Then I tried to start updating it again. Then a broken computer got in the way. Imagine six months of gradual deterioration (i.e. February 2009: computer gets a bit slow and cranky when you want to view two pages at a time. July 2009: you try to copy a CD, computer overheats after three tracks and switches itself off, and matters are not helped by the fact that about 15% of the screen is now a huge bright white triangle).

This is over now, and hopefully I can give some time to this blog, before I find another excuse.

2 – Kryštof - Tak nějak málo tančím (I kind of dance a bit)

One of the most popular Czech bands, Kryštof have just completed an acoustic greatest hits tour, and as if that wasn’t enough to stop this from selling like mad, this song is also going to be the theme to an upcoming television series on Czech TV. In other words, they’re managing to target a good few audiences. It’s a really good little tune, too, with some great orchestration:

4 – Tereza Kerndlová – Anděl

Yes, I heard one or two or fifteen of you gasp at the fact that she still has a career. Thought of by all the Czechs I know as pretty but not much else, Tereza used to be in the Czech equivalent of the Sugababes, Black Milk, but went solo and now lives in the memories of Eurovision fans, singing an entire song out-of-tune in Belgrade, while people wondered who on earth had created the 3-minute edit, and wondered how the lyrics were written by Americans.

But fear not, Tereza has discovered that she can still keep going by jumping on the Duffy bandwagon. This would have been a much more appropriate Eurovision song (although I guess that she would still have sung it like that):

And now let’s be more positive: Greek music exists. Here are the four biggest Greek songs of the moment (they separate out the Greek and foreign songs, though):

1 – Michalis Hatzigiannis / Μιχάλης Χατζηγιάννης: Anapoda / Ανάποδα (Upside down)

Number one last time I mentioned Greece on this blog, here’s the new single from Greece’s best-selling album of 2008. Warning: very much not the Diana Ross song.

2 – Goin Through feat. Nevma – Den kano diakopes / Δεν κάνω διακοπές

To vote ‘there should be an age limit on rap’, press 1. To vote ‘really makes me wish I was racing down a street in Athens with this on full blast’, press 2. I think I might just press both.

3 – Elena Paparizou / Ελενα Παπαρίζου - Pirotechnimata / Πυροτεχνήματα (presumably something to do with fire)

Greek-but-Swedish-but-Greek winner of Eurovision in 2005, Elena Paparizou is no stranger to a very, very catchy tune. But now it seems that she went to 1992 for her last holiday and left the tunes behind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVSYcv2t0gM

4 – Eleonora Zouganeli / Ελεωνόρα Ζουγανέλη: Ela / Ελα

And finally, someone I haven’t actually heard of until now. What I can tell you is that, surprisingly, she wasn’t on the Greek version of the X Factor (I assumed for some reason, probably because these shows always have the token woman with hair like that), and that I would like this song very much if it weren’t for the beeping all over the verses:

3 – Jeroen van der Boom – Alles min één

As well as having a rather brilliant name, Jeroen is the one who was drafted in to join De Toppers after Gerard Joling left in a huff. De Toppers will be representing the Netherlands in May in Moscow – it really is that time of year when 30% of the people on this blog are, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, this video is a bit less schlager. Synopsis seems to be: Jeroen breaks up with someone, feels mightily depressed, then goes and sings in front of hundreds of people, and everything’s fine again. Have you ever tried this and does it work? Let me know.

8 – André van Duin – De balletjes van de Koningin

Meanwhile… well… yes. André is an actor, singer, writer, etc, who has had a very long career and feels the need to celebrate it with songs like this:

9 – Dio feat. Sef – Tijdmachine

A bit of Dutch rap about trying to win someone back. Yes, it’s about a time machine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6tpUbWOms

Partly because of the video (which goes from looking like phone footage to being fantastic within about a minute), and partly because of André van Duin, I really, really like this.

Meanwhile, a bit further south, people in Flanders are buying / downloading (maybe not legally) / at the very least listening to… an awful lot of stuff in English actually. Other than the number one hit, that is:

Now this is depressing. Andy Sierens was a rapper who died in December. His greatest wish was to record a single and, with famous Belgian band Hooverphonic, this is it.

3ST, who were Romanian, looked a bit like O-Zone, quite probably sounded a bit like O-Zone, yet managed 11 years where O-Zone presumably managed something around 11 months, broke up last year. One of them, Laurenţiu Duţă (writing all those accents is really fun, by the way), has been quick off the mark with the solo career, and this is the debut single. I like the backing and the beach:

Laurenţiu is also one of the composers of this year’s Eurovision song for Romania, The Balkan Girls (which, in my not-until-April boycott, I haven’t heard yet, but secretly really want to). Its singer, Elena Gheorghe, is still in the top three herself, and as I reread my post on her, I realise that it has since been well and truly negated.

Maybe if I chide Edyta Górniak, she’ll stop singing ballads as well…

Yes, Poland’s first (and still only particularly successful) Eurovision entrant, who has tried a couple of times to become the former Eastern Bloc’s answer to Mariah Carey. She didn’t particularly succeed, and has gone back to singing in Polish / appearing in every single magazine / being engaged in a long-standing catfight with at least one other famous singer. This song comes from a film of the same name, which appears to be a comedy. A pity, then, that the song isn’t particularly humorous. All in all, it’s really just an excuse for Edyta to prove that she still has amazing legs despite having given birth, etc, etc, isn’t it?

Somewhere in a pub in Poland right now, a group of guys are having a conversation about how much they hate this kind of music, and at least one of them is about to say ‘still would, though’.

7 – Video - Będzie piekło (It’ll be hell)

Calling your band that is surely a very effective way of stopping people from downloading your music illegally. Or from finding you on Google,  mind. Voted best newcomer at a couple of the big awards ceremonies lately, this clip features a media whore or five. Also, as this is a family blog aimed at giving you music and nothing but music, I will not tell you exactly what the refrain means, but I will tell you that it ends in ‘off’.

Question to any Polish readers: have people been swearing more since 2004, and are the British to blame?

Done. I suppose, for those petty enough to keep count, she’s got one over on her former bandmates  this week.

3 – Manuel Carrasco – Sígueme

Runner-up on Operación Triunfo 2 in 2003, one place in front of Beth and fourteen places in front of Mai Meneses of Nena Daconte fame and glorious cheeriness.  Still selling after all these years (which, of course, most of the candidates from those early days aren’t), his Spanish Wikipedia article gives the word detailed a whole new dimension. It probably lists what he had for breakfast every day in the Academía.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkKx1115Sc4

At the other end of the spectrum, I have nothing to say other than ‘fairly pleasant’.

5 – El Canto del Loco - Peter Pan

Also discussed before. The band are currently in the news for sad reasons, as lead singer Dani Martín’s sister died a few days ago.  

7 – La Quinta Estación - Que Te Quería

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1KYgLmu770

Down from three members to two for album number four, this doesn’t seem to be stopping former 2007 Latin Grammy winners La Quinta Estación from having big success (even in the USA), while sounding quite 1980s (in a good way).

9 – Estopa – Hemicraneal

I’ve always had a soft spot for rumba-rock brothers Estopa, especially their more up-tempo numbers. This, admittedly, is one of the ballads, and doesn’t have a proper video, but at least it means that I’ve seen one Spanish video that doesn’t include the words ‘Embedding disabled by request’:

And there’s no way that I can end this post without a link to my favourite song of theirs from 2004:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=os6at3nn85A

Those of you who’ve ever listened to Polish or Slovak radio will not be surprised by the general moodiness.

Summary of the rest of the Ukrainian top ten: Ani Lorak, etc.