Swedish~ Stereo~

Pride week celabration has also left its mark at Allsång på Skansen. One of the most well-known drag shows in Sweden Diamond Dogs has visited Måns with funny Melodifestivalen parody. But also Darin has performed his single-2012 "Nobody Knows" and acoustic version of old hit "Why Does It Rain". And Linnea Henriksson was bringing a big crazy fest with her (like she usually does) and songs from her debut album.

Stockholm Pride week has started and the list of guests is more than impressive. Loads of Melodifectivalen participants, some foreign ESC-artists and fresh Swedish names. What I do like the most about this year is that line-up is much younger, schlager-veterans are good but not in that quantity we had last year. So if you'll be able to visit Stockholm these days - do it, if you won't - check for performances on youtube and catch some other goodies released to be presented live during festival.
Team of Thomas Karlsson and Adam Robinson which has got a big premiere with Ms Trez at last year's Pride are back to deliver another Pride's (unofficial but still) anthem with a new collaborator and a new artist - Belle.
Linda Sonnvik that you should know by Dilba's recent hit "Try Again" has joined Thomas and Adam to write a new track "Sisters Anthem". Producer Mike Moorish and photograper Jenny Eklund have completed the pack.
"Sisters Anthem" correspondingly to its title explodes with a dance-pop anthemic sound and clubby production, not too clubby to break away from its pop-concept but quite enough to warm up live-presentation of the song and become a hot dancefloor filler this week at Pride.
Don't forget to check previous Belle's singles "Sound of summer" and "Spellbound".

Robin Stjernberg has finally got his big TV-premiere of the summer single "On My Mind" and we still adore a big voice this guy have. Definitely looking forward to his new stuff. Nanne was mostly presenting songs from her tribute rock-album and you know that this woman is an internal source of energy so this was another time when she was generously sharing this energy with the audience.

Markoolio - En vecka i Phuket
Markoolio - Rocka på
Robin Stjernberg - Michelangelo
Markoolio - En kväll i juni

There are two sides of Andreas Moe. Acoustic one working on his own songs and club one working with different DJs and making dancefloor-killers.
We don't know which one we like more but we definitely want both to keep going.
After Andreas' collaborations with Avicii and John de Sohn he said that he's got a lot of club-offers and now we've got a new summer hit "Cracks" from French DJ Norman Doray with Andreas responsible for a vocal part.
It's another modern club anthem but what I like the most about this track is a glorious disco-smelling tune behind it and Andreas' vocal flexibly fits it very well.

Schlageristic live post. Allsang på Grensen is really good in haunting schlager-stars lately! Carola, Charlotte Perrelli, Eric Saade. Now Norway has invited Pernilla Wahlgren to perform her old but still massive Melodifestivalen hit "Piccadilly Circus". How nice is that! She has also performed Astrid Lindgren-Medley which is actually not as good as her new song would be but still ok.

Alex Saidac presents beautiful cover of Frank Ocean's "Swim Good" and no, it's not a simple acoustic youtube video that you probably could expect.
Alex has taken it all quite serious so we've got a big heartbreaking studio-ballad with a nice video, pack that could easily be her new single and I do hope SoFo records won't miss a chance to release it.
Vocally you've never heard Alex so strong before, she gives LOADS of emotions and voice, dance is over, time for drama. And we love it!

I've lost a path of latest few weeks of Allsång på Skansen and Lotta På Liseberg shows so I've decided to summarize them in one post if you've missed.
Andreas Weise has presented his solo-stuff on both shows - "Another Saturday Night" and his own song "Shine".
Really was nice to see Christer Björkman doing "I morgon är en annan dag" that he was singing back in 1992 at Eurovision in Malmö. Hopefully next year's Melodifestivalen winner will be much more lucky than Christer was.
Icona Pop definitely was on fire and after their Allsång performance were praised by iTunes #1.
Tomas Ledin had a tribute at Allsång and not just Sarah Dawn Finer has come out on stage with him but David Lindgren, Niklas Strömstedt, E-Type and Måns have joined to sing Tomas' Melodifestivalen history here at 47.16. Later you can also watch Tomas singing with Eva Dahlgren.
Sonja Alden has come back on TV to perform lovely summer schlager "Våga" from her latest album in Liseberg, Björn Ranelid has brought sweet Sara Li to Skansen and Caroline af Ugglas doesn't miss summer TV-season since her Melodifestivalen breakthrough.

