europopped

Feeling inspired by all the recently wrapped fashion shows in Paris? Well the fashion party is not over, it has just moved south to Athens. Greece's Kostas Martakis is back in the mix with a new clip and it looks ripped from the pages of Vogue magazine. "Entasi" translates to "intensity" (roughly) and the good-looking Greek has it in spades here in this released today video. Last time we checked in on the Dancing With The Stars competitor (he came in second last year on the TV show), he was getting frisky as part of an electropop duet (with Russia's Diana Diez) in his clip for "Sex Indigo." This time, it's a solo affair for the Universal Music Greece singer, and it's one we can all get behind. Good art direction by John Mitropoulos. Clip directed by Apollon Papatheoharis. Check it below.

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Three sisters from Belgium, known as About E, are now the hottest (or at least newest) girl group to take Antwerp and "Roll With Us" is their proverbial calling card. The sisters are Demi (17), Lori (20) and Tilia Eestermans (22). Is it an accident that the entire band name and debut single seems like a lol-inducing giant homage to MDMA? Probably not! Anyway, who cares...the song, written by the gals, Mattias Larsson and Robin Fredriksson is simply smashing. About E or Sony Music Belgium have made this clip unwatchable on You Tube in the U.S., but you can see it here at europopped anyway. UPDATE: unable to fix code as it is not meant for USA viewing so teaser is below or you can see the full clip here.

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I'm probably one of maybe three Americans actively following the career of Ukraine's Kamalia Zahoor. I find all of the following fascinating. The singer is really making a big push this month and next in England to try and get her music heard, and she has the money to at least get in the proverbial mix (her husband, Mohammad Zahoor, has an estimated worth of between $550 million and $1 billion dollars!). That's according to the Kiev Post, which he owns, naturally. Anyway, I've covered Kamaliya before on this blog and her latest video, released today, looks pretty good. The problem remains that she can't fully pull off vocals and lacks a bit in the charisma department. That said, she's contracted out some credible producers (see London's Cahill) for this new track and the clip was shot in Miami by Paul Boyd (Elton John, Celine Dion etc). Have a look below at what a billion buys these days.

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Hungary never fails to surprise. Just stumbled upon "Linda" Lia Kustánczi, a former Playboy centerfold in the Hungarian edition of the magazine (around seven years ago), who is now an aspiring DJ/pop star who goes under the name "DJ Lia." This month she has not one, but two brand new clips she is trying to get noticed and they are both simultaneously good and bad in the way only Hungary can muster. First up is her jet-set on a budget clip for "Never Again," which I actually sort of like. But it's her cheesy Euro house cover of Chris Issak's "Wicked Game" where we're going to have to draw the line (even though that track was done by respectable Dutch producers Block & Crown). Anyway, I find this kind of ex-Playmate stuff fascinating. Don't you ever wonder where they end up? They're all trying to be DJ/singers now.

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Who remembers A-Ha's classic 1980's video "Take On Me?" If you liked that one, you're probably going to also like this gem from Lithuania's Junior. The band has been around since 1996 and used to do pretty well in the small market that is their home country. Their "Striptease" album sold about 15,000 copies when it first came out in 1996. Their follow-up in 1997, "Love and Fire" sold about 45,000 copies on cassette(!), a double platinum in Lithuania, their bio claims, anyway. Anyway, more recently, the trio released a music video last month for a song called "Mano Pasaulis" and it looks pretty cool. Check it out below (good song as well, somehow very Saint Etienne-esque). Bonus trivia: Junior has a song called "Facebook" but only 30 Facebook "friends."

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