Like so many of my favorite songs, this one was also part of Melodifestivalen this past year. It didn't make it to the final round, but it's a great upbeat song that I hit replay on over and over.
Standing Where You Left Me - Erik Hassle
His record company was pushing his song Hurtful (a Swedish hit from 2008) here in the US this past year. It didn't catch on. I'm not a fan of that one. They should have tried this song instead, which was a hit in Sweden (imagine that) earlier this year.
Saturday - Basshunter
Very upbeat Eurodance is what Basshunter (Jonas Erik Altberg) is all about. This was his lone UK hit this past year.
Kick Ass (We Are Young) - Mika
Mika does phenomenal around the world, but can't seem to do anything on the North American charts. But it's not a surprise why this song didn't do well here. The title alone would scare most radio stations away thanks to everything being toned down to the extreme for fear of FCC retribution. The song was featured in the movie Kick Ass, thus the name. But that's never uttered in the song. The song's subtitle is the main chorus.
Good Times - Roll Deep
They're a London based group with ever changing group members. I never heard of them until this, which was a giant UK hit this past spring and is my favorite song from 2010.
Serhat Beduk is a Turkish musician who specializes in electro pop. The song is awesome and the video is very cool too.
Break Of Dawn - Eric Saade
He's kind of like a Swedish Disney star, who also found fame thanks to a Swedish reality show. While this isn't even close to being his biggest hit, it's the one I like most.
Lovekiller - Darin
He really is all over the charts in Sweden and should be popular throughout the rest of the world. His record company needs to start releasing his songs throughout the world. This is another favorite from him from this past year. It's kind of got some strange lyrics, but the song is phenomenal.
He had such a huge fan base during his stay on American Idol in 2008, but only managed to make it to runner-up that season (being beaten by David Cook). This song is another one that should have been a massive hit in North America, but didn't even make it to the top 40.
Unstoppable (The Return Of Natalie) - Ola
Here's another song from Sweden's Melodifestivalen. Ola Svensson is a Swedish pop star who also came from Idol but only managed 8th place in 2005. Despite such a low finish, he's had a bunch of top 10 hits (and many #1's) in Sweden since. This is a sequel to his 2007 hit Natalie. The song came in 7th place at this year's Melodifestivalen.
Got You Screaming - Basic Element
They're a Swedish Eurodance 90's group that regrouped in 2005 after a 6-year break. This is about as perfect of a dance song as you can get.
The song is awesome and the video has aliens and a fun theme - it's a perfect combination. It was a giant club hit this past year, but it was the video that caught my attention. Hannah's from Estonia and proves with this song that she's a master of pop music.
Miracle - Linda Pritchard
There's an Ace Of Base connection here - she's choreographed one of their videos. And she's an amazing singer, this being my favorite from her so far.
You're Out Of My Life - Darin
This is the first of many Melodifestivalen favorites. What's that? It's a song contest held in Sweden every year to determine the song Sweden will enter in the Eurovision Song Contest. Kind of like an American Idol for songs & usually popular artists. This song made it to 4th place this year. Darin Zanyar is one of Sweden's top-selling artists and started out on Idol (in Sweden) where he was the runner-up.
Written In The Stars - Tinie Tempah with Eric Turner
Record companies confuse me. This song has been #1 all over the world this year, but it won't officially be released in North America until January 2011. Why they don't just release things worldwide when it's so hot online is a mystery to me. Hopefully, it'll be a US & Canadian favorite here in 2011. I know Shannon Steele at Kiss absolutely loved it when she heard it, but she's forced to wait to play it until next month. I can not get this song out of my head.
Skin & Bones - Romance On A Rocketship
This is kind of a Five For Fighting situation here where the group is really only one person - Kasey Smith from Missouri. The song didn't do much on the charts, but I love it anyways.
Crying In The Rain - Nordic Stars
Despite the title, it's a fun feel-good song. Nothing more to say on this, it's just a great song.
To end the year, I thought I'd put together a list of my favorite songs from 2010.
