Lopez Blogs

This week's Sverige Topplistan chart has a very international look to it, as Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull top the listings with "On The Floor" whilst the top 10 is almost exclusively dominated by the usual suspects - Rihanna, Britney Spears, LMFAO, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga to name a few - only Veronica Maggio and Swingfly/Christoffer Hiding ensure a Swedish presence in the top 10. Eric Saade's "Popular" took a spectacular tumble from no.1 to no.12 this week!

Just like the UK singles chart, it feels as if the same songs have been in the Swedish singles chart forever. The major shock this year is the lack of success for Melodifestivalen songs - apart from the aforementioned, it's only The Moniker (24), Loreen (26), Danny (27) and Sara Varga (30) who are maintaining a strong chart presence.

Over in the iTunes singles chart, I came across the latest single by the rejuvenated Petter featuring Swedish music legends Adolphson & Falk: it's called "Krafter" and it's rather good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZYis4LXdYQ

For a long, long time - well, certainly over the last few summers anyway - there has been much debate and speculation, mainly in the Swedish tabloid press and of course here in blog-land, that the annual Swedish summer TV ritual, SVT1's Allsång på Skansen, is past its sell-by date. Or at least, in need of a new presenter anyway.

Well, finally, the time for change has come. At a press conference today it was announced that the new presenter of Allsång would be none other than Måns Zelmerlöw, taking over from Anders Lundin. Last summer it was suggested in the Swedish press that MZW would be the perfect choice to step into Anders' shoes. In a previous post on this blog http://europecrazy.blogspot.com/2010/07/mystery-of-allsang-lotta-and-missing.html I also agreed with that suggestion; I thought it would bring a freshness to the show, whilst keeping the traditional aspects alive. Måns may still be a young man, but in recent years he's gone from Idol contestant to all-round entertainer, and he has proved himself as a multi-talented singer, dancer, musical theatre performer and TV presenter, with a very likeable personality. In other words, the perfect choice to succeed Anders who has presented the show for the last 7 years.

At times last summer I felt really sorry for Anders, and at times you could see the stress which he must have been under with all the criticism. However there were times when he fought back, especially on 20th July, which was my favourite show of last year's run, for the usual very obvious reasons. Check out my previous post about that one: http://europecrazy.blogspot.com/2010/07/allsang-pa-skansen-week-4-tuesday-20th.html
which includes some particularly crowd-pleasing video footage of Salem Al Fakir and Oskar Linnros. Enjoy!

The new era begins on 28th June - make a note in your diaries!


Goodbye Anders, hello Måns: picture courtesy of Aftonbladet.

I've been a big fan of mash-up mixes over the last few years. When they succeed, they manage to completely reinvent a song and give it a whole new interpretation. I know it's old news now, but I really wanted to write a post about one of the best mash-ups in a long long time: the marriage of Oskar Linnros' "Från och med du" and Robyn's "Dancing On My Own". The idea isn't a new one of course, as Oskar had covered Robyn's hit during his autumn 2010 tour, before leading into his massive summer hit.



Now Patrik Berger has taken it a step further and mashed up the two songs, with Robyn singing over Oskar's backing track. The bittersweet rejection and regret of the original now becomes a good-riddance celebration set to the upbeat, feelgood backing track. To me, it now says: "I'm giving it my all, but I'm not the girl you're taking home....but do you know what? I couldn't care less. F*** you! I keep dancing on my own, and I'm very happy about that, thank you very much."

Maybe that's just my take on the whole thing, but I really was blown away by how this song dramatically changed, just by putting a different backing track to it.



I'd previously featured this next mash-up over at Planet Salem a couple of months ago but while I'm on the subject of mash-ups, my thoughts inevitably turn to a recent mix of Axwell and Ingrosso featuring Salem Al Fakir's "It's True", and Kylie Minogue's "Get Outta My Way" which I think is a pretty successful mix. There have been many many dance remixes of "It's True" over the last 3 years, and the song just refuses to go away. Not that I would ever want it to, of course!! :) This mix is by Ben Double M.



Finally, let's go further back in time a few years to one of my most favourite mash-ups ever: Shakira's "Whenever Wherever" mixed with the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and some Britney "Slave 4 U" thrown in for good measure. I never get tired of this mash-up, although faithful travelling companion thinks it's sacrilege!



Let me know if you've discovered any good mash-ups - particularly featuring Swedish or other European music.

...which I never got round to writing.

