These are a few of my favorite things... favorite Christmas songs from some of my favorite singers: Amy Grant, Jill Johnson, Malena Ernman, Yohanna and Point of Grace

Amy Grant - Christmas Lullaby (I Will Lead You Home). http://t.co/52v82W0A0f My favorite song from her 1999 CD, A Christmas to Remember, :)!
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 22, 2013

Amazing, amazing Amy Grant!
She sounded utterly fantastic and angelic at her Christmas concert at the then-MCI Center
in downtown Washington, D.C. in December of 1999, when she was in town as part of her national tour promoting her CD and third Christmas album, A Christmas to Remember, which featured the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, who was also there in Washington. 

That's only one of my two favorite Christmas albums, and one I took with me on my trip to snowy Stockholm in mid-January, which I played frequently in my room at the 4trappor B&B in Södermalm and then the next week in my hotel room at the wonderfully-convenient Omena Hotel Stockholm in Norrmalm, just a block or so and around the corner from the August Strindberg Intima Theatre, http://www.strindbergsintimateater.se/ -which unfortunately did not have shows while I was there.
I think I played Amy's CD everyday I was there.

The great thing about Christmas music is that the window of time you listen to it is so short you really can’t get tired of it.
— Amy Grant (@amygrant) December 9, 2013

Also part of the action at the concert was the sweet and powerful sounds of Points of Grace -and super-talented Michael W. Smith- my first time ever seeing them live, after hearing them for so many years on CDs.
It was heavenly!

The members of POG had gone to the same college in Arkansas as my best friend, 
Shannon, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, and one of my favorite all-time photos of her was actually a shot of them at a table signing CDs down in Woodbridge, VA, with Shannon flashing that mega-watt smile of hers that always wowed people.

Anyway, that's how it sounded to me.

Judge for yourself...

Point of Grace - When Love Came Down http://t.co/4oE0mGgJNF Saw POG in 1999 in D.C. w/Amy Grant's Christmas tour -was BEYOND magical :)!
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 22, 2013

Point of Grace - When Love Came Down, from their 1999 CD, A Christmas Story, one of my two favorite Christmas albums, the other being Amy's.

When I finally Saw POG in 1999 in D.C. with Amy Grant's Christmas tour, with that orchestra sound behind them, it was BEYOND magical :) !

This is when the group was composed of four very talented women: Shelley Breen, Denise Jones, Terry Jones and Heather Payne.

Point of Grace - O Holy Night. From POG's 1999 album 'A Christmas Story.' There's no substitute for perfect harmony! http://t.co/spX9n4j1gx
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 22, 2013

Yohanna - Don't Save It All For Christmas Day - LIVE on TV3's En Sång För Hemlösa 2009 (A Song For The Homeless) http://t.co/ZKJHYumvkq :)!
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 22, 2013

.@jilljohnsons: I väntan på julen. http://t.co/ly7FmmvxHD You all know how much I love Jill... saw this LIVE via @svt from Göteborg :)!
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 22, 2013

.@Malena_Ernman sings Så Mörk Är Natten-Lucia (How Dark Is The Night - Lucia), Christmas Tour 2012, Växjö, Sweden :)! http://t.co/i6yHRr5mWY
— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 22, 2013

Something to inspire you:

HGTV Video: Amy Grant's Motor Home: The country music star's tour bus features a private lounge, two TVs and 10 bunks.
http://www.frontdoor.com/celebrity/amy-grants-motor-home-video

and something to remind you that Once Upon A Time, the American TV networks weren't afraid of allowing a religious subtext in a Christmas TV show, like they are now:


The Andy Griffith Show, S1E11, The Christmas Story, Originally aired on CBS-TV on December 19, 1960. Uploaded December 1, 2013. http://youtu.be/TpKn5ceZaQ4

A marriage made in heaven -in my head, at least: marrying opera singer Malena Ernman's performance of "La Voix" to a Pairs Ice Dancing routine; @Malena_Ernman

Eurovision Song Contest YouTube Channel:

Malena Ernman - La Voix, Sweden 2009; new version. 

Uploaded April 24, 2009

Written by Fredrik Kempe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CchOtQMKTE

I wrote about the ridiculously-talented Malena and the song here on the blog last year: http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Malena%20Ernman

Honestly, why hasn't SAS figured out a savvy way to incorprate this catchy song and Malena into a new TV campaign for the airline, showing sophisticated places in Europe where talented and sophisticated Malena is both flying and performing in? 
I mean the video is practically an invitation AND how-to-guide served up on a silver platter? #frustrating.

