It wouldn't be Christmas without... Jill Johnson, "Away in a manger"; Yohanna, "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"; Point of Grace, "When Love Came Down"

It wouldn't be Christmas without...Jill Johnson, @jilljohnsons "Away in a manger" fm SVT's 2011 #Luciamorgon :-) https://t.co/4IQZNC2Xw9

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 24, 2015

It wouldn't be Christmas without... Yohanna - "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day" for @tv3se 2009. https://t.co/rmkX3XwGdB

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 24, 2015

It wouldn't be Christmas without... @PointofGrace: "When Love Came Down" 1999. Saw 'em sing it LIVE in DC = magical! https://t.co/3yoNLURUxJ

— HallandaleBeachBlog (@hbbtruth) December 24, 2015

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

Awesome news! Yohanna to tour soon featuring Eva Cassidy-inspired songs :) - Sings "Is It True" and "Fields of Gold" on NRK2's "Allsang på grensen" and charms crowd in-between raindrops; Jóhanna Guðrún, @yohannamusic

Yohanna - "Is It True" and "Fields of Gold" on NRK2's "Allsang på grensen", Halden, Norway, July 18, 2012. http://youtu.be/D3w8cG93zyU
One of our favorites, the talented Icelandic beauty charms 'em in-between raindrops!

Awesome news! Yohanna to tour soon featuring Eva Cassidy-inspired songs :) - Sings "Is It True" and "Fields of Gold" on NRK2's "Allsang på grensen" and charms crowd in-between raindrops; Jóhanna Guðrún, @yohannamusic

The exciting news about Yohanna doing a tour that features songs that were staples of the late  Eva Cassidy, is absolutely fabulous news for both music lovers and longtime Yohanna supporters like me, as is the fact that Eva's brother, Dan Cassidy, will be part of the band, as he is here on violin.


If I play my cards right, I might even see her perform in person in a few weeks. 
If so, I guarantee you will see some amazing video and photos here on the blog! And on my YouTube Channel.


@yohannamusic  http://twitter.com/yohannamusic
http://www.facebook.com/yohannamusic



wroenn video: ABC News Nightline's Dave Marash's famous profile of singer Eva Cassidy. http://youtu.be/bXU219b3Zdw


This segment originally aired on May 25, 2001, while I was still living in the Washington area. 
I can still remember the night I videotaped it while sitting in the living room of the townhouse I lived in, with stories still floating in my head about her amazing performances from friends of mine who'd been smart enough to see her in person at various places around the Beltway.
By the time it ended, I was not only blown away by how well it was produced and came together, easily one of the best things to ever appear on Nightline, but even more profoundly regretful and sad that I'd never made the time I should have to see this amazing talent for myself. 
I certainly had plenty of chances to join them, but I always had an excuse for why I couldn't go: an Orioles ballgame up in Baltimore that I already had tickets to, film or dinner with my then-girlfriend, an IU or Hurricane ballgame of some sort on TV that night that I "had" to watch, or... 
And now I rue some of those choices and wish that at least once, I'd listened to my friend's suggestion and been able to see the magic for myself in-person. 


Posthumous Fame 
A U.S. Singer Enjoys Success Abroad -- Five Years After Her Death 
By Dave Marash 
http://evacassidy.org/eva/nightline.htm


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


One thing is for sure and that is that NRK-TV could learn a few valuable lessons from SVT about how to broadcast a LIVE concert.


Maybe it was just the fickle weather since their LIVE coverage of the 22/7 Memorial in Oslo That I watched came out great, and maybe it's just my imagination, but compared to SVT's masterful coverage of Allsång på Skansen in Stockholm from every angle you can think of, this suffers in the comparison.


