And now to Russia via Popstars: The Rivals. Clea recorded the album of 2004 but due to record company problems the LP never came out in the UK. We cannot stress how good Identity Crisis is and we really don't want to damage the sales of the album as they are practically on their knees as a band so please please please if you like what you hear buy it again. You can get it at amazon but also http://www.7digital.com/stores/productDetail.aspx?shop=122&sid=238834. We absolutely love Clea and this posting is just to promote the act/album.
Butterflies and Rainbows is one of the album fillers which is why we've included here today. I say filler only because in comparison with the other songs on the LP, it doesnt stand strong but as you will hear that isnt to suggest its crap. Quite the opposite. On first hearing you might not really notice it but it will eventually consume you.
I've not heard anything like this and yet it sounds very similar. Its epic. Its poetry. Its true bliss. Or could it be self-reflective in a Freudian praxis?
Clea have dropped a member since the release of this album and gone all Atomic Kitten with their recent cover of Clothes Off. The material recorded for their new LP entitled Trinity and Identity Crisis are completely different. Its like the albums are produced by two completely different bands. The pop on Identity Crisis pulled us into a sphere of addictive flowers embedded in a the strange yet mythical hinterland that was Uber, beautiful, tragic and global. The pop on Trinity however recalls Kylies early years at PWL. Both are of course welcomed but DONTSTOPTHEPOP! prefers the former as it revealed small appertures in our harsh reality that allowed the listener to swim in the chords only strung in utopia. Identity Crisis was the album most played on Gods ipod.
Listen and fall in love.
CLEA Butterflies and Rainbows
RUTH WALLIS Boobs
Ruth Wallis is the Joan Rivers of pop music. She was banned in the 50's for singing about such stuff as homosexuality, floppy willys and wifeswapping. Her hits 'Queer Things' and 'He'd Rather Be A Girl' are as funny yet relevant today as they were back then revealing history is nothing but a idiom. But this little ditty is not about the fairies but the requirement to tease out your boobs to impress men. Basically its realistic and yet tragic take on the Diamonds are girls bestfriend.
Pre-empting the world of Chantelles and Lolo's, Ruth Wallis interupts the given image presented by the first "gossip celebrity": the troubled Marilyn Monroe by reorganising certain melodies and filling in the gaps with hardcore satirical lyrics. Her material was so close to the edge, Ruth was prevented from entering Australia. Their loss.
As Chuck Miller stated Ruth Wallis' songs weren't filthy or dirty. They were, however, wry observances of things that suburban America wasn't ready to discuss - things like cross-dressing...
Her lyrics caused so much controversary the FBI begun to build a case against her that would eventually lead to her being portrayed as a Communist spy. These plans never came forward but it just goes to show that Eminem and his ilk really are nothing new. Or rather, in the geneology of pop music, Ruth stands over Madonna and that aforementioned rapper as the true original fire starter.
For this we commend you Queen Ruth.
VANY Drama Queen
From Shampoo to the wonderful Vany whose Drama Queen will always be remembered as a post-modern German gay anthem. Vany(AKA Vannesa Petruo) is of course the beatiful star of No Angels: Germans first Popstars band. As a solo artist shes released two wonderful tracks, this one and Hot Blooded Woman that came from the stunning debit Mama Lilla Would LP.
Imagine Rosenstolz, Mozart, Army Of Lovers and Queen altogether you got Drama Queen. It flopped on release but we don't care. This is a DONTSTOPTHEPOP! classic and we bow down to the end lyrics "and if you don't like drama go back to ya mama"
What more can be said.
SHAMPOO A time to celebrate their wonderfulness!
Shampoo were the best girlband of the 1990s. Fact! Forget the All Saints and Spice Girls. Melody Maker, the kids who could afford Smash Hits and FastForward and those lost pinkteenpunks growing up on estates all adored them. As did certain caculative pop managers wishing to use some of that some of that poppunk energy pumping so innocently from Shampoo. But more on that later....
Who can forget such classics as I Love Pussy, Bouffant Headbutt and Viva La Megababes?! Their second album entitled Girlpower hit you so hard you felt like filling in a Invalidity benefit form by track 2. Sadly, while Shampoo were the first to scream about GirlPower it was the Spice Girls who would go down history for successfully copying and mainstreaming the slogan. Under the guise of Shampoo the 'girlpower' attitude appeared to be 'too thugtastic' for middle england while the Spice Girls/and their record company managed to make the same lines seem as wild and threatening as stamp collecting. Indeed the lyrics of Shampoos Girlpower included the wonderful line "I wanna smash your face up just for fun...we might look sweet but we wanna be sour".
Shampoo predicted happyslapping, Vicky Pollard, Tony Blair, Chavs, the uncertain future of Top of the Pops+British music industry, and of course ASBOS. They were amazing.
Without them Girls Aloud, Spice Girls, 411 and nearly every "cool" pop act just wouldnt exist. That also includes Busted and McFly.
