Lopez Blogs

Country-queen and one of the most beautiful singers of Sweden Jill Johnson is back with compillation "The Well-Known And Some Other Favourite Stories" containing 2 discs of old hits with some brand new songs and live-disk. Whole pack is going to be released on October 27th and the first single "Stumble And Fade Away" is already out!
Jill Johnson's music career has started back in 80ies when she being teenager started touring as vocalist around Scandinavia in country group Tomboola Band and released her first hit "Sugar Tree" in Denmark, later in 1996 she's released her first hit "Kommer tid, kommer vår" in Sweden in duet with Jan Johansen (winner of Melodifestivalen-1995). That was quite interesting point as in 2 years she won Melodifestivalen-1998 herself with the song "Kärleken är" (with lyrics inspired by Princess Diana's story that attracted attention of Brittish press). Seems like creative activity of Jill never took big pauses so she was recording albums with some top Nashville musicians, made successful records in Denmark and sure got loads of attention in Sweden. However first really successful record was released by Jill in 2003 right after her comeback to Melodifestivalen with hit "Crazy In Love" that achieved 4th place in final and compilation "Discography" released in a month sold platinum and received Grammis. All the later albums of Jill coming out rarely with period more than year got to Top-5 and now time has come for another compilation of Jill's greatest hits.
First single "Stumble And Fade Away" is amazing country-pop song with slight touch of some Celine Dion's biggest hits and all passion and charm of Jill's vocal. Check it right now!

When Allsång På Skansen was losing its viewers previous weeks Anders Lindin's biggest rival Lotta Engberg has lost something more important - voice, right before the final show - during programme, how catastrophic! It turned worse and worse every time she started to read her text and finally she ended up standing behind Jill Johnson who was asked to finish show instead of Lotta, you can watch full drama here. But thanx God she has recovered closer to the last show and closed season of Lotta På Liseberg-2010 with all usual expression and charm.
Let's see who was invited to last shows in Liseberg. Firstly it was Timoteij who performed both of their hits "Kom" and "Högt över ängarna", girls were sweet as always. Eric Gadd who recently released new album "Rise Up!" (peaking at #6 of Swedish chart) that I'd like to tell you about soon presented last single "Rise Up!" and his old hit "My Personality". Måns Zelmerlöw and Maria Haukaas Storeng as always perfectly performed their collaboration "Precious To Me" (how pity it hasn't become hit in Sweden yet). Lill-Babs have sung Carlene Carter's old song "Full orkan". One of the biggest public favorites Andreas Johnson performed his biggest international hit "Glorious" and single-2006 "Sing for me". Cookies n Beans have pleased people with their unique voices and songs "First we take Manhattan" and "Kings & Queens". Melodifestivalen-winner Anna Bergendahl presented her platinum single "This is my life", song "Got my heart in your pocket" from her debut album, Robert Broberg's cover "Båtlåt" and duet with Jill Johnson "Why do you come in here looking like that" - Dolly Parton's cover that Jill released 3 years ago with Nina Persson. Jill also was singing Eagles' cover "Desperado" and Ted Gärdestad's "Oh vilken härlig dag". And Rigo performed summer set of "La bamba", Claes-Göran Hederström's "Det börjar verka kärlek banne mig" and "Stockholm ström" in his own original style. Last show featured Eric Saade who was singing three of his singles "Manboy", "Break Of Dawn" and "Masquerade", Caroline af Ugglas presented new songs "Du får tycka om mig" and "Vill kunna säga förlåt" from her new album planned for release in September and Tommy Körberg has been singing Astrid Lindgren's "Fattig bonddräng" and Neil Diamond's "Red red wine".

Timoteij - Kom
Timoteij - Högt över ängarna
Eric Gadd - Rise Up!
Eric Gadd - My personality
Måns Zelmerlöw och Maria Storeng - Precious to me
Lill-Babs - Full orkan
Andreas Johnson - Glorious
Andreas Johnson - Sing for me
Cookies n Beans - First we take Manhattan
Cookies n Beans - Kings & Queens
Anna Bergendahl - This is my life
Anna Bergendahl - Got my heart in your pocket
Jill Johnson och Anna Bergendahl - Why do you come in here looking like that
Anna Bergendahl - Båtlåt
Rigo Pencheff - Stockholm ström
Rigo Pencheff - Det börjar verka kärlek banne mig
Rigo Pencheff - La bamba
Jill Johnson - Desperado
Jill Johnson och allsång - Oh vilken härlig dag
Gäster och allsång - Beatlesmedley
Eric Saade - Masquerade
Eric Saade - Break of dawn
Caroline af Ugglas - Du får tycka om mig
Caroline af Ugglas - Vill kunna säga förlåt
Tommy Körberg - Red red wine
Tommy Körberg - Fattig bonddräng

