Lopez Blogs

New set of brilliant performances was shown this weekend on Sommarkrysset. Linda Pritchard performed her new single "Miracle" and it was in my opinion the greatest Sommarkrysset performance that I've seen since Lady Gaga appeared on the stage of Gröna Lund in 2008! E.M.D. has also presented their new single "Save Tonight" that was released a week ago. Another highlight of the show was Stephen Simmonds (very interesting artist that I feel like I need to tell you about later) with his latest single "Adiyeah" and Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". We've got also some classics of 90s from Dr. Alban performing medley of his hits. And finally Lazee performed big hit of this spring "Calling Out" with Apollo Drive.

A couple of things I was supposed to get round to...

• my Eurovision review
• my Bratislava holiday diary

...will eventually be posted on here, although there aren't enough hours in the day just now, so bear with me, they will be posted eventually, and definitely before the end of June...!

Around week ago I told you what's happening now with male part of Da Buzz and now we've finally got a new single "U Gotta Dance" of this great band! It's impossible if you didn't hear before about Da Buzz but if you really didin't in a short story of this project has started back in 90s, Per Lidén worked in the dance-project Freebee with singer Agnetha Kjörsvik (last time we've heard something about her it was on Eurovision-2008 when she was singing behind Charlotte Perrelli), project has managed to make a big hit "True" and soon Per has started his own project with Pier Schmid and Annika Thörnquist as a singer. Since first album Da Buzz was promoted in US, Asia and sure Europe, released 5 fantastic pop-albums, loads of hits (Let Me Love You, Wanna Be with Me, Wonder Where You Are, Alive, Dangerous, Last Goodbye, etc.) and after realising compillation "The Greatest Hits" in 2007 has made a pause for every member to be able to work on its own music and now Da Buzz is back. Though it's kinda weird that only Annika has appeared on the cover of the single, biggest question now is if band's really back together?

Magnus Carlsson releases new single "Feel You" - another amazing disco-anthem from Pitchline sounding like brother of Velvet's "Take My Body Close", Pitchline being young production company has recommended itself like a great team releasing high-level stuff with Velvet, Alice Svensson, Kick and Magnus. Single includes some nice mixes from Pitchline and Ruff & Jam and b-side "Take Me To Your Heart" another dance track obviously inspired by music of Modern Talking (seems like Man Meadow has got a serious rival).

Magnus Carlsson - Take Me To Your Heart

Magnus Carlsson - Feel You (Ruff & Jam Remix)

Fresh RedOne's project Love Generation that I've presented little earlier is officially out and it has already reached Top-10 on Swedish iTunes, girls say that their second single is ready but right now it's time for the first one.

Det är aldrig för sent att bli skådespelare eller TV-presentatör. I alla fall inte när man gör filmerna själv. Här är dokumentationen från Eurovision Song Contest 2010. 

Vad passar bättre än att avsluta med ett poem om ESC 2010.
A tribute poem to Eurovision Song Contest 2010 by Lilian

Lilian letar släktingar till Eurovision-artister  i Vigelandsparken.
Lilian is looking for ancestors to ESC-artists in Vigelandsparken.

Lilians lektion i grekiska med Giorgos Alkaios.
Greek lesson with Giorgos Alkaios

Flaggförsäljning i Oslo.
Lilian selling flags in Oslo.

Intervju med Kuunkuiskaajats ställföreträdare (camera: Kristof de Smet)
Lilian interviewing Kuunkuiskaajat or..... maybe not.

Välkommen till mitt cocktail party.
Lilian hosting a cocktail party

Kanske en ny karriär som fotbollsspelare?
Lilian's new career as football player.

Vad sker i Presscentret vid Telenor Arenan?
Lilian takes you around in the Presscentre of Telenor Arena

Shoppingtur i Oslo.
Lilian goes shopping in Oslo.

Besök på Operan.
Lilian in the Opera House in Oslo

JP uppvaktas på sin födelsedag.
JP's birthday celebration

Norges nationaldag 17 maj (camera: Michael Duncan)
Celebrating the 17th of May in Oslo

Bakom kameran fanns i de flesta fall Roger Silfvast.
My camera man, Roger

Eurovisionen 2010 är över, Tyskland skriver in sig i historien och det blir svårt för dåliga förlorare att hitta några negativa argument.

