Delta goes dance with the help of Ryan Tedder!

A trend has emerged over the last few years of acts that you'd never associate with dance music releasing dance influenced singles. The latest example of this is the new single by Australian Delta Goodrem, my all time favourite singer. Co-written by Delta with OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder amongst others, Heart Hypnotic is quite unlike anything Delta's ever put her voice to before. Though she's dabbled with some dance sounds before on the likes of Take Me Home and last year's single Dancing With A Broken Heart, neither used the  stabbing trance riffs and full on dance production employed by Heart Hypnotic. 

Best known for her ballads, such as Born To Try, Lost Without You, Almost Here and Believe Again, hearing Delta singing on a dance track is rather unexpected, much like the first time hearing Leona Lewis on Collide. Delta's unique voice really works well on the Avicii-esque euphoric stomper that also uses the same chorus buildup sound effect that was found in Rihanna and Calvin Harris' international smash We Found Love. The strangest thing about the song though is what happens about two and a half minutes in. So as to apparently not alienate her loyal fanbase with this new commercial dance sound, Heart Hypnotic suddenly transforms into a ballad, the pace slowing down dramatically right through to the end of the song. It's quite an unusual transition and Delta only just about gets away with it, although I wish there was an extended mix that ramped the pace back up, using the slower section as a middle eight before the synths come crashing back in for a storming finish.

Delta's first performance of the song will be on The Voice Australia, on which she's a judge.  She'll be hoping that it's another smash hit, her most recent chart success coming only two weeks ago with Bayini, a collaboration with Australian folk musician Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, which she also performed on The Voice. Over a decade since Delta first emerged from Neighbours and into the charts, she's still a huge name in Australia and this song will likely win her some new, perhaps younger fans. It's just a shame that her music no longer gets released worldwide, particularly in the UK where her debut album Innocent Eyes sold close to a million copies. Recent singles such as this and Sitting On Top Of The World have the potential to be huge internationally so hopefully somebody soon realises that and makes it happen. In any case, whether Heart Hypnotic is a standalone release or the first single from a fifth album or a greatest hits, it's great to see Delta releasing music regularly again after such a huge gap between her third and fourth albums, it's just a shame that the epic Tori Amos-esque Hunters And The Wolves from last year's Child Of The Universe album is destined to forever sit unreleased as a single.

So...Eurovision...

I could sit and write an entire essay on how great it was to visit Malmö in Sweden to watch the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 live for the first time in my life, but I'd be here forever. So as the hype has all now died down I'll give a brief summary of my thoughts and urge everyone to try and go to watch it live at least once, especially if it ever comes to Sweden again, they're absolutely obsessed with the thing and Malmö was literally Eurovision city last week. Designer clothes shops had 20% off everything so you could get your frock for the contest whilst the shopping mall next to Malmö Arena had 'Euphoria hour' which was basically a happy hour of discounts in most shops at 6-7 every day before the contest! It was a very sunny and warm week in both Malmö and neighbouring Copenhagen where many fans stayed and perfect weather to welcome tens of thousands of tourists to the area. 

The winner of the contest ultimately was Denmark's Emmelie De Forest with Only Teardrops. A worthy winner which combined the folk sounds of past Irish and Norwegian winners with a more contemporary pop sound and a very catchy chorus. All delivered by a young and attractive female. I do love the track but it wasn't quite as great as the brilliant Fairytale, Satellite and Euphoria, mammoth recent winners from Norway, Germany and Sweden respectively. Regardless, the song looks set to become a sizeable European hit in the next few weeks. In the traditionally anti-Eurovision UK it's set to go top 20 on Sunday and has been added to the Radio 2 playlist. And it seems certain to top various charts around the continent.