Girls Round Here: Includes the lyrics "they say were strange and they say were queer!". Also a polemic on teenage pregnancy and council housing benefits. Imagine if Busted got better and didnt always talk about such silly things such as school teachers. Shampoo never went to school. They bunked. They couldnt fancy a teacher. If they did they woulda spiked his tea and nosh him(or her) just before recess.
House Of Love: A cover of the East 17 classic! To date, I think its only been Shampoo who have recognised the brilliance of Tony Mortimers timeless lyrics and amazing melodies. If anyone has watched Steve Spielbergs new movie Munich you kinda wish he'd used Shampoos cover of House Of Love to finish the movie as it panned over the Twin Towers. Good movie btw.
GirlPower!: Anyone who has the wonderful third album by Girls Aloud will know of the amazing track Models. Compare these two tracks and you could raise your eyebrow. Or maybe not! Anyway, GirlPower is a wicked track and you half imagine Shirley Mason and Courtney Love dancing round their handbags to this.
GONNABEES Queen Of Pop
So to our first American contribution to the world of pop. The Gonnabees are like those particular friends who are banned from particular bars for doing that trick with their legs. Everyone has them and for the first time they've put their talent to song. The group never became what they wanted to 'be' thus remaining in the lucid world of perpetual world of ascent. As the saying goes, its always better to go up than to come down and these girls prove that point.
As for the song we'll let the lyrics speak for themselves. P!NK's Stupid Girls is a sweeter version of Queen of Pop and about 2 years too late.
Imagine a pop song combining the talents of Fisherspooner, Sugababes and Joan Rivers and you'd have Queen of Pop. The song got banned by most radio and the girls have vanished. This version is quite rude so do not be offended when the girls plunder through the dictionary and pick a particular word beginning with F and ending with K.
SWEETBOX Cinderella
This song is ridiculous and so OTT its sublime. If all music was like this they'd be no need for drugs, wars and therapists. Suspend your reservations and simply embrace the wonder of it all. Only the Army Of Lovers have tapped into a similar nectar as this semi-aria.
This is of course by the same group who gave us Everythings Gonna be Alright which sampled Bach's Air (on a G String) from Suite No. 3 which charted all over the world.
Sweetbox then evolved into a 1 woman show when the previous singers left after the success of Everythings Gonna Be Arlight. This new singer came in the form of the delightful Jade who spreads her fairylike vocals on Cinderella and the majority of the Sweetbox discography.
This band, while coming from Germany, is literally massive in Japan. They have released 10 albums in Japan with only Tina Harris fronting one album and Jade taking centre stage on the following 9. They have toured in Japan and South Korea to sell out stadiums and plan to release a brand new LP provisionally titled Bold and Delicious this March.
FYI: Fans of the Japanese "megadiva", Ayumi Hamasaki, might be interested to know that Sweetbox wrote six tracks on her Miss(Understood) album.
THE PRELUDERS Sundown
So this is the German Girls Aloud as The Preluders were a product of the show Popstars - The Duel. Throughout their career they released some of the best pop songs in a very short space of time. With No Angels out of the way, The Preluders thought they had it in the can once the debut single Everyday Girl stormed the charts in most central European countries.
However despite the brilliance of their follow up singles, especially the Army Of Lovers-esq Bal Privé, the charts failed to recognise the progression of their pop sound when the second album came out.
Then disaster struck on Glora Estefan proportions when Tertia Botha-who could be related to the British Royal family with a surname like that-was a in pretty serious car crash. In a bid to prove her loyality Rebecca Miro, one of the key singers in the band, took the opportunity to leave the band a few weeks later.
However the girls are carrying on Clea-style as probably believe in pop. And so do we. They are releasing Never Before which sounds like a cross between Robyn's Keep This Fire Burning and Deep Purple. It has some wonderful distinct chants and melodies that many would label as "ethnic". Even so, the song is very diferent from any of their previous work.
This electropulse track is of course will be known as a S Club hit single but it was recorded first by The Preluders.
CHRISTINE MILTON So Addictive-Spanish Fly Radio Edit
Two tracks for manic Monday. This time we head over to Denmark. Both of these tracks are quite different from the original radio edits but we love them so we've decided to go with these ones. One song in particular you should recognise as Superstar as Christine Milton was the original singer of the ditty which eventually became an international hit single for Jamelia. Check out the original lyrics in the bridge.
Her website hasnt been updated since 2004 which could suggest that Jamelia's Superstar might have diminished Christines' chances of continued international success. This is a real shame because her album contained some real strong songs all like, if not better than, Superstar.
Bonus Now Fixed: Superstar-Messtar Radio Edit
Enjoy!
RUBY AMANFU Chocolate Pie
Special Sunday bonus today! From Ghana! Three tracks by the glorious Ruby Amanfu. Ghana has lived most of her life in Tennessee but dont expect country slicks from this popstar. I cannot stress how good she is! Shes only ever had 1 single but due to problems with her record company it didnt go anywhere. She'd already left the record company by the time her debut single was getting promotion on MTV. There was no promotion not because of the usual suspects/reasons but for the fact she was back in the U.S working on new projects.