Granted, SVT DOES have more cameras to work with, including probably some robot cams, but when you look at the fluidity and variety of shots, as demonstarted well in this video segment of three very talented and popular performers from July 18th, it's like the final brick in the wall.



http://youtu.be/vnGFped5SEs


Above, Alexander Rybak playing Grieg's "I bergakungens sal" (In the hall of the mountain king), and then him being joined by Kalle Moraeus and Linda Lampenius for an acoustic version of "Stockholm i mitt hjärta," the prideful leitmotif that opens every one of the broadcasts during the summer. This is followed by Kalle singing "Underbart" (Wonderful) with the crowd and host Måns Zelmerlöw.


In the NRK segment at the top, honestly, it seems to me that there are too many crowd shots of people that look either distracted or bored, instead of some shots from behind the stage showing Yohanna and the crowd interacting and the crowd singing back to her.

Plus, while SVT always seems to anticipate situations correctly, above, NRK goes from a nice shot to one of a woman who seems to be nursing her baby.
I have to admit that I've NEVER seen that done at a concert, or seen a TV director thinking THAT'S the money shot you've got to get. 
Perhaps she looked like the director's wife, but still, very, very strange.


What is NOT strange though is uris1.
He never fails to deliver the goods with high-quality musical videos from Scandinavia and Europe!
Which is why I subscribe to his feed. http://www.youtube.com/user/uris1


No, that's not your imagination, his YouTube Channel really is framed by multiple shots of one of our favorites, Swedish singer Jill Johnson.


Jill's rocking version of "Jolene"


http://www.youtube.com/user/jilljohnsonmusic
http://www.jilljohnson.se/eng/

Want to see a sneak peek of my future? Prescient geniuses with a camera at BeepShow have already filmed part of my future -away from the heat & humidity of Miami- and it includes Iceland and the Northern Lights. But sadly, I'll end up missing Sigur Rós at Iceland Airwaves; #Iceland, #BeepShow, #Icelandair, #InspiredByIceland

Beep Show's VIMEO video: London to Iceland in Ten Minutes. July 2012. Music by Sigur Rós. Move your cursor away from the video to have the text disappear and see the video more clearly. Complete information about this incredible video is here: http://vimeo.com/45121903  http://beepshow.com/
It's truly amazing what genius, talent, ingenuity and technology can create!

Want to see a sneak peek of my future? Prescient geniuses with a camera at BeepShow have already filmed part of my future -away from the heat & humidity of Miami- and it includes Iceland and the Northern Lights. But sadly, I'll end up missing Sigur Rós at Iceland Airwaves; #Iceland, #BeepShow, #Icelandair

Back in November, following several very emotionally-draining roller-coaster months with my dad's health a year after his stroke, where we found ourselves frequently at the hospital or at the doctor's office for one thing or another, I wrote here:

It's not exactly a secret that I definitely could use a break for about a week or two from everything and everyone in South Florida to unwind.

Not that there was really ever any doubt where I'd eventually wind-up to relax, but I've finally made my mind up about where I'll be going to get away from South Florida for a while, which I had originally wanted to do back in February or March to decompress after my dad died, then maybe even return to during Midsommar in order to get away from the summer swelter of South Florida.

But perhaps as these things sometimes do of their own accord, it's worked out for the best schedule-wise, since despite it meaning I'm still here during the hottest part of the summer, I'll now be able to experience, first-hand, one of nature's most amazing sights and spectacles.
 
Ten weeks from this morning, unless something crazy and unexpected happens, like a powerful hurricane barreling its way across the Atlantic or the Caribbean towards South Florida -and maybe, even if there is!- I'll be greeting the sunrise far, far away from the land of gridlocked traffic, sleepwalking journalists and corrupt politicians, with nary a decent Ethiopian restaurant to be found that compares to the Red Sea in D.C.

I don't want to give everything away right now with this one post, but I will tell you that as of now, The Plan, as such, is that ten weeks from this morning, I'll be having a relaxed and delicious breakfast right near the water and my temporary home-away-from home in a place where I can sing or hum Stockholm i mitt hjarta to my heart's delight.

