Swedish~ Stereo~

Third wonderful summer show of Swedish TV comes back this week and it's a Sommarkrysset starting with Andreas Lundstedt singing his Melodifestivalen entry "Aldrig Aldrig", eurodance-veterans Haddaway, La Cream and Dr Bombay, Alina Devecerski with her big hit in Sweden "Flytta på dig" and Moa Lignell performing "When I Held Ya".

Haddaway - What is love
90-talsmania med Dr Bombay och Tess Mattisson

Last summer Man Meadow has presented their comeback single "Eaten Alive" which has become a cover of Diana Ross' old hit. New Man Meadow's single is another cover but for a track much fresher - Danish Eurovision fans favorite of this year, Ditte Marie's song "Overflow" written by Swedish team - Mike Eriksson, Johnny Sanchez, Hanif Sabzevari and unfortunately not qualifying to Baku.
New version of the song was produced by Soundfactory and though not a miles away from the original one but has become a bit dancier. So hopefully the track will get more attention in Sweden now.

Latest Swedish pop-sensation Icona Pop work on their international breakthrough and you can already find girls in US Dance iTunes chart at #30. Not bad for a newcomer?
Today girls have visited Nyhetsmorgon studio to also make a tv-promo in Sweden and have performed their latest hit "I Love It" and previous singles "Nights Like This" and "Manners" giving loads of energy and isn't it actually wonderful how their voices work together live? I love it!

Well, well, well! As I was telling yesterday new Annikafiore's EP with remixes "Recovered" has included her two solo-versions of Alcazar's track "Crying At the Discoteque" the band has got a worldwide fame with. Top-10 hit in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Finland and Top-20 in UK, Spain, Austria, Australia, Netherlands and just a #29 in Swedish chart? Ok, Sweden has praised the band with loads of love later.
Back to Annikafiore, today you can pre-listen her versions from Antti and Giuseppe Piol Piol and buy them here. If the first has become more disco-house-sounding, the second has got a raggae relaxed atmosphere.
As a bonus I'd like to attach - video of the first Alcazar's line-up performing at the festival in Italy. Do you believe more than 10 years have passed?

We keep folowing fresh artist Lune that first we noticed in collaboration with Adrian Lux, then with a wonderful single "Let Go" and this year Lune has also released "Blood To Play" - rockier track that we've liked much less but we're happy to announce Lune is back to her electronic sound with a new single "Don't Be Sober (This Is Not A Lovesong)" which has already got a premiere on the radio and you can listen to it below skipping at 43.24.
"Don't Be Sober (This Is Not A Lovesong)" is a heavy synth-track with a nice pop-tune and very lyrical mood.

Last year Annikafiore has premiered the result of her solo recording process in a form of EP "Preaching To the Choir" that gets a follow-up this year. New artist's EP "Recovered" is a compilation of remixes including something really special for Alcazar's fans.
Annikafiore will release two versions of "Crying at the discoteque" made with her basic collaborator Antti and Giuseppe Piol Piol - DJ who has made the remix of her track "Don't wanna C U 2nite" which has got a new video, haven't you missed the old one?

You can remember that last year Eric Saade was visiting one of Norwegian biggest summer live-shows Allsang på Grensen with his Eurovision-entry "Popular" doing pretty big success among his young audience.
This year his has another hit in Norway with local star Tone Damli and Eric has appeared in a new season to perform his previous single "Hotter Than Fire" along with "Imagine" (also visiting morning show with Tone).

UPDATE: Another big show Eric has performed at was Vg Lista. Result? "Hotter Than Fire" goes Top-20 on iTunes and "Imagine" - Top-5.

The Sound Of Arrows promotes their latest album "Voyage" with a video for another track "Conquest".
If you haven't heard this song yet but know what genre band plays in you should directly think about some dreamy synth-pop stuff and you won't be too far from the truth but comparing with previous singles this one is much lighter and more dynamic with a pretty catchy chorus.

Popular summer SVT show for kids Sommarlov brings some of Melodifestivalen artists of this year to a young and pop-loving audience.
First of season's guests were Mimi Oh and Youngblood who have performed their songs competing this Spring and you can also watch Youngblood doing their newest single "American Girlfriend" on a third video at 7.54 and Mimi singing "Säkerhetsnål" here.

