Christmas cheer straight from the heart of Scandinavia: Yohanna - "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"; Jill Johnson -"O Holy Night", "Christmas With You", "Away In A Manger"

Yohanna - "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" - 

TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009) in 

HD. Stockholm, Sweden. December 15, 2009

http://youtu.be/qVtoGYXsG4w

Jill Johnson - "O Holy Night" at Jullotta På Liseberg, Göteborg, Sweden. December 8, 2011

http://youtu.be/qOfbkzG0dK0

Jill Johnson - "Christmas With You" on TV4's Bingolotto, Stockholm, Sweden, December 23, 2011. 

http://youtu.be/ZbkKrEjDaNs

Because I've gotten behind in posting here about the terrific St. Lucia telecast on SVT, I'm going to go ahead and post one of the songs that Jill sang so well recently at Gothenburg Cathedral.
Teaser Alert: The Lucia telecast was sublime again!  

Jill Johnson - "Away In a Manger" from SVT's St. Lucia/Luciamorgon telecast of December 13, 2011 

http://youtu.be/hH-CYJRVqzs

Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir a.k.a. Yohanna

http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA/

Jill Johnson

http://www.youtube.com/user/jilljohnsonmusic

http://www.youtube.com/user/uris1/

Damian at SwedishStereo, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/ has a great compilation of new and traditional Christmas songs from recent TV shows and performances at his post today, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-weekend-on-swedish-tv.html
I encourage you to check it out.

YouTube fame straight from the heart of Uppsala: 'Cottage Cheese Girls' channel Robyn's "Tell Your Girlfriend" with a clever hook

finga161 video: from SVT's Gomorron Sverige (Long version of song)

http://youtu.be/FaBC4DuXv9k

YouTube fame straight from the heart of Uppsala: 'Cottage Cheese Girls' channel Robyn's "Tell Your Girlfriend" with a clever hook

SVT video: Kesotjejerna gör succé (Cottage Cheese Girls Succeed)

SVT Uppland reporter Bernt Hermerle describes the tale of how one ad hoc decision -to turn on a video-cam- during an otherwise boring Wednesday night led to YouTube fame and international media attention for AMANDA WIKSTRÖM, PETRA BROHÄLL and EBBA LOVISA ANDERSSON.

http://svt.se/2.126356/1.2580454/KESOTJEJERNA_GOR_SUCCE

I originally saw them sing on Thursday when I found myself on SVT's website looking for something else entirely.

Not finding what I was looking for, I clicked on some of the recent news videos, in this case, Wednesday's edition of Sverige Idag (Sweden Today).

After watching it for a bit I started fast-forwarding and eventually got to the last segment.

And then at the 22:04 mark, I saw something that I was completely unprepared for.

For about 45 seconds I was dumb-struck

http://svtplay.se/v/2581075/sverige_idag/26_10?cb,a1366518,1,f,-1/pb,a1366516,1,f,-1/pl,v,,2582372/sb,p149528,1,f,-1

Three talented and clever women from an Uppsala band called Erato had turned their boredom one night into a YouTube phenomena... a phenomena that I had heard nothing about, which is strange.

I mean, how many Swedish YouTube sensations can there be at any one time, right? Especially, a capella?

On Friday morning, I saw that Damian over at his very popular blog, SwedishStereo, had also posted something about the girls which I completely agree with: http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2011/10/erato-call-your-girlfriend.html

I'd actually received his post Thursday, but literally as I pulled his post up, I got a surprise phone call from someone with a great political tip I need to follow-up on, so... this post is at least 24 hours late.

The original caught LIVE...

Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend - Live at Skellefteå 2011, July 1, 2011.

http://youtu.be/DKyRhHXRrsE

Robyn's official website: http://www.robyn.com/

Robyn performance above was recorded at a concert in northern Sweden by a Robyn fan whom I've referred to here on the blog simply as "Sofia from Umeå," and her very interesting YouTubeChannel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/Hia80

Check it out for yourself and subscribe!

Road-tripping across the U.K in an RV with a Swedish pop star is fun... Robyn - Hang With Me (Official Video); @robynkonichiwa

RobynVEVO: Robyn - Hang With Me. Uploaded July 28, 2010. http://youtu.be/-3a2qoyONVA

Road-tripping across the U.K in an RV with a Swedish pop star is fun...
Robyn - Hang With Me (Official Video)
Just wondrous!
The single comes out in the U.S. the first week of September.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQh7sbU00CM

http://www.youtube.com/user/SwedishStereo

http://www.konichiwa.se

Robyn, @robynkonichiwa https://twitter.com/robynkonichiwa

*Speaking of Robyns, if anyone out there in the blogosphere knows the whereabouts of the beautiful and beguiling Robyn Hunter, originally from Ft. Smith Arkansas, The Washington School of Ballet in Washington D.C., volunteered at Crisis Hotlines in suburban Maryland, who worked for Perseus at the Army-Navy Building in Washington, D.C., and who is possessed of an absolutely amazing voice and sense of humor, please let me know at the email address above.* I will be eternally grateful.


The last time I can remember a song this catchy that I liked that also featured a carnival ride in the video was the late Kirsty MacColl in "New England."

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



Last July I sent out this email to some friends around the country who'd known me for quite some time, and I thought since Kirsty's name popped into my head again, I'd include an excerpt here:

...after watching an old video of her singing "New England" that a friend sent a link to me of yesterday, completely out-of-the-blue. His reason for sending it?
Turns out that last week, he'd run into a former girlfriend of mine -with a fabulous voice- on a flight from D.C. back to Chicago, who used to sing/play that song all-the-time.

And a few hours later, after that trip to the 1980's via the South Beach Hoosier Time Machine, when I first turned on my computer after watching Wimbledon, this awful story over at the beach just jumped off the Sun-Sentinel's website.

Divers hit by speeding boat off Hollywood Beach 
BY JOSE PAGLIERY, The Miami Herald
2:51 PM EDT, July 5, 2009

A boat traveling dangerously close to the Hollywood Beach shore slammed into two divers Sunday morning before gunning its engines and disappearing.
A third diver was not injured....

Both victims, a father and son, were quickly transported to hospitals nearby, according to Hollywood Fire Rescue.

Someone needs to really make an example of these people on the boat who tried to mow down some innocent people today, and thought they could get away with it.

Lately, it seems like every other time I'm at the beach, especially in Hallandale Beach near the iconic Water Tower, whether reading the newspaper or doing some writing, esp. when the water is flat, I see some near-misses that make me anxious as people on the boats completely ignore the lifeguard's whistles, just taunting them.
One of these days...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_MacColl

http://www.justiceforkirsty.org/news.htm

Like you really need me to tell you that Mexico is NOT our friend!