Swedish~ Stereo~

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.

Vdeo snippets from rehearsals of the second semifinal are out and here's what we get.
Ulrik Munther has presented new radio-hit sounding in my ears like JoJo going pop-rock. I don't think it's going to get MF-winner buzz but it's very well done and should be adored by fans on summer pop-fests.
Top Cats are Playtones without Kempe (read as without extra-something), rockabilly-stuff, not "The King" level in my ears.
Sonja Aldén comes back with a new Bobby Ljunggren schlager-ballad and Bassflow production, it's nice and should sound touching with its lyrics about passed away close person but after all flops of schlager-ballads can it have really huge success on MF?
I didn't imagine Andreas Lundstedt can surprise me singing dance-music I never heard from him but he has managed, it's a sweet melodic electro-dance pop with schlager-touch, probably what Shirley should sing in 2012 but it's lacking Shirley's drive unfortunately.
Timoteij have beautifully developed tune with energetic folk-schlager sound, I wish loads of luck to girls but I've got a feeling it won't be as big fans favorite as "Kom" was.
Nice to see Tony Nilsson persenting something fresh for David Lindgren, modern dance-song that would be a good album track for Darin or Ola but is it going to work on MF?
Mimi Oh has presented very nice electropop mix of what Linda Sundblad and Le Kid were about last year, you will hardly find from her 80s-vibes here but it's catchy, stylish and I really like production, her best single so far.
I was initially sceptic to Di Leva, I rarely put his stuff in my player but I think his arena-oriented positive pop will work good on MF. And here I've changed my mind right like I did when I've heard Thorsten Flick.

Swedish TV-channels keep presenting some nice music surprises and we've got pretty...unusual combination of artists from TV4. Shirley Clamp and Thomas Di Leva. Seems like this company was missing Dead By April to make idea of this concert even more weird but as Di Leva has become a new schlager-star and undoubtedly on the way to deliver new "Min Kärlek" we can see a point. TV4 has blocked whole concert from foreigners again so we can't watch everything Shirley has performed but still here are some videos appearing on youtube.

Kalle Moraeus is responsible for Christmas mood on SVT and he has got three incredible guests in a series of small acoustic performances you can watch online as well - Malena Ernman, Sarah Dawn Finer and Måns Zelmerlöw. We already start loving TV-Sarah and now absolutely sure she can be amazing host.

Merry Christmas, dear readers! Swedish TV presents a nice set of Christmas concerts with wonderful bunch of Swedish pop artists and we're gonna check what you've probably missed but still can watch online.

TV3's Julkonsert was visited by Thomas Di Leva with new single "Julens Stjärna" (5.15), Takida performing their latest promoted track "You Learn" (11.50), Jill Johnson expectedly singing "I väntan på julen" (16.07) and "Away in a manger" (33.12), Erik Hassle and (seems like really new track, I still can't find any info) "Stay" (24.30) and wonderful Loreen making acoustic version of "My Heart Is Refusing Me" (28.40) with One Voice featuring Caroline Jönsson, Britta Bergström and Simon Hassle.

Last snippet of JulLotta included performances of Magnus Carlsson with new Christmas single "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" (7.35) and "O Helga Natt" (38.30), Elisa's "Jag Säger Som Det Är" (10.55) and they've even made folk-and-artists-karaoke "White Christmas" in duo (26.40) and "Vi Äro Musikanter" (35.40).

Yesterday we've got special Bingolotto show with premiere of "Last Christmas" from Youngblood I already wrote about, guys have come back once again to perform "All I Want For Christmas Is You" with their future schlager-rival Molly Sandén (1.57.15), you could also watch Robert Wells with Vocalettes (00.40, 2.50.08) and Sofia Källgren singing recently released Christmas duo "I Julens Tid" (2.14.00), Jill Johnson making "Christmas With You" solo (54.34) and singing "En julsaga" in duo with Niklas Hjulström (1.44.50). Idol-2011 runner-up Robin Stjernberg was performing cover of Beyonce's "Halo" (1.09.50).

And finally a small acoustic piece of Christmas-Måns who should've appeared on any/every of these concerts but has just performed newest single "Kära Vinter" at #AdamLive.

Thomas Di Leva and Christmas music, I never thought about how it should function together and if you'd ask me I couldn't even imagine.
Thomas is not that sort of artist you can guess what to expect from, sometimes getting too heavy with his music experiments to get excited for mainstream pop fans.
However new single of Thomas Di Leva "Julens Stjärna" has turned to be really charming piece of Christmas pop with Enigma's "Return To Innocence" heavy beat, catchy melody and lovely atmosphere.
All income from single's sales will go for charity helping homeless people.

