europopped

Meant to blog this late last month when it dropped but got distracted. Anyway, Lucas Nord is newly signed to Hybris and he's going to be one to watch over the next few years. "Let Us Stay Young" is his collab with Warner/Chappell act Urban Cone, who were covered last year on this blog (Rasmus Flyckt and Emil Gustafsson contribute). The results of this pairing are quite good indeed, as you'll see below. Factor in a fantastic-looking clip from europopped favorite Mats Udd and you have the makings of a winning clip. The more you listen to this song, the better it gets. A fresh and exciting new voice from Sweden to match the excitement being generated by the likes of Adrian Lux.

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Sony music understands synergy and they've got it in Germany, of all places. The label, in a coup, managed to get Tove Styrke's "Call My Name" as the theme song of new Vox TV show "Das Perfekte Model" and they have timed everything perfectly around the show. "Call My Name" dropped as a single in Duetschland last week, just as hype around the new reality show began in earnest. Styrke's full album gets a German release next month, just as the show is in hit mode (VoX TV and Sony hope it's a hit, anyway). To top it all off, she plays a high profile gig in Berlin Feb. 25th (last month the Swedish singer was in Berlin on NRJ playing "whatever she wanted" for an hour, per her twitter feed). Yes, I know the "Call My Name" video came out a few months ago, but it was not possible to embed/watch it in America until recently. AND it's a killer song that I must have on this blog and many Americans have still never seen this clip, which was directed by the always excellent Mats Udd.

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Leave it to eagle-eyed Karl over at Scandipop to spot the debut of Velvet's video for "Lovestruck" before the artist herself tweets or Facebooks the clip. Like Karl, I too have been eagerly awaiting this video ever since Velvet (real name Jenny Pettersson) told me in person last month in L.A. it was ready to go. The singer has become one of my favorite Swedes ever since I feel in love with her duet with Linda Bengtzing, "Victorious," a few years ago. In 2012 we can look forward to more music in this vein from Velvet, as she's been busy recording and working with various producers in Los Angeles the past month or so (seems the singer, who also has a blog, has taken a major shine to California...and we love you back, Jenny). Check out her dropped-today clip for "Lovestruck" below.

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Mais oui, what do we have here? It's a new this month video from Québec's Jacynthe. "Stéréo" is not bad and it's reminding me a bit of Québec native (yes she is from Québec) Mylène Farmer today. The song was written by Stockholm's Maria Marcus, who has written tunes for many artists, including Idol Norge's Jenny Langlo in Norway. But I like Maria's work she's done with Jacynthe the best, and it's hitting all my sweet spots (Niclas Lundin also co-wrote the track with Jac and Maria). Check out Jac's latest below (an English version of "Stereo" is coming soon).

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This is fascinating. Sweden's Ulrik Munther and France's Caroline Costa have teamed up for a pop ballad called "Je T'ai Menti (Kill For Lies)" and there's a new video for the song. Caroline is young, but already her voice has been tipped as one to watch in Paris. She has over 300,000 Facebook "likes" on her page and a few years ago, she recorded a single with M Pokora ("Let Us Say") which broke into the top 20 one week in France. She has lots of teenage fans, it seems, and her debut album drops February 27 for EMI France. Similarly, Ulrik Munther has loads of teenage fans in Sweden and has been dubbed that country's answer to Justin Bieber (but with more songwriting talent). Together, these two make an interesting Swede/Franco combo. But did they hook up on the set, I wonder? Check out the clip, which was released earlier this month, below.

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