I usually don't write about this sort of electronic music that feels a bit experimental, a bit too simple but which shoots in Sweden very well sometimes. So I didn't plan to write about this song when I've heard it for the first time. But if the song keeps rolling in your head few days it's the sign you should infect someone else with it.
Frej Larsson, Linus Eklöw and Carli Löf have come up with a common project to release the single "EPA" which sounds like some folk-tune wrapped in a modern electro-sound performed in a special melancholic manner that makes magic with a dancing apathetic girl in indian feathers. You're addicted from the first listen so think twice before clicking play button.

Finally it's here!!! Brand new Vacuum's single "I Loved You" is presented in a form of a new video directed by Katarina Di Leva.
Our expectations wasn't wrong, the song has got a massive influences from "My Whole Life is Leading Up To This" dark synthpop-era. At the same time in common track is very light though being utterly sad and thoughtful and even if the video tries to make it desparately dark. Vacuum can go acoustic, can go electronic, can go any experimental way but the final result will always stay truly beautiful and artistic.

Big movements in Sibel Redzep's career. While September has stopped working with her manager Victoria Ekeberg, Sibel has joined Victoria's current team (SOJO, Gathania) so we can expect some great dance stuff from Jonas von der Burg soon.
Anyway Sibel doesn't stay idle and DJs try to get her voice on their records.
David Sjödin and Andreas Backwall have released a brand new house-track "Alone" with Sibel. Ragged piano chords and beautiful dreamy tune creates very light summerish atmosphere. Track feels like a distant relative of "United As One" but it's a definitely different story. Check radio-edit here.

David Lindgren proves his Melodifestivalen success with release of debut album "Get Started" that has directly gone to #1 of Swedish chart. David hasn't disappointed his new fans and has recorded a poor dance-pop album with a bunch of well-known songwriters - Tony Nilsson, Fredrik Kempe, Niclas Lundin, Anton Malmberg Hård af Segerstad, Niklas Bergwall, Darin and Andreas Moe.
Currently along with "Shout It Out" David promotes opening track of his album "Rendezvous" also co-written by Fernando Fuentes and moving in same party-vibes. David has performed the track recently in Nyhetsmorgon with "Shout It Out" and "Perfect Crime".

This Spring Swedish House Mafia has released a wonderful video for their new single "Greyhound" that has become collaboration with Absolut vodka. Now another Swedish band works with Absolut and this is indie-group Little Dragon I didn't write about before but you should check their beautiful work with Crystalfilm.
"Sunshine" is a gentle piece of meditative electronic pop, very atmospherical and very Telepopmusik which goes with another wonderful video that you can check below.

Always great to discover talatented Idol artists from the past starting worthy solo-career after the show.
Carl Chapal was one of participants who hasn't made it to final stage in 2009, it was probably the toughest year but he has started working on solo-stuff and has released the single "Water" last year. The track has become a soft electronic modern-ballad, not what usually directly hits pop-fans hearts but Carl fixes it with a new EP "Fuel" including 3 awesome pop-tracks - summerish party-track "Fuel My Fire", explosive radio-friendly dance-anthem "Own The Night" performed in duo with Paula Lobos and big "Halo"-smelling pop-ballad "K.O".
"Water" was also included but it's all about "Own The Night" for me, why isn't this song international hit yet?

Big start for another annual TV summer-event has happened today.
Måns Zelmerlöw opens new season of Allsång på Skansen with a bunch of popular artists - Agnes, Laleh, Markoolio, Sean Banan and Magnus Uggla were joined by E-Type and Edit Backlund to perform their own hits and folk's karaoke. The biggest performance of the concert for me personally was Agnes' "One Last Time". Girl has really given a lot of extra singing it live with a lot of heart and looking fierce. Banan was also on fire but he always is!

Trio of La Camilla, Dominika Peczynski and Martin "Miss Inga" Johansson has got the official name Happy Hoes and presents already the second single - "We Rule The World".
La Camilla has got loads of promotion participating in Let's Dance so it's time to use it releasing new stuff. Later this year La Camilla will publish her autobiography "Adjö Det Ljuva Livet" which is said to be out also as audiobook and music fans get a new dance track already out on iTunes.
Sound of the new single is pretty far from "Don't Try to Steal My Limelight" though, it starts with almost "Popular"-like electro-pulsating verse blossoming in a sweet sing-a-long chorus which is more home disco-party than a big club-anthem. Also nice to hear La Camilla doing Army Of Lovers-style sexy La Camilla-rap. Caramba!