We can say that the latest Lotta på Liseberg was all about diversity. Three absolutely different pop-artists but all of them are really beloved in Sweden and most of the audience definitely had someone to pick. We had Ola who performed the latest single "Riot", Astrid Lindgren's "Idas sommarvisa" and took part in few potpurris, Thomas Di Leva was singing his own songs and Christer Sjögren mostly performed covers of old popular songs. We can't help but mention also nice remake of The Moniker's "Oh My God!" by Mats Liljeberg and performance where Lotta's guests have made covers of each other Så mycket bättre-style. Watch whole episode here.

Ola - Riot
Ola - Idas sommarvisa
Christer Sjögren – Livet det har varit gott mot mig
Lotta Engberg och Christer Sjögren - Rosa på bal
Christer Sjögren - Burnin love
Christer Sjögren - Kristina från Vilhelmina
Thomas di Leva - För evigt underbart
Thomas di Leva - Vad är frihet
Göteborgsvisan
Artisterna sjunger varandras låtar

While I thought how to send you congratulations today Thomas di Leva has already done it better presenting title track of new album as special card for this case.
As I've missed album finding it difficult for me, I think it's a good reason to give a tip to all interested long time or after following Så Mycket Bättre this Autumn. So if you're interested how Thomas' new album "Hjärtat Vinner Alltid" (Heart Always Wins) sounds like you can check it here and new single "Välkommen hem" here.
However I prefer "Hjärtat Vinner Alltid" - nice melodic half-acoustic track, by the way you can already see here Anders "Maverick" Lundström (ex-Rednex), pity we haven't got anything after his brilliant debut solo-single "Pretending" but back to topic!
Happy Valentine's Day dear readers, hope you spend it with your sweethearts and if not - meet Thomas di Leva coming to get your heart instead!

Recently I told you about Caroline Roosmark's amazing calendar where she involved such stars like Anna Bergendahl, Darin, Helen Sjöholm and Nanne and here goes another cool calendar from Djurens Rätt (organisation fighting for animal rights) with loads of another popular artists like Linda Sundblad, Marie Picasso and Caroline af Ugglas, below you can watch whole set of photos, they're in small size but you can check brilliant pics of September-mermaid, Adam Tensta and Thomas Di Leva in a better quality.

Marina Schiptjenko (Vacuum, BWO)
Dennis Lyxzén (Refused)
Thomas Di Leva
Marie Picasso
Britta Persson
Adam Tensta
Patrik Arve (Teddybears STHLM)
Linda Sundblad
Caroline Af Ugglas
September
Khoma
Regina Lund

Next episode of Så mycket bättre show turned participants to another artist's tribute and this time it was schlager-veteran Lill-Babs. Ex-husband Lasse Berghagen has made calm retro soul-smelling version of "Är Du Kär I Mig Ännu Klas-Göran?". Christer Sandelin also decided not to go too far from original 50s version with cover of "April april". Thomas Di Leva from happy covers turned to slow half-acoustic "När vi älskar". Plura had as usual calm guitar-pop cover of "Snurra Min Jord". Petter who released already 2 singles from the show and both are currently in Top-10 on iTunes presented probably his most enjoyable cover of "Tuff brud i en lyxförpackning". September who's also going to realese successful cover of Petter's "Mikrofonkåt" performed again dance-version of "Leva Livet" but in a colder electro-sound with different tune in chorus-line. There are three cross tribute-shows left (not sure about theme of the 8th one) - for Plura, Christer Sandelin and September, I wonder if September's going to sing cover for Christer's biggest hit "Vill ha dig" in Style that Petra did in the beginning of her career? Hope so as it was brilliant!

This week on "Så mycket bättre" artists prepared their covers for Petter's songs and it's actually not so easy task for pop-artists to make interesting covers for rap-artist (actually many participants has complicated format and completely different music).
Christer Sandelin has made interesting cover of "Vinden har vänt" with light raggae touch. Di Leva provided very atmospherical charming indie-version of "Min egen kärleksaffär". Lill-Babs "Så klart" has gone a bit latino chill-out. Lasse Berghagen has made ballad-version of "Längesen" (featuring Veronica Maggio in original version). Plura's cover of "Logiskt" has ended up in pop-rock version. Finally the most interesting for us performance again was provided by Petra Marklund and this time she has made dance-version of "Mikrofonkåt", Petra already has shown her ballad and indie side but there's no need to say that Petra's genre is dance so she not only sounded but looked completely perfect and comfortable in this cover!

