Tomorrow...

...is the 1st of December,which means there might be some festive things going on on this blog.Now that's something to look forward to.
In typical late fashion (seeing as I haven't kept up with the series at all),I thought I'd mention the latest from Idol.Timian Naastad was eliminated tonight.Can't say that was a bad thing,he was hardly one of the best.I'm surprised he got this far actually.Seems Bjørn Johan is favourite to win :/ Also,there's some special show on TV2 tomorrow evening,with all the past winners of Idol and the finalists as well.Aleksander,Kurt,Kjartan AND Margaret Berger on the same stage?Venke Knutson's involved somewhere as well apparantly.I'm so jealous I can't get TV2 :(

In other news,I might be going to Belgium for Easter,which I'm very excited about.I love Belgium,so spending more than a few hours there would be really good.
So,to get in the Belgian mood,I thought I could post the new Hooverphonic video.But it's a bit strange to be honest,so instead I thought I'd post this.

What time is it? It's Chelsi time!

I know I've posted about Samaya Liubimaya about 300 times,but I found a very recent (actual live) performance of it just now and thought I should share.So,just in case you still haven't heard the greatest Russian pop song of the past...2 years(?),here it is.Not the greatest visual quality ever,and there's some naughty Russian people talking over it at some points,but they're still vocally very good.

And unless I'm very much mistaken,there's a new album coming out this weekend,which is quite exciting.Only heard one song from it so far,and I can't say I like it that much,but I'm sure it'll grow on me.We're still sending telepathic messages to Victor Drobysh too,telling him to do the right thing and send the boys over for the Russian Winter Festival.He'd better be listening!

By the way...

Today is Prohor Shalyapin's birthday,which gives me a (long overdue) excuse to write about him.If you haven't heard of Prohor (which I expect is probably the case),you've been missing out,because he's fabulous :) He was one of my favourite people on last year's Fabrika Zvezd (then again,who wasn't really?),but I've only recently been getting into his music.He did quite well in Fabrika,although from what I've heard,he wasn't exactly the most popular of the housemates.However,as great as Dima is,if the competition had been based purely on who had the best voice,Prohor would have walked it.Although to be honest,he's much more of a theatrical/musical type singer than an all round pop star like Dima and Chelsi are.
There's not too many videos of him on youtube,but this is a very good performance...

I would also advise you very strongly to listen to this song It's called Krugovarot,which,in the context of the chorus means 'life is crazy.' It's a beautiful song,very relaxing and sounds very optimistic too (even though I can't understand any of it,that's the impression I get).
There are many other big ballad type songs on Prohor's website,that seems to be the thing he's best at,but this one is also good.It's called Polyubi Nyeba,and it reminds me of a Balkan Eurovision song.Which is always good.
Then there's this- Vdol Pa Peterskay ,a Russian folk song,which seems to be another genre he quite likes.
Actually,looking at that,he does seem to be quite a versatile artist...I'm not quite sure what he's been up to since Fabrika,but hopefully he's doing well.And I can't say it would be anything other than fabulous if he came to the Russian Winter Festival in January :)

You should have known better than to stay in love with me

Poster Girl mentioned Kjartan Salvesen not so long ago,but I've just come across this fabulous performance of his latest song on the super GMTV-style programme that is must-see viewing for me whenever I'm in Norway- God Morgen Norge.He's been on there before,singing the lovely 'Then Silence'.I don't get why he's not more popular than he actually is in Norway,he's an amazing singer.Anyway,this is 'Leaving Me,' it's a bit melancholy,but don't let that put you off,it's really good.Those Norwegians definitely choose their Idol winners well!


Having said that though,why they got rid of this guy (Marius Barhaugen)in this year's series,I have no idea.

Ok,so I might be slightly biased,seeing as he is ridiculously attractive and he's singing my favourite song in the world ever,but I didn't think he was that bad.Much better than some of the people still in it anyway...

I'm liking Kim Rune Hagen though,he's pretty good...