What we would expect the least is that Le Kid's debut single "Mercy Mercy" will get a new life 2 years after its release in Sweden. But why not to promote old stuff if the song still sounds fresh and guys get more interest in Germany?
So the song was a bit updated and now has a new video, not that we didn't like the old but this one is more proper for international breakthrough so here it is - "Mercy Mercy" version 2012.

Eric Saade's fans were waiting for a new music video of his Idol since the last Autumn when he had a collaboration with Dev on his single "Hotter Than Fire". Right now Eric has another international duo and this time with Norwegian star Tone Damli.
Guys have released the summer single "Imagine" and have shot not less summer video in Ibiza. So you get a full pack of sea, half-naked bodies, boats and hugs-hugs-hugs.

Roxette and Basslow's remake is proven combination of something truly poptastic and at least not any worse than original version. Last year Peter Boström has made re-production of Roxette's "Speak To Me" and now band releases new single - track "The Sweet Hello, The Sad Goodbye" from Roxette's "Joyride"-era of 1991 (to be exact "Spending My Time"'s b-side) and again this is Peter who takes responsibility for the single version. The song supposed to be on band's latest album "Travelling" but wasn't ready in time but thanks God it's released on its own.
The result has become incredibly EPIC, this is epicness of "Speak To Me" blown up by the rockiness of the track and gosebumps-giving layers from producer of "Euphoria". With the beauty of original version's tune we get one of the most beautiful singles in Roxette's discography that you can listen below.

Remember Helena Gutarra? The Voice alumni who has released a song "Tongues Of Fire" this Spring which has raised an interest of blogging sphere and has become her first solo-single.
The band LaPuma Helena has originally came from presents a track "Chasing My Lover" (that they previously performed live) on their soundcloud page.
If you liked "Tongues Of Fire" you should also like this track which goes more in The Ark/Melody Club area with a heavier pop-rock sound though.

New exciting project VAZ premieres a video for the single "Miss Frost" that has already found a way Swedish radio listeners hearts.
Sisters Jenny & Cecilia Vaz say they catch inspiration from Creole music and this is actually very interesting how wild folk-drums in a nervous verses grow into a wonderful warm pop-tune of choruses.
Video has become a really dark journey through the woods and waters of VAZ mystic world and a great presentation of the project.

Hooray!!! Lotta på Liseberg is officially back-back-BACK!!!
What does it mean? It means that we're gonna get weekly dose of our beloved artists open air in Liseberg.
First ones were Di Leva and Lisa Miskovsky with their Melodifestivalen-2012 hits, Lill-Babs with a good old schlager "Jag vill leva" and Danish guest Rasmus Seebach with our most beloved song "Sirenerne" out of his latest stuff.
Watch other videos here.

So we've guessed right in February, sneak peak of new Jonas von der Burg's record has become a new Gathania's single "Nobody's Breaking Me" and now you can watch full it in a full length online.
What is actually Jonas von der Burg? It's an utterly enjoyable pop-stuff with a slightly dramatic vocal line and nice production tricks sticking in your head immediately. And this time you have a full pack with Gathania's vocals that we loved since we've heard her performing what has become her debut single "Blame It On You" afterwards at a little live-event.

Anna von Hausswolff has become a big indie-pop discovery of 2010 in Sweden releasing Top-5 album "Singing From The Grave" and follow-up "Ceremony" is coming already in the middle of June.
The first track from the album - "Mountains Crave" is already unleashed with a brand new video shot in church Annedalskyrkan that works beautifully with a soulful atmosphere of this Florence + The Machine-breathing big ballad.

Loreen has become a real fierce of MTV World Stage festival held last week in Göteborg. And like a proper upcoming European star she has made performances of all her songs anything but ordinary, all three released hits "My Heart Is Refusing Me", "Sober" and "Euphoria" were performed in special versions. "Euphoria" has got a big drums intro and was finished as a hard electro-mix. "Sober" has turned to an utterly dramatic pop-rock song and "MHIRM" was presented in live-session dreamy version.
All we have is videos recorded by public so I could only choose videos of the most appropriate quality of what we have. But it's still worth watching or at least listening.
The event is said to be aired on MTV internationally later this year but I can't find official information when.

Brothers Rob & Nino are ready for the next single, new video and debut EP to come out very soon.
Track "I Just Wanna" is complete and there's already fundraising campaign started so you can read about plans regarding video and help guys to make it as cool as it's intended here.
Back to the song, it's a dance-pop anthem with Taio Cruz-smelling verses growing into a heavy dubstep-chorus. Yes, Sweden loves dubstep these days and pop-stars from Timoteij to Charlotte Perrelli explore this genre. We don't mind as long as pop-component is prevailing and tasty.