This Saturday we've got new episode of "Så mycket bättre" and this time artists made covers for Di Leva's biggest hits. Thomas Di Leva is one of the most special artists of Sweden, popular but performing not so accessible music for most of non-Swedish listeners, so to be honestly there weren't songs I've fallen for but still we had amazing Petra Marklund that automatically made whole thing interesting for me. This time Petra as expected showed her new side with indie-smelling track "Vem ska jag tro på" with emotional rise in the end, you should check this performance. And as I can't recommend you any other covers I'm attaching another old Petra's cover for Dilba's classic hit "I'm Sorry" that she performed in the beginning of her career.

TV4 starts new show "Så mycket bättre" (So much better) that I told you about before. During 8 series you'll be able to see Lasse Berghagen, Lill-Babs, Petter, Thomas Di Leva, Petra "September" Marklund, Christer Sandelin and Plura Jonsson who had to spend a week living in one house and singing covers for each other hits. First day that was shown today was devoted to Lasse Berghagen's songs. Biggest highlight of the show was to finally see and listen Petra Marklund with beautiful cover of Lasse's classic hit "Teddybjörnen Fredriksson". Another nice covers were done by Lill-Babs, Thomas Di Leva and Christer Sandelin (from Style), it's a bit hard to judge such a retro-stuff but still it looks like a nice idea to collect such a different but popular artists and make them to arrange tribute-nights for each other (sure I can't wait for September's night!). Watch whole show here.

Like I promised you we're finishing this weekend with final bunch of some last mixes. It doesn't mean fun is over though as I already have plans to tell you about some interesting music pieces during nearest days. But let's say goodbye to previous week loud and glad!

Anders Fernette is hot candidate before next year Melodifestivalen so in case if it'll happen we have a chance to see this amazing artist everywhere if he'll succeed so we keep out fingers crossed and till there's no sign of new single we can enjoy Mark Pride dance remix of his latest single "Lola".

Remember few days ago I told you about Adrian Lux? Earlier this year he has made remix for one of the biggest hits of this Summer - Oskar Linnros' "Från Och Med Du", original track is quite summerish and warm so the finest thing in this mix that this lightness doesn't disappear. Mix was pushed out on iTunes as separate release.

And the last but not the least at all. Thomas Di Leva has released new mix and video for the last single "Another Day In Paradise". Unfortunately I can't say I was blown away by original track (I mean it's still Phil Collins' cover but in original Di Leva's version) but I was completely sold for Bassflow mix - combination of strong guitar baseline and "Hero"-esque beat immediately made this track one of the worthiest music dishes that I strongly recommend you to check right away.

Fantastic celebration of live Swedish music called LOVE Stockholm 2010 is unfortunately over leaving to us loads of impressions and memories of some amazing performances and great gigs but yesterday audience in Kungsträdgården still could enjoy the rest of them.
You could see Ola Svensson performing his huge Spring hit "Unstoppable", Caroline af Ugglas with her choir, Linda Sundblad with new single "Making Out" (one of undoubtfully best pieces of her last album), Eagle-Eye Cherry with his biggest international hit "Save Tonight" recently covered by E.M.D., Thomas di Leva with his old song "Vi har bara varandra", Anna Maria Espinosa performing her own song "A Little Moonlight" and duet together with Niklas Strömstedt - his "En Kvinna Och En Man" (most amazing part of this performance was King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf dancing near the stage) and some foreign guests like Jasmine Kara and Carpark North.

You should also check another recent concert in Kungsträdgården with Style performing their last single "LoveKiller" and classic hit "Vill Ha Dej", Broken Door with both their songs "Angel" and "Sunday Morning", Orup and the most interesting performance of Gravitonas. It was the first live performance of this utterly exciting new project of Alexander Bard with debut single "Kites" currently climbing dance charts of Sweden and new song "Shameless" that showed new side of the project. Initially Alexander announced the project as electro-rock band, however "Kites" turned to be more in synth-pop direction and "Shameless" definitely shows better what he meant, it's a catchy and full of drive pop-rock song with nicely developed rhythmic verses containing light synth-keys on background reminding some beautiful moments in music of BWO and guitar-driven catchy chorus that gets stuck in your head immediately. This is the level of quality that made previous Alexander's projects icons in Swedish music and that's gonna make Gravitonas continue this trend in a very close future.