Wow! Yohanna sings "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (HD)

To start the New Year off right, in a positive mood, I'm going to a new favorite of mine this
past year, with Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, a.k.a. Yohanna.

I wrote in this space many, many months ago, much as I had earlier -and justifiably so- for Molly Sandén and Esmée Denters: Hennes enorma talang kunde knappast vara
mer uppenbar!
Her enormous talent could hardly be more obvious!


I was more accurate about that than anything else I wrote here all year.


For your perusal, below, along with the teaser, from just two weeks ago on Dec. 15th in Stockholm, for TV3's Dec. 23rd and 25th broadcast of her amazing performance at their "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), Yohanna sings "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"




If you've heretofore neglected to take my sage advice to heart, do yourself a favor and start
the new year off right and take a listen to Yohanna's amazing voice for yourself at
http://www.youtube.com/user/yohannamusic
and
http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA
and
http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic


You can watch the entire video of the broadcast, by turns beautiful and thoughtful, and just under
59 minutes, at: http://www.tv3.se/play/224911

Once there, click Fullskärm for full screen and best viewing.
The audio is superb.


I should mention as a bonus delight that the second song played here is Yohanna singing
the song she sang in Moscow at Eurovision and captured second place with, Is It True.
I hardly need tell you at this point that she's amazing here, as per usual.
But she is.

I realize that many, if not most of you, won't know whom everyone singing and speaking
is, per se, but trust me, it's well-worth seeing for yourself, and shows what you can put on
television if you genuinely have the desire to put quality first.

It beats the hell out of any original holiday programming that you saw on American TV
networks over the past two weeks -as if there was any!

Don't hold your breath thinking that COMCAST is going to do anything half this quality if
they get the govt. okay to buy NBC-TV.

And besides, what's the point of my having a blog if I can't share with you here, something
that I personally find of great value and pleasure?



Gott Nytt År!

Early August notes on the amazing Esmée Denters, who's living the dream

The weekend is when I usually spend some time
catching-up with friends overseas, watch some
foreign TV and newscasts and videos on my to-do list
-with legal pad nearby for copious notes- as well
as listen to any music videos that my 'inner circle,'
domestic and overseas, thinks are worth a listen to,
especially if they happened to have recently caught
them in person in a club somewhere and can now
vouch for how they sound LIVE, the ultimate test.

So, that said, having the AT&T server down this
whole weekend -well, me and about 10,000 other
people in South Florida I'm told- not only really
put me behind-schedule on my blog posts and
disrupted my routine, but combined with the scorching
hot weather that was near unbearable at times,
really put me in a bad mood for days, as my computer
just stood there mocking me, like it didn't have a care
in the world.

Which explains in part how I came to have time to
actually watch all three of the late inning and exciting
heroics-filled Marlins-Cubs games on TV this weekend,
after late afternoon pit stops for some cold coffee drinks
and intensive newspaper-reading at the Starbucks and
Panera's in Hallandale Beach, and the Seattle's Best
located in the Borders Books in Aventura, the first
time for the latter, despite how many times I've
been in there since they added that to the retail mix
last year or the year before.

So, as to Esmée Denters, not to say I told you so,
but, well, I did.
Last year.

Last year I told many of you out there reading this blog
now, via email, whether old friends or former colleagues
from IU or work, or just folks who discovered me and my
blogs thru the blogosphere while looking for something
else, and thought enough to drop me a line, that despite
some of your beliefs that she'd turn out to be nothing
more than a flavor-of-the-month, even before there was
ever anything of note about her in, say, Entertainment
Weekly, Esmée is showing rather conclusively that she
is here to stay..
That she is, to quote, well, myself, "the real deal."

The first video is self-explanatory, as she spends some
time with her voice coach, David Stroud, after being a
little under-the-weather, and then follows Esmée as she
and her band members lay down some tracks in LA
for the acoustic version of "Outta Here."