While I love all the new music that Star 102.5 plays, my true obsession is Europop (specifically music that's huge in Sweden and Norway). Three of my grandparents were / are mostly Italian, but my Grandma Vallone always told me I'm a little bit everything else thanks to her. There's got to be some Swedish in there - that would explain things.
So over the course of the next six days, I'll list my favorites from 2010.
Magic - Stimulator
The song is actually from 2003. And the original by Olivia Newton-John is from 1980. But thanks to Macy's using it in their commercials, this has become one of my favorites in 2010. And people are going crazy searching for who does this remake online.
Wonderful Life - Hurts
This has such an 80's feel to it, I can't help but love it. The group is from Manchester, England and just released their first CD a few months ago.
Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah) - a-ha
I've been a fan of a-ha since the first time I heard Take On Me in 1985. This year marks the end of a-ha. I finally got the chance to see them live in Toronto in May - that was without a doubt the best concert I've ever seen. It'll be tough to top seeing my favorite group live after all those years. This is their final single. Here's the official music video which I can't embed. Below is the song only...
Actually, 2 years and 12 hours from the time of this post. Apparently, 11:11pm Universal time is when the excitement will begin that day. For those in the Eastern time zone, that means 6:11pm (right around supper time).
But according to a recent article at LiveScience.com, the end now might not happen that day. Apparently, the conversion of the Mayan calender to our current calendar might have been wrong.
So what's the new date? Well that's a question left unanswered in that article.
And keep in mind, this only means "The End". Not the end of the world. It could mean the end of an epoch (we've been in the geological Holocene epoch for about 12,000 years or so now). Or maybe it means the end of a period of a time (we've been in the Quaternary period for about 2.6 million years).
Maybe we'll finally move into a new time where computers will completely take over the world (12-21-12 being around the start of that). Or maybe an alien encounter will happen then, changing everything we know. Or maybe something in our unused DNA (about 97% or so) will suddenly trigger that day and we'll all become psychic.
Lots of maybes there. Maybe it'll just be a day where everyone calls off from work and has giant parties to celebrate yet another end of the world prophecy that fails to happen. Or maybe there will be incredible end of the world sales at all retail stores and everyone will be out shopping for Christmas.
Saint Malachy was a Roman Archbishop in the 1100's who apparently performed a bunch of miracles and in the year 1139 prophesied on the final 112 Popes (starting with Pope #167 in 1143). The prophecies were first published in late 1500's when the original manuscript was found.
So far, his descriptions on each of the Popes have been pretty accurate (it's a stretch for some though).
The 112'th Pope in the prophecy is Peter The Roman. In the description for him, it pretty much describes "The End", even including those words.
Here's where things really get interesting. Our current Pope is #111 on the list and the description does match. So the next Pope (this Peter The Roman guy) is the last one on the list and the one with the description that sounds like the end of the world or something disastrous happens.
So if we get a new Pope before 12-21-12 and his name is Peter and he's from Rome, that could be bad. Or maybe it'll just be a really, really big coincidence.
I originally read about this in a fiction novel called The Doomsday Key by James Rollins. I highly recommend anything by him. He's an awesome author who tries to base many of his suspense novels on actual historical events (like this prophecy).
Just make sure you give yourself enough time to read it before 12-21-12 arrives. :)
It was a season that could have been great, but wasn't.
There was such potential for the final episodes with Brenda's conniving, NaOnka's crazy playing, Jane (all that needs to be said there), and Jud / Fabio's insane moments.
But Brenda was booted too soon, NaOnka kind of gave up (even before she quit), Jane was voted off and didn't go completely berserk, and Fabio became normal (and no longer had the love / hate relationship with NaOnka). Add to that the fact that the only big twist (young vs. old) was done away with too soon (and was boring anyways), and this definitely wasn't even close to being one of the best Survivor seasons.
I was very happy with how it ended though. Fabio deserved the win as it seems he was playing throughout the entire game by taking a backseat and making sure he wasn't the one getting voted off. The three consecutive final immunity wins just backed up that he knew what he was doing all along.
I was sad that I took this week off from the station, because I would have loved to interview the winner. But after seeing Fabio talk during the reunion show, maybe it all worked out for the best.