So, Swedish Idol ended with one of the most predictable outcomes ever in the history of the contest - Jay Smith won, beating Minnah Karlsson in the final on 10th December at Globen. After Linnea Henriksson was voted off Idol in the last-4 week, I felt that the heart had gone out of the competition....and when Olle Hedberg left the following week, I have to be honest and say that my interest in the competition also ended there.

However, that's not to criticise the two finalists; they and several of the other finalists were way better than anything we'd ever see on our own X Factor.

"Me and My Microphone" - September.

Yes, an English language version of "Mikrofonkåt". This week just got better....

http://www.recordoftheday.com/record-of-the-day/track.php?trackID=5878

(thanks to the always wonderful Scandipop for the tip!) Apparently Scott Mills will play it on Radio 1 tonight :)

Årets artist
Daniel Adams-Ray – Svart vitt och allt däremellan
Håkan Hellström – 2 steg från paradise
Oskar Linnros – Vilja bli
Robyn – Body talk pt. 1
Säkert! ­– Facit

Årets grupp
Hästpojken – Från där jag ropar
Johnossi – Mavericks
Kent – En plats i solen
Swedish House Mafia – Until one
The Radio Dept. – Clinging to a scheme

Årets nykomling
Anna von Hausswolff
First Aid Kit
Jasmine Kara
Royal Republic
Tove Styrke

Årets låt
Daniel Adams-Ray – Gubben i lådan
Johnossi – What's the point
Oskar Linnros – Från och med du
Robyn – Dancing on my own
Salem Al Fakir – Keep on walking
Swedish House Mafia feat. Pharrell – One (Your name)

Guldmicken (tilldelas årets bästa liveakt)
Familjen
Hoffmaestro
Håkan Hellström
Melissa Horn
Robyn

Årets dans
Alexi Delano – Samlad produktion
Avicii/Tim Berg – Samlad produktion
Harald Björk – Bigfield
Skudge – Samlad produktion
Swedish House Mafia – Samlad produktion

Årets hiphop/soul
Carlito – Guldburen
Jasmine Kara – Blues ain't nothing but a good woman gone bad
PH3 – PH3 löser ett fall
Supersci – Timelines
Trainspotters – Dirty north

Årets pop
Anna von Hausswolff – Singing from the grave
Robyn – Samlad produktion
The Radio Dept. – Clinging to a scheme
The Tallest Man on Earth – The wild hunt
This is Head – 0001

Årets rock/metal
Ghost – Opus eponymous
Khoma – A final storm
Pascal – Orkanen närmar sig
The Baboon Show – Punk rock harbour
Watain – Lawless darkness

Here they are (thanks to Aftonbladet as usual) - http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/idol2010/article8172890.ab

Jay Smith
* ”Bad romance” (Lady Gaga).
* ”Against all odds” (Phil Collins).
Linnea Henriksson
* ”Don't you forget about me” (Simple Minds).
* ”Crazy in love” (Beyoncé).
Olle Hedberg
* ”Fix you” (Coldplay).
* ”Beautiful day” (U2).
Minnah Karlsson
* ”Just the way you are” (Bruno Mars).
* ”Alone” (Heart).

I'm not too inspired by this week's songs....but I think it could finally be Olle's big week.

Meanwhile Minnah has lost her voice, which could be a big problem if she's doing that Heart song.

Or, as Mr Mackey used to say in South Park: "Drugs are bad, mmm-kay?"

This week, everything was overshadowed by drugs. Or to be specific, series favourite Jay Smith testing positive for drugs, and not being thrown out of the competition.

So Jay soldiered on, with a memorable rock-rendition of "Like A Prayer" which has probably delivered him directly to the final, and there was also the bizarre spectacle of Jay singing "Fly Me To The Moon".

Andreas left the competition (as expected) - but the major shock was that Olle was in the bottom two with him. I read some criticism of Olle's performance, but I thought his "Let's Dance" was ok - although I could have done without the dancing girls - whilst I really enjoyed his 'Ollefied' version of "Your Song".

....took place on Friday 12th November at Berns in Stockholm. The big winner was Nadir Khayat - better known as RedOne, who won the awards for Best Composer, Most Played Song and Song of the Year for Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". The annual 'Hederspris' went to Per Gessle in recognition of his career achievements.

Best Lyricist award was shared between Oskar Linnros and Markus Krunegård, whilst the Best Newcomer award went to Anna von Hausswolff - she also takes home a 25000 kronor award for this category.

The Best International Success award went to writers/producers Martin Sandberg and Johan Shuster - better known to international pop music fans as Max Martin and Shellback.

Via Aftonbladet http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/idol2010/article8101367.ab here's the list of who's singing what on "Rock Week".

