Jerusa is an upcoming Dutch singer-songwriter with a clear vision for her music and accompanying visuals. She released her first EP in June and is already working on the next phase. A Bit of Pop Music had a chat with the talented young lady. Continue reading
Danish electronic pop artist Oh Land is quite the productive pop star with four albums released from 2008 to 2014. The singer toured Europe with the most recent record, called Earth Sick. During her stay in Amsterdam I had a chat with Nanna (Oh Land’s real name) about everything that has happened in her career so far, from her time as a ballet dancer to the moment she decided to go independent and release the fourth album through Pledge. “I wanted to go back to the necessity to make music I once felt.”
The Germein Sisters released their debut album Because We Breathe a while ago, but they are touring with an EP in the United Kingdom at the moment. They have a summer full of festivals planned and even played at Isle of Wight. I spoke to Georgia (vocals, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter), Clara (drums) and Ella (cello) about what it is like to be in a band with your sisters. “When we first started touring it sometimes was hard not to pull each others hair out.”
As an artist in the music industry, your career often is defined by the choices you make along the way. Some are easy, some are quite hard. When interviewing musicians, I like to challenge them a bit with some tough dilemmas. I name two terms (cities, persons, situations, you name it) and they can only choose one. Of course they have to explain shortly why they choose what they choose. Next up: Tove Styrke, a Swedish pop star that just released her second album, called Kiddo.
As an artist in the music industry, your career often is defined by the choices you make along the way. Some are easy, some are quite hard. When interviewing musicians, I like to challenge them a bit with some tough dilemmas. I name two terms (cities, persons, situations, you name it) and they can only choose one. Of course they have to explain shortly why they choose what they choose. First up: British singer-songwriter Rae Morris, who released her debut album Unguarded earlier this year with the hit single ‘Under the Shadows’.
Tove Styrke is one of Sweden’s most exciting pop stars at the moment. She gained fame in her home country when she participated in the local Idol tv show and released an interesting electronic pop album a year later. She left the spotlights for quite a while, but comes back swinging with a brand new album called Kiddo. I spoke to Tove about her time off, how she looks back at the first years of her music career, her evolution as an artist and patriarchy in society.
Slovenia chose a married couple to represent the country this year. The duo Maraaya won the national final with the catchy song ‘Here For You’. A 13th place by Maja Keuc in 2011 is the best Slovenian result in 10 years and there are high hopes that Marjetka and Raay will top this, as their song is in top 10 with the bookmakers. But what is it like to go to Eurovision as a married couple? And do they feel the weight of the hopeful Slovenian people on their shoulders?
Rae Morris is a rising star in Britain. The singer-songwriter from Blackpool has been working her way up in the music industry for a few years now with the release of a few EP’s, but in 2015 she finally released her first album Unguarded. Rae describes this record as her diary, because of the many personal stories she shares. A summer full of British festivals is waiting, but in April she toured in the Netherlands as part of the Songbird Sessions where several singer-songwriters performed all over the country. I spoke with her about the recent success, the making of her record and her future as an artist.
Måns Zelmerlöw will represent Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest. Once again, the country is one of the favourites to win the whole show. Zelmerlöw’s song ‘Heroes’ is the number one of the bookmakers ever since he won the Swedish national final Melodifestivalen. I spoke to Måns about what it feels like to be the one to beat, why he chose to come back to Melodifestivalen after two earlier attempts and what is upcoming album will sound like.
Aminata is a rising star in her home country Latvia. She won the preselection Supernova with the song ‘Love Injected’, that she completely wrote herself. In the meantime she also launched her debut album called Inner Voice. She will try to bring Latvia into the final of the Eurovision Song Contest again, after they failed to qualify six years in a row. I talked to Aminata about the pressure this brings and what inspired her to write ‘Love Injected’.