It was nice to see the right person win though! Chase was just too confused and seemed to bumble his way to the end by chance and Sash was too annoying to win. I didn't want Holly to win either had she gone beyond the final four because of how close she came to quitting the game early in the season.
For future seasons, I hope the producers screen the contestants better so they don't get so many people quitting the game. And it would be nice to see less of the usual type of contestants and more characters. The contestants in the early seasons were a lot more memorable. And no more celebrities! Maybe football fans loved seeing Jimmy Johnson on Survivor, but he was an unbelievably boring contestant.
It's rumored that two past Survivor contestants might return for Survivor: Redemption Island. That sounds fun, as long as it's not an entire cast of returning players.
We'll find out soon. For now, a break from reality TV for me until Survivor, Amazing Race, and The Apprentice returns. In the meantime, enjoy the holidays! Instead of reality show posts, I guess it'll be more about music and other random (and probably weird) things the next few weeks.
You've seen the commercials. A girl singing holiday songs with a seemingly uncaring attitude while a guy runs around the car playing instruments.
The group is Pomplamoose and they're specialty seems to be commercial music. They've also been posting quite a few songs to their YouTube Channel in the form of VideoSongs (which contain no lip-syncing for instruments or voice according to their description).
The thing that originally caught my attention is the kind of unfeeling air of Nataly Dawn, the singer (and you can hear it in her voice). I'm sure that's not really the case though - it's just a very different style and it works so well with the music. It makes the songs distinctive and catchy.
And it makes me watch the full 30-second Hyundai commercial every single time one of them is on. I'll even stop to watch if I'm scanning through the channels and run across them.
Here's Pomplamoose with their full length version of Deck The Halls...
You can get Pomplamoose's new Christmas album for free if you donate a book through amazon.com to the Richmond (California) Book Drive. Visit the Richland Book Drive website for all the details.
That was one of the most insane tribal councils - mainly because of the ridiculous votes.
Jeff Probst pretty much told Jane, Fabio, and Dan what to do. Had each of them voted for Holly, she probably would have gone (or it would have resulted in a tie). The only concern would have been Sash or Chase giving her their immunity idol. But I kind of figured neither one of them would do that. They're not as strategic of players as Russell was when he did that in a previous season.
But then at the very end of the show, it was revealed that everybody (even Dan and Fabio) voted for Jane to leave. And Jane voted for Sash (even while knowing he had an idol that had to be used or it would just be wasted). That leads me to believe something else happened at tribal council that wasn't shown. Otherwise, Dan and Fabio absolutely would have voted for Holly - unless they're two of the worst Survivor players ever.
For Dan, that might be the case. For Fabio, I don't think so. Something was up. Maybe we'll find out what happened at the start of the next episode. And that next episode will be the finale Sunday night at 8pm.
It's like people completely forgot how to drive in snow from last week to this week!
I was on Union Road this morning and then the 90 this afternoon and saw quite a few people who really just need their license taken away.
And it's not just the people who are going too fast (which there's plenty of those today). There's also the people going way too slow causing trouble. If you're so scared to drive in this, don't get on the expressways! There's also the stupid people like the person I saw on Union near the 400 today who was actually reading a book while driving in the stop and go traffic.
Now it's time to get revenge on those people!
I've mentioned before, but it definitely deserves mentioning again today. It's PlateWire.com, a website that allows you to vent your anger and give the terrible drivers the public shaming they deserve. You can post their license plate number and explain why they're such a rotten driver and / or human being.
And get this, the latest entry on the website is from North Tonawanda! Let's call out some of the other crazies out there. But please wait until you get home to do it - don't even attempt it while driving.
First, The Apprentice. The final episode just felt like another regular episode of the show. And with all the focus on Clint throughout it, I thought he'd win for sure. The producers got me.
Since the very beginning of the season, I was not a fan of Clint. But after talking with Mahsa last week, I was having second thoughts about wanting Brandy to win.
Clint did do an incredible job on the final task and if winning was based only on that task, he should have won. But now that a few days have passed since the finale, I think the right person became The Apprentice winner.