Its a shame because her album is one the strongest recorded in recent years. Thankfully shes still working at it and 2006 could be her year. For more information please check www.soaddictive.co.uk
Now a break down of the songs:
Know You Better – This starts off like Kiss Kiss but then slides into something you've probably not heard that often. It takes some time to really kick off but once it hits the chorus theres no looking back. But give it time, it takes ages before the chorus comes in and you might think its actually quite normal first time hearing...that will change. This track is very subtle in its lure.
Chocolate Pie: Also don't judge this on the first few seconds of the track. As a big fan of chocolate pie, cakes, cream..anything chocolate I was quite naturally attracted to this song. Could this track be about Keisha of the Sugababes? For sure there are many ladies called Keisha in the world but we'd like to imagine it is! So there! Its a real singalong song and all about chocolate. What more could you ask for?.....
Sugah – Another pop song from Ruby about confectionary! The girl loves her sweets. And so do we. This is the single that never happened. This has a sweeping strings assortment that is dead lush! The melody eventually creeps onto your brain like those pink candi floss things you'd consume when the circus came to town. We love it for the lyric "just the smell of you as got me going back to school". For me that smell is Lynx airspray.
BEA BRONCHAL Que Te Den Candela
Turning to Spain this brilliant song comes from a pretty much internationally unknown flamenco/latino artist Bea Brochal. Its as if Max Martin remixed Britneys Toxic and hyped up the sitar strings. The moment you hear this you will feel your butt wanted to move.
This songs comes from the album of the same name which I have to say is rather brilliant. Released on the amazing record company Vale Music Bea Bronchal is already on her second album with them 'Ole' which is still doing well in the charts in Spain. Could Bea be the next Monica Naranjo? So far shes already beginning to eclipse a DontStopThePop favourite Malu! Ole is even better than this track however seeing as its a chart single it wouldn't be right. Please please please check out Bea!
To get both albums from Bea-and other great Spanish music-go to El Corte Ingles
PAY TV Refrain Refrain
This is not a proper pop song. This blasts the idea of what a pop song should be and yet forms it at the same time. Simply sublime. If theres one song you download from this page let it be this one. Music: (pop/electropop/electroclash).
Where does one start with PAY TV. This is deconstructive pop music at its finest. Actually this could be the only example of deconstructive pop that exists at the moment. Once it covers that, it then explores the notion of celebrity...which are quite seperate discourses and yet they do it all in 2 minutes and 56 seconds. In years to come this song will be used as a research methology for understanding ABBA, S Club 7 and Motown. Its no surprise then that PAY TV are from Sweden.
Our favourite lyrics are..."success...won’t come unless...you get undressed...Have public sex and then tell the press"
The album is due out later in the year which is great as every song we've heard from their little promos they've given out at Gay Pride/P.A's doesnt contain ONE bad. Our favourite isnt even Refrain Refrain but Sexy Robot suggesting Swedish female artists have a thing about machines after Robyns ode to her Robot Boy on her last LP. We know that the PAY TV album will be one of the best of 2006 once released.
They have their own blogspot page at paytvdiary.blogspot.com/. For remixes, videos and more head over to their website at www.paytv.se. Check out more of their material at Catchy Tunes of Sweden and Spark*Pop.
GIRLTHING We've Come To Mambo
DontStopThePop loved GirlThing even if they flopped, cost the record company millions and launched their debut on the same week as Kylie Minogues Spinning Around.
This is yet another pop act, like Martay and Made In London, that didnt work for British audiences. However unlike the aforementioned two, the hype was better than the product. I'm not saying music was bad but the girls just couldnt hide the fact that even in the studio recordings they sounded terrible. That isnt a dig at the girls capabilities as the one ballad they did, Pure and Simple, illustrated each girls vocal potential but when all together they sounded like 5 Ginger Spices singing different lyrics with opposing chords.
The album is a total mess not because of the lyrical content or the girls but the presentation. Its no surprise that the girls never released their first and only LP.
HOWEVER! If you taken 1 song part by its a bloody spectacular effort. All they needed was that Xenomania touch rather than shipping them off to Norway to work with producers/writers who must have been the only Scandanavians around wanting to sound American.
Oddly enough the albums strongest points are when the old Spice Girls writers and producers jump on board. This song is one of those. Recorded at Biffco Studios in Ireland, We've Come To Mambo has the wonderful couplet "All we want is to get down, Soul Train, Disco, Funky Town, All those Divas rocked the floor. So c'mon girls, break down the door". There are particular shades of Love Machine on this track. Which is totally like a good thing.
Alas, GirlThing hadnt recorded this song yet and were banking on their one ballad to spring back their previous and rather costly first two flops: Girls on Top and Last 1 Standing. This one ballad, mentioned already above, was their sure fire hit single. It was the one that was gonna go to no.1 and We've Come to Mambo would follow suit straight afterwards just like Atomic Kitten did with Whole Again and Eternal Flame. The song in question was of course Pure and Simple which was given Hear'Say and became a massive smash hit for them.
