Review

After two unsuccesfull attempts to win the Swedish Melodifestivalen, Peter Jöback now moves in a new direction with this release. It's an album containing 11 French songs with newly written Swedish lyrics plus 3 new songs under the double titel Livet, Kärleken och Döden, La Vie, L’Amour, La Mort. (Life, love and death in English).

Anita Skorgan has given us everything from light hearted disco tunes in the late 70's, to some of the 80's most popular songs with ex Jahn Teigen. Then a turn in her career saw Ms Skorgan distance herself in many ways from her musical past as she set out to reinvent herself and explore new avenues, musically speaking.

On her new album Birthe Kjær is showing a rather new side of herself when she diggs into 12 well known international classics to give them new life. For Birthe this album is a dream come true, but is she too much out of her comfort zone here or does she have what it takes? 

Jedward's second album went straight into the top position on the Irish chart, but is it just their country fellow men who are just as crazy as they are or could this album be well recieved all over Europe? They have a large teenager fanbase, but is it also for us a bit older? Let's find out. 

Turkey had high hopes for Hadise at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest where she achieved a respectful fourth place with her song Düm Tek Tek. Unfortunately, some Turkish fans deemed her placing as a failure, although she was happy with the result. Now Hadise is back for Turkish fans with her album Aşk Kaç Beden Giyer?.

With a musical output of one album a year, there is a certain danger in some cases that quantity will forego quality. After a lukewarm reception and ditto sales figures for his last album No Boundaries, Alexander Rybak has ventured into the studio once more with a rather fetching new project.

The introspective fragility and the poetic lyricism, which made their previous albums such a compulsive listening experience, are both again very much in evidence. Basty, Javi and Mikel have made a pleasing transition with their trademark harmonies intact and a sound much more relaxed and confident.

Anyone in search of a continuum of Stella's infectious Haba Haba will no doubt be bitterly disappointed. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what Stella wishes to achieve with this, her second album.

Poor Eric Saade. He came so enticingly close to representing Sweden last year with Manboy. The subsuquent release of his album Masquerade proved something of a fata morgana for his career, as the next single to be lifted off the album did nothing at all, hardly bothering the lower reaches of the charts.