THE BEST MALE ARTIST OF 2007 IS....

Best Male Artist Of 2007

The Nominations are....
Magnus Carlsson
Juvelen
Kostas Kountas
Danny
Kostas Martakis

Winner: Danny (Sweden)


For wonderful enlightenment on the act that is Danny I turned to the blissful writer & pop journalist that is Pop Poster Girl who very kindly shed some critical light on the reasons why Danny ultimately won:

In past seasons, American Idol has had sixth place finishers like rocker wannabe Constantine Maroulis, Frank Sinatra-mimicking John Stevens, and Carmen Rasmussen, she of one of the most annoying vibratos in Idol history. All these singers had their fans at the time and even released some music after the show, but they've never troubled the mainstream charts. Thank goodness, then, that Danny Saucedo (artist name Danny) is from Sweden. Only in Sweden could the Idol 2006 sixth place finisher have been picked out as the vehicle for the song with one of the greatest key changes of the year, "Tokyo," penned by team who've given us Swedish dance-pop star September's songs. I know, "key change"--you're thinking of those big Idol ballads, the sort of thing you might get off of a bar-stool to do. Couldn't be further from the case--"Tokyo" was one of the biggest, cheesiest, and best dance-pop songs of the year and a smash hit in Sweden, achieving more success than of any of the releases of Idol contestants from his year, including the winner's single.

A one-off? Far from it, as the album, Heart Beats, threw off any Idol pretensions at seriousness or credibility to give us what may be the most fun album of the year, packed full of dance-pop and irresistible hooks. In addition to work from the Von der Burg team, who also contributed the more-pop-less-dance-but-just-as-good second single, "Play It For The Girls," the album also features a song from the team that gave us Kate Ryan's "Je t'adore," "Only Wanna Be With You," a house-pop song that gives us swooshes, raindrop-like electronic backing, and one of the best listening experiences of the year, and the Danny co-penned "Hey (I've Been Feeling Kind Of Lonely)," a punchy handclap-punctuated perfect pop song--and they've not even been singles yet!

Of course, that's not saying much, as nearly any song on the album could be a single, a rare condition not just for an Idol debut album but for ANY album. Even the hidden track, "Here I Am," is excellent, capturing longing in such a lovely way and melding it with music equally lovely and catchy. As if the pure(est) delight any pop lover is sure to experience listening to the album isn't enough, though, Danny had us all going into conniptions of excitement when it was announced the third single, "If Only You," would be modified to turn it into a duet with Therese Grankvist, she of one of the most underrated dance music careers around. The duet version of this lovely heartsick dance song lived up to expectations both quality-wise and commercially.

In fact, Danny has yet to let us down. Heart Beats is a pop lover's dream, a dance-pop collection unafraid to be cheesy but aware that cheesy doesn't mean a lack of quality, that excels equally well at making you want to dance and capturing real emotion ("set me free before you press delete" may look silly on paper, but listen to Danny sing it and see if it doesn't sound like one of the saddest lines of the year). As pop singer and early Max Martin/Denniz Pop muse Jessica Folcker once said, "Good pop should ALWAYS make you feel something…whether it's in your heart, in your hips or between your legs." Whether or not Heart Beats does that last one is questionable, but there's no doubt it accomplishes the first two (albeit with a emphasis on the second), making making Danny a worthy winner of this year's best male artist award!

Runner up: Magnus Carlsson

Youtube: Tokyo, Play It For The Girls
Links: Danny, PopPosterGirl

10 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

i'm loving award season. And well said PPG! Though i would have placed Magnus a tiny margin ahead of Danny but both are pretty darn fun to listen to!

Jennifer said...

Oh Danny is definitely a most worthy winner, and well well ahead of Magnus! I just love the way he sings and I can't stop listening to his album Heart.Beats that I bought the other week. He is a very talented artist.

Anonymous said...

I love the awards as well, but one question: why wasn't Ola nominated and why didn't Ola win? :)

Anonymous said...

Where's Måns? Where's Ola? Danny? His whole album sounded like one big, long song.

Poster Girl said...

I can't speak for Bobby and I don't know whether or not he thinks Ola's album is good enough to make the cut (though I know he's said he's enjoying his music; "S.O.S." is still completely amazing), but my guess would be there's no Ola because the nominations came out back in August, before Good Enough came out and even before he'd released a second single from this new album. So check back next year maybe :D

Commenting on your own commentary = lame, I know, but two things I couldn't find a way to fit in but wanted to mention here:

1.) I use the word "cheesy" a couple of times, but that doesn't mean these songs aren't sophisticated--they are. And, you know, as they say in all those anti-peer pressure lectures, not caring about being cool is the coolest thing of all and actually makes you cool, etc. etc. etc.

2.) that Danny himself has a lot to do with this album's success. No one songwriting team dominates here, which means the thing keeping the whole album together is Danny. He's got a really good voice for this music. That Dance X single, "Dancing In Repeat," is a good example--though it's probably good that it's not on his album, I genuinely think it would be a lot better with him singing it.

(And thanks Paul!)

Good choices from the voters so far--I'll be interested to see who won the other categories.

Anonymous said...

I place Danny first in this award and I am most pleased that he is the winner. He has an excellent voice and is very attractive, he is also a brilliant dancer. Magnus is not too bad either but Danny is the future popstar belive me!

Robpop said...

Thank you Paul! Magnus delivered a fine album!

Jennifer-Its a great album!

Guiletta-Ola wasnt nominated sadly. See it as an oversight. I love his output.

Anon-Sorry Ola wasnt nominated. I am sensing it was a huge mistake not to nominate Ola. Same with Måns. Sorry. This is the first time this thing has been done. And next year the nominations will be thought out more.

PosterGirl-yeah.....perhaps he'll appear next year (fingers crossed!!!).

And thanks darling for writing up this brilliant article!

Anonymous said...

Yesssssssss!

I voted for both MissMatch and Danny!

I like Ola's album. However, parts of it are a bit too slow.

Danny deserves this! I really like Juvelen too. Its cool to see so many diverse male pop acts recognised by a blog. Its a tough category especially when most would suggest either Darren Hayes or Justin Timberlake so Rob don't give yourself a hard time.

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I am sitting here in Sweden with three of my friends who are great fans of Danny as well and can only say that we are so happy that he won this price. We are also happy that neither Ola nor Måns were nominated. They are not even near the qualities of Danny as artists. We just love Danny, his voice and his album. Ola and Måns' albums are really very weak compared to Danny's.

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