With their Pure and Simple plans totally scuppered as a result of record company politics, the girls went on a pretty successful Asian tour but the refusal to release the album in the UK eventually led to the eventual demise of this rather fantastic British pop group. Yes they were flawed but given another album they could have been sublime.
Under different circumstances, GirlThing might still be here today and I think most would say that they'd prefer them to what Hear'say gave us after Pure and Simple.
GirlThing: the girlgroup phenomenon that never was.
MARTAY Get Off My Back!
Okay this is really dusting it down. Martay never made it but we still love her. The Cd I have says she was on the verge about to release an album but I don't think she got beyond two singles and an album promo. Her debut single was a rip roaring pop classic that featured ZZ Top! Yes ZZ Top! Gimmie All Your Loving was like Betty Boo all over again. However it bombed.
Martay will never be remembered for her solo efforts but rather her work with Urban Cookie Collective which delievered The Key The Secret. A particular song DontStopThePop isnt too fond of.
However one day, possibly today, my Ipod stalled on Thinking Of You, a Martay track also included on the album promo and it got me thinking of this rather excellent portion of bitchipop! On this track alone her stuff with Urban Cookie Collective is forgiven!
Martay, like Made in London, should have been big. Her mixes rocked. Not only did the magical Jewels and Stone twiddle at her knobs but so did Thunderpuss which is pretty impressive seeing as she was signed to a tiny label.
While this track is particularly rare you can buy Martays first single Gimmie All Your Loving 2000 at the wonderful Perfect Beat which sells all those delirious remixes previously mentioned.
MADE IN LONDON Pull Up To The Bumper
Made in London are one of the mysteries of the British music industry. Or rather their failure has set a rather worrying trend of brilliant material+British female singers=absolute chart failure. We see this Benefit, Alexis Strum, Shaznay, Kick Angel, Clea, Madasun and Cookie. Girls Aloud are quite clearly abnormal.
Staying upbeat however Made in London are DontStopThePops all time favourites. Their withdrawn album is one of the best releases that never was of this millenium. The debut single Dirty Water uses special sound effects along with one of the best operatic sequences in modern pop music. That song was so good it ended up being covered by Bardot.
But this isnt about that song but rather its flipside, a rather sublime cover the Grace Jones classic. Other than this cover, the girls, Marianne, Sherene and Kelly wrote all of their material along with Will Malone aka the guy who made Kylie sound like Enya on Bittersweet Goodbye and has previously worked with the Verve, Massive Attack and UNKLE.
Made in London were simply pop music at its best. One more single would follow, and then the troubled started. The album(which has two titles funnily enough) was due to come out in 2000 but pulled at the last second. A real crying shame
FYI: The people over at BMG mispelt the title of this particular track on my promo-and I also believe the maxi single- to read "Pull Up to The Bummer".
KATIE UNDERWOOD Danger
We absolutely LOVE this song!!!!!!!!!!! It has everything! Even police sirens. Or could they be fire engines? Either way, we love the uniforms so we don't care!
It recalls the magic and originality of Sugababes Overload, Army Of Lovers at their best and even has that nasty baseline beat that manages to cover most of the whole track much like Can't Get You Out Of My Head.
Vocally Katie Underwood is impressive without overdoing it(Christina Aguilera and Kelly Clarkson you both have been warned!).
Katie harks from Australia and was the first to leave the reality pop tv show band Bardot(a band whose main claim to international fame is that they were the second Popstars band in the world after sorely missed TrueBliss).
To get more Katie head over to her brilliant website www.katieunderwood.tv and to buy her stuff abroad try Amazon or HMV.
Her favourite food is Spaghetti Marinara and her favourite body part are her lips. Katies first single Don't Be was released in 1999 in the UK and did quite well in areas where it was released however it when she signed up with Bardot that Katie made her big spash into the wild world of mainstream pop.
VICTORIA SILVSTEDT Rock Steady Love
Flying back to Sweden we remember this rather stunning Swedish rare delicacy.
Lets go back to Victoria. Shes like a spring or rather a fountain of pop brilliance! Rock Steady Love is the song of the year. Whenever it was released. The chorus is perfect magic as it makes you feel funny inside.
Even the rent a rapper doesnt destroy the Swedishness of the song. Its like the rap in Kylies shocked! It makes the song! I mean I doubt he'd be selling a dildo of his willy if 50 Cent said the line "Life is a cockpit...Remember I will never make you cry, ALL LOVE FOR YOUR BODY AND YOUR MENTAL!" [i think he means he loves her not just for her body but for her brains..see isnt he lovely!]...50 Cent watch, listen and learn!
The severe yet beautiful way she stipulates "I dont care what they say" kinda reminds us when Madonna told her father not to preach.
For this, we love Rock Steady Love and we too want some of that rock. Its the Swedish take on I Got You Babe.
I think.
