ANDERMAY Entre Tu Y Yo

Andermay come from Spain and have just released their brilliant second album "Punto Sin Retorno". I want to throw superlatives at this band because they are everything I want in a pop group yet sometimes I think my English literature GCSE would simply fail to this band justice. They fuse together dance, pop and guitar rock together in one beautiful combination that leaves you clicking repeat over and over.

They are also highly influential in Spain as the popping up of the rock band Dover proves. Unlike in the U.S with its generic hip hop and the U.K with its "singer-song writer/indie" craze, mainstream acts in Spain like Dover actually dropped their Nirvana-esq pretenses and copied Andermay by popping up. In other words, while "pop" acts are ordered to re-record their albums so they fit in the current N.M.E mold in the UK or rent-a-rapper in the U.S the exact opposite is thankfully happening in Spain.

Proof? Marta Sanchez you saw on DontStopthePop a few weeks ago. The aforementioned Dover you saw on DontStopthePop last year and have just been signed to a major record company in the UK. Rosa Lopez who appeared on DontStopthePop last year. Her fellow "Pop Idols" Jose Galisteo (see below) and Daniel Zueres appeared on DontStopthepop only this week or so. Lucky Twice was the biggest hit of the year and still is selling loads there. DontStopthePop was the first blog to bring Lucky Twice to your attention. As much as we love Carola and The Ark LT should have represented Sweden. When is the album out girls? DontStopthePop also brought you the pop princesses Bea Bronchal, Malu and Natalia who have continued to release brilliant pop albums to date. You can buy all these acts at El Corte Ingles, Fnac-ES or buy it on import on Amazon.


Enough of other Spanish pop acts and back to Andermay! The band consist of Jesus Maria Perez and Amaya Martinez. They wrote all their brilliant pop songs on their debut album but first dipped their toes in the pop pond by writing for other acts. It was one of Andermay's compositions that ended up being the debut single for David Bustamente in March 2002. They were then signed to the brilliant poptastic record company Vale Music (which looks after most of the acts mentioned in the above paragraph).

So you might not have ever heard of David Bustamente or Andermay but if your reading this blog you a just might be a little fan of Eurovision and thus its highly likely that you've actually listened to a Andermay track without you probably knowing. Being the pop charmers that they are Andermay wrote the song Dime! for the singer Beth who then performed the song at the ESC in Riga & did pretty well. The brilliance of Dime transcends its okayish Eurovision position (8th btw) when it became a hit single in Russia, Isreal and Finland after other singers covered the song. After a little digging around on Billboard Media I've discovered that according to their figures Dime was one of the biggest international songs of 2003!

Oh i am getting side-tracked once again! Talking about aspects around Andermay rather than the band and their music itself! I suppose thats primarily because theres so much about this group that is actually quite brilliant. So here I go once again! Entre Tu Y Yo comes from Andermay's first album released in 2003. Soundwise its very close to HelloGoodbye's recent "new and groundbreaking" Here In My Arms track that is getting all the London museo's in a whizz. Yes, HelloGoodbye are all very nice but Entre Tu Y Yo illustrates the fact that practically nothing about British pop music is creative these days. I know I already quoted from the book of Kylie this week but as The Great Minogue said "what kind of fool do you take me for? (I HEARD ALL THAT ALL BEFORE!)". Yes, HelloGoodbye are great but they shouldn't be heralded as the innovators of nu-pop especially when their sound was heard some four years ago in Spain and, as you'll hear, Entre Tu Y Yo is a lot catchier. It even includes its very own key change! Perfect pop bliss!

Andermay are not merely about making great pop music but they love the genre itself. You know that because you can hear that it the song Entre Tu Y Yo. They really do adore it! Its a shame there isn't a wikipedia entry on the band because they really are slowly becoming a legendary band in Spain.

What makes the band even better than all the above is the fact that they are just fine with a bit of gayness. As I mentioned below in my discussion surrounding homosexuality in Spain, Andermay launched their pop career with a very brave video that included lesbian and gay couples. Its rather sweet don't you think?

Now, what follows should not be read as a dig at other acts but this video for Un Juego De Dos launched the group which if you really think about it is rather bloody brilliant. Compare it to other acts, some gay some not, and you'll very rarely see such things. Gay pop acts themselves tend to hide it away, wait until "the right moment" or splutter out the old "I don't see how it should be in my art and shape my music or its presentation" argument. All of which is funkydory as its horses for courses and up to the singers themselves whether they make (homo) sexuality a part of their promotion. My point is, in the U.K such things are rarely seen so its nice now and then to see and celebrate an act that do make an issue out of it.

All things said..make Andermay an act to fall in love with. They symbolise a great energy within Spain at the moment in its musical, cultural and sexual communities and spheres. They communicate unrelenting fun, pop and togetherness...which is just a bit beautiful!


You can get their second album through El Corte Ingles. Don't forget to check out their official website which hosts video clips and more. Official site