Swedish~ Stereo~

Though Darin's new album "Exit" expectation of which is getting warmed up by new presented snippets is gonna be released just in a week here we can check his brand new single for Germany "So Yours" which surprisingly wasn't included in announced album tracklisting but anyway is a very nice turn of Darin's music direction.
"So Yours" moves in a vein of Disney's boyband-soundtrack, Jedward, One Direction... there are many who could adopt this track but it was Darin and we'll see how good it will go for him in this genre.
Also don't miss snippets of few other tracks from "Exit" - "Check You Out" and "Same Old Song".

Today Darin presents new single "Playing With Fire" and it's definitely gonna be a center of attention after a buzz the artist has made in the latest season of Så mycket bättre.
The song is a nice surprise for all fans of "Flashback" album as it sounds like that RedOne stuff properly updated and moving to its own dance-area with a growing heavy electronice dance-verse turning to repetitive catchy chorus. Very radio-friendly track and nice sneak peek of the album "Exit" which is out already on January 30th.

This is the autumn of Darin. Så Mycket Bättre has given him two new Top-2 hits in Sweden ("En apa som liknar dig", "Astrologen") and who knows how many hits new Darin's album can bring. The work has got release date - January 30th, the name - "Exit" and you can also check cover and tracklisting including single "Nobody Knows" and other tracks recorded with some big international producers like Jim Beanz, Sacha Skarbek, The Jackie Boyz and David Gamson here.
Tonight Darin has come back on TV to visit Niklas Strömstedt in Tack för musiken to chat, have fun and surely to sing his own stuff and covers of his favorite songs. Check the whole show here.

The last Darin's Så Mycket Bättre has arrived and this time it was made for The Sounds' "Seven Days a Week". Darin has basically come back to what he has started from. I mean electropop-sound he has made debut at Så Mycket Bättre performing "Stockholm". But while "Stockholm" was utterly dramatic track "Seven Days a Week" appeals to a much lighter and happier side of Darin. Just like the most of covers it sounds like nothing you heard from this singer before but is undeniably another great gem of Darin's collection.
Currently Darin reigns in the top-3 of Swedish iTunes-chart with "Astrologen", "Seven Days A Week" and "En Apa Som Liknar Dig" which officially makes him a king of this season (while Petra Marklund and Laleh can be considred as queens of previous ones).
This Saturday we'll hear the last bunch of covers and it will be the night of Darin's music, if you want to know which songs will be performed by whom check Schlagerprofilerna's post.

How possible is bringing such a different music universes like Darin and Sylvia Vrethammar into one track? You can listen to experiments like this only on Så mycket bättre and tonight we've got a chance to check this one.
Darin has made a cover of Sylvia's duo with Kristian Antilla "Magdalena (Livet före döden)" and though it's probably Darin's closest cover to original track (slightly updated with a bigger drums and electronic basses but remaining the same dreamy summerish light pop-rock track in common) it has turned to be more organic than initial version. More emotional and beautiful but still surprising as you never heard Darin like this before. Check the song below skipping at 7.49.

I'm happy to announce that Darin's "En apa som liknar dig" has got #1 on Swedish iTunes this week and has entered Top-10 of common chart (#7) while "Stockholm" has become #14.
Today we've probably got the most original Darin's Så mycket bättre cover. This time Darin has made a beautiful synth-ballad out of Magnus Uggla's song "Astrologen", utterly dramatic and having a slight musical feeling but turning quite epic in a chorus and Darin's voice is an important key to bring up its epicness. It's just 2 Darin's covers we have left to hear but don't get upset, cover of new Darin's album was already shot recently so it shouldn't take too long before release date will be revealed.

This week Darin has logically slowed down the tempo to make a cover of Miss Li's "I Can't Get You Off My Mind" at Så Mycket Bättre. We had his dance-versions two weeks in a row so another track he worked with has turned to dramatic retro pop pop-ballad reminding me Maria Haukaas Storeng's "Hold On Be Strong". You never heard Darin like this before and it's an interesting experience, my least favorite so far (after "Stockholm" and "En apa som liknar dig") but nice anyway.

New week and new Så Mycket Bättre show bringing the next Darin's cover and another brilliant one!
This week artists were covering Olle Ljungström's songs and I honestly didn't hear any original version but Miss Li and Maja Ivarsson have made a quite pleasant tracks again that I believe will also be successful.
While last week Darin has gone into a heavy electronic dance this time his cover of "En Apa Som Liknar Dig" has gone much dancier and lighter moving a bit in RedOne tempo. And by the way Darin perfectly fits the song in Swedish again. I mean September in Swedish was still different September. Darin in Swedish is 100% old good (but properly up-to-date) Darin and he sings another song that could easily become his next English single.

Sweden definitely missed Så Mycket Bättre! Already the first show has become success with covers from Miss Li and Darin going Top-2 on iTunes and The Sounds' Maja Top-10 - it's the trio I'm mostly looking forward through the season. TV4 blocks performances abroad so I'll unfirtunately need to fish youtube to share some best covers with you. And one of them already can be heard there.
New season has started with Pugh Rogefeldt's day, the artist I honestly never heard about before, but directly nice experiments to listen Miss Li, Maja and Darin singing in Swedish. We've got many Swedish pop-faves turning to Swedish lately - September, Sarah Dawn Finer, Linda Sundblad but probably Darin is the artist you feel this language turn the least. He sounds comfortable in both cases and has made Pugh Rogefeldt's "Stockholm" completely different and completely his own transforming it from a bright retro-pop to a dark haunting track with a heavy beat, a lot of tragedy and slightly RedOnesque synths of "Flashback" album.