Also in the top five on Saturday night were Azerbaijan (aren't they always) who put on an amazing stage show to wrap around a merely quite good song and Ukraine and Russia, again, no strangers to the top five in recent years, though both delivered strong female ballads this time around so at least those positions were relatively deserved. Norway's Margaret Berger finished in 4th place with the incredible electro-pop song I Feed You My Love. It probably deserved a couple of places higher but a fantastic result nonetheless and their third top five finish since 2008. The other big success story was the triumphant return to form for The Netherlands who hadn't even reached the final since 2004 but qualified in style with the sublime Birds by 90s star Anouk. 

Looking at some of the songs that finished on the second half of the scoreboard, Melodifestivalen winner You by Robin Stjernberg failed to attract much support and could only finish 14th for the home nation despite a huge reception in the arena. Four of 'the big five' failed spectacularly with France, Spain and Germany failing to finish in the top 20 (out of 26!) with their entries. Rather sad for the latter as German dance act Cascada were one of the biggest 'names' in the contest, having scored recent global smash hits with Everytime We Touch, Miracle and the UK #1 single Evacuate The Dancefloor. Sadly, Glorious didn't go down quite as well, even though it was probably my favourite song of the entire contest. And Bonnie Tyler finished 19th for the UK with MOR-country ballad Believe In Me, a far cry from her 80s classics Total Eclipse Of The Heart and Holding Out For A Hero. Oh well, a lot has changed in 30 years and nobody could have expected her to have realistically challenged for the win. Hopefully next year the UK will send somebody a little younger and more relevant, or at least a great song, rather than a plodding album track.

And so next year the contest will be held in Denmark for the third time. Should it be in Copenhagen then it will no doubt be a huge affair with thousands of fans attending. Should it go to one of the smaller cities then it's unlikely that many fans will be able to go due to a lack of reasonably priced accommodation. So fingers crossed for Copenhagen, but then Malmö worked very well despite only being Sweden's third biggest city. And if it is in Copenhagen then it's only 20 minutes across the bridge from where this contest was held! Denmark certainly have a lot to live up to in terms of hosting. Sweden delivered a high quality production on a much smaller budget than Azerbaijan had last year. Petra Mede was a fantastic host and other sketches went down very well too. Loreen and Sarah Dawn Finer gave excellent guest performances and the opening song from Avicii and ABBA's Benny & Bjorn was incredibly uplifting and feel good. Swedish broadcaster SVT put a huge amount of effort into this show and the fact that it overrun by about 15 minutes and felt rushed at the end shouldn't take away from their hard work. Perhaps they tried to cram in a litle too much, but for the fans it was well worth it. Let's see what their neighbours Denmark can do to try to better them in 2014!

Only know you love her when you let her go...

Here are three songs that I've been loving for ages that absolutely WILL be big hits in this country eventually, but for now are taking rather a long time to crossover!

Passenger - Let Her Go

Already a #1 hit in Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and Austria, British singer Mike Rosenberg (aka Passenger) has become famous everywhere else before he has in his home country! Let Her Go is a lovely little song with a singalong chorus and emotive vocals that will obviously be one of the biggest hits of the year when radio finally decide to start playing it. Vocally he sounds like a cross between James Blunt, Ed Sheeran and Ben's Brother but he has a sweet charm to his voice that really aids the unique selling point of the song. Watch out for this!

Icona Pop feat Charli XCX - I Love It

Feisty Swedish duo Icona Pop's I Love It, co-written by British singer Charli XCX, has been out in their home country for almost a year now, becoming a monster hit there in 2012. Since then it has become a huge hit in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland and is currently climbing the iTunes top ten in the US, which means that in a month or two it will be absolutely massive in the biggest country in the world. The UK will surely follow suit. It's a bold, brash, in your face pop anthem that is like nothing else out there right now and that will surely help it to stand out!

