Lopez Blogs

Seems like the last time I mentioned sweet Tove Styrke here was ages ago.
Quite unfairly from my side but I'll fix it in the article with all the latest Tove's news and my thoughts about them this week.
Right now it's just spontaneous post about Tove taking part in Ikea beds advertising company where also artists Albin Gromer, Siw Malmkvist, Magnus Tingsek, Maia Hirasawa and Musette should appear soon. Tove has recorded popular old folk lullaby "Byssan Lull" made popular by Evert Taube in the beginning of 20th century and covered by many artists afterwards. Tove has filled it with strong Björk-feeling, like nothing else you've heard from her before but really dark, magic and beautiful electronic track based on folk-tune. Is there any chance we'll get it in full studio version, please?

Yesterday The Ark first time presented their (probably the last in The Ark history) single "Breaking Up With God" at Grammis awards, today we've got a nice backstage video containing also some clips from performance. We don't know if it will serve as music video in future. Would be a bit strange remembering about how massive The Ark videography is but however it was touching to see them apart from stage extravagant image as ordinary people.
Among another artists on the stage audience could see performances of Malena Ernman, Håkan Hellström, Anna Järvinen, Lykke Li, Magnus Carlsson and others. People could even see Håkan Hellström, Eva Dahlgren, Melody Club and Tove Styrke singing together with The Ark one of The Ark's big hits "Calleth You, Cometh I". Melody Club and The Ark on one stage, isn't it symbolic few weeks before MF?

I've missed two of the latest Idol episodes so here's the compressed introduction to what happened on the show last two weeks.
Rock-theme on Idol was rolling from some old monster-hits to relatively fresh ones. Olle Hedberg performed The Rasmus' "In the Shadows" that was more proper to his comfortable zone but not enough to be stable. Elin Blom with Raibnbow's "I Surrender" sounded much more prettier making it more poppy though. No need to say Jay Smith was completely in this theme rocking with Primal Scream's "Rocks". Linnea Henriksson has made completely crazy performance with Mando Diao's "Dance with Somebody" with tonnes of expression she's able for. Minnah Karlsson's was a bit more cold trying to lift Van Halen's "Jump" but it was incredibly hard to lift this complicated song up. Andreas Weise also had difficult song "Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones but he also couldn't be blamed for boringness of performance.
As a next stage participants should've sung in duets. Jay was singing U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" with Linnea and it felt a bit like year before when two faves Tove and Erik sang "Kids" together, it was quite lovely performance. Elin and Minnah provided schlager-version of The Ark's "Calleth you, cometh I" being compared afterwards with ABBA. Andreas and Olle has delievered less successful version of The Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme some lovin´" falling for bad song choise but looking tough in suits and sunglasses though.
However it was Elin together with (shock!) one of contest's faves Linnea who were left to the final duel and as it was expected Elin has left the competition.
Tove Styrke has become guest of the show presenting her new single "White Light Moment" with minimalistic but very beautiful performance.

Week later Idols have got theme of classic hits and some unexpected songs like Jay singing Madonna and Linnea covering ABBA. Andreas was back to his musical+disco field making colourful performance of Tom Jones' "She's a lady" and less alive but still bright Kool and the Gang "Celebration". Olle has started with David Bowie's "Let's dance" looking not so comfortable in terms of performance choreography but then has provided completely fantastic Elton John's "Your song" becoming 100% his own. Linnea has started with more dynamic "I can't help myself (Sugar pie honey bunch)" from The Four Tops that turned to be more usual/crazy Linnea's performance but than blown arena away with ABBA's "The winner takes it all". I've heard some really touching ballads from Linnea but this song touched me almost to tears. This is weird some performances hasn't appeared on youtube or were taken away but as soon as this one will appear, I'll let you know. I was more convinced that Minnah is good in ballads as in nothing else - "Always on my mind" from Willie Nelson sounded completely magic and incredibly beautiful with her voice. "I'm so excited" from The Pointer Sisters sounded more expectedly and suited Minnah's voice very well also. And another biggest surprise of the night was Jay who firstly fought with his rock-voice singing Frank Sinatra's "Fly me to the moon" and later provided epic performance of Madona's "Like a Prayer" appearing in kilt in the darkness with a smoke around. Jay grows as public favorite. Last week it was discovered that he smoked hashish few weeks ago but TV4 has decided not to disqualify him and seems like interest of audience has even grown so much that the question who will win has obvious answer. The only intriguing question is who will participate (to compete is not right word here) with Jay in final.
This time final duel happened between expected Andreas and again unexpected another fave Olle, and result wasn't shocking - Andreas has left Idol.