EUROGROOVE and DANNII Boogie Woogie
First of all...any song called Boogie Woogie has already achieved a higher status of pop supremacy before its even been recorded. ..
While we wait for the new Dannii single, I thought it might be nice to dust down this long forgotten Dannii gem long. This really isnt a Dannii song per se but rather Eurogroove. A band who were responsible for some of the most Europop(and thus should be read as best) hits in the 1990s.
I love Boogie Woogie because it sounds like Whigfields Saturday Night and I don't think there are enough of songs that sound like Saturday Night. Which I find totally odd as it was no.1 for years! Go figure...
Now what could this song be about? I personally think Dannii is getting rather clucky on the track and the lyrics suggest shes singing about the trials of motherhood. An ode to an unrully toddler perhaps? I mean how else could any read "you got just what i need, BABY give it to me!, you know you made a difference in my life...i got a funny feeling deep inside..sometimes its hard to get to sleep at night..your the one and now i CANT LET GO". Well if Kirsty Alley is anything to go by in Look Whose Talking! then I can perfectly understand these specific lyrics. Dannii can't go to sleep cus the baby wont sleep at night-its probably teething-and she cant let go because she'd end up like Louise Woodward(the nanny who dropped a baby). Can't see Dannii in prison although I know she'd be top dog.
Most probably.
Don't take my word for it though. I was never good at GSCE English Literature at school. I remember my Ibsen essay compared his early works to a Betty Boo b-side. Alas, a career in literature criticism never materialised.
You can find out more on Dannii at either one of her TWO official websites. Dannii is special you see. She has TWO! Not one like Madonna or Will Young. But two!! Check them out at www.danniimusic.com and www.dannii.com. Neither of the two recall Boogie Woogie in their discography sections. Dannii never included Boogie Woogie on her albums. Could Dannii be ashamed at this very rare gem!? Well DONTSTOPTHEPOP loves it!
You can also get more recent Dannii rare gems over at that amazing Itunes music store including the rather brilliant Trip and Take Me Inside.
ALISHA CHINOY Laila
Staying in India now we dust down this beautiful slice of pop serenity. The introduction alone recalls Anastacias Left Outside Alone however this track interupts the 'aria' with a bunch of fabulous male backing vocalists with the timeless lyrics "do do do do do" and for this alone Alisha Chinoy deserves some recognition!
Indian pop music, dubbed by some as Hindipop, has always been a source of excellent and creative artistry probably because of the wild selection of instruments present on each single. Moreover the female voice is always put first rather than lost in amongst the studio special effects that often seem to destroy the spirit of a pop song.
Alisha Chinoy is known as the Queen of "Indo-Pop" and we can see why by the fact that shes released over 9 albums! Respect!
But we love her even more because shes known as a total bitch! And why does she have this bad reputation??? Gak fiend? Gun trader? Lets off smelly farts? No! Of course not! Shes known as the "scandal child". Whatever that means, we love her even more
USHA UTHUP with BAPPI Koi Yahan Yahan Naache
So now to India for some pop music history! Usha Uthup was raised in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai and she has set the charts alight in India ever since and created those trends in what we now love to call "modern western pop" music .
Before Madonna relaunched her career on the back of a sample, Usha Uthup was already there some 20 years before! Morever she was also one of the first mainstream artists to realise the potential of "renting a rapper" who features on this record in the form of Bappi. Usha is THE disco icon of the 20th Century. She is like royalty in India and Don'tStopThePop! adores her. Utilising all the instruments we have, Ushas records always pushed the boundaries of disco music. The start of the song sounds like the prologue to much of the work presented to the "founder" of disco, G.Moroder.
Besides singing in several Indian languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Bangla, Assamese, Oriya, Khasi, Gujurati, Marathi, Konkani, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu she also sings in French, German, Italian, Sinhalese, Swahili, Russian, Nepalese, Arabic, Creole, and of course, English.
Usha Uthup now runs a multitrack recording studio in Calcutta. Apart from commercial music she also uses her studio to encourage young talent from all over the country. Which I feel is a far more civilised way of nurturing musical talent than a judgemental tv show.
VICTORIA SILVSTEDT Hello Hey
Staying in Sweden DontStopThePop! presents Victoria Silvstedts dip into the music world. Born in the very Swedish sounding town Skellefteå, Victoria is so famous that she has her own doll.
Most famous for being named Playmate of the Year in 1997 but Vicky is so much more than that.
Everyone knows about her amazing legs ever since she became Miss Sweden however Victoria never planned to be build her career on the back of PlayBoy but rather was destined to achieve success by throwing her body down a big big big hill with only two pieces of wood attached to her feet. She was a world-class member of the Swedish National Ski Team, ranking as high as fourth among her future Olympian teammates in the Super-Giant Slalom.
Due to an injury, probably falling over, she decided to swap the ski lift for the superbra and never looked back.
PLAY Don't Stop The Music
In support of one of the best blogs in the world, Catchy Tunes of Sweden, DontStopThePop! has to say that the girlgroup is one of the best bands to come out of Sweden. Please don't listen to the haters!
