And now we move to the 3rd of the 6 in the series of promo singles – showing you the Kyiv one and the Johannesburg one. This time we looking at France and their 2017 entry REQUIEM by Alma.
FRANCE 2017 – REQUIEM – ALMA
All posts by Roy van der Merwe
AFRI MUSIC SONG CONTEST – ANDRE VAN WYNGAARDT
It is time to focus the attention to our third Afrikaans artist who had registered to take part in the first Afri music song contest. It is ANDRE VAN WYNGAARDT. Andre has recorded two CD’s, his first is SKADU’S VAN MY HART which features one Eurovision cover – Sweden 2006 – EWIGHEID. His second CD was launched a month or two ago and is called DIE ENGELE HAAL ASEM and again it features one Eurovision cover – Estonia 2017 – AS IN DIE VLAMME. Andre will surely enter the full compliment of 3 songs allowed and no doubt they will come from his new CD, our guess is two original songs and the Estonian cover.
AFRI MUSIC SONG CONTEST – MARLE FOURIE
The second Afrikaans artist we look at who have entered Afri music song contest is MARLE FOURIE. She has covered already several Eurovision songs in various combinations.
Under the name of CHRISMARCHE she covered
GREECE 2009 as Asemloos
CYPRUS 2012 as My fantasie
Then in duet with GERT KITAAR se covered the 2015 song of the Czech republic as Hart se snaar
Currently she is part of a duo called SONSKYN and they have done in Afrikaans
Czech republic 2015 – Hart se snaar
Hungary 2015 – Oorloe verniet
Norway 2015 – Ek moet jou nou laat gaan
Sonskyn also covered two Euro songs in English
Estonia 2015 – Goodbye to yesterday
Poland 2015 – Between you and me (new English lyrics)
Marle is currently working on Austrlia 2016 Sound of silence and this will surely be one of the songs she will enter into Afri music song contest
AFRI MUSIC SONG CONTEST – COLE VAN DAIS
We have decided to give some promotion to the Afrikaans artists who have registered to take part in the first Afric music song contest. We will try and highlight each and every artist who have already registered. We will do it at random and first up is COLE VAN DAIS. Besides registering as a solo artist, she is registered in duets with several artists as well as part of a trio. Cole has covered many Eurovision songs already.
As solo artist she has done
Azerbaijan 2012 as Wanneer die musiek verdwyn
Cyprus 1987 as Die eiland
Denmark 2007 as Glans prinses
Denmark 2013 as Waar in die wereld is jy (which features a part in Danish)
France 1987 as Leef in my hart
Georgia 2008 as Vrede sal kom
Iceland 1987 as Dink aan my
Romania 2009 as Suid-Afrikaanse meisies
San Marino 2013 as Drome van my hart
As one member of a duo
with Katrina (of the waves) Love shine a light – UK 1997
with Joran Steinhauer (of Aarzemnieki) Dinge dong (part in Latvian) – 1975
with Organ Prawang (of Thailand) Dear friend – Croatia 1995 (partly in Thai)
with Marc Rantseli Peace will come – Georgia 2008 (a duet in 4 languages – Afrikaans, English, Zulu and Spanish)
with Emmanuel Castis Ek’s so lief vir jou – UK 2016
with Sergey Sysuev (of Ukraine) Spirit of the night – San Marino 2017 (part in Russian)
with Righardt Greyling Kom saam met my – Latvia 2004
as DUO AFRICA (with a singer from Nigeria) – Moleyho – Belarus 2013 (part in a local language of Nigeria)
as CHESS GIRLS – Op die dansvloer – Germany 2013 (Afrikaans, German and Tsonga)
Lastly as part of AFRICA SENSATION TRIO – City lights – Belgium 2017 (part of the song in Xhosa)
We wish Cole a lot of luck in Afri music song contest and cannot wait to hear all the entries.
SWEDEN 2017 – I CAN’T GO ON – ROBIN BENGTSSON
The second post of 6 over 2017 promo singles – comparing those obtained in Kyiv to those designed in Johannesburg. Here is SWEDEN and their song I CAN’T GO ON by Robin Bengtsson.
FINLAND 2017 – BLACKBIRD – NORMA JOHN
For six posts we will compare the promo singles obtained in Kyiv to the ones we made in Johannesburg and see which ones look the nicest. First up is the promo single of FINLAND – Blackbird by Norma John.
ONS LIEFLINGE – RUDI & CHARNE
Ten or so years ago, Rudi Claase started the ONS LIEFLINGE concept – a male-female duo. His first female duet partner was CORLEA and they brought out two CD’s. Once they parted ways, Rudi brought in ZITA and one CD was made. Their ways parted as well and then he teamed up with CHARNE and this is their first CD. It is a double CD with CD 1 featuring Afrikaans songs and CD 2 featuring English songs.
On the English CD is two EUROVISION covers. The first is COME WHAT WAY, the winning Eurovision song from Luxembourg 1972 which Vicky Leandros sang as Apres toi in French. The second is IN LOVE WITH YOU,the Dutch 1984 entry which Maribelle sang as Ik hou van jou in Dutch. Both songs have been covered several times before – both in English and in Afrikaans.