Hagsätra Sport - Hagsätra IP
Andreas Weise - Another Saturday Night
Christer Björkman - I morgon är en annan dag
Fibes, Oh Fibes! - Goodbye To Love
Tomas Ledin - Lika hopplöst förälskad
Tomas Ledin - Sensuella Isabella
Tomas Ledin - Hitmedley
Tomas Ledin - I natt är jag din
Tomas Ledin och Timbuktu - En del av mitt hjärta
Markus Krunegård - Askan är den bästa jorden
Miss Li - It It Ain't Over
Miss Li - My Heart Goes Boom
Herreys - Hitmedley
The Original Band - Mamma Mia
The Original Band - Dancing Queen
Ann-Louise Hanson - Satellit
Herreys - Diggi-Loo-Diggi-Ley
Markus Krunegård - Sthlm Skyline
The Original Band - Voulez Vous
Tooji - Stay
Tooji - If it wasn't for you
Elisabeth Andreassen - Kärleken och livet
Elisabeth Andreassen - La de swinge
Elisabeth Andreassen - Rör vid min själ
Kikki Danielsson - Bra vibrationer
Sonja Aldén - Våga
Sonja Aldén - Närmre
Andreas Weise - Shine
Andreas Weise - Another saturday night
Caroline af Ugglas - Mitt mentala gevär
Caroline af Ugglas - När orden tagit slut

While we're waiting for at least release date of the brand new Swedish House Mafia's single "Don't You Worry Child" here we get a wonderful TV-footage from Tomorrowland festival in Belgium. It all looks as correspondingly epic to the song and...don't you get Ola's "Natalie" vibes while listening? No? Just a bit? Ok, anyway I do.

The biggest highlight of today's Sommarkrysset was dancing Molly Sandén!
Yes, she has proved on Let's Dance that she can dance but Molly making dance pop-performance? You should check it.
Caligola, common project of Mando Diao and Salazar Brothers, that has made a well international shot lately has presented their hit-single "Forgive Forget". And we've also got Brolle rock'n'rolling and Uno Sveningsson with foreign guests Stooche.

Uno Sveningsson - Vågorna
Frispråkarn och Uno Sveningsson - Lillebror
Stooshe - Black heart

Friday night, start of the weekend, time for a new club anthem from Sweden and it's a brand new track "I'm In Love" from Kastenholt & Dee featuring Troy Jamz.
Two years of duo's career was pretty productive, guys have received support from Swedish House Mafia, were mixing Avicii and have released a series of own tracks and mixes.
"I'm In Love" is their newest work and this is a big 2012 club banger with a catchiest sing-a-long chorus - good pop-tune is what we always appreciated the most.

Moa Lignell becomes the first Idol-2011 alumni who releases the first album after the show while Amanda Fondell and Robin Stjernberg work on new songs after compilations released by them after the final.
The album "Different Path" is going to be released on September 19th and new single "Whatever They Do" is coming out already on August 1st.
You can already pre-listen the song here and by preview it's going to be a very nice Autumn single connecting almost The Cardigans' melancholy with The Cure-breathing sound and Moa's emotional vocal. Still it's much more dynamic than "When I Held Ya". Next big radio-hit in Sweden for Moa? Easily!

"Somebody" becomes another single from Niki & The Dove's debut album "Instinct".
To be honest not our favorite of the bunch but still nice 80s inspired tune that should open project from a slightly different side. Track will get a pack of mixes to be out on August 26th and among remixers you can even see Miike Snow guys.
But the one I like the most is Opera Clock, right that mystic work reflecting Niki & The Dove's atmosphere even better than original version.

After two hit-singles fresh club-project Nause shoots with another new track "This Is The Song" and surprises with a different direction not following common Swedish dance-trends of this year at the same time.
"This Is The Song" feels very The Attic bringing anthemic melodics actively followed by Swedish artists like Star Pilots and Sunblock few years ago. Anyway this is very welcome return and I do hope soon we'll get a vocal edit for this single as well.