It's getting harder to surprise us with some new faces we didn't see on other shows this summer but still we have some nice artists we don't mind to watch once again. Darin has made an energetic performance of his summer single "Nobody Knows". David Lindgren and Miss Li have already performed latest singles. Sons Of Midnight were foreign guests of this week.

Miss Li - My heart goes boom
Dansmedley med Urban angels, P*erfect, Micina och Grounded
Hey baberibas - Dirty dancing
Sons of Midnight - The fire

Time for collecting some great mashups made lately by DJ Nicky, Fred Haze and Dr Pihl. Don't know if I should introduce original songs as all of them are already hits that you heard million times before. But how wonderfully Max Martin-penned "Wide Awake" fits Roxette's "Wish I Could Fly" probably has amazed me the most.

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.

In new episode of Kvällen är din we've got some new dreams coming true with the help of two amazing Idol veterans - Darin and Sibel.
Darin was singing his old hit "Homeless" in duo with Gry (also performing his new single "Nobody Knows") and Sibel has recorded a song with Petra who dreamed her own song to be performed by some celebrity. Check what has become out of it.

New Darin's EP is gonna be released already in April and today the artist has appeared in Nyhetsmorgon to perform his new music.
Grand pop-track "All Gone" is a combination of dramatic strings part, hard beats and epic choruses, it's not a dance track but quite tasty and no that simple pop-delicacy where you can definitely feel songwriting growth of Darin.
Latest single "Nobody Knows" and old track "Runaway" were performed as well.

Darin has made impressive comeback with new dance single "Nobody Knows" earlier this year and now he prepares 2 new mini-albums - one will be out already in April (April 14th as preliminary date) and the second - in August. Darin was working with Tony Nilsson, Lukas Nate Nathanson, RedOne and Arnthor Birgisson among others so this record is one of the most exciting releases of this year.
Yesterday Darin performed some of his old and new stuff in Stockholm's Nalen. You can watch him singing already well-known hits "Step Up", "Runaway", "Breathing Your Love", "Nobody Knows", "Viva La Vida" on youtube. But what is the most interesting he has performed completely new song "Right To This Point" - dark electronic pulsating track with Darin obviously coming back to his dance-area after Lovekiller ballad-period.

Earlier today I told you about Darin's new single "Nobody Knows" and it's already #5 on iTunes!
Hope it will be one of the biggest summer hits in Sweden and now we've got Darin's performance of this song on recent Gaygalan where the artist has brought loads of Melodifestivalen dancers with "In The Club" style choreography, absolutely awesome comeback!

After the year of active work with the most different songwriters on new solo-stuff and music for other artists Darin is finally back with a big dance premiere "Nobody Knows".
It's probably the most clubby record we've heard so far from Darin but still absolutely poppy starting with growing piano boyband intro and bursting in absolutely euphoric (word of this season?) dance-chorus. Darin is one of the most successful Idol-artists and the question is if Melodifestivalen hasn't affected his career negative way. I hope not as it's a gorgeous pop-track Sweden absolutely should accept. Single is out today, so we'll be able to watch its success in iTunes-chart very soon.

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!

Darin is one of those artists we can never get enough in any sort of appearance - on TV, in songwriting credits to songs of other artists and sure in his own new stuff. Thanx God he never makes us waiting too long and after "Lovekiller" album that due to our opinion was one of the most incredible pop-albums of 2010 Darin is already recording new songs with Anders Bagge, Niklas Bergwall and some other songwriters (check more on Poster Girl's blog). One thing looks clear - ballad period is over and Darin turns his face to something completely new, actually Niklas Bergwall? Will ballad-Darin turn to dance-Darin? Ah, who cares - we take it all!
Few days ago Darin has appeared on Channel 5 to perform cover of Lisa Nilsson's "Himlen Runt Hörnet" and trust us it just can't go wrong when Darin makes this sort of intimate piano performance, it's beautiful!

It's always heart-melting when huge artists make some charity activity releasing new music to help those who really need it. This Autumn Idol-show has made successful shot when show participants released song "All I Need Is You" that reached #2 of Swedish chart and a bit later we've got another release from whole bunch of the loudest names of Swedish pop - Ola, Darin, Alcazar, Jessica Folcker, Sarah Dawn Finer, Plura, Velvet, Hanna Hedlund, Martin Stenmarck, Lasse Berghagen, Anna Maria Espinosa, Claes Janson, Dolly Dolores, Jasmine Kara, Anna Sahlin, Kim Fransson, Promoe and Jakob Hellman. Something incredible? Whole project was initiated by Tess Merkel from Alcazar in collaboration with SOS Barnbyar organization to help kids who lost parents or who live in financialy especially problematic terms. The song "Ta Min Hand", very kind hopeful a bit funky and a bit gospel-breathing track, was written by Christopher Dominique and Mårten Edh and released physically and digitally.
Company around "Ta Min Hand" was also supported by big concert in Kungsträdgården and performances on TV and radio, so below you can watch official video for this song and performance in Efter Tio.