Reasons to love them:
-What other band has ever appreciated/covered magic of Atomic Kitten, Robyn, Liberty X, and Billie Piper? You'd be hard pressed to find such a group. These girls know their music so much so they cover it all and add something to the original.
-Anna Sundstrand(key vocalist) is a relative of the legendary Greta Garbo!
-Anais Lameche, younger sister of recording artist Amanda Lameche(signed to Maverick Records no less)
-Rosanna is actually called Rosie Munter. Shes a member of the Munters!
-Rosie Munter starred in a popular Swedish film called Eva and Adam.
-Janet Leon(the replacement of Faye Hamlin who left to study at uni) is a mezzo-soprano!
This was originally a hit single for Robyn in Sweden but I love the cuteness of their cover. Play you were great!!!
BEC CARTWRIGHT All Seats Taken
Popstars being my age seems to be a running theme at the moment. Rebecca June Cartwright Hewitt was born July 23, 1983 only a few months after Holly Rachel Vukadinović. What a year 1983(& 1982) must have been...
Anyway! This particular Australian poptart is better known as Bec Cartwright named after Tooting Bec and Alexander Cartwright the inventor of baseball. Most probably.
Following the footsteps of Dannii Minogue, Bec found herself on Home and Away, a show so famous Al Gore was in it. Well if he just had the time...
Bec is now a trophy wife having married a sports personality and giving birth to baby Mia. Her attempt at entering Australian Music Hall of Fame began swiftly with All Seats Taken which did well but she was unable to keep the energy alive and along with Sophie Monk and Dannii Minogue was dropped by Warner Music Australia. Its certainly a dark time for Australian pop music.
With a failed pop career and married to a more successful tennis player, at least Bec can become Australians answer to Victoria Beckham.
TIC TAC TOE Mr.Wichtig
TTT were commercial female hip hop trio from the mid-90s, when few groups where successful rapping in German. Their big hits included Why, Fuck You and Your Are Shit. They were Spice Girls with balls so much so that one the girls boyfriend killed himself after she dumped him. Unlike the Spice Girls however, the group carried on after one left and the got another member.
They have a new album out this month and so DontStopThePop! salutes you!
LENE Queen For A Day Virgin Superstar
Lene Nystrøm Rasted was born Lene Grawford Nystrøm on 2 October 1973 in Tønsberg, Norway. She is most for being the Barbie Girl in the 90's superband Aqua. While her solo album completely bombed she, like most female popstars, was more successful in the singles charts with the tracks Its Your Duty and Pretty Young Thing.
Lene is also responsible for the co-writing the Girls Aloud classic No Good Advice. However me thinks that the credit might be a bit fake as Lene was also given a similar writing credit on the song Here We Go on Play With Me(Lene's solo LP) yet her name was missing when Girls Aloud released it on their second album What Will The Neighbours Say. Moreover, the song was actually originally released years ago by Moonbaby and the writing credits show no Lene however when it was re-recorded by Lene, it was credited to Mirander Cooper (aka. Moonbaby), Brian Higgins, Matt Gray and Lene -despite the fact that no alterations appear to have been made to the song's lyrics or music. It would appear that Lene's credit on her release of the track was a vanity credit, and that she made no contribution to the song's writing. Could the No Good Advice credit be something similar?
Even so, these two tracks stood out on my "Lene" playlist on my long suffering Ipod. Virgin Superstar should have been the first single and theres still life left in the song yet. The second, Queen For A Day, became a b-side to Its Your Duty and yet its probably the best thing shes ever done. I love the boy who says "just for one day i'll like to be queen" but you know in his tone that hes already recieved that certain wish.
U think I like Scandipop? "Well is the Pope Catholic? Wouldnt anyone?"
MILLA Gentleman Who Fell
Milla was born Milica Jovović in Kiev, Ukraine and her great-grandfather Bogić Camić Jovović was flag-bearer of the Vasojevići tribe, and officer of the guard of the King Nicholas I of Montenegro.
Most famous for working in the fashion industry when she begun extensive modeling since she was eleven years old but started acting after being in the sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon. Her acting career has taken a center seat nowadays being in blockbusters The 5th Element and the Resident Evil collection of movies. When not saving humanity, falling in love with Bruce Willis and selling hair dye she can be most proud of her short discography which consists of only one album: the epic The Divine Comedy.
Her musical pathway has delivered some of the most beautiful recordings from a "actress-singer" bandwagon let alone the "model-singer" route. Her music is part Enya, a bit of Kate Bush and a lot of Milla which is pretty unusual in this day! While the album was not a commercial success, it was highly praised and well-received by critics.
THE ARK Kolla Kolla
2006 could be the year for Swedish pop music in the UK. With Robyn signed to a very important agency, The Ark have now submitted themselves as the support act for The Darkness. It really should be the other way round but thats the way the penny falls. To celebrate The Ark and their possible British arrival then DontStopThePop! has sourced out their most Swedish popsong Kolla Kolla. This is a total pub singalong song and even if you don't know the language you should be drunk enough not to even notice! They've been around for sometime...since 1991! However they only started releasing LP's in 2000 with their debut album We Are The Ark.