Here's the version Malena performed at last year's Melodifestivalen. 
Still gives me #goosebumps! 

https://youtu.be/5WH2OwJeMBE

The craziest, brilliant idea I've had in quite some time came to its logical conclusion in next-door Aventura late Saturday afternoon, after I'd watched the latest in a long line of dreary, punchless Indiana University football losses to Big Ten teams since that seminal Bill Lynch victory over Purdue two years ago, losing to Ohio State 38-10 over in Columbus. 
(More on the ballgame later today.)

Yes, it involves another trip by yours truly to the "Venezuelan" Target, which was in rare form late Saturday, completely living up to its well-earned reputation as being the #1 casual hangout hereabouts for all the many beautiful Venezuelan women living in Aventura and SE Broward County, plus, their very good-looking Argentine friends. Claro!
Style-wise, it's the closest thing to being back in Washington, D.C. or Stockholm.

Over the past week, I'd been going thru some songs I'd favorite-ed on my YouTube Channel since I first signed-up and created it, which included some songs that I know that 99.9% of you have never heard of. Like REALLY, REALLY never heard of.
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

So as a result of that, I've had some songs in my head recently that I haven't thought of in quite some time, and been humming many of them as I wait in a long line in the many left-hand turning lanes on Hallandale Beach Blvd. that you MUST endure to get anywhere in this traffic-gridlocked city next to the ocean.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kghCqyMLPFA

Catchy songs, pop songs, songs with hooks...
No, not just the delightful Kristina Pelakova singing "Horehronie" in Oslo, above, which I mentioned here recently, but also some terrific catchy French songs as well, which I'll share here soon so you can "hear" what I've been thinking about lately.
You know how I love the EuroPop!

So, with the items I needed I inside the snazzy, new streamlined Target plastic shopping carts I was piloting -SO MUCH lighter and quieter than the old metal ones- I ambled over to the back of the store to where they keep 'seasonal' products, where I spied the hysterically funny and clever Halloween costumes for kids. Sorry the photos aren't clearer!

Below, October 9, 2010 photos by me, South Beach Hoosier at the Aventura Target.




Eventually, after wandering the three aisles they have for Halloween costumes, I came across a thirty-something year old father with his kid in tow, waiting patiently for the wife/mother member of the triangle to make up her mind about whatever it was she was choosing between as the head consumer of the family.

And then, out of the blue, inspiration hit me like a bolt of lightning. 
I heard this kid humming something that I couldn't quite make out.
And the next four words that came to mind were, strangely enough, "Malena Ernman" and "Ice Dancing."

Frankly, I'm writing this now knowing in advance that I won't be nearly able to adequately describe this enough to satisfy myself, much less you, despite how clear it is in my head.
But I have just got to get this out of my head before I go crazy.

It's frustrating, like trying to describe how intensely beautiful Bloomington and nearby Brown County are, esp. in the Fall when the leaves are changing colors, http://www.browncounty.com/ 
to someone who has not only NEVER been there, and can't conceive of how magical it is.
To say nothing of only vaguely sure where, precisely, Indiana is located in the Midwest, which, shockingly, is the case with lots and lots of people I've met in South Florida since returning from the Washington, D.C. area seven years ago.
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?m=pool&s=rec&w=576934%40N24&q=Brown+County%2C+Fall

Reminder: west to east -Iowa, Illinois, Indiana: the Three I's.
Michigan is north, Ohio is east and Kentucky is south. Got it?

I won't even try to mention the technical descriptions of the particular dancing skills and requirements that I can so easily visualize in my head, since 99.9% of you won't understand them even if I did, but...

If anyone out there reading this knows of at least two very talented skaters who are looking for some music to accompany their choreography in Ice Dancing, especially for an exhibition, I think you could really strike gold with La Voix, as performed by fabulous opera singer Malena Ernman, which was the song she sang representing Sweden at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, where Alexander Rybak of Norway won for Fairytale. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4D_hguWPQE

More info on Malena and the ridiculously catchy song that WILL stay in your head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_voix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malena_Ernman

Twitter @Malena_Ernman  http://en.twitter.com/Malena_Ernman

IF anyone knows of any figure skater(s) anywhere, more likely in Europe, whether singles or pairs, who has already used this intensely catchy song in competition or an exhibition, please let me know how it turned out. 
And if there's a video of it somewhere on the Internet, all the better.

In the right hands, this song could/would/should be a dynamite crowd-pleaser for a very talented Ice Dancing couple.

Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean -STILL the GOLD  standard!

Torvill & Dean performing to Bolero at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo- HQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir at 2010 Vancouver Olympics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE4TbwxMsCA

Official website for 2010 Olympic Gold Medalists Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir of Canada: http://virtuemoir.com/



Official website for Malena Ernman, chock-full of interesting photos, videos and anecdotes about her career and life. An opera singer with a great sense of humor, moxie and humanity!: www.malenaernman.com

A marriage made in heaven -in my head, at least: marrying opera singer Malena Ernman's performance of "La Voix" to a Pairs Ice Dancing routine; @Malena_Ernman

Eurovision Song Contest YouTube Channel:

Malena Ernman - La Voix, Sweden 2009; new version. 