Wondering where has the glorious pop-project Nouveau Riche consisting of Ulrich Bermsjö and Dominika Peczynski later replaced by Camilla Brinck disappeared?
Well, Dominika is involved in a trio with La Camilla and Miss Inga, Camilla works on her solo-stuff but what about male part of the band?
Few weeks ago Ulrich has released a solo-album "Those Who Suffer Love" that he was working on with some big names. For example Kent's guitarist Sami Sirviö has produced three songs from the album and among them "After Hours" - soft electronic track with a slight old-school synthpop references. Another well-known name taking part in the project is Titiyo who has provided vocals for a beautiful ballad duo "Tarantula". Ballads get a pretty big space of this electropop-album and probably their melancholic dark sound suits Ulrich's voice even better but anyway here we have the first single representing the album - "After Hours".

Dada Life teases with a snippet of their brand new single "Feed The Dada" co-written by the team you may know by Melodifestivalen's "Det går för långsamt" and "Enemy". I mean Anton Hård Af Segerstad and Niclas Lundin and no, those songs have actually nothing common with "Feed The Dada" as it's right as big rave-party as you can expect from Dada Life.
Vocalist behind the record is Daniel Gidlund who previously was featuting singer on Darwin & Backwall's and Norlie & KKV's records. Anyway what a cool vocal! You can already check longer version in live-set at Summerburst.

Wondering if we've got the first big TV-performance of Idol-2009 winner Erik Grönwall as a H.e.a.t. frontman? Seems like. Band has visited Sommarkrysset to perform their latest single "Living on the run". We've also got Melodifestivalen runner-up Danny with a special jazz-version of "Amazing" and Markoolio singing his "En vecka i Phuket".

Has Sweden decided to turn from a pop-country to a club-land lately? I can't remember when we had so many worthy dance-releases and new names in club-music. Anyway Marcus Schossow is hard to call new. He has already managed to release a number of singles, loads of mixes and even an album out back in 2009.
But we discover him just now with a new single "Who You Are" - club-track very nicely growing from a dreamy soft intro with beautiful male vocals to a big stomper. Video is untrivial and quite worth watching, particularly the end so don't miss it.

Basic Element couldn't leave this summer without a new anthem and here it is - "Shades"!
Though we didn't hear a lot from the band lately we're happy to announce that Basic Element has made a wonderful 2012 update of the sound they were attaching last few years (which is connected to changing label I guess). They have left the best though - big catchy eurodance choruses but have turned rap-part to a more Taio Cruz-smelling and have wrapped the whole thing into a trendy club-piano. The result is definitely one of the best tracks released by the band lately.

Urban Cone have already delivered some really nice videos in the past and they don't stop presenting another one - alternative version of their "Kings & Queens". The song is still a big adorable piece of electropop crossed with indie-music.

Another Idol-2010 alumni (after Linnea Henriksson) releases solo-album and unexpectedly (as there was no sign of making new music from him) this is Andreas Weise coming 4th in that season.
Andreas' debut album "Andreas Weise" (containing 8 new songs and 4 covers) is out on August 24th and it's Figge Boström who stands behind it. You should know Figge's Melodifestivalen history well - "You're My World", "In The Club", "Spring För Livet", "The Boy Can Dance", "Salt & Pepper", "Amazing". While we hardly imagine Andreas with Danny-sounding stuff something in "Salt & Pepper" or "You're My World" style should sound perfect for his music image that he presents with a new single - cover of Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night" that has turned to latino-track with a nice retro-feeling.
Tomorrow we're going to see Andreas in Alsång På Skansen. Too many Melodifestivalen-2013 signs?

Finally Erik Emanon's EP "The Art Of Letting Go" is out and we directly add Erik to a (very short for now) list of the most innovative pop-artists of 2012 from Sweden.
Surely you haven't missed his debut "Breaking Love" and have noticed the track "Finding Neverland" I was talking about last week. EP has also included intro and two more tracks - "Nangijala" and "When Roses Wither" making a better picture of Erik's music concept. I'd call his direction as a disco-dubstep with a good pop-feeling and "Nangijala" not overloaded with electronics (what you can easily expect from this genre) and delivering a great tune is probably the best example of summarizing what "The Art Of Letting Go" is.
If you're pop-fan who hasn't managed to get on board of a new dubstep-era yet you absolutely should check this EP and realize how nice this new period can be.

