THE DANSKPOP CLIMAX!!!!! HAD YOUR MONDAY DISKOFIL?

Hva' Har Du Pakket Ind? by DiskoFil-A hilarious Danish Cover of Infernal's From Paris To Berlin that is btter than the original. Who'd have thought it! DiskoFil are a pop outfit that follows the bible of Deuce, Steps and Six. This is a good thing. They actually outdress/outcamp Scissor Sisters & The Army Of Lovers which you might of thought was actually impossible. But not for this bunch of Danish popstars. Check out the shoes! See the video of their cover of Divines You Think Your A Man here.

I Wanna Go Back by S.O.A.P-In this months Attitude BabyDaddy stipulates that he loves disco that that is "always melancholy". Furthermore he reveals that a classic song should be "about a longing for something" and I feel I Wanna Go Back fills those requirements for its message of is quite heartbreaking. However the melody, while quite dramatic, is positive so the singer must have a happy ending. Think Steps One For Sorrow or Last Thing On My Mind.


Show Your Love by Me&My-Like Soap, Me&My consisted of sisters and produced some great poptastic albums. Show Your Love sounds like a cross between Deuce and Spice Girls. This band are huge in Japan and paved the way for Aqua & My&My's break out hit Dub-I-Dub offen gets confused with Aqua. Show Your Love comes from their self-titled debut album. Btw...they were originally called SuperSister and released a number of hit albums in Denmark during the 1990's. Thankfully they are preparing to release their 4th album soonish. Don't they look ultra cute with their bunny ears?

So Many Men by Me&My-A stunning cover of the gay classic by Miquel Brown. This version reminds me of Britney's Breathe On Me with a little hint of that rift from Kylie's Confide In Me. It came from their second album, also titled So Many Men, released only in Japan. As you will see their promo video for this was totally sexual with lots of male bottoms, rubbing and flesh. See the video here(I warn you, you might need a shower afterwards)

Golden Sun by Asle-Okay this a must if your going to Ibeefah this summer. Its been a huge toon for ages in all the rather sharp clubs in London and is making waves in the US now. Threatens to be this years Call On Me when it gets yet another re-release.

MTV by Noir-This is absolutely stunning. Its all about MTV and everything wrong about pop music. Mentions Kelly Osbourne, the Justin/Janet fiasco and retains some brilliant guitar disco electro stanzas I've not heard since the 1980s. Verges on the side of Dance but makes me go all fruity yet political which is very rare for a pop song. Again another Danish song that is making waves in the US.


One Night In Bangkok by C21. The three boys formed in 1998 & are huge in Asia. Not only are they the biggest Danish boyband but they can now claim to be the biggest band from Denmark. Not heard of them? Thats because they havent bothered with the UK. This song was originally banned in Thailand but in 2003 it became one of the largest selling songs ever released there. I like it because it is the only song in history to mention the geographical areas of Iceland with Hastings.

Average Joe by Y Not-This is so cute. Includes the classic lyric "She's playing hard to get like her shit doesnt stink". Think Amy Diamond meets Eminem. Y-Not has had recent success in the US billboard charts and i think, as the picture below shows, his body helps a bit. The video for this is ultra sweet & based around the movie-musical Grease if it was set in green Southern Ireland. See the video here. I secretly wish Justin Timberlake had gone in this direction...

Mine Øjne De Skal Se by Lis Sorenson. Lis is the Danish Carola. This has one of the best chorus ever invented but you'll have to wait for it. Very 1980's. Very fabulous. Very Xenomania/Girls Aloud/Their first album. Has some of the most sublime yet subtle keyboards and electric strings ever fomented on a pop song.

Den Jeg Elsker, Elsker Jeg by Hanna-This is a poptastic cover but still it did really well in the clubs as well as the Danish Pop charts. Lovers of PurePop could like this. Its very bubblegum and we at DontStopThePop love it.


Holiday by S.O.A.P-Not included on any of their albums, S.O.A.P released this for no apparent reason but it manages to er actually outshine the original. Something I thought was scientifically impossible but the Danish sisters actually make sure you forget about Madonna and remember only them. This is a bit rare so enjoy.


Its Over by Tiggy-You might this think is some typical Europop trash-splash but it quickly riddles out of its stereotypical path & turns into something far more emotional. Dark even. Tiggy, aka Charlotte Vigil, released her first album FairyTales in 1997 which is where Its Over comes from. She released another album-pictured-two years later which became a huge hit in Japan that sounds somewhat like a cross between the Vengaboys and September.

Some of our Favourite Danish Acts Remembered just in case you missed them:

WordPlay by Malou-A summer playlist must. You can actually get their albums on the Itunes music store if your from the UK.

Impossible by Anna David-Could be sung by Carola or Lena or Shirley. Very Eurovision.

PopStar(single mix) by Jon-Excellent mix of Popstar.

From Sweden to Denmark

A time ago DontStopthePop covered music from lands such as India, Ghana and Sweden. But for the past few months its documentated pop music originating from Denmark & this exploration has come to its natural end. We've never resorted to Eurovision winners nor have we gone for Aqua. We havent even covered huge credible Danish acts like Junior Senior or SafriDuo but we highly recommend their poptastic albums which you can buy at places like Amazon & CdOn.

Instead, I hope we've illustrated that Danskpop has produced some of the best music that Europe has had to offer in recent years. From Anna David, Malou, Infernal, Mish Mash, Jon, S.O.A.P, Christine Milton & Swan Lee you could argue that the Danish have quite aurally eclipsed their mighty Swedish neighbours at the music thing. The two countries have always been rivals when it comes to music and with ABBA it seems on a highly superficial level Sweden always came out smelling of roses. But by 2000 something happened, Danish acts were absolutely everywhere & the win of Eurovision by Denmark reflected the change.

However chart success in international seas does not essentially equate to quality and Sweden still retains that specific crown. Danish pop musicians are, with the exception of the highly creative Malou, great at tracing international current trends and replicating mainly Anglo-American sounds with amazing success. Theres is a skill of absorption of strands of pop music trope and knitting these together to produce commercially viable sounds that radio will adore rather than disown.

If the Danes are great at pop amelioration Swedish musicians are pop innovators and acts such as Robyn, TheKnife, Arash, Christian Falk, Stonebridge, Velvet and PayTV all prove that point. Whether each of those Swedish pop acts will ever achieve the chart history of Aqua, Camille(in the US) and recently Infernal is unlikely. But with a pending release of Robyn in the UK the tide might change & her return to international markets wets us all with anticipation. For now though if you see an Scandanavian act in your domestic charts it will most likely be from Denmark & its always good to celebrate that fact.

One should conclude that despite their differences-which if you look through their history is quite bloody-both Denmark and Sweden have produced some of the best pop music of the past twenty years. It shapes our trends (see Malou), gives us British a moment of disco relief (see Carola or Caracola) & saves the careers of waning pop stars (see Jamelia and her cover of Superstar). Have a look at Christine Miltons video of Superstar which sees her spinning around on a record player, in a hoodie AND weird Kylie-esq choreography all of which makes Christine the legend she is today.

This journey has quite been literally to expose the sublime dialectic of music success and artistic creativity juxtaposed in the countries of Sweden and Denmark that actually works. But, more significantly to celebrate Denmarks huge contribution to pop world. There is no getting around the fact that these two countries are at the forefront of all things pop and we're so thankful to their assorted record companies, producers, artists, songwriters and radio stations for not giving up on poptastic pop tunes no matter how electro or bubblegum they be.

Music selection by Ella. Article by Robpop.