Imagine Dragons - It's Time

American indie/rock act Imagine Dragons have been compared to The Killers and look set to make it big with their debut album Night Visions, which was finally released in the UK this week. Previous single Radioactive has already been in the UK charts for months and is looking set for a new peak this week but It's Time has been chosen as the next single and has been recently added to the Radio 1 playlist which will help its cause. 2013 has so far seen something of an indie/rock revival in the charts with the likes of Bastille, The 1975 and The Lumineers scoring huge hit singles and Imagine Dragons may well end up being bigger than all of them. Their 'hands in the air' anthems are radio friendly without being cheesy and should appeal to a wide audience.

The cult of Ant & Dec

On Saturday night Ant & Dec resurrected their old PJ and Duncan guise to perform their 1994 No.9 hit Let's Get Ready To Rhumble on their hugely popular Saturday Night Takeaway show. Three days later and the song is pulling away from the competition on iTunes and looking quite likely to give the duo their first ever UK No.1 single, or at least their second top three hit!

2013 has proved to be the year of the pop reunion, with ITV2's The Big Reunion reuniting Liberty X, B*Witched, 911, Honeyz, Blue, Atomic Kitten and 5ive. The latter three acts appeared as part of a medley on Saturday Night Takeaway and this clearly spurred on the boys to take part in their own reunion! This isn't the first time that the boys resurrected their act, they did the same on CD:UK's 100th show in the early 00s. This of course predated iTunes and with no CD single available to buy and a far smaller audience, it had no impact whatsoever on the charts. Fast forward to 2013 and the instant gratification available to eager music downloaders and the song has found itself more in favour than it ever has been before, selling 35,000 copies in two days alone according to the Official Charts Company! The Saturday night performance of the song was even more impressive considering that they got back into their old PJ and Duncan gear, complete with baseball caps and tracksuits!

Ant & Dec first met on the set of northern teen drama Byker Grove where they played the characters PJ and Duncan and quickly became best friends. They had a successful music career in the 1990s, Let's Get Ready To Rhumble becoming the first of eight consecutive top 20 hits under that name before they switched to their more famous moniker of Ant & Dec to score another four top 20 smashes including the excellent late November 1996 hit, When I Fall In Love, complete with Ant's famous rapping and Dec's dulcet tones. 

The duo then moved on to front ITV's new Saturday morning children's show SM:TV and it's musical sister show CD:UK, with Cat Deeley. Their popularity skyrocketed from there and they have been Britain's most famous presenting duo ever since, winning awards left, right and centre for their work on shows such as I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Britain's Got Talent, Pop Idol and Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. They returned to music in 2002 to record the official World Cup song for England, We're On The Ball, which peaked at No.3 in the charts. But 11 years on from that and 19 years on from the original release of Let's Get Ready To Rhumble, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly may just follow the Saturdays a week earlier in achieveing something that had so far always eluded them, a No.1 single in the UK! Watch them wreck the mike...psyche!

20 best songs of 2013...so far!

Almost a quarter of a way through the year so I thought I'd do a little rundown of my 20 favourite songs of the year so far!

1. Avicii vs. Nicky Romero - I Could Be The One
2. Frida Sundemo - Snow
3. Anton Ewald - Begging
4. will.i.am feat Britney Spears - Scream & Shout
5. Nadine - I Will Be Strong
6. Janet Leon - Heartstrings
7. Cascada - Glorious
8. Jógvan Hansen and Stefanía Svavarsdóttir - Til þín
9. Calvin Harris feat Tinie Tempah - Drinking From The Bottle
10. Ellie Goulding - Figure 8
11. Margaret Berger - I Feed You My Love
12. Bastille - Pompeii
13. Ralf Gyllenhammar - Bed On Fire
14. Zedd feat Bright Lights - Follow You Down
15. Zedd feat Foxes - Clarity
16. Verona - Fallin' In Love
17. Passenger - Let Her Go
18. Tensnake & Syron - Mainline
19. State Of Drama - Falling
20. Röyksopp feat Susanne Sundfor - Running To The Sea

So a strong showing from the musical haven that is Sweden, represented by dance act Avicii at #1 as well as pop acts Frida Sundemo, Anton Ewald and Janet Leon and rock acts Ralf Gyllenhammer and State Of Drama. Elsewhere German dance acts Zedd and Cascada, Norwegian stunners Margaret Berger and Röyksopp, British indie-pop acts Ellie Goulding and Bastille and various other random songs hailing from Iceland, South Africa, the US and the Czech Republic all make an appearance. A very international few months then and a promising sign of things to come for the year. 