I guess many have been waiting for this white light moment already year since Tove Styrke - amazing mix of incredible charm and artistic craziness appeared on Idol casting and started to blow every Friday show with her performances. Already then it was clear (at least for me 100%) this girl with Agnes-sweetness and Amanda-uniqueness will go far. In half a year after Idol Tove has started to prove fans hopes releasing single "Million Pieces" - original and beautiful electronic track sounding like no one other Idol-participant before. But the second single "White Light Moment" presented before premiere of Tove's album "Tove Styrke" is just shockingly brilliant. It's more melodic track than "Million Pieces" but still electro with slight touch of "Dancing On My Own" with dynamic beat and gentle synths behind madly blasting in anthemic chorus with complicated beautiful pop-tune and expressive Tove's vocals.
It's just 3 weeks before release of Tove's album and undoubtfully it's not the last masterpiece Tove's gonna give us!

Surprisingly fast just after one single "Million Pieces" we get first album of Idol-2009 star Tove Styrke. This Summer we've got Tove's performances in Allsång På Skansen, Sommarkrysset and Rockbjörnen so now it's time for more self-confident steps with new album "Tove Styrke" planned for release on November 12th.
Due to tracklist on Tove's site among people who worked on her album we can see Patrik Berger (Robyn, Kylie Minogue, Darin, Sandra Nasic, Juvelen, Hilary Duff), Jan Kask (The Sounds, Charlotte Perrelli, Blue, Mandy Moore, A*Teens), Peter Ågren (Venke Knutson), Adam Olenius (Shout Out Louds). Many of tracks were produced by Patrik Berger who stands behind officially biggest Robyn's hit in Sweden "Dancing On My Own" (the only #1 single from her discography, surprising?).

01. Beating on a better drum (Berger/Berger/Styrke. Produced by Patrik Berger)
02. Stalker in your speaker (Berger/Berger. Produced by Patrik Berger)
03. High & Low (Berger/Berger/Styrke. Produced by Patrik Berger)
04. Million Pieces (Olenius/LLZ. Produced by Lotus & 2manyfreckles)
05. Chaos (Styrke. Produced by Lotus & 2manyfreckles)
06. Close enough (Kask/Ågren/Styrke. Produced by Ågren & Kask)
07. Bad time for a good time (Berger/Berger. Produced by Patrik Berger)
08. Love you and leave me (Paw. Produced by Paw)
09. Four Elements (Styrke/Bao. Produced by Lotus & 2manyfreckles)
10. Walking in my daydream (Kask/Ågren/Styrke Produced by Ågren & Kask)
11. White light moment (Kask/Ågren/Styrke. Produced by Ågren & Kask)

Hope your weekend still keeps not boring and you get as much of relax and fun as you can! As I promised I continue to present some mixes I didn't have time to talk about before and here's another bunch of them.

First one is made by Benji Of Sweden to Rebound's last single "Not Helpless", unlike first #1 single "Hurricane" second group's single hasn't charted at all so it's got very nice remix treatment and plans for the third single. Very exciting news as first two singles were all sorts of amazing!

Another last Idol successful participant Tove Styrke was as well on fire this Summer appearing in the most popular TV-shows promoting her debut single "Million Pieces". Though we've got promises to get debut Tove's album this Autumn due to silence around her new releases we're not gonna get something fast but she also gets remix support from electro-artists - popular band Familjen.