Uploaded April 24, 2009

Written by Fredrik Kempe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CchOtQMKTE

I wrote about the ridiculously-talented Malena and the song here on the blog last year:http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Malena%20Ernman

Honestly, why hasn't SAS figured out a clever way to incorporate this catchy song and Malena into a new TV campaign for the airline, showing sophisticated places in Europe where talented and sophisticated Malena is both flying and working/performing in?
You know, like Scandinavian travelers? 
I mean the video at the top is practically an invitation AND how-to-guide served up on a silver platter to SAS? #frustrating.

Here's the version Malena performed at last year's Melodifestivalen. 
Still gives me #goosebumps! 


https://youtu.be/5WH2OwJeMBE

The craziest, brilliant idea I've had in quite some time came to its logical conclusion in next-door Aventura late Saturday afternoon, after I'd watched the latest in a long line of dreary, punchless Indiana University football losses to Big Ten teams since that seminal Bill Lynch victory over Purdue two years ago, losing to Ohio State 38-10 over in Columbus. 
(More on the ballgame later today.)

Yes, it involves another trip by yours truly to the "Venezuelan" Target, which was in rare form late Saturday, completely living up to its well-earned reputation as being the #1 casual hangout hereabouts for all the many beautiful Venezuelan women living in Aventura and SE Broward County, plus, their very good-looking Argentine friends. Claro!
Style-wise, it's the closest thing to being back in Washington, D.C. or Stockholm.

Over the past week, I'd been going thru some songs I'd favorite-ed on my YouTube Channel since I first signed-up and created it, which included some songs that I know that 99.9% of you have never heard of. Like REALLY, REALLY never heard of.
http://www.youtube.com/user/HallandaleBeachBlog

So as a result of that, I've had some songs in my head recently that I haven't thought of in quite some time, and been humming many of them as I wait in a long line in the many left-hand turning lanes on Hallandale Beach Blvd. that you MUST endure to get anywhere in this traffic-gridlocked city next to the ocean.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kghCqyMLPFA

Catchy songs, pop songs, songs with hooks...
No, not just the delightful Kristina Pelakova singing "Horehronie" in Oslo, above, which I mentioned here recently, but also some terrific catchy French songs as well, which I'll share here soon so you can "hear" what I've been thinking about lately.
You know how I love the EuroPop!

So, with the items I needed I inside the snazzy, new streamlined Target plastic shopping carts I was piloting -SO MUCH lighter and quieter than the old metal ones- I ambled over to the back of the store to where they keep 'seasonal' products, where I spied the hysterically funny and clever Halloween costumes for kids. Sorry the photos aren't clearer!

Below, October 9, 2010 photos by me, South Beach Hoosier at the Aventura Target.




Eventually, after wandering the three aisles they have for Halloween costumes, I came across a thirty-something year old father with his kid in tow, waiting patiently for the wife/mother member of the triangle to make up her mind about whatever it was she was choosing between as the head consumer of the family.

And then, out of the blue, inspiration hit me like a bolt of lightning. 
I heard this kid humming something that I couldn't quite make out.
And the next four words that came to mind were, strangely enough, "Malena Ernman" and "Ice Dancing."

Frankly, I'm writing this now knowing in advance that I won't be nearly able to adequately describe this enough to satisfy myself, much less you, despite how clear it is in my head.
But I have just got to get this out of my head before I go crazy.

It's frustrating, like trying to describe how intensely beautiful Bloomington and nearby Brown County are, esp. in the Fall when the leaves are changing colors, http://www.browncounty.com/ 
to someone who has not only NEVER been there, and can't conceive of how magical it is.
To say nothing of only vaguely sure where, precisely, Indiana is located in the Midwest, which, shockingly, is the case with lots and lots of people I've met in South Florida since returning from the Washington, D.C. area seven years ago.
http://www.flickr.com/search/groups/?m=pool&s=rec&w=576934%40N24&q=Brown+County%2C+Fall

Reminder: west to east -Iowa, Illinois, Indiana: the Three I's.
Michigan is north, Ohio is east and Kentucky is south. Got it?

I won't even try to mention the technical descriptions of the particular dancing skills and requirements that I can so easily visualize in my head, since 99.9% of you won't understand them even if I did, but...