• Tyskland vann en överlägsen seger och fick röster från öst och väst, nord och syd.
• Låten "Satellite" är en modern poplåt och kan inte anklagas vara en relik från svunnen tid.
• Tyskland har inte vunnit sedan 1982 ("Ein Bißchen Frieden" med Nicole)
• Tyskland är Västeuropa - många envisas ju med att fortfarande dela in Europa enligt en förlegad geografi.
• Tyskland är en av The Big 4, som är garanterad en plats i finalen.  

Det alla hoppas på är att denna seger ska sätta press på övriga s.k. Västeuropeiska länder så att de börjar ta tävlingen på ett större allvar. Nu finns beviset att även en av grundarna till ESC kan vinna.

Lena Meyer-Landrut har vaskats fram genom en gedigen process och flera deltävlingar. Hon är enbart 19 år och var inte känd för någon innan hon gick på audition för den tyska nationella uttagningen. "Satellite" toppar alla typer av listor i Tyskland och efter denna seger så kommer hon helt klart att även finnas på andra länders listor.

Under gårdagens efterfest var så gott som alla nöjda med resultatet. Nu återstår att se om det blir Berlin eller Hamburg som ska ordna ESC 2011. Att Tyskland dessutom är ett betydligt billigare land än Oslo och Moskva, har humanare öppethållningstider för etablissemangen och är enkelt att resa till är ju som en lottovinst för utblottade Eurovisions-fans. Själv ville jag till ett varmare land, dock ej vulkanvarmt, och även om Tyskland inte kvalar in bland Medelhavsländerna så är det ändå söderut. Danmark blev bästa Nordiska land med sin 4:e plats.

Röstningsresultaten offentliggjordes igår och visst irriterar det att Finland blev 11 i sin semifinal med 3 poängs marginal till Moldavien. Lika irriterande är det att Sverige också blev 11 i semifinal 2 med 5 poängs marginal till Cypern. Finlands Kuunkuiskaajat har varit kvar till slutet av ESC och såg finalen och medverkade på nattens efterfest. De håller fanan högt!

Jag gissar att Israel är en av de länder som är mest besvikna över gårdagens resultat. Det har spekulerats om vinst för Harel Skaat och hans fantastiska stämma men det blev enbart en 14 plats.

Spotlighten och kristallkronorna har släckts ner för denna gång. Det dröjer ett år innan Eurovisionsfamiljen träffas igen. Känns lite vemodigt. Men det finns ju facebook och innan vi vet ordet av så har de nationella uttagningarna dragit igång igen.

Foto: Lilian, Roger

Courtesy of www.eurovision.tv

First Semi-Final (27 May)
01. Belgium (167 points)
02. Greece (133)
03. Iceland (123)
04. Portugal (89)
05. Serbia (79)
06. Albania (76)
07. Russia (74)
08. Bosnia & Herzegovina (59)
09. Belarus (59)
10. Moldova (52)
11. Finland (49)
12. Malta (45)
13. Poland (44)
14. Estonia (39)
15. FYR Macedonia (37)
16. Slovakia (24)
17. Latvia (11)

Second Semi-Final (25 May)
01. Turkey (118 points)
02. Azerbaijan (113)
03. Georgia (106)
04. Romania (104)
05. Denmark (101)
06. Armenia (83)
07. Ukraine (77)
08. Israel (71)
09. Ireland (67)
10. Cyprus (67)
11. Sweden (62)
12. Lithuania (44)
13. Croatia (33)
14. The Netherlands (29)
15. Bulgaria (19)
16. Slovenia (6)
17. Switzerland (2)

Slovenia beat Switzerland?????

