We’re half way through November already and the new music is coming out thick and fast! As always the ESCBubble team have rounded up the most interesting new music from former Eurovision and National Final acts for your pleasure. Plus we have something a little different later on!
Alexander Rybak – Let the music guide you
The two time Eurovision finalist and former winner is back and with a very interesting direction for his new single. Alexander’s ‘Fairytale’ was the record winning points scorer for Norway under the pre 2016 voting method, and of course he again graced us in this year’s Grand Final with ‘That’s How You Write A Song’. His new release is called ‘Let the music guide you’ and Alexander turns his hand to some traditional Nordic joik music. Have a listen below:
Polina Gagarina – Меланхолия
A Russian superstar, 2015’s Eurovision runner up is back with a new track called ‘Меланхолия‘ (Eng: ‘Melancholy’). She had this to say about the dance pop number on her instagram:
Friends, after all, my lucky number 9: and finally my new song “Melancholy” is online, and you can download it! For reasons beyond the control of our team, uploading to digital platforms took longer than expected, but now everything is behind us and I know for sure that this song is special and bewitching! She will not leave anyone indifferent, and everyone will dance to her impetuous rhythm!
The lyrics to the chorus go as follows:
People pass by
Instead, it remains
Alone with me
Melancholy
Melancholy
You can listen to it here:
Bella & Filippa – Ring Them Bells
So if you were wondering where all the Christmas music was, well we’ve a couple of festive new tunes for you this week. First up is Melodifestivalen’s 2017 stepsister duo Isabella Snihs and Filippa Frisell, better known as Bella & Filippa, who finished fifth in the third heat with their folk pop number ‘Crucified’. The bells are out for their Christmas number which is aptly titled ‘Ring Them Bells’:
Linnea Dale ft Jonas Alaska – Wait For The Morning
The 2014 Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix runner up releases her third album this week titled ‘Wait For The Morning’. A little known fact about Linnea is that she was the vocalist on the huge European song ‘Ambitions’ by Donkeyboy, a song that that UK X Factor winner Joe McElderry also had a hit with. Linnea has already released two singles in advance of the album release ‘Favourite Mistake’ and ‘Like A Bullet’, the third single is the title track itself, a collaboration with Jonas Alaska ‘Wait For The Morning’:
Wiktoria – I Told Santa
The Swedish tabloid Aftenbladet has already strongly speculated that two time Melodifestivalen entrant Wiktoria will be in the 2019 line up. Their rumours more often than not turn out to be true and so if she is to return she’s keeping her lungs in good nick with a Christmas song, lucky us! Here is ‘I Told Santa’:
Lanberry ft Jakob Moreau – High On Us
Here at the ESCBubble review we’ve already brought you a couple of singles already from the second Lanberry album ‘miXtura’, and this week the album has dropped. Lanberry of course came 6th in the 2017 Polish National Final ‘Krajowe Eliminacje‘ with her song ‘Only Human’ and her profile has continued to build since then. Her latest single features Jakob Moreau and is called ‘High On Us’:
Anna Rossinelli – Union
We very recently featured the return of the 2011 Swiss Eurovision entrant Anna Rossinelli and presented to you her single ‘Hold Your Head Up’. Although she had the misfortune of finishing last in the Grand Final that year, she’s back again with her latest release ‘Union’:
Luísa Sobral ft Salvador Sobral – Só Um Beijo
The composer and singer of the Portuguese 2017 Eurovision winner entry ‘Amar Pelos Dois’ are of course the sister and brother combo of Luisa and Salvador Sobral. This week Luisa releases her fifth studio album ‘Rosa’ and it is named after her daughter of the same name. On seeing a Sobral duet on the track list we thought it only right to let you hear the unique sound of them teaming up again:
Voltaj – Amprente
The 2015 Romanian Eurovision act have been on the music scene since 1982! They continued to be successful well up until their Eurovision selection, having won the MTV Best Romanian Act at the 2005 EMA’s. They’ve released a lot more music since their 15th place in 2015’s Grand Final, their latest single ‘Amprente’ (Eng: Impression) is an uptempo and more modern song than ‘De la capāt’:
Nicki French – On Your Marks, Get Set, Go Away
Fomer UK 2000 UK Eurovision entrant and regular London Eurovision Party host, Nicki French, is back with just the most retro 80’s sounding thing we’ve heard in a long time. ‘On Your Marks, Get Set, Go Away’ has us digging out our Stock Aitken Waterman ‘Gold’ album as we are taken down memory lane:
Renaida – Waste My Time
Renaida gave many people all the feels when she made the Melodifestivalen final earlier this year. Since then she released the very well received ‘Loco Notion’ and we’re wondering if she might give Melfest another crack? In the meantime she slows down the pace for her new single ‘Waste My Time’:
Loboda – INSTADRAMA
Svetlana Loboda represented Ukraine at the 2009 Contest when she took ‘Be My Valentine (Anti-crisis girl)’ into 12th place with 76 points. Although many acts fail to maintain any momentum they get from Eurovision exposure Svetlana, now going by the artist name Loboda, continues to rack up hits in her homeland with 8 number one singles since! ‘INSTADRAMA’ is a fun piece of dance pop which reminded us of both Tina Cousins ‘Pray’ and the chorus of ‘Forever’ by Alekseev:
Dima Bilan – Молния
Last but not least this week we have a returning winner, Dima won the contest of course back in 2008 with ‘Believe’, which followed on from his 2nd place in 2006 with ‘Never Let You Go’. Bilan remains a huge star in his native Russia, as an actor, a judge on The Voice and he continues to release music. His latest release is titled ‘Lightning’ and you can sample it below:
Alternatively…..
We thought we’d bring you something different to the roundup this week, a cover of a Eurovision entry by a non-Eurovision artist.
Linnea Henriksson – Hero
Now into it’s ninth season, hit Swedish tv show ‘Så mycket bättre’ (Eng: So Much Better) throws singers together into a house where each day the other artists reinterpret the songs of that days chosen artist. This week it was the turn of 1999 Eurovision winner and four time Melodifestivalen entrant Charlotte Perrelli to have her songs covered. Her 2008 Eurovision entry ‘Hero’ was one of the songs that received a new version and we thought you’d enjoy this Daft Punk like version by the 4th place contestant of ‘Swedish Idol‘ in 2010, Linnea Henriksson:
And finally
We’ve already brought you the power Latvian hookup of ‘Last Dance’ by Markus Riva and Aminata already this week. You can find that and all of the other songs mentioned today on our ESCBubble New Music Friday playlist for November on our homepage or by clicking right here.
Which was your favourite new release this week? Let us know on our social media channels.