If I had to pick between all the contestants from this season to win, neither one of them would be my pick. But between these two, that's who I would have chosen too.
The ending was almost an afterthought tacked on at the last second. It just wasn't special at all. Especially after learning that two endings were filmed so none of the contestants knew who won either until the show aired.
The Amazing Race finale also wasn't one of the better episodes of the season either. But because it's Amazing Race, it was still a great hour of TV regardless.
The final leg should have contained a lot more challenging things. The only stuff that seemed to matter were figuring out the clue to the TV studio and figuring out the puzzle at the studio (which it looked like the two female teams had no trouble with). I'm wondering if the producers just called the camera and sound people with Jill and Thomas and told them to come right to the finish line after the other two teams checked in (we never saw them arriving at the studio or doing the puzzle).
I wasn't surprised that Nat and Kat won. Based on how they raced from start to finish, I think they deserved it. For Jill and Thomas, it was just horrible luck with a taxi. Maybe they should have done what Nat and Kat did and make sure they had a good driver first. But maybe they tried and we just didn't see that. Either way, I don't think they would have beat Nat and Kat at the puzzle anyways, so it was kind of obvious who was going to win.
So the next season of The Amazing Race is another "favorites" edition with past teams returning. And the next season of The Apprentice will be a celebrity edition. And for the triple whammy here, I'm pretty sure the internet rumors are true and the next season of Survivor will also feature past contestants (we'll know for sure next Sunday during the Survivor finale).
I can't say I'm too excited about any of that, but I'm pretty sure Amazing Race will end up being a good season anyways (the only season I didn't like so far was the "family" team season). As for the other shows, we'll just have to see...
Tonight at 10pm is the season finale of The Apprentice on NBC.
It's been a crazy season with strange firings, lying accusations, and even cheating.
Along with Joe from our Promotions Department (another Apprentice fan), I talked with Mahsa about all this tonight on Star 102.5.
She talks about the final task she helped Clint with and the Apprentice cast party. We also revisit the Clint / Mahsa scandal that resulted in her firing, what her future plans are, and there's even a shout-out to her many Facebook fans.
She's a Niagara Falls native that graduated from the Eastman School Of Music in Rochester. Anyone who graduates from that school is super talented and Christina is definitely no exception.
You might have seen her perform around the area as the lead singer of Rerun. Visit Rerun's MySpace page for a listing of upcoming performances.
Christina's first release is a Christmas song called The Mistletoe Song, which was recorded right here in Buffalo and can be heard on Star 102.5.
I talked to Christina tonight (and of course played The Mistletoe Song). Here's the full 9-minute interview (portions aired on Star 102.5).
Buy The Mistletoe Song on iTunes, CDBaby, Rhapsody, amazon.com, or Digstation.
Nelly returned to the US top 40 charts in a big way after a five year disappearance with Just A Dream.
Kylie Minogue released Aphrodite, which features three singles so far (the latest being Better Than Today). None of her recent songs have been a hit in the US so far though, which is so wrong.
I'm sure there's more, but those are the highlights to me. Well now three more retro artists appear as the year is about to end...
Alphaville is still around and that's a giant surprise to me. I loved their 80's hit Forever Young, so I was psyched to hear what they sound like now. And they still sound great. Their latest album Catching Rays On Giant was just released and features the single I Die For You Today...
Pet Shop Boys are back. Actually, they never really went anywhere as they've been releasing singles and albums consistently since the 80's. Their greatest hits album Ultimate was just released and includes the new song Together...
Take That released The Flood off their upcoming album Progress. This is the first album since the mid 90's to feature all five original members of Take That...
And there's still a few weeks left in 2010. Maybe another retro artist will surprise us and release something soon...
Tons of sitcom, music, and entertainment celebrities got together for a promo for a Norwegian TV show called Gylne Tider (Golden Times).
And it's a pretty random collection of celebrities. There's Huey Lewis, Ricki Lake, Peter Falk, Tonya Harding, Right Said Fred, David Faustino, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Sherilyn Fenn, Robert Englund, and many, many others. I won't name them all because it's fun to watch and see who's going to pop up next.