Måns Zelmerlöw, Björn Skifs, Loa Falkman and Peter Jöback sing "Stockholm i Mitt Hjärta" (Stockholm in My Heart) from the intro of a 2011 episode of SVT's "Allsång på Skansen" in Stockholm, Sweden. http://youtu.be/JEPvZBDOjdc

http://www.facebook.com/svtallsang

View Larger Map

After more than a week or so in the greater Stockholm area, mostly in and around Gamla Stan, but with some boat trips with friends along the archipelago as well, finally doing the things I've wanted to do the last few years but had to keep on hold because of my dad's health, I'll be heading for fun in a place that is THE polar opposite of South Florida, our old friend, Reykjavik, Iceland, and eventually, a night-time encounter with destiny and the Northern Lights.

And with any sort of luck at all, maybe I can even run into longtime blog favorite, Yohanna, whom I just love, and want to see succeed and get the world-wide success she deserves, because her talent is so immense. 
Yes, to quote myself, Yohanna "hennes enorma talang!"



@yohannamusic

Below, from TV3 in Sweden, Yohanna's amazing performance at their "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009) telecast, singing "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day." 


http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic

Arctic Motion from Tor Even Mathisen on Vimeo.

http://www.facebook.com/temPhoto

http://vimeo.com/tittentem

http://twitter.com/#!/tittentem

Icelandair video: Unique Iceland: What to do in Reykjavik?

Icelandic actress Þóra Karítas Árnadóttir -a.k.a. Thora Karitas - explains a few things about the fascinating and awesome island known as Ísland. http://youtu.be/Rkr1O6mvHUc

LIVE camera of Blue Lagoon: Bláa lónið - Live Webcam - Inspired by Iceland

Unfortunately, because of when I'll be there, I won't be able to see Sigur Rós at the Iceland Airwaves music festival in Reykjavik, owing to it coming later in October, right before we have elections here in the U.S.. http://icelandairwaves.is/
http://icelandairwaves.is/sigurros/

http://www.icelandtouristboard.com/ 

http://www.visitreykjavik.is/

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.

August 16th, 33 years later -The Day Elvis Died. Jon Pareles was right: "In death as in life, Elvis Presley has something for everybody."

1993 Elvis Presley postal stamp -Watercolor of Elvis by Mark Stutzmamn

This is the song and performance that my friend Shannon and I always loved best, and loved most to sing along to together when she lived in D.C., because, for me at least, it's the secular song of his that's closest to the power of his great gospel performances.

Elvis Presley - An American Trilogy, LIVE, 1973

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xcZCigY3gE



Another fabulous story by author David Comfort, today, on the relationship between Elvis and his doting mother, Gladys.

TheWrap
Elvis, Gladys & Their Double Doomdate, Aug. 16
By David Comfort
Published: August 15, 2010

In 1934, Vernon Presley, age 18, recalled blacking out at the instant of his son’s conception; then, regaining consciousness, he had seen the night sky thronged with brilliant blue stars. Elvis Aron’s twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn.

The future King’s God-fearing mother, Gladys -- who herself almost died in the delivery -- believed he had inherited Jesse’s soul, and was “the One.”

Years later, Gladys would suffer a miscarriage, making her all the more protective of her only surviving child.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/blog-post/there-goes-my-everything-elvis-gladys-rip-20137

See also:
http://rockandrollbookofthedead.com/
http://www.thewrap.com/


This article has some really great photos, some of which you may never have seen.

Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sweltering heat can't keep Elvis fans from annual vigil
By Christopher Blank
Posted August 16, 2010 at midnight
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/aug/16/always-faithful/


Elvis Presley: Ten of Our Favorite Performances
This Week Marks 33rd Anniversary of the King's Death
August 16, 2010
http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1645830/elvis-presley-ten-of-our-favorite-performances.jhtml


If you never saw my previous post mentioning singer Calle Kristiansson, prepare to be amazed. This gets me every time I see it, because this guy, whom nobody had ever heard
of, just casually walks up to the microphone and belts a home run on the first pitch like it's nothing -perfect.