After watching this, click the button on the upper-right
of the video and listen to the acoustic version of
"Outta Here" and judge for yourself if the final version
sounds like what you expected

The second video is the long version of EPK, which is
sort of a, well, a mini-C.V. of her amazing story thus far
and how she came to be where she is now, living her
dream, but with the talent and hard work to keep it
moving forward.

Insert world-famous Casey Kasem maxim here, right?

I told you last year she was silly talented -and such
a charmer!
Here's more proof of that, as if it was needed.

Not to over-analyze or philosophize but I only wish
that more American singers had Esmée's 'grounded'
personality and strong work-ethic, since there are
so many terribly annoying, no-talent singers I
regularly spot on TV and in magazines who have
achieved attention despite their seeming lack of
tangible talent.

Esmée's talent is self-evident, which is part of the
reason why she resonated with people all over the
world and made fans so easily.

It also explains why industry insiders, like Justin
Timberlake, are so drawn to her -there's no
denying that amazing voice of hers.

And she wants to get better and is willing to listen.

Plus, her appealing personality is intoxicating,
like a new best friend you want to spend lots of
time with!



After watching this, click the button on the
upper-right of the video and try the acoustic
version of "Outta Here"
In some ways, I actually prefer this version.


As always, more Esmée is just a click away
at: http://www.youtube.com/user/esmeedenters

Personally, I much prefer Esmée singing melodic
pop songs to R&B, but maybe that's just me.
In any case, she's got the pipes to be around
for a long time.

ABBA Geniuses At It Again: Story Of A Heart, featuring Helen Sjöholm, Words & Music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

They're back!

Story Of A Heart, The Benny Anderssons Band (Orkester)

featuring Helen Sjöholm,

Words & Music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus

Well, as they used to say so often on

Monty Python, "And now for something

completely different..."

For those of you who know me pretty well,

esp. those of you back in the D.C. area,

as well as those scattered coast-to-coast

around Hoosier Nation, you know better

than most that among many other things,

I am and have always been one of the

biggest ABBA fans around, from the very

beginning.

Given that, if you've already heard on

your own via a European newspaper

or magazine or the internet what

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus

have been up to lately, you've probably

been wondering why it's taken me so

long to finally get around to posting

this catchy new song of theirs called

Story of a Heart, or in Swedish,

Sommaren Du Fick

I guess I should say especially since

the words and music are by Benny

Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, only

the creative musical geniuses behind

not only ABBA, but the international

hits Chess -with Tim Rice- and the

perpetual money-making machine

that is Mamma Mia!

http://www.abbasite.com/

http://www.chessinconcert.com/

http://www.mamma-mia.com/

Yes, especially considering I'm the

very same guy who not only knew

all the lyrics, backwards and forwards,

to every ABBA song ever officially

released in America or the U.K.

-and even some of the Swedish

ones- but who in high school,

even had in a corner of my bedroom

in North Miami Beach, the record

company's lifesize cardboard stand-up

POS promotion of the group for their

upbeat Voulez-Vous album.

That was thanks to my great job over

at Record Shack in North Miami Beach,

just east of the 163rd Street Shopping

Center on N.E. 15th Avenue, a block

south of the Zayre's, to go old-time

NMB geography on you.

The promotional item was literally too

large for the store to handle, so I asked

the promotional guy at Atlantic Records

if I could have it.

Since he knew my whole music story

and knew what was what from our prior

conversations, he gave me the okay.

I was so eager to get it out of the store,

lest some calamity befall it if I waited

a day, that when I got off that night

I pulled the standup cardboard peg

at the bottom which helped keep it up,

and walked the ten minutes to mi casa,

balancing it on my head, so that I didn't

have to fold it to get it into a car.

When my two younger sisters woke-up

the next morning and I showed them

what was standing there in the corner

of my bedroom, they were speechless.

I was so pleased with myself!