The show itself follows the host, cameraman, and sound guy as they travel around to meet some of their favorite celebrities. Sounds fun.
Season 4 debuted in late October in Norway. Here's the promo (which also features the late and great Leslie Nielsen in what might be his final on screen entertainment appearance)...
It was tough to tell by the way the show was edited, but it appears that Nick & Vicki missed the flight to South Korea that all the other teams were on by just a few minutes. If that's correct, then they could have easily caught up with the others there if they had finished the Detour task in the previous episode instead of taking the 6-hour penalty.
Only a massive mistake from one of the other teams was going to save them. I was sure there was no hope for them at all. And then Brook and Claire took a taxi to the Detour task when the clue specifically said walk or take a subway only. Why do so many teams make this same mistake? It's got to be clear on the clues! Are they just reading them too quick and not paying attention?
I'm sure they're wiped out by this point, so maybe that's it. Concentrating on even simple things can be tough when super tired. I know that well as I was completely exhausted at work earlier today. The two days of moving snow along with very little sleep took it's toll and made my Sunday a giant blur. I messed up just about everything I did today - it was a complete disaster and I'm sure some of the stuff I worked on has to be totally redone. Ugh. I wish I could take a do-over on the day itself.
Anyways, luckily for Brook and Claire, the penalty for their mistake was only 30 minutes. That almost made taking a taxi worth it. When I heard how little of a penalty there was, I knew that was the end for Nick & Vicki. I'm sad to see them go - they were a good team, and the one I kind of thought would be reflective of how I would do on the race. If I was on the race, I know horrible mistakes would happen, moodiness would set in at times, and mass confusion would be life every day.
So it's the season finale next Sunday! They're really hyping up the chance of an all female team winning the race for the first time ever. With all that hype, I'm thinking it's probably going to happen.
Regardless of what happens, I'm going to be happy with whoever ends up winning. Claire has pushed herself 100% throughout the race and never gave up and Brook was a good racer, so they deserve the win. Nat & Kat were just about the perfect team, rarely making mistakes or getting flustered. That deserves the win. And then there's Jill & Thomas, who could probably use the money a little more than the other teams. And they did race well, despite occasional fighting.
Based on how things have gone this season, I think it's going to be Nat & Kat in first, followed by Jill & Thomas, then Brook & Claire. But it's so close now, just one tiny mistake will throw a team off. We'll see what happens next weekend...
While I expected Clint and Brandy to be the final two this past week, I was very sad to see how Liza left.
Instead of being eliminated in a task, she was eliminated based on previous boardroom experiences. Despite the fact that she was the project leader in the previous task and won it.
Luckily, she had the chance to redeem herself by being the golf expert in the final task and then getting to golf with Donald Trump on top of it. Lots of important business decisions are supposedly made on golf courses, so good for Liza.
I love how Clint and Brandy joked about Mahsa potentially being one of their helpers in that final task and then Mahsa of course showed up to help. And she ended up on Clint's team - even better!
Mahsa said in a separate confessional that even though she previously had disagreements with Clint, she put that all behind her for this task. Clint obviously didn't though as it seemed he assigned Mahsa next to nothing. That might end up being a giant mistake on his part. Mahsa probably could have handled Liza Minnelli better than any of them and I'm sure she wouldn't have spelled her name wrong. Clint didn't delegate enough and tried to do too much on his own.
One thing I love about The Apprentice finales is something always goes horribly wrong in each task. I don't know if the producers make sure that happens or not, but it always makes for an incredible way to end the season. The catering thing with Clint almost seemed like a set-up on the part of the producers. And Donald Trump wanting Liza on his team definitely was. But there was more.
Liza Minnelli's name is spelled wrong on all of Clint's printed materials and the prizes Brandy's team will be giving away are kind of cheap considering how rich many of those players will be. And more troubles are on the way. I'm sure Kathy Griffin will say something inappropriate and Liza Minnelli will probably cause a fuss over something crazy. The promo also showed Donald Trump being unhappy with one of his golf players not being there and long lines at Clint's buffet.