The Big Reunion Live: Review

Last night I was at London's Hammersmith Apollo for the much touted 'one off comeback gig', the culmination of the months of hard work and preparation by the six acts on ITV2 show The Big Reunion. Since my last post about the show there have been some changes - firstly an arena tour was anounced, and this one off gig was now just a warm up for things to come. Secondly, boyband Blue belatedly joined the lineup despite having been reunited for a few years now having represented the UK at Eurovision in 2011 with I Can (they came 11th since you asked, top five in the public vote but the juries pulled them down). They've also been enjoying success on the continent with recent single, the ballad Hurt Lovers, going top ten in Germany a few weeks ago. Nevertheless Blue were in attendance alongside the recently reformed 911, B*Witched, 5ive, Atomic Kitten, Honeyz and Liberty X.

The show lasted for almost exactly two hours and was absolutely brilliant. 90s presenting legend Andi Peters introduced the acts onto stage and 5ive, now technically 4our since Jay didn't rejoin the lineup and the much touted new fifth member never came to fruition, kicked off the show. Before the concert I was wondering how many songs each band would sing and what their choices might be. Each band performed either three or four songs each, a medley of two hits in place of one full song if they preferred. Each act took it in turns to come back to the stage and perform a song, before introducing the next one to come on. 5ive kicked off proceedings to a rapturous reception from the elated audience with a medley of their Queen cover/collaboration We Will Rock You and the 1998 hit Everybody Get Up. Later on they sang the excellent Keep On Movin' and provided the penultimate performance of the night with If Ya Gettin' Down. I'd have switched the order of those around seeing as the former is arguably their signature track but I'm just nitpicking. 5ive got by far the biggest crowd reception of the night and you suspect would comfortably sell out a few arenas were they to tour by themselves as many of their big hits were left untouched. They were hugely energetic and seemed genuinely pleased to be back on stage.

Irish girlband B*Witched were the second act to perform, and did so with the 1998 classic C'est La Vie! It was pretty amazing to see this performed live, it came out when I was in primary school and had never even been to a live concert before, I certainly didn't expect to ever see this song in a live setting and the girls looked great in a more mature take on their old double denim look. The Irish jig middle eight remains amazing and it was great to see them go all out with it. Later on they sang Rollercoaster, which was possibly my favourite performance of the evening, complete with the cheesy dance routine and state of the art (read: not really) rollercoaster graphics accompanying them on screen! And their third performance, complete with umbrellas and falling confetti, was their fourth No.1 single, Blame It On The Weatherman. It's a shame that the gorgeous To You I Belong was left out but all credit to them, they gave three excellent 'event perfomances' and were one of the best acts there in my opinion.

Boyband 911 who performed third predated the other bands by a few years but their biggest hits all came in the 1997-1999 period so fitted in with the show and target audience nicely. They visited my primary school back in early 1998 and it seems strange to think that I last saw them live fifteen years ago! They were something of a revelation. To say that they were my least anticipated act of the evening, Bodyshakin' was fantastic, complete with lots of stunt dancing and jumping around. For a second you forgot that the trio were either about to turn 40 or were already long past it. Their 1999 chart topper A Little Bit More provided an unexpected mid-tempo audience singalong moment whilst Bee Gees cover More Than A Woman was great fun. Lead singer Lee Brennan was on point and sounded fantastic throughout whilst Spike and Jimmy have still got the moves!