Olle Hedberg - ”In the shadows” (The Rasmus).
Elin Blom - ”I surrender” (Rainbow).
Jay Smith - ”Rocks” (Primal Scream).
Linnea Henriksson - ”Dance with somebody” (Mando Diao).
Minnah Karlsson - ”Jump” (Van Halen)
Andreas Weise - ”Start me up” (Rolling Stones).

I thought they might give Olle a Kings of Leon song this week, but maybe they're keeping that for later? I wonder if he'll do "In The Shadows" in a gritty acoustic kind of way, or will it get the full rock treatment?

Jay, after two weeks of displaying some sensitivity (!) will be back in his comfort zone, Linnea will just be, well, Linnea and I can't wait to see how she takes on that brilliant Mando Diao song.

Thank goodness there's no "Heaven's On Fire" on Rock Week this year...it feels as if they sing it every year on Idol!

I think the bottom two will be between Andreas and Elin, with Andreas going out this week.

As usual thanks to Aftonbladet http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/idol2010/article8068257.ab

It's love songs this week, which really doesn't fill me with any excitement at all. All this week's songs are dedicated to a special person in the contestant's life - parents, partners, siblings etc.

Anyway here's the song list. The competition's getting tougher....and I'll foolishly predict that either Andreas or Geir will go this week.

Andreas Weise - ”(Your love keeps liftin' me) Higher & higher” (Jackie Wilson)
Geir Rönning - ”I heard it through the grapevine” (Marvin Gaye).
Minnah Karlsson - ”Whataya want from me” (Adam Lambert).
Jay Smith - ”Here without you” (3 Doors Down).
Linnea Henriksson - ”My baby just cares for me” (Nina Simone).
Elin Blom - ”Forever young” (Alphaville).
Olle Hedberg - ”Free fallin'” (Tom Petty).

Go Olle!

90s night on Idol, which I was initially excited about but then I saw the song choices and got a bit disappointed. But on with the show....

Daniel Norberg was at a bit of an unfair disadvantage with "Stone Me Into The Groove" as it was maybe a lesser known song than some of the others last night. But at least it was a Swedish song so I didn't complain so much. It did show off a different side to him, but I felt he suffered from the wrong song choice.

That couldn't be said for Olle Hedberg, who finally after all these weeks got to put his distinctive Olle-stamp on a song. The Olle-fied (for want of a better word) "Wonderwall" will have gone a long way to really boosting his profile in this contest. And about time too!!

I still think Elin Blom's trying a little bit too hard to look like Robyn, but that aside she delivered a nice version of "Born to Make You Happy". I don't have anything against her, but in my view she still lacks that distinctive quality to take her beyond the next couple of weeks.

One of the more intriguing things about last night was the prospect of Geir Rönning singing Pearl Jam's "Alive". He did give it his best shot only to get into a debate with Andreas Carlsson about song choice, which caused some controversy and got lots of Swedish press coverage as a result. By the way: 47. Is. Not. Old.

Confession time: I've always hated "Nothing Compares 2 U" but Linnea Henriksson's brittle, compelling version did the job yet again this week.

Andreas Weise sang Big Mountain's reggae-cover of "Baby I Love Your Way" which was yet again note-perfect. I have no problems with his voice, but as I said before, he is no 'idol' and could struggle to establish a music career due to his lack of individuality.

Bringing some rare sensitivity - for a change - was Jay Smith, who stepped very successfully out of his comfort zone on "I Want It That Way". It's a performance like this which will inevitably propel him towards that final showdown. Because, at this stage, I can't see anything else but a Jay-Linnea final. Of course I want Olle in that final, but I've got to be realistic!

Finally this week, Minnah, who seems to have got a new lease of life following her return to Idol last week. She sang "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" very well. With only three girls left in the competition, Minnah seems to have the most mainstream appeal and I can see her in the final 4.

Bottom two: Daniel and Geir - with Daniel receiving the lowest number of votes, he became the latest contestant to leave.

Next week: the theme is "love songs". To which I say.....yuck! I hate love songs. But looking forward to some good performances all the same.

Via Aftonbladet: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/idol2010/article8028497.ab here are this week's Swedish Idol songs, with a 1990s theme. I'm not too excited about the song choices, too many obvious international hits. What's wrong with Swedish songs?

Anyway before I go into a rant, here's the list....

