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.
All posts by Roy van der Merwe
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
DANISH SELECTION CD 2002
This CD of the Danish Eurovision selection Roy of ESC Covers I also got in Oslo last week, but unlike 2004, this one of 2002 he does not have so it is a welcome new addition to his collection. Besides the winner, all other songs are unknown to him. The surprise is a GRAND PRIX MEDLEY with bits of several Danish entries of the 80’s among them Kroller eller ej, Kloden drejer, Det’ lige det and En little melodi.
JOWST – NEW SINGLE
Got this from Felix Winter Bryngell in Norway
I’d like to inform you that the Norwegian entry, JOWST, has released his follow up single to “Grab The Moment”. Here is some additional info, a video from Joakim & Aleksander and a link to the single:
With his debut single, JOWST did exactly what he was supposed to do – he grabbed the moment. After the victory in Norway’s MGP Joakim With Steen (JOWST) and Aleksander Walmann sang and played their way through Europe, before performing for over 186 million viewers, and placing within the top 10 in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. “Grab The Moment” has currently streamed over 12 million times and been added to pretty much every major radio station in Norway, and a dozen of international stations. These accomplishments would be enough for some people, but not for JOWST. Now he’s back, with Aleksander Walmann on vocals, for the follow up single, “ThatFeeling”
“It has not been easy to make a follow up for Grab The moment. We have been working really hard to make a song that can surpass Grab The Moment’s success. When we finally had a result we we’re satisfied with we felt this magical feeling, which is exactly what the new song is all about”
Check out “ThatFeeling” for some fresh musical magic from JOWST here:
https://JOWST.lnk.to/ThatFeeling
Video:
MARYNA at SPRING FESTIVAL
9 September is a spring festival at St. Ursula’s school in Krugersdorp with a variety of artists performing there. It is sort of a charity event. The reason why we are writing about it, is because one of the artists is MARYNA (Booysen) a 20 year old singer who is currently busy doing two Eurovision covers and hopefully she will be able to perform them for the first time at this spring festival. The two songs are the 2016 entry from Macedonia – DONA of Kaliopi and the 2017 entry from Ukraine – TIME of O.Torvald. Both will be in Afrikaans. Maryna has already recorded another Kaliopi song, her 2012 song but Maryna sings this in English as Black and white. Hopefully lots of people will attend this festival.
AFRI FRIEND – CAIRO
Cairo Africafriend
Country that represents: Egypt
Gender: Female
Birthday: October 6
Eurovision land counterpart friend: Bratislava Eurettefriend
Cairo lives in the spotlight, and most of the time, she loves to stay in character… with the role she plays on every media she appears. Even if she plays a role for long (Even outside the cameras), her friends tell her to be herself.
She’s a very famous actress in AfrimusicVille and friends from all over the Song Contest are delighted with her peformances.
Even her Eurovision Land’s fan and fellow actress Bratislava Eurettefriend, who learned all of this Egyptian friend’s acting skills is a big fan and student!
AFRI FRIEND – RABAT
Carolina, the extremely talented artist from Peru has designed all the Euro friends. Now she is on board to design the Afri friends. We can now reveal the first AFRI FRIEND – that of Rabat – and we are introduced to Rabat euro friend’s twin brother Rabat afri friend.
Rabat Lil Africafriend
Country that represents: Morocco
Gender: Male
Birthday: November 18
Eurovision Land counterpart friend: Rabat Lil Eurofriend
You’ll never knew that there’s two identical twin brother friends called Rabat. One is a shy and soft-spoken Lil Eurofriend while AfrimusicVille’s Rabat has a lot of self-confidence from head to toe and eager to show his feelings to others in a snap!
This lil Africafriend might look the same as his Eurovision Land counterpart and at the same time identical twin brother, but you have to look deeper and differentiate them by their hair and shirt colours, powers and personalities!
His spontaneous personality can be the coolest in town, and he dreams to help his twin Rabat Lil Eurofriend to get out of his shell and learn to be a confident friend!