During Stockholm Pride week Linda Bengtzing, Anna Bergehdahl, Jill Johnson, Sarah Dawn Finer and Magnus Carlsson gave English interviews to oikotimes and great news are that both Magnus and Linda are definitely want to come back to a big spotlight of future Melodifestivalen. Linda seems to be especially eager about comeback. Unfortunately Sarah is not so eager about it but doesn't want to say she'll never do it again. Well, you'd better check it yourself right below.

Interview with Sarah Dawn Finer
Interview with Anna Bergehdahl
Interview with Magnus Carlsson
Interview with Jill Johnson
Interview with Linda Bengtzing

And you can also check some well-recorded performances during last week. Second record of Rebound's performance is a bit distorted with agonizing dying fans but this is what actually makes me laugh to tears everytime I hear it.

MaryJet - Dear Mr. President
Anna Bergendahl - This Is My Life
Björn Skifs - Fångad i en dröm
Shirley Clamp - Min kärlek
Shirley Clamp - Med Hjärtat Fyllt Av Ljus, Att älska dig
Jan Johansen - Se på mig
Jill Johnson - Crazy in love
Göran Fristorp (Nova) - Sommaren Som Aldrig Säger Nej
Svenne and Lotta - Bang A Boomerang
Christer Sjögren - I Love Europe

Hurrah! It's only 30 days until Christmas. I feel like I should be a wassilling or something. Instead I am driving Darren mad with amazing new festive or at the very least festive themed tunes and making him plan where we will put the Christmas tree this year (his inspired response? "Same place we put it last year and the year before I suppose". Classic! Such festive fun!) and what baubles we will adorn it with (his merry berry christmas answer "oh just chuck em on. It's a Christmas tree". It's like Santa is sliding down my hole already). I love love love it. OK, I'm a little over stimulated, but today I'll have a quick run through the finest songs on a rather marvelous new Hotel Cafe compilation cd (even if it does feature a tune by the scarlet harlot who will not be named other than skanky skanky ho ho)...

Lenka ~ All My Bells Are Ringing: This is definitely my favourite most beautiful christmas song this year. If you have heard her ace pop ditty "The Show", then you'll pretty much know what to expect here. Straightforward quirky pop, with some added "ooo ba ba", chiming bells and handclaps.The lyrics, admittedly are a bit twee, but because it's Christmas it's entirely forgiveable and actually rather cute. I'm particularly partial to the refrain "take my heart this Christmas, and wrap it in a ribbon and a bow". Which is quite lovely to give someone your heart at Christmas. Or taken literally, incredibly incredibly gross.
Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles ~ Winter Song: XO wrote about this song a while back (click here) and I can't really top what he has said. It's such a beautiful tune and really just grows on you until it consumes you. Two stunning voices working together to sprinkle a little Christmas magic into your life. BTW when I first read about this song, I totally thought it was called Christmas Snog and got all excited that Sara would be doing such a fun kooky song! Oh well. This is lovely too.

Two other songs that would fit quite well as part of this CD:

Sarah McLachlan ~ Winters Night: Much like Ingrid and Sara's song, this maudlin winter tune doesn't reach out and grab you with it's immediacy but definitely lulls you into submission with it's haunting nature. I've always been a huge fan of Sarah's voice and the sparse instrumentation here frames it beautifully. Guaranteed to melt the hardest of hearts (legal disclamer: Not a guarantee)...
Jill Johnson ~ Christmas On My Own: I give full credit to the stunning Poppostergirl for getting me into this song, and I absolutely adore adore adore it. It's quite country at the heart of it, but the sentiment is so earnest and the chorus so darn catchy that it's almost impossible not to fall in love. Basically she falls in love with a guy, documents their love throughout the year before the cad dumps her in November! Despite its sad tone, it's really a delightful little treat and as moreish as a Dark Cherry Mocha from Starbucks...