After a break up with Love Generation Mikaela Urbom manages to present her third single already though starting her own career last autumn.
It all has started with eurodance moving to r'n'b-sound of "Watch Your Bitch" and now we've got a ballad!
"Fucked Up" is a modern expressive pop-ballad bringing up a rocky mood, epic beat (adding a slight "Halo" natural progress feeling) and wonderful dramatic tune produced by Marc Jameson who worked with Christina Aguilera and Madonna earlier.
Thanks for the tip about this premiere to a constantly interesting Allure Of Sound.

One of the biggest Swedish club-acts - Swedish House Mafia has announced its split what has turned into a big scandal for their fans around the world.
Trio is going to do tours till the end of this year having three massive gigs in Stockholm's Friends Arena (which anyway has caused a tickets sales chaos among those who wanted to get to the show). Guys don't stop working on a music together but seems like Swedish House Mafia is not going to do any touring.
During their latest performance in Australia Swedish House Mafia has premiered the newest and probably the final single "Don't You Worry Child" which hasn't got a release date yet but is already promising to be a hit joining warm Swedish melodics with a huge club anthem-spirit. The quality of the video is not fantastic but you can feel the taste.

Sommarkrysset was overshadowed this time by Victoriadagen concert but still it had some really interesting artists you could read about on this blog a lot.
Pernilla Wahlgren has taken out all her schlageristic energy to perform Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money.
Timoteij was also singing a cover of Ted Gärdestad "Oh Vilken Härlig Dag" and their latest single "Ta mig till sommaren".
Lilla Sällskapet that I recently told you about have performed their newest track "Jag vill ut".

Ane Brun - Do you remember
Timoteij - Oh, vilken härlig dag
Far East Movement - Turn up the love

Birthday concert of princess Victoria has gathered a stunning line-up this year consisting mostly of young artists - Loreen, Danny, Agnes and Ulrik Munther.
Danny and Loreen performed both of their Melodifestivalen songs.
Loreen has made an alternative live-version of "My Heart Is Refusing Me" with drums (she uses them quite often lately) and "Euphoria" in a style of her performance at Allsång På Skansen.
Danny was making "In The Club" in a live-band version and has prepared a ballad-verion of "Amazing" with violins and unexpected gospel-choir that he has released this Spring on EP with mixes.
Ulrik sang "Soldiers" with "Sticks and Stones" still not needing a lot of hapenning around to make the performance very alive and to give a lot on the stage.
Agnes performed "One Last Time" and "Release Me", today she had...hmmm...pretty experimental eye makeup and the first long dress (the second disco-dress was ok) but was wonderful vocally, she has definitely got artistical level-up lately.
You can watch the whole concert here and separate performances of Loreen below. If we'll get some other clips on youtube or SVTPlay soon, I'll add them too.

How long didn't we get a new explosive eurodance-anthems in French? Kate Ryan leaves French area so we need someone to fill this space and we've got a great candidate!
Ace Wilder was born in Sweden but raised up in Florida working as a child model, show jazz dance but also developing songwriting skills. When Ace has come back to Sweden in 17, she has started her own band PMD still working at the same time as a songwriter for other artists.
Now she releases her solo-single "Voodoo Amore" connecting tenderness of French lyrics with a really massive stomping choruses into a real dance-monster that Kate Ryan undoubtedly wouldn't mind to get but it's performed by Ace, it sounds ace and we're officially excited about this artist.

Linnea Henriksson has already proved how flexible but still wonderfully individual she is when she did covers during Idol. And today we've got a chance to come back to that time when Linnea entertained the audience with covers stuff.
The singer has visited Swedish radio to perform... "Lambada"! Linnea and "Lambada"! Could there be more incredible pop-combination? Anyway the cover has turned to be a 2 and a half minutes of a great Friday mood, you just sit and smile widely listening to this...not even a song but a vocal play in acoustic.
You can also check Linnea performing new single "Lyckligare Nu" here.

