Friday 9 May 2008

Happy Europe Day!

You might not have known (I didn't until about a week ago) that May 9th is Europe Day,a day of celebrating European unity which was meant to be a public holiday across the member states of the EU,although I doubt we'd ever have had it here.However,it was -for various reasons- removed from the Lisbon Treaty.Anyway,I'm still celebrating it,by writing about really good songs from each of the member states :)

Austria: As tempting as it is to go for the wonderfully cheesy Du Bist by Tie Break,it's going to have to be a Jetzt Anders song.I know it's a cover,but I love Ein Neues Leben.I really like the lyrics and the summery,happy feeling I get when I listen to it :)

Belgium: I must choose 2 Belgian songs here- Mad About You by Hooverphonic was one of my favourite songs that I discovered last year.However,when you're talking Belgian,you can't beat a bit of Jonatan.


Bulgaria: Just because I know no other Bulgarian music (although Deep Zone are Bulgarian and they're responsible for the masterpiece that is the Work Your Magic remix...),I'll have to go for a Kirkorov song :/ Again,it's a cover (of Antique's Die For You in fact),but it's a pretty good one actually.Shield your eyes if you watch the video,Filip's wearing red shiny trousers.

Cyprus: I've just discovered Marianta Pieridi and I think she's pretty cool,even if her songs are a bit hit and miss.I love this one though,it's called Meine Dipla Mou (no idea what that means :/)


Czech Republic: Again, I don't know much about Czech music,but Lucie Vondráčková is the niece of another famous Czech singer,and this song - Strach- is her most famous one.

Denmark: Sometimes on Sounds of Europe I like to bang on about how great Mew are.The Zookeeper's Boy may or may not be their best song,but it's lovely all the same.I love Jonas's cryptic lyrics.

Estonia: We were listening to Tanel's Everybody last night.I can't believe that was the song that relaunched my obsession with European music!Anyway,I might have been one of the only people in Europe who liked Eighties Coming Back by Ruffus/Claire's Birthday,but I still think it's great 5 years later.Again,not necessarily their best song,but I love Vaiko Eplik's voice,and they definitely deserved more than the 14 points they got at Eurovision.

(P.S,I think there might be a good few more posts about Estonian music coming up soon)

Finland: Oh how I loved The Rasmus...I particularly loved this song Falling,from the fourth (and by far the best) album Into.It was the first song of theirs I ever heard,on a wonderful Estonian website which sadly no more exists :(

France: We heard Il Avait Les Mots by Sheryfa Luna in Paris last month and thought it was fabulous.

Germany: I'm not the biggest fan of German music really,it's too rocky for me.But I don't mind a bit of Sportfreunde Stiller sometimes.This is a very silly song involving Roque Santa Cruz.It's (predictably) called Ich Roque.


Greece: Has to be Everything by Anna Vissi.What a ballad!

More later I think...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

meine dipla m means stay with me i am from cyprus

Raquelita said...

Oh cool,thanks.I must learn a bit more about Greek and Cypriot music,I hardly have any!

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

I still love "Eighties Coming Back". I was watching the 2003 Eurovision the other night, and enjoyed it immensely. Not just for the obvious shallow reasons (Renars) or the sights (Riga) but it's my favourite contest of this decade and it was probably the last one that I really cared about. Funny that as the contest has grown, the quality of the songs has deteriorated. Or is it just me who feels that way?

Anyway your Europe Day feature is fab, I didn't know there had been a song about Roque Santa Cruz - now I'm getting shallow again :)

Can I join your campaign for an A1 comeback? I wasn't really a big fan at the time but I enjoy their music now and "Caught In The Middle" is definitely my fave song of theirs.

I'm listening to "Sounds of Europe" as I write this by the way :)))

Raquelita said...

Aww,fabulous!It's the last show on Tuesday,but we think it's gonna be a good one.
We've got a bit of a1 going on in our living room at the moment,I didn't really like them much at the time either,but now I really wish there was more cheesy pop in the British charts :)
2003 was definitely the best Eurovision I've seen,I loved at least half of the songs in it (especially Iceland,Croatia and Estonia),and of course Renars was an added bonus :) But yeah,it really hasn't been as good in the last few years- like I said in the latest post,it all seems to be about mad performances these days,everyone seems to think more about what it will look like rather than just producing really good songs.Saying that though,there are a few really good ones this year,I was a bit worried to start with that they'd all be rubbish,but I've been pleasantly surprised :)