europopped

Long before it was fashionable to add dance music flourishes to Top 40 songs, Belgium's Lasgo were doing it. For years, the group have been pumping out quality trance-infused pop and their latest, "Sky High," is no exception. The last time we checked in with the Belgian dance act fronted by Jelle Van Dael was in 2011, when they dropped "Here With Me." This new offering explores a bit of dubstep-esqe territory, which is new for the act, but basically the tune remains a Lasgo jam, with signature trance synths that are the hallmark of producer Peter Luts' songwriting style. Sharp looking video as well where we get to see the best looking new mom in Belgium, Jelle, make out, a lot, with some guy (I think the male in the clip is Meysam Noori from the Dutch/Belgian version of SYTYCD). Check it.

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Guess which country in Europe loves summer festivals? Belgium. How do we know? Because last year we attended one of the EU's best and biggest festivals, Tomorrowland. Anyway, this brand new video by Leuven's AKS (or Addicted Kru Sound) effortlesly captures that summer festival vibe in Holland and Belgium and it's really rather good. The song is off their forthcoming EP Out of Control, which will be out worldwide on May 21st.  The video you'll see below features footage from two years of live shows and backstage footage by a friend of AKS. Great vocals here by lead singer Lola (eat your heart out, Selah Sue!). Check it out below...surprising and summer-ready fun.

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So Belgium is secretly proving to be Europe's best new breeding ground for musicians ready to pop globally. Gotye now sits atop American radio charts (he's at #1 this week with "Somebody That I Used To Know") and Selah Sue recently signed with Columbia Records in the U.S. So who's next from Belgium? Two possible names to go big in the future are below. First up is Warner Belgium's Sioen. I wrote about this artist last year and the clip below was a special he did as an exclusive for Skynet. Interesting concept clip, which was partially crowdsourced. Next up is a band that seems to have lots of female fans in France and Belgium, yet they sing in English: Absynthe Minded. The act have a new video out called "Space" and they even teased it with a website called: "mostexclusivevideoever" earlier this month, proving the five piece has a sense of humor, hard won, no doubt, after nearly a decade of touring all over Europe. Check out both clips below.

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She's back! Born in Belgium star Hadise, who has Turkish roots and is known all over Europe thanks to a Eurovision Song Contest turn, has released a new video for her track "Mesajımı Almıştır O" and it looks pretty slick. The clip was directed by Holland's Hulya Acikgoz (who also directed her last promo video) and styled by Derya Açikgöz (the two are sisters). We're talking serious girl power here, people, and it all works out rather well. The song was written by Sözleri Gökhan Şahin’e, Translated a few of the lyrics and here is what Hadise is saying in one part: "I'm sick of your love/I broke my pen/Say a few words necessarily/The arrow can not return springs/One can not change my decision/What else can I say more/That was my message." Ok then, girl, I hear you. Check it out below.

Who loves Los Angeles? Belgian duo Sylver does, that's who. The long-running trance/pop group, which features singer Silvy De Bie (who we just wrote about earlier this month on a different side project with David LaTour) last week dropped a clip called "City Of Angels" which was filmed here in, you guessed it, Los Angeles. The promo was shot mostly in the Hollywood area (note the Drai's cameo) but you'll also see footage of downtown, Venice Beach and Beverly Hills in the video. Pretty good in parts, a bit awkward in others. Still, have to love Sylver and Silvy. Seeing the sexy singer here in L.A, giving props to my hometown is kind of special. Check it out below.

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