Niki & The Dove has taken a part in SVT's live-project "Sinding Sessions" making beautifuly shot mini-gig with some of their best music pieces "The Drummer", "DJ, Ease My Mind", "Mother Protect", "The Fox" and "Tomorrow", TV-viewers have also got a chance to watch a whole process of making this gig meeting artists.
Right before release of band's debut album "Instinct" in May guys have also presented whole album online and I can already say it's gonna be one of the best Swedish albums this year, the most fresh and innovative so far for sure.
Below you can watch Niki & The Dove making nice a bit Björk-sounding performance of "Mother Protect" and beautiful ballad version of "Tomorrow". Watch the whole gig here.

One good friend of mine has recently given me a tip that I find quite interesting to share.
Tony Nilsson isn't unknown name for Swedish pop-fans - "Natalie", "The Queen", "Headlines" "Lovekiller", "Hit The Lights", "Like Suicide"... For the last five years Tony had a lot of big hits and his latest "Shout It Out" for David Lindgren is one of the few Melodifestivalen-2012 survivors still holding position in singles chart.
Probably you heard a sneak peak of Tony's solo-career with pre-Ola version of "Natalie" but I suppose you didn't know about Tony's The FullRange Project he had a single "Electric Boogie Nightz" and even a video out with back in 2004. Anyway here it is sounding pretty Ola meets Secret Service. It doesn't have the level of Tony's latest pop-masterpieces but it's good and after all it's interesting to check the stuff some established artists and songwriters have grown from.

Edith Backlund was caught in our spotlight in the end of 2011 when she has released EP "Kill The Clown (Act One)" and later when their collaboration with Magnus Uggla has turned to a schlageristic The Voice duo with Carola.
Now Edith is ready for a new full-length record, her album "Kill The Clown" is out and the single "Over Now" representing it has got a video treatment. "Over Now" is a cinematic jazz-pop ballad with a heavy dramatical feelings and light trip-hop vibes. Video emphasizes theatrical atmosphere of the song setting up a common thing as a very gentle work of pop-art.

Potential of new Swedish Adele Miriam Bryant is caught abroad even faster than in her homeland.
The artist who has recently released debut single "Finders Keepers" has signed the contract with EMI Music Germany and in the end of June song will also be released there. Miriam plans her debut album for this autumn and currently enjoys growing success of her single on the radio.
Now you can finally watch a brand new video for "Finders Keepers", very atmospheric work and very beautiful song.

Neneh Cherry has become a big international artist in 90s, it's really hard to find people who never heard singles "7 Seconds" and "Woman". Unfortunately her solo-career has also stopped in 90s.
Last 10 years Neneh was involed in collaborative projects with CirKus and now she has recorded the album "Cherry Thing" with The Thing. It's a pretty experimental jazz-work that will probably won't be easy to understand for unprepared listener but guys have even shot the video for the mix of the album track "Dream Baby Dream" where you can see Neneh herself. So absolutely should check it and decide what we think about this work.

Not wasting too much time on the single "Tabu" released in the middle of May Timoteij girls presents another track "Ta Mig Till Sommaren" from their latest album.
In my opinion better single choise and wonderful summer track which sounds like Timoteij's answer to Agnes' "Release Me" and September's "Satellites". Not so much of folk-Timoteij but it's a pure Swedish pop with strings, big growth and euphoric choruses. What's not to love in this pack?

Adrian Lux releases a big single-pack for "Burning" - track from his debut album featuring Dante.
Single has included mixes from Carli, Lucas Nord and some other tracks you can check fishing soundcloud.
Worthy pack and worthy single's choise which is actually Adrian Lux in his best, melancholic non-aggressive club-music with always brilliant atmosphere pulling you inside infallibly.

Andreas Moe makes the first big step and the first big point in his discography releasing debut EP "Collecting Sunlight" on June 25th.
If you've been following singer last months you should have caught tracks from EP Andreas has presented in original or acoustic versions online - "Stay so we stay us", "My side of the bed", "Half a Heart of Love", "Snow" and also acoustic version of his collaboration with John de Sohn "Long Time".
Title track "Collecting Sunlight" is already released as a single and gets lovely animated video that you can already watch here. The song is a very gentle soft pop-track co-written by Andreas with Niclas Lundin, Maria Marcus and Hiten Bharadia and representing Andreas' current music direction and upcoming EP very well.