Sweden's ready for a new star though this person is already familiar to Swedish audience. Already in June Anderz Wrethov will release his single "Runaway" and it sounds like it's gonna be a huge hit in a close future. Initially Anderz has started as artist participating in popular show "Sikta mot stjärnorna" that I wrote about in previous post, he won as Bryan Adams' look-alike in 1999 and in 00s has turned from artist to songwriter working with many artists all over the world and sure with Swedish colleagues - Günther, Arash, Frida, Carlito (Dr Bombay), etc. His latest huge European hit "Always" was performed by Arash and Aysel on Eurovision-2010 and his songs (Arash, Günther & The Sunshine Girls "Like Fire Tonight", Frida feat. Headline "Upp och hoppa") were also taken twice to Swedish selection. Debut Anderz' single "Runaway" sounds like great follower of "Poker Face" mixing elecro-pop with hard beat and guitar sound. You can also clearly hear vocals of Johanna Stedt in the end of track (Johanna is often involved in tracks made by Anderz), I'm gonna tell you about this talented and beautiful singer little later and now enjoy with this newborn hit!

I'd like to put your attention on one interesting show being popular in Sweden in 90s. Sure many of you know about Fame Factory (talent-show in the beginning of 00s) and artists which came from it (Linda Bengtzing, Sandra Oxenryd, Magnus Bäcklund, Mathias Holmgren...) but then many of these singers were already not newcomers for Swedish audience participating before in show "Sikta mot stjärnorna". The aim of participants was to imitate different big stars and the winner of every show qualified to the final. The winner of the final was sent to European final. In this amazing show you could see Sandra Oxenryd as Carola, Magnus Bäcklund as Tom Jones, Mathias Holmgren as Nick Kamen, Cecilia Vennersten as Mariah Carey, Caroline Wennergren as Ella Fitzgerald and you can also watch yourself performances of Linda Bengtzing doing Lene from Aqua, Shirley Clamp doing Maria McKee, Bosson as Michael Jackson and Date as Take That.

Innan dygnet är slut vet vi vem som vann. Trots två verckor i Eurovision-landet så har jag ingen aning om hur detta kommer att sluta. Räkna med att det kommer att bli jämnt i toppen. Ovasett så hoppas jag det blir ett varmt land så man slipper frysa nästa år.




Vill ni sympatirösta md mig så välj någon av min varma favoritländern: Grekland, Cypern, Spanien och Portugal.


Ska man se det ur tävlingssynpunk och utan att ta hänsyn till låten så vore det bra om Lena från Tyskland vann eftersom de tillhör The Big 4 (garanterad plats i finalen) Eurovision i Berlin vore inte helt fel.
Även Dublin skulle vara okey även om det troligen skulle regna hela tiden. Lycka till Niamh Kavanagh!


Även Danmarks chanser har ökat sedan det blev klart att de startar sist. Det skulle också vara en vinst för Sverige eftersom det är svenska låtskrivare.

Foto: Lilian

Swedish House Diva Therese Grankvist is back! Therese has become famous for Swedish audience back in 90s when she was brought by Dr. Alban to a dance project Drömhus. Drömhus had a lot of entries in charts (like "Du och Jag", "Håll Dig Nära", etc.) but the biggest one was hit #1 "Vill ha dig". In 1999 Drömhus with the song "Stjärna på himmelen" has managed to reach 2nd place on Melodifestivalen right after Charlotte Nilsson-Perrelli who later brought Sweden its last victory on Eurovision. Project's life wasn't too long and Therese has gone solo being faithfull to dance-music though. Her single "Monkey" was noticed by audience in 2002 and "Time" has entered Top-20, in 2003 Therese released her first solo album "Acapulco". Further highlights of Therese' career were different successful collaborations with other projects like Stonebridge ("Put 'em High", "Take me away"), The Attic ("The Arrival"), Danny ("If Only You") and now it's time to come back as solo-artist so Therese's releasing new single "Drop It Like It's Hot" and should I say mention that Therese still stays faithful to her club roots? You can also find nice b-side "Say It (In The Morning)" on this single and you can hear it in Kia Venga commercial as well.