While Vincent and Erik Hassle are looking for alternative ways of developing their sound and pushing away from a pop-direction they've started with we eagerly need some new artists who can bring some fresh and untrivial indie-pop breath in Swedish music.
Johan Reinhold is not a newcomer in a music-industry, he was working with different projects quite long and even has got into nominees list of Grammis-2009.
Last year he has offered a new track "Shoot Me Down" as a free download on his site which resulted in a great interest and rising fans-audience. Now he's signed by Warner and the song that helped him to break through hopefully shouldn't be wasted.
"Shoot Me Down" is utterly dramatic and beautiful piece of indie-pop moving with Johan's almost raggae-manner vocals to epic verses in a slow motion. It sounds like Erik Hassle's "Hurtful" 20 years older but still not less beautiful and having as direct hit-feeling as "Hurtful" had.
Don't miss a pack of "Shoot Me Down" mixes on Johan's soundcloud page.

Sofia Olsson has become a runner-up of True Talent, TV-show that I was already told you about mostly in connection with our big discovery Emma Fällman who has released a single "Call Him Dick".
Effie was our second favorite also coached by Danny and her "Grenade" cover has definitely won a lot of hearts.
Earlier this year Sofia has started solo-career as Effie with a single "Killing Me" - modern r'n'b ballad, direction that she changes completely with a second one - "Sorry Sack of Ooh, Ooh".
Like in a case with Emma's track it's another retro jazz-party single though this song is diving really deep and uncompromisingly into a swing atmosphere of 30s. With Emma's unusual vibrating manner it creates something really special. Wondering if she's going to explore this field more?

New Molly Sandén's new double single has arrived, two tracks "Unchained" and "Mirage" from her latest album were chosen to give her album a further promotion.
"Unchained" was pretty logical choice from the very beginning, soft pop-track dancing with tears in a Robyn's drama way, not too clubby and not too tragical. "Mirage" brings out our ballad-Molly back growing slow while you expect it to turn into a schlagertastic dance but it doesn't happen. Instead it's marching till the end very beautifully and emotionally. And again it's very dramatical like the most of Molly's stuff but we love drama and we love Molly!

When you start thinking Loreen can't surprise you with a new performance of "Euphoria" she enters the stage and shocks with her energy and THE VOICE! This time she has also made an absolutely epic performance with drums explored by her in a mini-tour she makes in Sweden right now.
We've already got Diggiloo-gang with Charlotte Perrelli, Jessica Andersson, Markoolio, Magnus Carlsson and The Moniker. Kalle Moraeus was making his "Underbart" and playing with Alexander Rybak.
Norlie & KKV were a nice live-discovery for me and Lasse Stefanz, well, not the stuff I usually writes about.

After a pretty long pretty period of complete Mohombi's silence we get his second fresh collaboration right after a clubby collaboration with Craig David "Addicted" I was talking about yesterday.
But this time it's something pretty unexpected. Mohombi was working with Romanian artist Celia on a track "Love 2 Party" - dance-song clicking those buttons which make Romanian pop-music successful internationally lately, it's light, folky and even containing dubstep. Yes, I'm surprised too, Romanian pop can join dance, folk and dubsteb.
The song was produced by local musician Costi Ioniţă and you can watch a whole team on a photo above and don't forget to check the song!

While Sweden was choosing its new representative at Junior Eurovision month ago some participants of previous selection was already working hard on a solo-career outside of contests.
Young Isa Tengblad who tried last year with a song "Nära Dig" has prepared some pretty adult stuff to keep on breaking through.
In June she has released a single "Bomb" which represents Isa as a Swedish answer to Natalia Kills with it's dark adrenaline teen-riot pop.
Another song that will be released a bit later is "What Are We" - American radio-pop ballad in Jojo-style, very warm and qualitative.
Do we have a huge rising Swedish pop-star on the wait? We should wait and see but anyway it's gonna be an interesting trip.

Lotta has no luck with weather this year, viewers again had to sit in raincoats so the artists had to bring the heat with their performances.
Today it was all about musicals. Lotta has arranged a mini-musical with participation of all artists. And except always fabulous Charlotte Perrelli and Youngblood singing songs from their latest albums we had a nice portion of ABBA with Göteborg's Opera singing Chess and Lotta making "Dancing Queen" karaoke.

All Stars musical
Charlotte Perrelli, Lotta Engberg, Youngblood, GöteborgsOperan - Musikalmedley
Yougblood - Du är så underbart rar
GöteborgsOperan - Vem ser ett barn, Mitt hjärtats land
Lotta Engberg - Dancing queen