Top 50- 43: In case you didn't know,I really care for you

Kurt Nilsen- Rise to the Occasion

Sod the whole Guns n Roses thing,I'd been waiting to hear the whole of Rise to the Occasion for 2 whole years- the new single from Norway's best singer (and I feel I must add "in my opinion" to that sentence),is far more exciting than a probably boring album from some hasbeen rock band.I'll be honest,I'm not really into the whole country thing that Kurt's doing these days (although he did duet with Willie Nelson,which surely would have given him a few extra points in the Rye Experience household),I much prefer the good old grown-up pop days of A Part of Me,but Rise to the Occasion is lovely.Sad but lovely.The lyrics are wonderful,as you'd expect of Kurt.

Who's gonna be there forever if it ain't gonna be him?

It's been far too long since I left the country- a whole year in fact.This time last year I was in Oslo for the second time.I miss it and still want to emigrate there right now :) Still on the plus side (?),I'm off to Kiel in 5 weeks time to check the city (and hopefully my new flat) out before I move there in September.But as I don't know any bands or singers from Kiel,here's Kurt Nilsen with what I think is a new single...It's called Rise to the Occasion and it's from his latest (country) album that he did with Willie Nelson (a bit of a legend here at Europop Mansions Surrey Branch).It's a great song,the lyrics are lovely- as Kurt's usually are.

Reality kicks in when the light goes out

So I haven't been blogging half as much as usual lately- there's soooo much going on at the minute,I just haven't had the time.2 main updates though- 1: Sounds of Europe is now on air at the earlier (and far more sensible) time of 9pm,which is wonderful news if only for us,because it means we can get the bus home instead of having to walk through Soviet-style Guildford at 1am in the fog. 2: I finally got to hear a bit of Dima Bilan's planned Eurovision song,I would post the link but if I remember rightly,the quality wasn't too great.It seemed quite a good song though- the Russian national final of course takes place next Sunday.
Ooh,also another bit of news while I'm here- tomorrow night,me and Keira are off to see Sash! the wonderful German DJ responsible for such delights as La Primavera (which we played on Sounds of Europe on the first show) and Ecuador (which we played on Sounds of Europe on Tuesday).We did want to(and this was the exciting thing I was hoping to write about the other week),get an interview with him for the radio station,but unfortunately it seems he has a bit of a tight schedule tomorrow night so there won't be time.Still though,it should be good to go and see a Euro legend in action :)
Must just leave you with this- it appears I really have been busy and have completely missed Kurt Nilsen's latest single Reality Kicks In.I love it.Here's a video of it complete with pretty pictures of Bergen.

2007 Countdown Part 2

Carrying on with my top songs of the year...

7: Måns Zelmerlöw- My Mistake

I only heard this one quite recently, but I absolutely love it. It’s got the right amount of balladness in it (that’s a new word) and it’s another one I love singing along to loudly in the kitchen. And it can’t be just me who thinks it’s a bit Michael Bublé sounding (can it?).

6: Albino Superstars- Popular

I heard this at the VG Lista concert as well (I make it sound like I was actually there, when in reality I was of course sitting in bed watching it and getting annoyed with the live stream cutting out every half a minute). It’s so so catchy, it’s fabulous. And the fact I’m sure they shot the video on the Oslofjord gives it bonus points too. I’ve heard their follow up song My Girls, but didn’t quite like it as much as this one.

5: Kurt Nilsen- Push Push

There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe Kurt, I love him. He’s been my favourite singer in the world for the last 5 years, so I was very excited (to put it mildly) when I found out he was going to be at the VG Lista concert doing his new song, which was this. It’s funky, it’s cool, it’s a bit different to the stuff on his first 2 albums, and hopefully the next one will be full of things like this (from what I’ve heard, I think it will be). I urge you very much to check out the videos on youtube that he did for VG, where he’s in a studio singing Silence and Come On. They’re sooooo good.

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.

The King of all things fabulous!

Well,maybe Kurt Nilsen isn't fabulous,but he's pretty super.Someone's put the video up on youtube of him doing Push Push in Oslo last week.I love it!

How super!

Someone's put the video up on youtube of Kurt Nilsen and the slightly less fabulous Mel C singing When You're Gone from the concert at Rådhusplassen on Friday.Hopefully they'll put Push Push up next :)



By the way...if anyone knows of any Russian music channels that I can watch online,I'd most appreciate it if you told me :) I was looking for some earlier,and somehow ended up listening to Radio Belarus for about half an hour while some man with a hypnotic voice talked about importing tractors from Moldova...