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Ten stunning Swedish songs for October

To see you through the chilly autumn, The Local's music guru, Paul Connolly, offers up a selection of great new Swedish pop.

Published: 2 October 2015 08:45 CEST

Ten stunning Swedish songs for October

Julia Adams, who sings 0400am, one of our songs of the month. Photo: Gustav Wiking

1. Julia Adams – 0400am

Another glorious electroballad from our favourite new Swedish singer. Not quite as wonderful as her previous hit Allt Jag Nånsin but what it is?

2. LNKAY – Hurricane

The first single from Stockholm singer, Ellen Stokstad – bold, dramatic synth pop with a hint of R&B edge.

3. Frida Sundemo – Keep An Eye On Me

This deeply moving song debuted this week on US drama Grey's Anatomy – Sundemo just gets better and better.

4. Zara Larsson & MNEK – Never Forget You

Zara Larsson’s ascent continues with this infectious deep house collaboration with Grammy-nominated British producer and singer MNEK.

5. DNKL – Otherside

DNKL’s name is an abbreviation of ‘dunkel’, the German word for ‘dark’. Odd then that their music is gently euphoric and utterly gorgeous.

6. Elin Bergman – Gasoline Dream

Yet another terrific female Swedish singer – we are truly blessed here in this Nordic nation. Bergman is a little ‘tougher’ than the likes of Zara Larsson, Seinabo Sey or Julia Adams though.

7. Tove Lo – Moments

Quintessential Lo. Deeply personal, startlingly honest and utterly fantastic. Best pop star in the world right now.

8. Korallreven – Here In Iowa

The farewell single from this Swedish duo is a distillation of everything that made them so compelling – adventurous, deeply melodic and unpredictable. They’ll be missed.

9. Kastrup – Come And Get Me

Hugely romantic synth drama from Malmö duo who might just have enough oomph for global success.

10. Leon – Nobody Cares

On her second terrific single in three months, Leon crafts effortlessly breezy synth soul-pop.

Watch all the videos in one go here or listen to the Spotify playlist here.

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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