Lopez Blogs

New wave of world's demand for dance music has finally reached Sweden and happily we can find new promising dance-artists those we deliver right to you and one of them is new project Swedish Angels consisting of Denise "DeDe" Lopez and Jennifer Lopez (yep, we also like this name).
Probably you already know DeDe very well, she has started her music career in early 90s as backing singer and dancer with artists like Dr. Alban and Culture Beat. With the help of Cheiron team provided her with hits of that sound they were giving to stars like Britney Spears and N'Sync DeDe has become well-known outside of Sweden and 90s have turned to her one big highlight. In 2003 she has taken part in Melodifestivalen with the song "Someone, Somewhere, Someday" and later it was pretty silent around her before she has come back with new single "Turn You On" bringing her back to the top of chart and finally last year she has released new album "Black Lace & Leather" but solo-career wasn't enough for DeDe to make all her creative ideas come true and recently she has presented new project Swedish Angels - members of project should be hot Swedish female DJs presenting best of Swedish club music to the world, seems like DeDe has found another hot half of the project and you can already listen to new single "Swedish Angel" recorded with Charlie King's vocals.
DeDe has written the song with Niklas Pettersson who worked before with Velvet, Agnes and also has co-written newest Dilba's song "Try Again". "Swedish Angel" is right that sort of club-anthem you could expect from Swedish House Mafia but less aggressive, more melodic and poppier with really charming soft male vocal, very welcome pack for everyone who was waiting so long for new rush of Swedish dance-music!

Having a few technical problems with posting at the moment, sorry no video links or pictures but hoping this is sorted out soon. Anyway it's the evening after the night before, and what was the only song I could remember from last night's line-up? "I love Belarus, tra la la la la..."

On to the final group of songs in my preview, starting with:

LATVIA: "Angel In Disguise" - Musiqq.
This was a pleasant surprise winner of the national final, as everyone expected that "Banjo Laura" nonsense to win - which would really have annoyed me as I hate songs with my name in the title!! This is a very nice, catchy and contemporary pop song (and I'm always looking for them in Eurovision), and it's the kind of thing you'd maybe expect from, say, The Wanted. All good so far, but visually they're just a giant fashion faux pas and will need a serious style makeover in time for Dusseldorf.

DENMARK: "New Tomorrow" - A Friend In London.
Trying to get 12 points from Royaume-Uni are we??? I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a copy, but it is probably to "Sing For Me" and "Shine" as "We've Got The World Tonight" was to "Fly On The Wings of Love"...if you catch my drift. This band really want to be OneRepublic and the singer really wants to be Ryan Tedder. Their great draw position will get them lots of votes but the lyrics, whilst well-meaning, are maybe a bit too cheesy and cliched.

IRELAND: "Lipstick" - Jedward.
Rewind a couple of months to the Irish national final, if you could call it a final as it was buried away on the Late Late Show on a Friday night as a complete irrelevance. "Am I heading for a car crash?" 'sing' the Grimes twins who are wringing every last drip of every last second of their 15 minutes of fame. Never did so little talent go so far. Worryingly though, this "Womanizer"-influenced track is quite memorable, it's a great draw and Jedward-The-Brand has a strong visual identity so this has a very good chance of making the final.

Now it's on to the Big 4, who this year become the Big 5 with the return of Italy to the contest after 14 years.

FRANCE: "Sognu" - Amaury Vassili.
Well, well, well. You really, really don't know what you're going to get next from France at Eurovision. Last year it was a sun-soaked footy song, this year it's a real proper singer doing a great big proper operatic anthem which will give France its best opportunity in years. If they're going to have opera at ESC this is how it should sound. It will get votes if he gives a very simple performance without any faffing about in the background.

ITALY: "Madness of Love" - Raphael Gualazzi.
So I nearly jumped out of my seat with excitement on learning that Italy was back at ESC. Italian is such a brilliant musical language that you could sing the Tesco shopping list in Italian and it would sound awesome. Except that "Madness of Love" isn't awesome at all and the fact that half of it is in English is probably one of the biggest disappointments in this year's ESC. On the plus side though this jazzy piano song is certainly different from many of the other entries but what's with the screaming???

UNITED KINGDOM: "I Can" - Blue.
I'm suffering from some very unusual symptoms of a very unusual illness = for once, I'm cheering on a British entry at Eurovision. Yes, that's right. There is something wrong with me. It's not as good as "All Rise", it could do with a key change, and they need to sort out the choreography, but I'm confident that the reunited Blue will not let us down and "we can" get at least a top 10 place. Oh, and one more thing: Duncan James, Duncan James, Duncan James :)

GERMANY: "Taken By A Stranger" - Lena.
Still not entirely convinced by the wisdom of last year's winner defending her title, as "Satellite" was such a one-off. This is certainly a brave and different choice for Germany this year, a very 'un-Eurovision' song but I can't see it doing so well as it lacks that instant appeal of "Satellite" and maybe needs a few listens. By the way, I played it the other week to faithful travelling companion, who thought it had a little bit of a Diana Vickers vibe to it!

SPAIN: "Que Me Quiten Lo Bailao" - Lucia Perez.
It means 'They Can't Take The Fun Away From Me' and appropriately it's quite cute and fun, although she could potentially have some vocal wobbles. If she pushes her performance and gives it even more of a fun aspect and party vibe, coupled with the late draw it could get more votes than many Spanish entries of recent years. On the minus side though, it may be a little too old-fashioned for the modern day Eurovision Song Contest.

Finland's entry in Eurovision Song Contest 2011 is "Da Da Dam" with Paradise Oskar or Axel Ehnström. The official video is filmed in Kajsaniemi Botanic Garden in Helsinki. It reflects the lyrics in the song in a very modest but nice way. Enjoy!
Finland bidrag i Eurovision Song Contest 2011 är "Da Da Dam" med Paradise Oskar eller Axel Ehnström som han egentligen heter. Den officiella videon är passade nog inspelad i Kajsaniemis Botaniska Trädgård i Helsingfors. Den reflekterar texten i låten på ett modest men angenämt sätt.



 Listening to Greek Loukas Yiorkas feat Stereo Mike and I'm longing desperately to Greece. The new version of "Watch My Dance" is much better than the original one. The rap-part is smelting into the languorous bouzouki. Last week the duo were performing in London and my friends Mike and Daniel had the chance to interview them - see here.
Greklands Loukas Yiorkas feat Stereo Mike får mig att längta alldeles väldigt mycket till Grekland med låten "Watch My Dance". Nya versionen är ännu bättre än den de vann med. Rap-avsnittet smälter in bland den smäktande bouzoukin. 

Look forward to meeting Paradise Oskar and Loukas Yiorkas in Amsterdam within two weeks. Ser fram emot att träffa både Paradise Oskar och Loukas Yiorkas i Amsterdam om mindre än två veckor.



Photos: Lilian; esckaz (Michael Duncan & Daniel Fay)
Source: www.myspace.com/paradiseoskar, esckaz

Last week Stockholm celebrated new Britney Spears' album with release-fest and performance of main Swedish star-fan of Britney, there are actually two as I know - Sibel and Eddie Razaz (you could even watch Eddie on Idol auditions singing Britney's "Oops!...I Did It Again") so amazing Eddie was there to make really nice acoustic cover-performance with some big Britney's hits. As I wrote in my melotrip report I was lucky enough to meet Eddie and Rabih and to convince myself what a pleasant guys they are in life. Rebound have revealed that now their next aim is release of debut album and have performed their last single "Psycho", you can watch piece of it recorded by me below. As well don't forget to check beautiful new Rabih's cover of "The way you are".