(You don't want to know what fate

befell the less-popular record promo

stuff we received there that the record

companies didn't want back, and that

nobody-but-nobody cared for.

It got abused in the worst and funniest

ways!)

By way of explanation, I should also

mention that my music teacher in

high school was one of the top studio

musicians in the country, and regularly

performed at Criteria Studios in nearby

North Miami for all the top groups of the

time when they came into town to lay

down some tracks, or, record an entire

album, and that even included ABBA.

In fact, he was part of this song recorded

at Criteria the month of my 18th birthday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUx4tLPMo50

(I'll talk about that and some other

Miami musical moments in future

posts, including Jon Marlowe of

the late Miami News.)

Now, getting back to this new song

by Benny and Björn, I first meant

to post on it a few weeks ago, when

I first heard it on the BBC, but I got

sidetracked and decided that I'd wait

'til I started seeing some better,

cleaner audio versions of it uploaded

to YouTube.

Over the past weekend, I listened to

the various versions there, noting

what was good and what was bad,

until I selected two that I think best

represent the 'sound' you're expecting

to hear when you know who's behind it.

The song is sung by the wonderfully

talented Helen Sjöholm, who was

the original Kristina in their hugely

successful musical version of

Kristina från Duvemåla, which was

the series of books written by Vihelm

Moberg chronicling the travails of

poor Swedish emigrants journeying

to pre-Civil War America, and their

attempts to fit-in with both their new

surroundings and their new country.

(The early '70's film versions of some

of the Moberg books, especially

The Emigrants,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067919/

and The New Land

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069035/

starring two film heavyweights,

film/stage legend Liv Ullman, and

the pro's pro, Max von Sydow

-who's actually Swedish- both of

whom are terrific, and well worth

watching if you can ever rent them,

or check them out of your local

library.)

The show will be playing in New York

in September at Carnegie Hall under

the title, Kristina the Musical

See http://kristinathemusical.com/

and http://www.duvemala.com/eng/

Sjöholm also played the key role of

Gabriella in the hugely popular film,

Så som i himmelen"

(As It Is in Heaven), and sang the

now-beloved eponymous song that

every Swedish girl and woman knows

the lyrics to by heart, Gabriella's

Song

Some of you might recall that until

I removed it 2-3 weeks ago, for most

of this year, I had among the handful

of videos of hers here on my blog,

Molly Sandén singing Gabriellas

Sång

What a tremendous voice and talent! From April 11, 2008 on Swedish TV's (SVT's) popular program,

"Så ska det låta," the Swedish sensation who marries Pop Music with a powerful Soprano voice,

Molly Sandén singing "Gabriellas Sång" (Gabriella's Song) from the 2004 motion picture,

"Så som i himmelen" (As It Is in Heaven)

Sadly, Molly didn't fare quite so well

at the Melodifestivalen finals, to get

into the Eurovision Song Contest

representing Sweden, as Malena

Ernman earned that right, but no

serious music lover who knows of

her, or who has ever heard her truly

amazing voice, has any doubt that

Molly is the Real Deal, a star in

the making.

Just as is equally clear with both

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir,

a.k.a. Yohanna, from Iceland,

http://www.youtube.com/yohannamusic

or Esmée Denters of The Netherlands,

who Oprah loved so much she invited her

to Chicago..

http://www.youtube.com/esmeedenters

Esmée Denters

All three singers clearly have talent to

spare and unlimited futures.

Time to jump on the bandwagon

while you can!

Below I have the two versions of

Story Of A Heart for you, in both

Engelska and Svenka, though for

me, personally, the Swedish version

rocks just a little bit stronger, as the

production sounds slightly clearer

than the version in English.

But maybe that's just me -be your

own judge.

First, in English:

------------

Here's the Swedish version:

And a reminder, the older videos, photos

and materials that I've used here in the

are now at my mirror storage blog site:

http://hallandale-beach-blog.blogspot.com/