Lopez Blogs

Not had one of these for a while so here goes. I've been out of touch with the European singles charts of late so forgive me if some of these songs are a bit unfamiliar to me :)

Something a little bit different at number one. Not Michael Jackson or Lady GaGa, but "Jungle Drum" by Emiliana Torrini. Is there a particular reason for this, or is it just one of those songs that's gone big anyway?

At no.2 is a song which I immediately liked on first hearing whilst on hols in Dusseldorf: "Stadt" by Cassandra Steen, featuring the very distinctive voice of Adel Tawil. Nice mid-paced song which doesn't go down the boring r'n'b route.

Elsewhere, there aren't too many surprises with the usual suspects - Lady GaGa, Black Eyed Peas, Cascada, Beyonce blah blah blah. And yes of course lots of Michael Jackson, the Jacko tunes of choice for German record buyers would appear to be "They Don't Care About Us", "Thriller", "Earth Song" and "Heal The World" (whereas the UK's favourite seems to be "Man In The Mirror", a song which was never a favourite of mine).

The good old tradition that is the latin-flavoured European summer hit lives on in "I Know You Want Me" by rapper Pitbull, with it's "one two three four" hookline. This song had completely passed me by but it's all over the European charts (including the UK top 40) so I suppose people are hearing it on holiday and buying it on their return home?

Speaking of Latin-flavoured pop, with a German twist, inevitably brings me to an old favourite of this blog: Marquess, the German band who sing in Spanish. "Arriba" is more of their good-time summery pop, although I think it's getting to the diminishing-returns stage with them now as this is nowhere as great as "Vayamos Companeros" for example.

Another song that's been around the German chart for a while is "Foot Of The Mountain" by A-ha. Their new album has been quite well-received by the critics. This single is very Keane-influenced IMHO, with its strong piano hooklines. Rather nice, if not earth-shattering.