Amaze of the balls! This gosh forsaken heck hole of a week is finally over :) Woo, and I don't think it's unseemly of me to add a hoo. It's not been the most delightful of weeks, though clearly the Eric Saade album has helped me through and some bostin' steve ausin 'season finales' have perked things up somewhat! But tomorrow, I shall tra la la off to my cottage in the country for a week of bumpkiness (that's not a sex thing you pervs), relaxation and writing. As it goes, I went through loads of old blog posts the other day - what I do like about my blog (he said modestly) is that I always work a bit of my life and personality and mood into each post, whatever I'm writing about. So i've found loads of little stories and pithy put downs I had forgotten and it really made me laugh. I know it's poor form to laugh at your own words, but i was genuinely quite amused and it gave me a little boost. I'm never particularly good at blowing my own trumpet (i've tried, too many ribs) and i've never been one of those people who can praise how amazing they think they are, but i did think, oh you know what Paul? You aren't bad at writing :) And so much of what i found will flesh out parts of the novel... and form basis for future work. So yay, quite pleased by that and I'm heading down to holiday with pages and pages of print outs of this very blog with a pencil case full of highlighters. how industrious... :) Still to keep you going - here are some things that are very much worth looking forward to...

GOOD STUFF:

• Maroon 5 ~ Misery: SQUEEEEAAAL! As I blogged a little while back, Adam LeFine and his boys are back late this summer with their third album full of rollicking tunes and tender love makey ballads (no doubt). You can hear some clips of their sound over at Rolling Stone, and they've already started filming the first video which promises to rival Wake Up Call for sex and violence. It goes to radio late June and I shall have my ear glued to the stero waiting for it "drop". Excitement!
• Magnus Carlsson ~ Feel You: After the rather camp but ultimately engaging cover of A Little Respect, Magnus returns with another song from his forthcoming album. And it's equally camptastic and discobonkers. It's all pulsing dance beat with a soaring club driven melody (that sounds like it would be rather lovely as an acoustic version, as Swedish boys are want to do) and snuggles in perfectly to the always joyous Magnus canon. Think the dance version of Waiting For A Star To Fall and you ain't far off. B-side Take Me To Your Heart is like a late 80s S/A/W song remixed now by Pete Hammond, ie - very palatable indeed...
• James Leon ~ Caught Up In Your Vanity: This is just sublimely exquisite. It's like a long lost Human League demo, dragged out from the archives and given a generous coating of millenial magic. Gently synth driven, it crescendos into a fuzzed up electro chorus and James sounds absolutely brilliant on it. Nice statement on the plasticness of the London scene too(or anywhere/one vain). So good you can't just listen to it once. This needs to be released - and now...
• Amy Meredith ~ Lying: Oh how am I in love with this band, that I assumed was a solo pop singer before I heard any music. They are not. They are a band. With a rather dishy as a dishcloth hunk of a suave lead singer. And a song that is basically a man version of Stefy - Chelsea or Vincent Black Shadow - Metro; i.e. instantly catchy, brilliant pogo-pop quick as you like lyrics and an amazeballs chorus. It's all so very wonderful indeed and I can't wait to hear more from them. Luckily an album is out in July. Bonza! I feel a whole new obsession coming on...
• Chanee & N'Evergreen ~ The Album: Quick review - it's Roxette for the year 2010. In fact it's seven Sleeping Singles and seven Must've Been Loves. Belated popjustice song of the day In A Moment Like This is still by far the highlight, but there are some pleasant 80s power pop on there too. Charming. Cheesily charming, but charming.

Top 21 songs of the week:

Above, where you see a picture of pop star of the future Adam Tyler, there should be a probably brilliant new video to his ace debut single. Friction. There isn't. Instead there is what might be a still from that very video. That's because the video sadly isn't out yet. But it will be very shortly - probably when i'm deepest darkest rural East Sussex, working on a slow dongle! So i'm assuming it will have some killer dance moves and look very brilliant indeed. Follow Adam on twitter because he'll sure as heck let you know when the video is done - and be sure to let me know how immensicles it is in the comments!! EDIT: Now with added commentary from Adam himself :) See comments!!

