Representing Germany: Queensberry – I Can’t Stop Feeling
As winners of the latest German version of Popstars, this time creating a girl group, there is plenty of buzz around them at the moment, but they’re naturally going to need to release some great singles to make sure that their success continues. The most successful acts from Popstars in Germany have been girlbands, No Angels and Monrose, so the oddly-named Queensbury have a lot to live up to. I was impressed with their first single, the Gabriella Cilmi-esque No Smoke, although I already knew the song from when Eva Avila (Canadian Idol winner) released it. However, the new single is a ballad, and not a terribly interesting one. They look and sound very professional, but there’s nothing distinctive about them as a group. Their album won’t bring much excitement either, considering most of the songs (just like the latest No Angels CD) are covers – even Clea’s Sprung is included, proving the point that Queensberry are no Girls Aloud.
Representing Sweden: Adiam Dymott – Miss you
Looking for a new female rock singer to get obsessed with? Try Adiam Dymott for size! Her energetically catchy new single Miss U sounds quite similar to The Donnas, but Adiam looks more like Estelle (a heavily tattooed version!), and is label-mates with Swedish indie-pop royalty Hello Saferide, along with They Live By Night, Firefox AK and Maia Hirasawa, which suggests she won’t be straying too far into the jungle of rock’n’roll. She is also working closely with Thomas Rusiak, best known and loved (by me at least) for his appearance on the fantastic Hip-Hopper by Teddybears Sthlm. He plays guitar in her band and even sings a bit on the single. Listening to the songs on her MySpace, the best is Memory Loss, which actually sounds like Annika Norlin but with less simple production. That will be worth 5 globes if she releases it. Adiam is an artist with huge potential and I’m really excited to have discovered her. I can’t wait to hear her album when it’s out in March.
Representing the USA: Pink – Please Don’t Leave Me
Every time Pink releases a new song written by Max Martin or Dr Luke (or both), I pray that she will have ‘done an Avril’ and suddenly become likeable, but after 2 whole albums worth of working with them, it still hasn’t happened. Her personality even seeped into So What enough to turn what could have been a fun and innovative pop song into one of the most annoying hits of 2008. At times in the video she looks quite nice, then she ruins it by pulling a stupid face! It is quite an amusing video, though, and especially good for Valentines day and all the men-hating that it necessitates. The songs is a mid-tempo jaunty-but-sad number, but it’s no match for About You Now, When It All Falls Apart or even Pink’s own Who Knew. The best bits are the da-di-da backing vocals, but the chorus definitely needs an injection of catchiness in order to compete with Max’s many amazing pop creations.