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MUSIC

Six sensational Swedish songs for January

The Local's music critic, Paul Connolly, has picked six songs to help you through this chilliest of winter months.

Six sensational Swedish songs for January
We're big fans of Miriam Bryant here at The Local. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

1. Miriam Bryant – One Last Time

Miriam Bryant was the huge breakout star of the most recent series of Swedish music show 'Så mycket bättre' – at one point she had four songs in the Swedish top ten, including her cover of Niklas Strömstedt’s One Last Time. Here, at The Local, we’re way ahead of the rest of Sweden – we first wrote about Bryant nearly three years ago.

2. Elias – Green Eyes

The rest of the world is slowly catching up with us here, though. Several Swedish newspapers, as well as a clutch of international magazines have tipped the extraordinary Elias for big things in 2016. His debut single was, of course, our 2015 Swedish song of the year and Green Eyes is the follow-up.

3. Rein – Can’t Handle Me

Stockholmer Rein has only played one gig. And this is her first single. Can’t Handle Me’s crushing industrial beats and sinuous melody makes Rein one of the most intriguing new Swedish acts in quite some time.

4. Hanna Järver – Anekdoter 

Järver’s been making lovely music sporadically for the last few years – the gently propulsive Anekdoter may be her best song yet.

5. Maria Hazell – Golden Boy  

Newcomer Maria Hazell has a touch of the Zara Larsson about her. This is tip-top electronic soul.

6. LÉON – Treasure

Another artist already featured by The Local, LÉON is the Swedish singer most tipped by international critics to be huge in 2016. Treasure is from her current EP.

You can see the videos on a playlist here and listen to the songs on Spotify here.

CULTURE

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

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

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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