Lopez Blogs

Have we ever done a Dutch update before? Can't remember, but I should really do them more often.

A bit of Dutch-language summer-reggae at no. 1 in the Mega Top 50 this week. "Mi Rowsu" by Damaru & Jan Smit is a very pleasant laid-back little tune, which, apparently, is sung in a Volendam accent.

It's not the only Dutch-language song in the top 5, as there is also "Slaap Lekker" by Diggy Dex featuring Eva de Roovere. It's a more contemporary rap/r'n'b song but I think being sung/rapped in its native language makes it so much better. I quite liked this too.

There's also a German artist in the Dutch top 10: Peter Fox's "Haus Am See" has been in the chart for 10 weeks. The great thing about continental Europe is that they have no boundaries to music in another language, unlike here in the UK where not even a song with a couple of German words (Polarkreis 18's "Allein Allein") could get any airplay (Radio 2 excepted) and needless to say, failed to make our singles chart.

A summer dance tune next."La Mezcla" by Michel Cleis is climbing the charts. The Netherlands of course is a significant player in the European dance music scene - as you know, I like commercial dance music but this instrumental is repetitive to the point of deeply annoying.

At no.11, climbing from last week's no.30, is "Mr Light" by Bertolf. I don't know anything about him apart from he's a Dutch solo artist - I must investigate further. A nice mid-paced pop-rock tune, which is very pleasant indeed. Here's a link to the official video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqVwpU_YN9c

Krezip is a band which has been going for the last 12 years but now they're going their separate ways. Their appropriately named "Sweet Goodbyes" has been in the charts for the last 26 weeks. It's a sweet little inoffensive acoustic number, quite nice. I've heard of them but never really heard any of their music so I don't have anything to compare it with.