Daniel Norberg - ”Stone me into the groove” (Atomic Swing).
Olle Hedberg - ”Wonderwall” (Oasis).
Elin Blom - ”Born to make you happy” (Britney Spears).
Geir Rönning - ”Alive” (Pearl Jam).
Linnea Henriksson - ”Nothing compares 2 u”(Sinead O' Connor).
Andreas Weise - ”Baby, I love your way” (Big Mountain).
Jay Smith - ”I want it that way” (Backstreet Boys).
Minnah Karlsson - ”(Everything I do) I do it for you” (Bryan Adams).

A week is a long time on "Idol". Just one week ago, Minnah was evicted from the competition - rather unfairly, I thought. However a lot has happened over the last few days: when Alice Hagenbrant decided to quit the show after deciding she wasn't enjoying it any more, Minnah was asked back. Great news, as a) Alice was not one of my favourites and b) Minnah deserved another chance.

Friday night's theme was The Beatles, and as ever some contestants did it better than others...

Geir "keep on" Rönning was back again with "Love Me Do" and such are the swings and roundabouts of this competition that after his triumph last week, he ended up in the bottom two thanks to his over-cheesy performance. The problem with "Love Me Do" is that there’s not much to it, it’s not the most vocally challenging song. And I say this as a Beatles fan, before you say anything!

How would Jay Smith tackle "A Hard Day’s Night"? In Jay-style of course, although he was quite restrained this week - I guess he's trying to show some versatility :) It can't be argued that he already has the confidence and stage presence of someone who will go very very far in this contest.

Elin Blom sang "Can't Buy Me Love", which was all a bit rock-chick-karaoke, and I still feel that Elin is too "nice" to be taken seriously as a rock singer, but that seems to be the "stereotype", the box which they want her to fit into.



Olle Hedberg's version of "Helter Skelter" left me cold, firstly because I never liked the song anyway, and although it was good to see him sing in a style which he was more comfortable with, there was still something missing, as if he was holding back. He is capable of so much more, and remains my favourite contestant, but he'll need to do a bit more!



Minnah Karlsson was back, back, back!! If she lacked oomph last week, then you couldn't say that for her this week as she gave it her all (and then some) on "Twist and Shout". I loved her black dress and purple tights too!

The very prophetic "Ticket To Ride" was the song choice for Linda Varg, and while it wasn’t all that bad (proof of the very high standard in this competition) I guess there’s only room for so many rock-chicks and Linda’s time was up.

Andreas Weise sang "All You Need Is Love". Vocally spot-on, but it was all a bit "cruise ship cabaret" as Simon Cowell used to say. Last week I thought Andreas he had a future in musical theatre: this week I’m visualising a sideways-step into dansband. He is a good singer, but there are a lot of good singers out there. And he is certainly no "Idol".

Sometimes I think Daniel Norberg could be a dark horse, as he’s got a little Will Young-quality to his voice and at times he was spot on with the subtlety which "The Long and Winding Road" deserves, although at other times he was less impressive. I think he could be in danger in the next week or two.

On "Help!" Linnea Henriksson looked as if she’d just stepped out of the 60s in her yellow two-piece suit. As usual the gave it the Linnea-treatment with bags of personality and the biggest eyelashes you’ve seen in a long long time. She certainly didn’t need any "help" to stay in the competition one more week.

Bottom two: Linda and Geir, with Linda (pictured below) leaving the competition.

It's Beatles Week. Will it be "yeah, yeah, yeah" or will some of them be a "no no no"?

Via Aftonbladet http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/idol2010/article7988077.ab here are this week's songs...

Geir Rönning - ”Love me do”.
Jay Smith - ”A hard days night”.
Elin Blom - ”Can't buy me love”.
Olle Hedberg - ”Helter skelter”.
Alice Hagenbrant - ”Something”.
Linda Varg - ”Ticket to ride”.
Andreas Weise - ”All you need is love”.
Daniel Norberg - ”The long and winding road”.
Linnea Henriksson - ”Help!”.

As ever I'm looking forward to Olle - this might be a bigger challenge than last week but we know he's got the talent, he just needs the right song. "Helter Skelter" sounds more like a Jay song, but we'll see what Olle does with it....

Minnah Karlsson kicked off the evening with her version of "Ambitions". I believe Andreas Carlsson made some negative comments about her last week, which was a bit unfair. There wasn’t too much wrong with this vocally, but maybe it was a little too anonymous and lacked oomph.

Daniel Norberg took on one of the all-time Swedish classic hits, Andreas Johnson’s "Glorious" which was totally inappropriate for his voice and it completely fell apart at the end. He really shouldn’t be given any more rock songs, but he has quite a nice tone to his voice and if he gets the right songs over the next few weeks he could become a contender. Maybe some offbeat acoustic pop, in the Jason Mraz style?

