and far outside.
Recently Teddybears have signed contract with street fashion brand WeSC that will be their new distributor and band plans to release new tracks in EPs which will get directly to WeSC boutiques.
First "No More Michael Jackson EP" is already available to listen and it's a pretty special mix of electronic music inevitably reminding you some "Body Talk" sounds and Swingfly manner hip-hop, sometimes it's getting thoughtful, sometimes heavy and agressive but it's definitely not gonna disappoint fans.

Alex Lamb, one of pretty significant freshest stars of new Swedish DJs generation, delivers release of new single "So Good" that we absolutely can't miss.
Alex has got into the spot not so long ago being signed by Top DJ Records and releasing amazing single "Freedom" featuring Christina Skaar. Since 2009 he's got whole bunch of singles but lately we were noticing his name mostly on mixes packs for Alex Sayz and September.
Now we get a new fantastic solo-track "So Good", Alex refers to Axwell and Eric Prydz as the main sources of his inspiration and it's felt quite well on this track, dreamy dancefloor house-killer builds adorable combination with Easton Davis' vocal and video has a top-quality as well.