Liberty X's success came quite a few years after the other bands here, they formed in 2001 and had hits throughout the 00s. Understandably, there was therefore less nostalgia appeal here but they still gave a very credible set of performances and looked great. The classic Just A Little went down very well whilst the medley of debut hit, the brilliant Thinking It Over and their Mantronix cover Got To Have Your Love was brilliantly executed. Their final performance was the Chaka Khan cover/Richard X mash-up Being Nobody which is exactly a decade old but still sounded as fresh as ever. It's a shame that the fantastic Song 4 Lovers was missed out, but understandable as it wasn't as well remembered as those songs were.

Girlband Honeyz were by far the least anticipated act of the evening from an audience's point of view. Admittedly they were in a lower league to the other acts here success wise, having never scored a top three single or top ten album in the UK. That said, I always thought that they were great and lead singer Celena Cherry delievered what I thought was by far the best vocal of the evening. It's just a shame that a huge chunk of the audience took the opportunity to sit down or go to the toilet whenever they performed! They kicked off their set with the excellent Finally Found whilst their second performance was a medley of the forgotten 1999 single Love Of A Lifetime and the 1998 classic End Of The Line. The former was met with a blank expression by most of the audience, I can't have been the only person that remembered and loved this song? The latter was great though, especially the biting lyric 'I deserve some damn res-pect' which we all had a good singalong to! And kudos to them for getting the old blue coats from the video out again, very nice touch! I let out a huge cheer for all of their performances anyway, because nobody else seemed to want to! They rounded off their set with the feisty 2000 hit Won't Take It Lying Down which had a brilliant stage set up, and the crowd seemed to be more into this one.

Boyband Blue were an unexpected addition and a lot of the crowd let out a gasp when they were announced to be coming on, clearly the word hadn't spread to everyone! With so many hits to choose from, they eventually settled on debut single All Rise, 2002 anthem One Love and its follow up the chart topping ballad Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, albeit without Elton John. They were vocally sharp, Lee Ryan especially and looked more slick and professional than the rest of the acts but it was probably no surprise considering they've actually been back together and performing again for years!

And Atomic Kitten were the last to perform, so arguably the headline act although they were probably on par with 5ive (somebody had to go first and last!). Their first performance was debut single Right Now which is incredibly well remembered for a flash in the pan No.10 hit. It was reissued and got to No.8 in 2004 so probably picked up some more fans then. 2002 summer chart topper The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) was their second performance. This of course originally had Jenny Frost on vocals so Kerry Katona, who has now rejoined the band having been with them for their first few hits, had to learn the lines for this one! And they closed the whole show with the huge 2001 No.1 hit Whole Again which actually sounded really anthemic in a concert setting. I'd always wondered how on earth it became so big in the first place, being such a simple sounding pop song which turned their career around from on the verge of being dropped to being the UK's biggest girlband for a few years! Kerry had left the band just before that song became huge but radio still used to play the version with her vocals on it, so it was almost heartwarming to hear her sing/speak the 'for now I'll have to wait, but baby if you change your mind...' middle eight.

At the end of this emotional performance everybody returned to the stage to reprise a final chorus of Whole Again and it was quite a spectacle to see all of these classic bands performing on stage together. Overall it was an absolutely excellent night, packed with nostalgia, great songs and a very enthusiastic largely 20 and 30 something audience, who like me would have been at primary school or high school when these artists were huge the first time around. It was a slick production and didn't feel cheap and tacky at all. I look forward to watching it on the TV at the end of March and everybody going to the arena tour will have an amazing time, it was well worth the decade or more wait to see these acts all over again! Now onto series 2 and let's hope for S Club 7, Hear'say, A1, All Saints, Another Level and Precious!

The Big Reunion: more 90s/00s pop hasbeens return!