TV4.se
Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis -
IDOL Sweden 2009, auditions in Malmö

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CESHAeCxV4




Calle Kristiansson Walking in Memphis - XL Live Expressen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtKe9qQYH8



See also: http://www.expressen.se/ and
http://www.youtube.com/ExpressenTV


Yohanna -Butterflies and Elvis from her Butterflies and Elvis CD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8XlKt0eSYc



See also: http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA
and http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/
The guys at TY have got some brand new photos of this super-talent up on their blog, so check 'em out!

My previous posts on Elvis contain lots of helpful hints on discerning why I am the way that
I am, how my personal world-view was shaped and why I write about the topics I do here,
many of which I never see anywhere else, even though there are, as we're constantly being reminded, tens of millions of blogs and websites.

January 8, 2010:
Walking in Memphis on Elvis' 75th birthday: some Swedish and Icelandic treats
to celebrate with
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/walking-in-memphis-on-elvis-75th.html
and
August 15, 2009
Sunday morning at 2 a.m. - Elvis In Memphis on QVC
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/sunday-morning-at-2-am-elvis-in-memphis.html

TCB baby!

Yohanna's trip to Finland in May: Thank You for the Music; Into Your Arms; Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

I'd been meaning to post this video of Yohanna rehearsing in Kuopio, Finland two months ago, capturing her singing both an ABBA favorite, Thank You for the Music, as well as Nick Cave's Into My Arms.

Though I've spoken of Yohanna more than a few times here in the past, I think even more than the previous videos of hers that I've shared here -the last new one being from a Christmas show in Stockholm that aired on TV3's "En Sång För Hemlösa 2009" (A Song For The Homeless 2009), where she sang a few songs, including a tremendous version of Don't Save It All For Christmas Day, see my January 1st post, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/wow-yohanna-sings-dont-save-it-all-for.html - you can really see her tremendous earnestness and sense of purpose.
Of, quite literally, wanting to get every note and chord just right

Over the weekend, while I was watching a Marlins-Padres ballgame on TV, a friend from overseas with a good memory emailed to remind me about a couple of posts I'd talked about in the abstract that had yet to materialize in this space yet.

You may well recall some of these as well, from prior posts of mine or thru emails, but as it happens, one concerned Yohanna's trip to Finland -Suomi.
I'd told her previously that my plan was to put this video and some comments up over the Memorial Day weekend, sometime between watching the Indy 500 and the anti-climatic NCAA Lacrosse Mens Championship game between Duke and Notre Dame, but that, well, she hadn't seen it yet.
Oops!!!

Having received that gentle reminder, I'm now sharing the video that Tiia Santavirta first uploaded for Chaos Tube at http://www.youtube.com/user/TiiaSantavirta

More photos of the trip are available at http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/ and more Yohanna videos can be seen at the TeamYohanna YouTube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA

Heavenly! Yohanna sings "Butterflies & Elvis" Live in Reykjavik (HD); "The Winner Takes It All" at 2010 Icelandic Eurovision Finals

Yohanna a.k.a. Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir

Just received this HD version of Yohanna
performing "Butterflies and Elvis" with the
Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in a sell-out
concert in Reykjavik in 2008.

I posted a regular version of this song she
co-wrote back in January on what would've
been Elvis' 75th birthday, for obvious reasons.
TCB, baby!


And here with one of the most popular of all
the ABBA songs, "The Winner Takes It All"
-a real vocal showpiece for Agnetha Fältskog
back in the day- performing Feb, 6th at
Söngvakeppni Sjónvarpsins 2010, where she
won last year with "Is It True," Jóhanna
Guðrún Jónsdóttir is PERFECTION!





For more on Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir, see:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TEAMYOHANNA
http://www.youtube.com/yohannamusic
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=J%C3%B3hanna+Gu%C3%B0r%C3%BAn+J%C3%B3nsd%C3%B3ttir

If you haven't already heard the news,
Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees
will induct ABBA at the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame's 25th annual induction ceremony
on Monday, March 15th, at New York City's
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Walking in Memphis on Elvis' 75th birthday: some Swedish and Icelandic treats to celebrate with

1993 Elvis Presley Stamp -Watercolor of Elvis by Mark Stutzmamn

As some of you who've been coming to this blog
for awhile know by now, after my family moved
from San Antonio, where my sister and I were
born and my mother grew-up, my family moved
to Memphis in 1965, where we lived for three
years, and where my youngest sister was born.
We moved to South Florida in July of 1968
just a few weeks after Dr. King was assassinated,
following the horrific aftermath in the city.