You’ll know by now that I want the overrated Alice Hagenbrant out of the contest, as she is also pretty anonymous. She sang "Breakaway" well enough but that’s the only good thing I have to say about her this week.

I’m no fan of Andreas Weise either, but I’ll admit his vocals were very good on "Feel" although the song was a bit of a mis-match. His voice is more suited to musical theatre and I feel his future lies there, rather than as a pop idol.

Linnea Henriksson in red tights! My favourite girl in the contest did well with her version of The Knife’s "Heartbeats" (original of the Jose Gonzalez hit). Her voice cracked towards the end but she probably got away with it as she may not have a traditionally great voice but has that star quality which some of the other contestants lack.

Linda Varg learned from last week and kept her vocals under control for the always-popular "Iris" and again I probably liked her better this week than I used to.

Olle Hedberg sings Oskar Linnros! The prospect had me full of anticipation, yet sadly it all fell short for me which was probably due to the rubbishy backing-track (also noted by Aftonbladet) which didn’t do him any favours. Whilst I’m an Olle fan I disagree with the panel’s comments that he sang the song better than Oskar. Both singers have different styles and I prefer Olle in a more "raw" mode - hopefully he’ll get back to that next week.

Rock chick Elin Blom’s little niche is to be given songs by other singers with short blonde hair (!) Last week Robyn, this week Pink. I thought this was a very nice version of "I Don’t Believe You" which she sang very well indeed and she has gone up in my estimations.

Jay Smith didn’t exactly step out of the box - or should that be the "Heart Shaped Box" - why, they even had him styled like Kurt Cobain! Fair play to a singer like him daring to take part in a competition like this, where most potential rockstars would avoid it like the plague. But Jay clearly knows the value of Idol as a platform, a stepping stone to better things. Somewhere out there is a rock band out there crying out for a frontman, and he is it.

Finally, Geir Rönning’s version of "Rosanna" was pretty much faultless and note-perfect and very, very impressive, and now I can understand why the Aftonbladet columnist was so enthusiastic. But he is a professional with years of singing experience, which continues to put him at a very unfair disadvantage and I'm still quite uncomfortable with that.

Evicted: Minnah. Not too much of a surprise due to the running order and previously-noted lack of oomph.

Via Aftonbladet http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/tv/idol2010/article7950115.ab here are this week's Swedish Idol songs - and aren't there some cracking song choices in there too! This week's theme is "My Idol" as the contestants take on songs by their favourite artists.

Minnah Karlsson - ”Ambitions” (Donkeyboy)
Daniel Norberg - ”Glorious” (Andreas Johnson)
Alice Hagenbrant - ”Breakaway” (Kelly Clarkson)
Andreas Weise - ”Feel” (Robbie Williams)
Linnea Henriksson - ”Heartbeats” (The Knife)
Linda Varg - ”Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls)
Olle Hedberg - ”Från och med du” (Oskar Linnros)
Elin Blom - ”I don't believe you” (Pink)
Jay Smith - ”Heart shaped box” (Nirvana)
Geir Rönning - ”Rosanna” (Toto)

Of course the one I'm most looking forward to is Olle - especially since he's singing one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite artists. Linnea should be very interesting as always, and I'm also curious to hear Minnah's version of "Ambitions". Oh, and Jay and Linda will probably scream their way through their songs as usual :)

Daniel Adams-Ray has released his second solo single "Gubben i lådan". It's the follow-up to the very catchy "Dum av Dig" which topped the Swedish radio Trackslistan earlier in the summer and got a lot of airplay.

Daniel's debut album "Svart, Vitt och allt Däremellan" (black, white and everything in-between) will finally be released in November. Since the break-up of Snook, Daniel has concentrated on his clothing line Lagom which was also shown at Stockholm Fashion Week, but now he's managing to combine his fashion and music careers. I'm looking forward to hearing his album - of course it will be impossible to avoid comparisons with his former Snook colleague Oskar Linnros, who has been without any doubt the biggest breakthrough artist in Sweden this year.

(Trying not to compare both artists, but..."Dum av Dig" was a little reminiscent of a couple of songs on Oskar's brilliant "Vilja Bli" CD, and on that album cover Oskar was covered in body paint - and so is Daniel on his new single cover!)

My own view is that judging by Daniel's two singles so far, he is probably the weaker of the two artists but I'm very happy that he's making music again, and a nice surprise to hear him singing when you consider that he was best known for his rapping (indeed, as was Oskar!) Anyway, it's great to see both members of a great Swedish act go on to achieve solo success. Well done!