ITV2's latest reality show, The Big Reunion, kicked off last night. It follows the story of six late 90s/early 00s pop acts that imploded for one reason or another and are now getting back together for a one-off live concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London at the end of the month. I've managed to get tickets to this once in a lifetime event and shall endeavour to review the spectacle once I've returned. The first show was an intriguing look at the rise and fall of the six acts featured, namely Five (5ive), 911, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Liberty X and Honeyz. Between them these acts managed more than ten UK chart toppers, despite none of them ever really being in the same league as the likes of Steps, Boyzone, Take That and Spice Girls, the a-listers of turn of the millennium pop who have all staged successful comebacks in recent years. Spice Girls had a huge world tour, Boyzone and Steps scored #1 albums and sold out arenas and Take That have rewritten the rulebook in 'how to mount a successful comeback'.

These six acts were more the second rung of UK pop, the type of acts whose singles would generally enter high thanks to a loyal fanbase but drop down the charts quickly. However, all six of them hold a place in my heart to some extent and the concert should make for a fascinating live experience and it will be interesting to see if they actually sing live! Rather than going into great detail about each act, as this will be documented during the show's run, I'm going to pinpoint my personal favourite single from each act, they all had at least one that I loved. Feel free to comment below if you disagree, I know I've made some unorthodox choices in some cases!

B*Witched - To You I Belong


Starting with the formerly denim-clad Irish quartet. To You I Belong was the girls' third UK No.1 single, topping the charts in the week before Xmas 1998. A stunning Celtic ballad, I'd actually comfortably place this inside my top 20 songs of the 1990s, gorgeous.

911 - Private Number

Before the crap flop Wonderland, 911 rounded off their career with a trio of cover versions that all went top three in the UK, their excellent take on More Than A Woman, their less good version of A Little Bit More (their only UK #1) and this fantastic version of the William Bell song Private Number, which featured uncredited vocals from Natalie Jordan. It went to #3 in May 1999 and deserves some attention!

5ive - Until The Time Is Through

One of a number of boyband singles to be denied the UK #1 by Cher's mammoth hit Believe (see also E-17's Each Time and Boyzone's I Love The Way You Love Me), 5ive went to No.2 with their first ballad release in late 1998. Clearly the template for Westlife's opening few singles, if you didn't already know that this was by 5ive, you'd think it was by the Irish boyband. A classic sleek string laden ballad penned by Swedish legend Max Martin, it's one of their most overlooked singles.

Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

During 2001-2004, Atomic Kitten were actually probably my favourite group, despite being a bit MOR I actually preferred them to Sugababes and even early Girls Aloud material. That said, I only became a 'fan' once Kerry had left, so I'm not overly thrilled at the prospect of her returning over the brilliant Jenny Frost. Eternal Flame, their Bangles cover and second UK #1 was my favourite of theirs but my favourite song of theirs with Kerry would be either Right Now or Follow Me. I always found Whole Again hugely overrated, it's rather plain after all.

Liberty X feat Rev Run - Song 4 Lovers

Liberty X's final top five hit, the uplifting Song 4 Lovers was released in late 2005. A brilliant hybrid of pure pop (which wasn't exactly ruling the charts at this time), an inspired rap from Run DMC's Rev Run and a bit of gospel, it's one of the best pop songs to come from that era, even if it's not exactly well remembered. In fact it wasn't even mentioned in the Liberty X section of The Big Reunion last night!

Honeyz - End Of The Line

Of all the acts featured in The Big Reunion, the presence of the Honeyz surprised me. The only one of these acts to have not scored a UK #1 single, they seemed to be in a slightly lower league to the rest. That said, I always thought they were pretty great - all five of their top ten singles are underrated and forgotten classics, espeically their debut single Finally Found and the ever so slightly better End Of The Line. 

So fingers crossed that most of these songs get performed on the night, although I wouldn't actually be surprised if most were missed out in favour of the likes of C'est La Vie, Bodyshakin', Keep On Movin' Whole Again, Just A Little and Finally Found - the signature hits of those respective groups! The TV show should continue to make fascinating viewing though!