21 ~ Simon Curtis, Super Psycho Love
20 ~ Mika, Kick Ass
19 ~ Kimberley Locke, Strobelight
18 ~ DeeDee, Endure
17 ~ Sophie Ellis Bextor, Bittersweet
16 ~ Gabriella Cilmi, On A Mission
15 ~ Kelly Rowland, Commander (NE)
14 ~ Gabriella Cilmi, Hearts Don't Lie
13 ~ Eric Saade, Manboy
12 ~ Donkeyboy, Sometimes
11 ~ JLS, The Club Is Alive
10 ~ Maria Mena, All This Time
09 ~ Sergey Lazarev, Alarm
08 ~ Adam Tyler, Friction
07 ~ Gravitonas, Kites
06 ~ Lovestoned, Thursdays
05 ~ Josh Dubovie, That Sounds Good To Me
04 ~ Chenee & N'Evergreen, In A Moment Like This
03 ~ Eric Saade, It's Gonna Rain
02 ~ Scissor Sisters, Fire With Fire
01 ~ Kylie, All The Lovers (3 weeks)

Coming soon (maybe next week): All you need to know about one of the summer's essential pop albums; some excellent Swedish pop; The Sparkling Arrest; Disco Lemonade - the novel AND the pop song?

Lite kulturella har vi ändå varit under denna två-veckors vistelse. För första gången har jag varit i Vigelandsparken. Givelvis måste det dokumenteras och med lite fantasi kan man alltid hitta en Eurovisionskoppling.




Foto, video: Lilian, Roger

The biggest shock of 2nd semifinal of Eurovision-2010 for everyone was that Sweden won't participate in the final of Eurovision since 1977. Sweden didn't miss the final every year since semifinals-system was introduced in 2004 and this year it's the first time. By my personal observations Swedish media didn't blame Anna a lot, many star bloggers and newspapers showed compassion to her though sure there were a lot of evil remarks. Cruel irony is that we'll see all five songs written by Swedes for another countries qualified to the final + Iceland produced by Swede and Belarus with Swedish Robert Wells on the stage.
I need to say that I was as much shocked as I felt proud for Anna's performance, it was the first time for a long time when Melodifestivalen winner has made her best 100% and it looked incredibly powerful and magical. Unfortunately this year Melodifestivalen didn't have artist with a full pack (song+stable performance+interesting show) so Swedes have chosen talent and sincerity and I don't have any doubt it was the rightest choice. But as every year few brilliant songs are left not qualifying to the final here's no drama at all. Anna is the artist out of schlager-bubble and just like Martin Stenmarck who released his #1 album already in a year after his fiasko on Eurovision or Malena with her sold-out concerts last autumn Anna will be able to walk her own road to the top of charts so I don't worry about her.
We need to see advantages and the biggest one here can be that next year SVT will really try to make selection much better than this year and we'll have a lot of big names with amazing songs and fantastic show. And you know what? Doors of Melodifestivalen-2011 are already open!!! Songwriters can already send their song since tomorrow and rules of next year contest are already publiched. Some interesting moments that I've mentioned:
1) entries must be sent from 29 May through 21 September both to webjoker contest and main contest;
2) songs must be no longer than 3 minutes but no shorter than 2 minutes;
3) and the most interesting is that finally song can be written by foreign songwriters but at least one of authors must be Swede.
So heja Sverige! And let's prepare for a new season of Melodifestivalen that will start to give us some exciting news and actions already in September. And sure loads of luck to sweetest Anna Bergendahl and all Swedish songs in the final of Eurovision-2010.

I was too busy reading all the post-mortems last night and haven't been around today (or tonight for that matter) and, well I won't be around during the day tomorrow, so basically what I'm trying to say is that I won't have time to post my Eurovision thoughts here until later in the weekend.

So I'll keep it brief: I'd be quite happy if any of the following songs won - Cyprus, Belgium, Turkey, Iceland, Romania, Germany or Denmark.

I'd be seriously annoyed if any of the following songs won - Armenia or Azerbaijan.

Everything else is a bit meh.

It all begins twenty-four hours from now. Who will win? Your guess is as good (or bad) as mine. But if the contest is to be "modernised" then the viewers of Europe should choose a catchy, contemporary hit record.

Go Germany Go!!!

Katie Holmes Awards

Katie Holmes National Movie Awards 2010 Red Carpet Arrivals Tom Cruise at the Royal Festival Hall dated May 26, 2010 in London, England.

Dita Von Teese Photocall

Dita Von Teese Cointreaupolitan Cocktail Madrid wearing a busty dress and Louboutin heels MADRID, SPAIN MAY 27, 2010 Cointreau photocall at the Me Hotel.