RHIANNA Word Love
Rhianna! Oh Rhianna!! This is a total forgotten classic sung in such a high pitch that I'm sure aliens on planet Zigzizzah can pick up! I don't know much about this girl other than she released the album of 2003 and her posters still deface some Soho back alleys. Which is a good thing! Rhianna is not Soho but very Shoreditch! I remember her wandering through the Lux thinking she would go places, then she was in those Guardian reviews, her WordLove posters covered London and then nothing! Her time in planet pop was short, sweet but boy didnt she do well? Not chartwise but at least the product was top draw. Where are you R?
HOLLY VALANCE Please Please Me
So to our first Neighbours star! Holly Rachel Vukadinović was born in 1983 so that should make her 22 about now(I, like, Holly was born this year). Her mother is Rachel Stevens-but alas no not that one! You also might think that this is yet another Australian song but in fact the actress and singer was born in New Zealand.
As her mother was British, Holly is related to the late British comedian Benny Hill...........Hill's cousin was her grandfather. Which is like totally amazing.
This rather slutty song comes from the Japanese edition of State Of Mind LP. It was originally dubbed "Please Please Please Me" and the record company picked it to be the lead-off single for a third album that never transpired which is why it was eventually added on the later Asian release. Due to poor sales from the album "State of Mind," Valance was dropped from her recording company. Holly has a very dubious reputation in the music industry in the UK and lost a case against her former manager Scott Michaelson(who, like Holly, used to be in Neighbours as Brad Willis). She was forced to pay a whopping $350,000.
In her short career, she whipped the media into a frenzy but when you look at her discography its clear the media manipulation didnt result in security or success. In the beautiful haze we saw her stripped off more than Kylie before she even released her first single(in the Human Nature promo) and was bitchy about nearly everyone else in the music industy. It seems strange she's only released a total of 4 singles. How I miss her. Come back to music Holly! Stop selling hair dye
NIKKI WEBSTER Strawberry Kisses
Lets head back over to Australia now! So shes trying to sound American but she pops in the line "puppet on a string" which is like sublime bliss! She also does an ad lib at the end which sounds like shes saying "a butt hole!" instead of the logical "uh ho" and for this reason alone its the perfect song.
Nikki Webster was born in Sydney, New South Wales on April 30th, 1987 but don't hold that against her. She was in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert which totally beats Kylies cameo in either Cut or Moulin Rouge. She also performed a duet onstage with Michael Jackson on his HIStory world tour in 1997 at the Sydney Football Stadium and starred as Dorothy in an Australian stage performance of The Wizard of Oz. All of which makes her wonderful.
Shes started her own clothing range and released her Greatest Hits cd in late 2005.
ROLLERGIRL Luv U More
Some might remember the original from the Steps first album Step One. This is a slightly more "popped" up version if you can imagine that Steps could ever be "popped" up! Rollergirl is mostly known for ripping off Kylie videos and covering Madonna's Dear Jesse(Love Parade). Shes released this as a fully fledged single in 2000 and it became a club smash in both Europe and America. It was even given a full proper mini-Lp release with an assortment of trashhandbag disco remixes. She was last seen touring/touting her Japanese only album in Tokyo in 2002 but after that bombed in the land that would usually lap such material she returned back to the drawing board which meant coming back to her home in Germany. In 2005 Rollergirl released Geisha Dreams which did well. Watch this space! She hasnt given up(yet!)
LOONA It's Alright
Loona is the Spanish Kylie. She's very European and most famously performed the lyrics to DJ Sammy's cover of Boys of Summer. However she is a well established artist in Europe crossing the worlds of trance, pop and dance. You've probably heard her material abroad. She was born in Holland, grew up in Germany and has lived in Spain for a major chunk of her career. Her 2006 will probably the biggest yet. There are talks that shes about to be signed to Madonna's record label in the US and even backed up Madonna when she 'did' G-a-y to promote Confessions on a dancefloor. Loona was on that very special VIP guest list created by Madonna/Maverick. Her 2005 was a special personal year for Loona as she gave birth to her daughter...the father was DJ Sammy!
SCOOCH Don't Look Back!
Scooch were formed in the vein of Steps but were far more "Sister Sledge on Acid" than "ABBA on Speed". Most of their music was written by Aitken/Crosby/Stock who produced some of their best work with Scooch. The band were signed on an imprint of Parlophone Records in an attempt to grab some of that Steps moolah, highlighting a certain camp side of the record company which eventually signed Kylie Minogue. Indeed Parlophone illustrated that for every Coldplay plonked on us they also give us a band like Scooch. It certainly gives me hope for the future of pop music in the UK.
Scooch fizzled out after an initial burst of success with their second single More Than I Needed to Know but unlike the present climate of "1 single or bust" in the British music industry, Parlophone released a further 2 singles and 1 full album called Welcome To Planet Pop internationally and Four Sure in the UK.