There are also two EURO related songs on the CD – I HAVE A DREAM of ABBA and WE’RE GONNA STAY TOGETHER of Vicky Leandros and Tony Christie.
The ONS LIEFLINGE is a good concept but not all songs in the double CD have been made to be sung in duet.
AFRI MUSIC SONG CONTEST – 33 COUNTRIES REGISTERED
As you can see from the picture accompanying this post, Afri music song contest reached the 33 club – yes a staggering 33 African countries have so far registered to take part in the first Afri music song contest, 61% if the 54 African countries – this has overtaken our wildest dreams. About 25 days of registering has gone with 35 days still to go – could be overtake the 42 record of EUROVISION?
For interest sake, here are the 33 countries
01 – Algeria
02 – Angola
03 – Benin
04 – Botswana
05 – Cameroon
06 – Central African republic
07 – Chad
08 – Cote d’voir
09 – Democratic republic of the Congo
10 – Egypt
11 – Ethiopia
12 – Gabon
13 – Ghana
14 – Guinea Bissau
15 – Kenya
16 – Lesotho
17 – Liberia
18 – Libya
19 – Malawi
20 – Morocco
21 – Mozambique
22 – Nigeria
23 – Republic of Congo
24 – Senegal
25 – Sierre Leone
26 – Somalia
27 – South Africa
28 – South Sudan
29 – Sudan
30 – Tanzania
31 – Togo
32 – Uganda
33 – Zimbabwe
UPDATE – a 34th country is now in RWANDA.
JAHN TEIGEN – SPECIAL CD
It seems during Eurovision 2010 in Oslo, a newspaper published a CD by Jahn Teigen with his Grand Prix hits. ESCCovers obtained it during their recent visit to Oslo. On the CD there are the 3 Eurovision entries – Mil etter mil, Adieu and Do re mi plus two songs that were in the Norwegian selection Optimist and Glasnost. Lastly there is a 10 minute medley with several other Jahn songs.
NEW SINGER – RBECKA
ESCCovers love giving exposure to new singers and we just got this from Rebecka.
I’m Rebecka Rydgren, and I’m a 19-year-old singer-songwriter from Stockholm, Sweden, using the stage name RBECKA.
Last year, I released my debut singles “Should Have Surrendered” and “Be the One” as an independent artist, without any management backing. The singles have reached over 360.000 streams on Spotify, have been played on several local radio stations all over Sweden and been featured in multiple music blogs all over the world. I have also been been interviewed and performed my singles live in a few radio stations such as P4 and P5 Stockholm and P3 Din gata, which are well-known within Sweden. After the release of my singles, I have focused on performing at different festivals and writing new material by myself and in collaboration with others. This has resulted in many new songs that will be released during fall and winter.
The very first single “Raindrops” is to be released on September 1st!
Here is a description of the song:
The song was written by RBECKA in collaboration with an international team of songwriters and producers known as “Wild Ghosts”. It started life as ambient loop and a descending pentatonic, eastern-sounding piano riff that brought to mind the sound of droplets of water gently falling through the air. This gave rise to the soaring hook, a huge chorus of female empowerment, a woman finding the inner strength to break free from a dangerous relationship.
Upon hearing this chorus, RBECKA was inspired to complete the story with her trademark dark tone, encapsulating the trauma that many women have endured all around the world; being helplessly in love with an abusive partner. The writers hope that the song can prove an emotional catalyst to help these women put their feelings into words, and even perhaps give someone the courage to take action and save themselves.
I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to listen to “Raindrops” and perhaps feature it on your blog!
You’ll find the link to the song below (Soundcloud) as well as a description of RBECKA. I’ll also attach the album cover and a few promo pics (Photography and graphic design: Johanna Blom)!
Soundcloud:
Description:
Rebecka is a young singer-songwriter from Järfälla, just north of Stockholm, Sweden.
Having received praise for her unique voice, which has a deep and unique vibrato. She describes her music as darker pop, with influences from soul, rock and indie music. She finds that her greatest inspirations are Matt Corby, Florence + The Machine, Bishop Briggs and Imagine Dragons. During spring of 2016, RBECKA released her debut single “Should Have Surrendered” which has as of now, been played roughly 250 000 times on Spotify, positive reception by music blogs all around the world and has been aired by local radio stations in Sweden. The successor, “Be the One”, has been played a multitude of times on Spotify and by local radio stations. RBECKA has performed at several of the festivals in Sweden, such as the big stage of Malmöfestivalen, performing in front of an audience of over 25 000 people. She has been interviewed and performing her music live on the radio, on channels such as P4 and P5 Stockholm and P3 Din Gata.
After last years positive debut, RBECKA is now returning with songs she has written by herself with revealing lyrics and an updated sound, and this fall there will be new releases!
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions!
Take care!
Best regards,
Rebecka Rydgren