Broken Door is ready for another hit after their previous single "Angel" and it's gonna be another song that we've told you about earlier this year - "In The Shadow (Sunday Morning)". As well to all fans of Da Buzz (where Pier Schmid also particpates) we can happily announce that group is going to return in a full mode in the beginning of next year so probably soon we'll be able to enjoy music of both projects. And now you can check another mix for "Angel" from Benji of Sweden.

If you've missed Rockbjörnen-2010 Aftonbladet presents performances of Tove Styrke, The Ark, Eric Saade and Hoffmaestro & Chraa online. Best performance in my opinion was Linda Sundblad's jazz-tribute to Best Swedish song nomination, she performed Salem Al Fakir's "Keep on walking", Ola's "Unstoppable", Eric Saade "Manboy", Mando Diao "Nothing without you" and Oskar Linnros' "Från och med du" (I wonder if there were some cases before when most of songs in this nomination came from MF?). Eric Saade and The Ark showed very nice performances, Tove Styrke hadn't her best vocal day unfortunately but it was great to see her however, Hoffmaestro & Chraa turned to be not my cup of tea but probably you like them.

Last show of Sommarkrysset-2010 is unforunately over and this time we've got few fresh debutants, few schlager-comebacks and few modern rock-stars.
Amazing Tove Styrke performed her debut single "Million Pieces" and obviously was very welcome by public, girl is still need a bit more confidence working with public but we don't leave any doubts that she's new real diamond of Swedish music. Mohombi currently topping Dutch iTunes chart performed his Summer hit "Bumpy Ride" with a huge charm and brilliant choreography unforunately lypsynching choruses but receiving great public response. Simone Moreno (participant of Melodifestivalen-2006 with the song "Aiayeh (the music of the samba") has blasted Gröna Lund with brazilian rhytms and carnaval spirit spreading tons of energy around. Another ex-participant of Melodifestivalen (talking about 1978 we probably need to write EX in capitals) Pugh Rogefeldt performed retro-schlager "Stockholm". Danish Eurovision duo Chanée & N'evergreen performed their famous hit "In a moment like this" written by Thomas G:Son, Brolle presented his last single "Anything she wants" as popular rock-band Takida with their currently promoted "Never alone always alone" (from the last album "The Darker Instinct") that they recently released in new version.

Tove Östman Styrke was one of undoubtfully brightest spots of Idol-2009 starting from her first appearance on casting. Already after her first performances in the last season of TV-show girl quite fast became one of main Idol's contenders for the victory. Artistical uniqueness, surprisingly strong vocal for 16-years old girl, light craziness (in a good sense) and incredible sweetness, this combination should've made this girl winner of the season but unforunately one step before the final Tove got the biggest unluck and two songs totally not corresponding what this hurricane rock-girl was about and though Tove has made her best she expectedly missed the final. What went wrong and why jury decided not to let Tove to the final will stay a mistery but sometimes what artist achieves after Idol matters much more than his place in the contest and Tove's talent couldn't be unnoticed by record companies.

Sony generously adopted the girl and since the beginning of the year worked hard on new Tove's stuff and was preparing the girl for a big career, by some sources Tove's music had to be mix of Knife, Robyn, The Sounds and Blondie. Finally recently two intriguing bits of this music has leaked - "Young Heart" and "Million Pieces" confirming that Tove goes really speacial and her own direction mixing stadium rock spirit that she widely provided on Idol and electro-pop with Robyn-The Knife-Salem al Fakir-Björk vibes, something that can really make Tove next Amanda Jenssen who didn't manage to win Idol but reached so much through these 2,5 years totally breaking ex-pop-Idol status and developing her own image, music style and audience. Today Tove's official site is finally open and you can listen full-length first single "Million Pieces" - beautiful original soft synth-pop song written by Adam Olenius (Shout Out Louds) and produced by Lotus & 2 Freckles.

In August Tove will perform also at Allsång på Skansen and the album release is planned for this Autumn. If you didn't watch last season of Swedish Idol I'll give you a guide of Miss Styrke's way in this show.