Some Swedish Favorites

Since I'm spending a couple of weeks back home, this blog entry is dedicated to my snowy country up north, Sweden. With the fact that the Swedish music industry is rockin' and we are producing talents that are popular all over the world, I decided to put together a 2008 top list, with talented music acts worth keeping an eye on in the year of 2009 too.

1. Kleerup
Kleerup is a DJ and producer who has been quite busy the past year. His self-titled debut album offers some great electronic beats together with strings and drums embedded in the beautiful voices from pop princesses such as Robyn, Lykke Li and Neneh Cherry. This album is an evidence of a succesful collaboration with talented female artists and a Swedish electrobeat master. All you have to is listen. And then dance of course.

Kleerup is also behind the beats of Robyn's "With every heartbeat" that scored the first spot at the British charts in 2007.




2. Veronica Maggio
A Swedish beauty with Italian background composes sweet jazz beats and sassy pop lyrics. Her debut single " dumpa mig " (Dump me) was climbing the hit lists in the beginning of 2006. Since then her albums has been well received and she has been nominated for several awards. Even though Swedish is not your native language, I could highly recommend this Swedish soul star.





3. Timo Räisänen
A Swedish/ Finnish guitar guy with an Indian mother. He started backing up for bands such as The Embassy and Håkan Hellström. After playing for others for a couple of years, he went solo. The title of his album debut was influenced by his Indian heritage and was named "I'm an indian". Listen to Timo Räisänen if you enjoy heavy rock, accompanied with seducing strings and a powerful voice. Timo's music is an explosion of feelings, soul and powerful rock-pop. 2008 was a good year for this rock n roll guy. He released his third album "...and then there was Timo", was out touring and participated in a Swedish game show (!).





4. Adam Tensta
The last name of this hip hop artist is taken from a Swedish suburb outside Stockholm. A place that is known for its diversity when it comes to nationalities and etnicities. "My cool" from his debut album "It's a Tensta Thing" was played frequently in clubs and at radio stations all over Sweden. What makes this hip hop artists unique is the fact he is able to mix genres such as hip hop, electro, pop, house and grime in a perfect combo.





5. Anna Ternheim
Anna Ternheim is a Swedish sing and songwriter with a deep, powerful voice that reaches all the way to your deepest soul. She released her debut album in Sweden 2004, and released her international album in 2007. She has a bluesy sound, with dark and complex folk rock tunes. Live, Anna often is only armed by an acoustic guitar, a piano and her ipod as backing band.

She was the queen of 2008 Swedish Grammy awards and received prizes for Best Album of the year and Best Female Artist. Her latest album "Leaving on a mayday" was produced by Björn Yttling from Peter, Björn and John. A busy producer who is behind productions from Lykke Li, Shout Out Louds and Sahara Hotnights.




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