This uplifting track did not feature on the album but rather was a b-side to their top five hit More than I Needed To Know. The group didnt split up per se and now and then the four do very special gigs mostly for gay pride events. Each has solo success in their own fields: Natalie has released big dance hits, David runs a school, Russ was last seen in childrens TV & Caroline has starred in the musical The Producers on the west end. I think they should regroup and win Eurovision in 2006 for Britain....
DANNII MINOGUE Someone New
Over to Australia now. Dannii Minogue was always the star of the family back in the 80's. Her school report probably said "the next Madonna". And she nearly went down in history for being the Britney Spears before Britney Spears was even invented. At a very young age Dannii was already household name in Australia due to her prime billing on the TV show Young Talent Time which was like an early prototype of Pop Stars/Idol/Fame Academy except no one was voted off and the same group of kids sung covers all the way through their teenage years. Every week millions of Australians watched a small group of individuals-usually murder-perform classic songs in a live studio filled with screaming and adoring fans. Albums were produced and many of the 'lil star's' went on to become celebrities/artists/musicians in later life such as Tina Arena, Jamie Redfern,and Debra Byrne. However it was Dannii who was the most popular of the group. She eventually achieved the highest profile members in the show’s twenty year history. Dannii recorded on two albums for the show and performed at a series of concerts around Australia. It was Dannii that actually gave Kylie her big break by agreeing to do duets with her big sis both in the concerts and on the TV show. The rest they say is history...
So this song comes from Dannii's time with the record label Eternal. The lyrics could be about her marriage/break up with Julian McMahon, with whom she had appeared in Home and Away. The wedding was dubbed the Australian Wedding of the Year not only due to the Minogue-Australias first family in spirit-name but because Julian was son of former Australian Prime Minister Sir William McMahon. It was match made in tabloid heaven. But then a few months later the two divorced and he is now more famous for being Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck.
This song was recorded for the Girl album and a extended remix turned up both on the Japanese edition of Girl and the Australian Cd single release of Coconut. However this album version is pretty hard to find but its out there!
ROBYN Good Thang
And we return to the nation of pop Sweden! But this time its Robyn all by herself! Robyn Carlsson has fronted H&M, written songs that then went to become massive hits for many an artist and recently returned from Kenya in her duty as a UNICEF ambassador. However her most claim to fame would probably be that she has released four very strong pop albums all of which have sold very well in Sweden and contain songs that are begging to be released internationally.
This song is a bit of a rare track because it was never actually released on any Robyn LP and its a real bugger to track down. The story behind is pretty boring other than after Robyn finished up the initial attempt of promoting her second album, "My Truth", she released this club only single. Often confused with a very similar sounding-both in title and sound-Robyn song called Main Thing. Its a 7 minute retro classic that eventually became a double a-side with another Robyn classic called Play. Both Good Thang and Main Thing-when it eventually became a single-became funk/lounge tastic anthems.
Check out her website at www.robyn.com where you can download free exclusive unreleased mixes of Be Mine. To buy her Cd's go to cdwow.com for her most recent and try out the cdon.com for all the best Scandipop acts.
NATALIA Gasolina
Well this rather beautiful 2 minute pure pop burst comes from Natalia; a star of yet another Spanish music show in the same vein as Pop Idol. At first it starts off like a crazy Irish Riverdance theme tune but evolves into a Spanish poprock anthem. This is was what Anastacia was trying to achieve on her so called "sprock" album. You don't need to know the language to love the fun of the song! Her proper name is Natalia Rodriquez. In 2004, she released Natalia, her most recent album to date from which this song is taken from. The first single was a track penned by Lucie Silvas called Sombras and the Cd even included a brilliant version of ACDC's Highway To Hell.
BLACKNUSS with ROBYN Roll with Me
In 1990 Martin Jonsson and Conny C. Lindstroem started their Blacknuss club within the premisses of the Jazzclub Fasching in Stockholm, Sweden. Over the years the club became very well know and also its houseband with the same name, in which Martin Jonsson played the key role, as drummer, composer and producer. Backnuss have recorded 3 albums so far: Made in Sweden, Allstars and 3, which included their versions of known cover songs such as Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, Rising to the Top and It Should Have Been You, but also their own material and instrumental jazz-fusion. This particular slice of summer has the very foxy and wonderful Robyn on vocals.
RHYTHM PARTEEZ with SHARON WILLIAMS Life is So Strong
LIFE IS SO STRONG
To start this blog off in 2006 I thought it could only be natural to begin proceedings with this total disco classic. There are number of mixes of this about and the one I present to isnt the best but it works quite well. Its very Your Disco Needs You/Go West/YMCA. In my dreams Kylie will return from her battle with cancer with a cover of this track. Information about this track and the performers are pretty vague. It was released in 2000 and the video was edited by Sven Budelman who would then go on to assist in the direction of Madonna's American Pie.