However,my favourite is Åste Sem.If she doesn't win,it'll be a travesty!

Iga päevaga rohkem mul mõtteid rusub küsimus "Kus oled sa ?

If you love Eurovision as much as me,you must remember Tanel Padar winning for Estonia with the insanely cheerful 'Everybody' (well it was only 6 years ago...)Tanel's great,I remember seeing him on the BBC a few times,once on the Holiday programme when he was showing the lovely Craig Doyle around Tallinn,and also on the fabulous documentary Estonia Dreams of Eurovision,and he seems like a rather cool guy.He was also the first Europop person I ever had a minor obsession with :)
Anyway,he's certainly not bubblegum pop material any more,he's all rock.However,he still managed to fit in this fantastic song before he went off with his band (The Sun) to make angry sounding music with guitars and things.It's called Unistus (Dream),and it's one of the first foreign language songs (apart from Eurovision ones) that I heard.
Although it's quite old now (at least 5 years anyway),this video's only just been put up on youtube.It's not as pop as the version I have,but then again he is singing it with Smilers,a rather famous Estonian rock band.

I won't die without your love

In this awful quality video,Dima appears to be singing a song which is quite clearly Chelsi's new one.Who stole it from who I wonder?Either way,Mr K's looking hot as ever,and from what I've heard,I must say he sings it better than Chelsi.Controversial I know.

Be that someone special

How exactly did I miss this?I've been trawling youtube religiously since the announcement months and months ago that Kurt Nilsen was releasing a new album,but somehow managed to bypass this one.It's called Dance With Me,and I've seen a bad quality live version of it from some concert before.This version is much better though.As much as I love Dima and Chelsi and Aleksander,Kurt is still the King of Good Pop for me,he has the most wonderful voice ever.

Knackered

So the week of Too Much Work is nearly over,I'm so happy.Still haven't quite finished my big Luxembourg essay yet,almost,but I've given up for tonight,I'll have to finish it in the morning.My Russian exam today was slightly better than yesterday's I think.Even if it was a bit weird and was about picking mushrooms...I'm now very much looking forward to the weekend.We're having a night off work tomorrow and are going to eat a lot of chocolate and watch Die Edukators (which is long overdue,seeing as we've been talking about watching it since summer),Mother and Father are visiting on Saturday (bringing lasagne and Russian newspapers),and then I'll probably just sleep for most of Sunday.Mmm,sleep....
Anyway,I've been feeling pretty rough all day,I have an evil sore throat and I'm aching lots.I think there's only one known cure for this,and that is to look at gratuitous pictures of Dima Koldun,such as this:
Ooh he's got such lovely eyes...

:) In fact,make that 2 :)

England didn't qualify for Euro 2008.What a shame that is...Italy on the other hand had already qualified before tonight.And now they're gonna go to Austria and Switzerland next year and show the rest of Europe how football's meant to be played :) Forza Azzurri!
Oh and congratulations to Russia as well :)

And now for something a bit trippy...

As busy as I am (I'm a third of the way through my ghastly Luxembourg essay now,hurrah),I just can't seem to stop blogging.
Efterklang is the Danish word for remembrance (or reverberation).It's also the name of an amazingly cool band from Copenhagen,who make beautiful music like the stuff I'm posting today.Never let it be said that all I listen to is Europop,because that would be wrong.My other,possibly most favourite type of music is this- I don't know what you'd class it as,but the wonderful,ethereal...stuff that Scandinavians seem to do best.I first heard of Efterklang about 6 months ago,and I have a few of their songs,although to be honest,I haven't listened to them much,given the recent Russian pop frenzy and everything.Efterklang have their own sort of sound,but you can see similarities between them and Sigur Rós,Mew (one of my favourite bands,who I can't quite believe I've never written about before),a bit of Detektivbyrån and maybe even Mugison.This song- Mirador- is their most recent.The video is intriguing-although I call it trippy,it's quite pretty in an 80s European cartoon kind of way.Anyway,I love it,it's reminded me why I love Scandinavian music so much.

