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The Local’s top Swedish songs of the month

The Local's resident music guru Paul Connolly is back with a selection of his favourite Swedish tracks to see you through February and into the early days of spring.

Published: 6 February 2015 11:31 CET

The Local's top Swedish songs of the month

Tove Styrke is one of The Local's favourite acts for 2015. Photo: TT

1. Tove Styrke – Ego

Umeå’s favourite daughter has long shrugged off the "talent show loser” tag after coming third in Swedish Idol in 2009 and the brilliant Ego could be her first global hit.

2. XOV – Lucifer

Damian Ardestani's Animal was featured on 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1' and this slow-burning, darkly electronic follow-up builds on his reputation.

3. Breakup – Bubble

This newly-minted electronic duo from Stockholm have come up with a humdinger of a first single, all flash, clatter and sultry R&B.

4. Galantis – Runaway (U & I)

We tipped this dance act last year and they're finally showing signs of coming good with this adrenalised dance anthem.

5. Kassandra – Run

Brooding electro-ballads are, thanks to Lana del Ray and Lorde, big right now. This one, from a new Swedish talent, is a doozy.

6. Näääk & Nimo & Kaliffa – Lyckliga Gatan

Swedish hip-hop often flatters to deceive but this joyful little swagger is the real deal. Think Arrested Development/De La Soul tucking into the semla.

7. Vanbot – Trooper

Cold, austere and icily beautiful, Ester Ideskog's sparse electro-pop is a pure wonder.

8. Dim Out feat. Kristin Amparo – There Has To Be A Way

This is a lost classic from December but this blue-eyed soul is very special indeed. Further investigation of Dim Out's back catalogue is recommended.

9. Elin Bell – All The Love

Ms Bell is attracting a fair buzz in the UK – this delicious single from the Norrköpping native is proof why.

10. Tove Lo – Talking Body

This song is about to blow up globally. Lo really is Queen Of The Clouds right now.

YouTube Playlist – goo.gl/l9tFmo

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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