Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
When I first got into Swedish music, there was a huge separation between the acts that were big domestically and internationally. That’s no longer the case, but it means there are still some acts who are household names in Sweden yet unknown even to the most dedicated fans of today’s Scandi scene. Miss Li is one of those artists – I loved her album Best of (061122-071122), but the closest she’s got to UK fame was soundtracking a DFS ad in 2012 with My Heart Goes Boom. She returned last week with a bigger and brighter look (literally – her hair is ginger and huge!) and sound, with her comeback single Bonfire. It doesn’t have the chaotic charm of songs like Oh Boy and Ba Ba Ba, but it could easily be mistaken for a track by the brilliant Noonie Bao or Tove Styrke, proving how well Miss Li has translated her sound for 2016. Considering how many quirky girl singers have come along in the past decade, most of them being Scandinavian, I think Miss Li was really ahead of her time. I hope this time around she’ll earn recognition equally from Swedes, Scandiphiles and anyone who loves a good old catchy pop song.