:(

My Russian exam was shocking,I couldn't remember anything,I kept speaking with an Italian accent and said 'rain' about 86 times.Grr.Oh well,listening exam tomorrow,that should be better.Let's watch Chelsi as a form of revision.

Busy

Ugh,so much to do and so little time,as the naff cliché goes.This week I have a French exam,2 Russian ones,2 hours of Polish which is getting harder and harder,EXTRA German grammar lessons and my dissertation plan thing about national identity in Luxembourg to give in.But I'm not complaining.Really :)
Anyway,the Russian music industry is still being very much celebrated in our house.This week,we're particularly loving what appears to be a new song by Dima Koldun (no surprise there).It's called Никогда (Never),and it's really nice.Keira describes it as 'festive,' which I don't think is quite the right word,but either way,my festive season would be made wonderful by the news that Dima's releasing an album soon.Who knows,maybe with all these songs that are appearing on youtube (Никогда, Я для Тебя, На Волне, Reality of Dreams...) an album might be happening in the near future?Probably not though.Maybe he should just come and do the Russian Winter Festival in London in January instead...


In other (Russian) news- I've been trying to get interested in this year's series of Fabrika Zvezd,but it's just not happening.However,I did come across this video the other day-
Mmm,Chelsi...Чужая невеста was never my favourite song of theirs (I think it was the first one they sang together on Fabrika...),but,like so many other Russian songs,it's reminiscent of 90s pop,so I listen to it anyway.And I don't know if my sources are accurate or not,but it seems this Vlad Sokolovskiy guy who's singing with them here,is rather popular.Well,whether he wins Fabrika or not,he won't be as fabulous as Dima :) Anyway,he sings this rather well.And with hair like that,he could easily be a replacement for Roman if he was ever to leave the band :)

круто ты попал на ТВ...

Just a quick post before I have to run off to linguistics.A while ago,Poster Girl mentioned the song 'This Is Life' which was done by all the contestants on last year's Norwegian Idol.Well this is a song done by all the contestants of last year's Fabrika Zvezd,it's the theme tune of the programme,but this version was a special one done for the birthday celebrations of the TV channel it was on.(I think).Either way,it's so damn catchy,it's quickly becoming one of the most played songs at Europop Mansions.Which is great for me and Keira,but something tells us our other housemate doesn't share the same enthusiasm for cheesy Russian pop...

Only in dreams we'll live the way we want to live

In all the recent Chelsi frenzy,I feel like I've neglected Dima Koldun somewhat.After all,he's the one who I technically named this blog after.So here's his new song,which I shamefully only found out about last week.It's a bit different,quite un-pop really,unlike his recent fabulous song Na Volne.I love Dima's Russian songs,but it's nice to hear him singing in English for a change as well.And I quite like the words to this one.
There's no proper video as yet,but as usual,there are many different versions with lots of lovely pictures.This is my favourite one.After about 5 pictures you'll see why :)

С Днём Рождения Меня!

It's my birthday today,which I think is a good enough reason to put up a nice picture of Chelsi.They just love to take their clothes off :)Mmmmmmm.....
Anyway,I've just Poster Girl has written about Romanian dance music lately,which is exactly what I've been meaning to do for a long time.Thanks to my lovely Romanian friend,I've got probably a few hundred Romanian songs on my computer,my favourite band being Akcent,who tried unsuccessfully to represent Romania at ESC in 2006 with the catchy Jokero.They're also,erm,responsible for the song Kylie,which seems to be pretty famous,and King of Disco,with fabulous lyrics previously never heard in a pop song- "I'm a young single man at the age 25 Ex-communist, I search American life".
The song I'm posting today though catches the boys in a more sensitive and romantic mood.I'm not sure what the title means,but apparantly the song is all about having a soul mate waiting for you wherever you are in the world.Nice.