If anyone out there reading this knows of at least two very talented skaters who are looking for some music to accompany their choreography in Ice Dancing, especially for an exhibition, I think you could really strike gold with La Voix, as performed by fabulous opera singer Malena Ernman, which was the song she sang representing Sweden at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow, where Alexander Rybak of Norway won for Fairytale. 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4D_hguWPQE

More info on Malena and the ridiculously catchy song that WILL stay in your head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_voix
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malena_Ernman

Twitter @Malena_Ernman  http://en.twitter.com/Malena_Ernman

IF anyone knows of any figure skater(s) anywhere, more likely in Europe, whether singles or pairs, who has already used this intensely catchy song in competition or an exhibition, please let me know how it turned out. 
And if there's a video of it somewhere on the Internet, all the better.

In the right hands, this song could/would/should be a dynamite crowd-pleaser for a very talented Ice Dancing couple.

Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean -STILL the GOLD  standard!

Torvill & Dean performing to Bolero at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo- HQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98

Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir at 2010 Vancouver Olympics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE4TbwxMsCA

Official website for 2010 Olympic Gold Medalists Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir of Canada: http://virtuemoir.com/


Official website for Malena Ernman, chock-full of interesting photos, videos and anecdotes about her career and life. An opera singer with a great sense of humor, moxie and humanity!: www.malenaernman.com

Dave

Twitter: @hbbtruth, https://twitter.com/hbbtruth

https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/with_replies
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Fairytale for Norge: Alexander Rybak wins 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow

Above, Norway's Alexander Rybak and his team,

the Frikar dance company, arrive on stage before they

get ready to steal the show with judges and TV viewers

alike across Europe.

Photographer: Indrek Galetin (EBU)

Still working on my blog post regarding this weekend's

activities at the always hard to figure Eurovision Song

Contest in Moscow, and the crazier-than-usual circus

atmosphere there, which, depending upon which European

newspaper you read or which country's TV news you watched,

often alternated casting it as a battle pitting nationalism vs. kitsch,

and we all know how kitsch hates to lose.

Kitsch, like rust, never sleeps, and always gives 110%

This year, kitsch lives in Norway.

Malena Ernman

Tack så mycket, Malena, som tack får du en puss!

Rock på!

Won't be posting that blog entry for a few days yet,

but thus far, this is by far the best combination quality

audio and video I've yet found of 22-year old Alexander

Rybak's performance for Fairytale, which earned

Norway the title and the right to host the next Eurovision

competition.

Be forewarned, though, that this version is the one that the

EBU team producing the show throughout Europe ran to

conclude the show, so unfortunately, despite having great

crowd shots, it also has production credits rolling thru

portions of as it concludes.

Click twice to get to full page view and sense of the crowd.

Another video of this song, without the rolling credits, is this

one from March's national competeition, which earned Rybak

the right to perform in Moscow.

Below, Sunday morning, Rybak and company returned to a hero's

welcome in Oslo as his arrival at the airport created a scene of

pandemonium.

See also: http://frikar.com/indexen.html

Sweden's Malena Ernman sings La Voix in new version of 2009 Eurovision entry

"And now for something completely different..."

which may even slightly remind you, as it did me

when I first saw it, of the concept of using well-known

opera excerpts to tie together something old and

something new, as continues to be done to this day

by British Airways using Sous le Dome epais

from Lakme by Léo Delibes in their hugely popular

TV ads around the world, to, in effect, tie something

old and something new -the Old World and the New

World.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbI0TDymgoU&feature=related

Here, the hugely popular and super-talented

Swedish opera star Malena Ernman sings

a new version of La Voix, which she'll be singing

as Sweden's entry in the 2009 Eurovision

Song Contest in Moscow in a few weeks.

The video follows the dynamic mezzo-soprano

from Stockholm to the Opera House in Frankfurt,

-where she's performing this year- as well as

to her favorite nearby Starbucks.

See also http://www.eurovision.tv/event/artistdetail?song=24674&event=1480

and http://www.eurovision.tv/page/home

and http://www.malenaernman.com/

Please click on the video and then hit HQ

and Full Screen right away to get the best

overall effect.

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

Below, the nightclub-style version of the song

that Malena sang and performed LIVE on

SVT's Melodifestivalen on March 14th, that

really wowed the judges and TV viewers.

----------

Anxiously waiting for the votes to be tallied

with the rest of the performers, and then giving

an encore performance after coming in number

one.

----------

Malena to Moscow for Sverige!

Nicely edited clips of Malena being interviewed and

joking around after celebrating the big win, and if you

pay close attention, you'll see that the first person to

give her a congratulatory hug is the wonderful

Molly Sandén, one of our new favorite talents.

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

You can watch the upcoming Eurovision Song

Contest LIVE online, through Eurovision.tv!

Rock på, Malena!

Lycka till!