It was in Memphis specifically, and the Mid-South
in general, on our weekend family drives around
Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi -not always
so great in an un-air conditioned car with two
younger sisters!- where I first developed my
deep and enduring love and preference for many
things that still remain with me to this day:
the Mississippi River; rhythm 'n' blues; Al Green;
The Andy Griffith Show; Dusty Springfield;
Petula Clark; St. Louis Cardinals baseball on
the radio in the summertime during their mid-60's
glory era; smoky sweet Memphis-style barbecue ribs;
cornbread, and, of course, The King - Elvis.

To a devout Elvis fan like me, who knows just
about everything there is to know about him,
the good and the bad, the best books ever written
on Elvis -by far- are Peter Guralnick's masterful
"Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis
Presley" and the great follow-up, "Careless
Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley."

Each is written with honesty and empathy,
free of the judgmental cant and analysis that
doomed other books that purport to tell the
tale.

It was also while living in The Mid-South,
that I first became greatly interested in the
American Civil War, following a summer
day-trip to Shiloh, the site of the bloody
April 1862 battle.

It was on that summer day-trip that I had
a chance encounter with a VERY old man
on the battlefield itself.
A man whose own father had actually
fought in the battle -and lived to tell
the tale!

For more info on Shiloh, see
http://www.nps.gov/shil/

Spending a day there is an awesome and
eye-opening experience and really puts
things into their proper perspective,
just as my later trips to Gettysburg,
Harper's Ferry, Winchester,
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania
did as well, after I moved to the
D.C. area.

You'll recall that a few days ago I shared
video with you of Yohanna singing
Don't Save It All For Christmas Day
at En Sång För Hemlösa 2009 in
Stockholm and encouraged you all
to watch the entire TV program if
you could, because it was so well done.

Well, on what would be Elvis' 75th
birthday I return to our talented friend
from Iceland and share a song that she
recorded last year called Butterflies
and Elvis.

I'm choosing today to also write for the first
time here -though some of you know from
emails- about another young singer whom
I know you all have never heard of before,
but whose talent is so obvious that...
well, the first time I heard him, let's just say
that I was just thunderstruck.

Just like I was the first time I heard
Molly Sandén or Yohanna.
Obvious transcendent talent!

A friend in Europe has seen him on the
Idol Sweden program and she sent me
a video of his audition in Malmö in an
email last year that had the simple words,
"Must see!!!" in the subject header.

Wow! Was she ever right!

I'm talking about Calle Kristiansson,
a name you will be hearing a lot more
of in the future, because seeing and hearing
IS certainly believing.

-----
First, the original version of Mark Cohn's song
that you probably first heard sung by Cher.



When the song was incorporated into the
1997 X-Files episode called The Post-Modern
Prometheus, it instantly became my favorite
episode.
See video of it at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CKs8NjusTQ

----

Prepare yourself to be wowed and remember
in the future who first told you about a Swedish
singer named Calle Kristiansson.
Me!

TV4.se
Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis -
IDOL Sweden 2009,
auditions in Malmö

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CESHAeCxV4



-----

Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis -
XL Live Expressen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtKe9qQYH8



See also:
http://www.expressen.se/
and http://www.youtube.com/ExpressenTV

-----

Yohanna -Butterflies and Elvis
from her Butterflies and Elvis CD



See also: http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA
and http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/
plus http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic


Memphis Commercial Appeal
Bitter cold can’t keep these Elvis fans from his birthday party
By Michael Lollar
January 8, 2010
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/08/bitter-cold-cant-keep-these-elvis-fans-his-birthda/

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!