We'll see how it all turns out and who ends up being this season's Apprentice next Thursday (December 9th).
Thanksgiving night, Donald Trump fired Steuart from The Apprentice.
"We had no choice" wasn't uttered. In fact, there really wasn't a reason given. He just suddenly turned to Steuart and said "you're fired".
Does Steuart even know the reason he was fired? I talked to him earlier - hear his answer to that along with his thoughts on Clint after that last boardroom, who he thinks should win the game, who's firing he was surprised by, the Anand cheating scandal, and a few more details on the Clint / Mahsa incident that was brought up in the boardroom a few weeks back.
Here's the full 8-1/2 minute interview (thanks to some radio magic, portions aired tonight on Star 102.5).
Tonight we'll find out who the final two will be. I'll be completely shocked if it's not Clint and Brandy.
So I guess I'll be rooting for Brandy. But that might not be a good sign for Brandy, as every person I've wanted to win keeps getting fired (Steuart being the latest).
The only good thing about my favorites getting fired is then I get the chance to talk with them on-air. That's usually not the case with the winners - they don't get as much media attention because the show's season has ended and there's nothing left to promote.
But speaking of my favorites, Mahsa returns to The Apprentice tonight! I just hope the heavy snow doesn't knock out the power here before then.
The Apprentice season finale is coming up next Thursday (December 9th) and it won't be a live finale. Find out more about this in Tyana's RealiTyana Talk podcast #8. She reveals the strange details on the way they had to do the final episode.
I'm not complaining - it's nice to have a snow day. And we live in Buffalo, so we should all expect this every now and then.
My car is completely blocked in by other cars that are trapped in the snow. Unfortunately, the plows can't do anything until these cars are removed. This could be awhile. That's my car in the picture. Even after the plows get through, it's going to a lot of digging to escape. :)
I was supposed to air an interview with Steuart who was fired from The Apprentice last week. I won't be in to do that before the next episode airs tonight though. So I'll be posting the full interview here shortly.
Episode 11 was just a recap last week, so here we are at episode 12. It's 3/4 of the way through the game and not just one, but two people want to quit. How stupid is that?
They've made it a month - now with just one week away from the end, quitting is insane. Why even bother going on the show if you're going to give it all up - not to mention giving up with the end so close. It's not like they'll be going home - they'll just be going to Ponderosa to wait out the rest of the game with the others that have already been voted out.
I assumed they'd also be giving up their right to be on the jury - sadly, that's not the case. That's just not right that they'll both be allowed to decide the fate of the winner when they couldn't even last through the game.
The only thing more annoying than two players wanting to quit so close to the end is Jeff Probst giving them a chance to think about their moronic move. No, if they're going to quit, let them go - they don't deserve to be there. The only bright spot in all this is there was no way either one of them would win the million after that. I would hope that no one would vote for those two to win after that. Not that it matters though, as they're both out now.
It's too bad in a way because I thought NaOnka was playing a great game. And she was 100% convinced she could win the game. I kind of doubt she would have, but now she'll never know (and neither will we).
I always have the opportunity to interview the players after they've left the game. But I won't be interviewing either of these two. It's not worth it. The only question I could even think of asking would be if they regret quitting the game now. That's it. It would be a pretty boring interview, so why bother?
I can't possibly understand how hard it is to be out there, but I do understand that they've lasted 28 days and are only 11 days from the end. Giving up at this late stage is not something that makes sense to me.
My Oh My - Tristan Prettyman Kiss You Inside Out - Hedley My Passion - Akcent Home - Phillip Phillips Get Out - Casey Abrams Titanium - David Guetta ft. Sia Move In The Right Direction - Gossip American Girlfriend - Youngblood Survival - Muse Dark Side - Kelly Clarkson Don't Wanna Lie - Cue Good Time - Owl City ft. Carly Rae Jepsen Falling - Donati & Amato Stay In This Moment - Alex Saidac I'm In Love - Ola Sound Of Our Hearts - Compact Disco Nobody Knows - Darin
