Monday, December 31, 2012

#1 of 2012

#1 in Poptastic Confessions Top Songs of 2012 is "Now Or Never" by Bananarama. Click on the song title to see when we first wrote about the song.



This year was a special year for Bananarama as it was their 30th Anniversary of their first song in the charts. Yes, back in February of 1982 their song "It Ain't What You Do" with the Fun Boy Three went Top 5 in the UK charts.

In 1984, they cracked the US Top 10 with "Cruel Summer." Two years later they went all the way to #1 in the US and around the world with their remake of "Venus." Read a full history of Bananarama in Poptastic Confessions here.

This year was a great year for Bananarama. Earlier in the year, they released a CD/DVD combo called 30 Years Of Bananarama. It was the first time a compilation of their videos had been available on DVD.


This summer, they performed at the Olympics! They performed a halftime set for the men's beach volleyball final. Unfortunately, it wasn't televised, but a wonderful fan filmed part of it.


If that wasn't enough, Bananarama toured the US with a live band. The tour was sponsored by Hard Rock Café's Pinktober to raise money and awareness for breast cancer research. We were lucky enough to see them in Las Vegas on their last night of the tour. And Davearama even danced with them on stage.


And they just performed live at the Wembley 02 Arena as part of a celebration of acts that have worked with Pete Waterman. It was called Hit Factory Live and Bananarama stole the show.


So this leads us back to the song "Now Or Never." It starts off as a slow song and builds and builds into a full-on dance floor filler. It's so uplifting. It's about taking a chance on love. It is magical. It just makes us so very happy.

Unfortunately, they didn't make a video for the song. Bananarama released the EP on their own, as are many artists these days (for example, Annikafiore & Gwenno). The years of big-budget videos for Bananarama might be gone. But fans will want even a low-budget video than none at all.

However, Bananarama-fan Yas filmed them at several shows and put the videos together and did quite a good job! Enjoy!~


See the rest of our countdown here ...

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#2 of 2012

#2 in Poptastic Confessions Top Songs of 2012 is "Crying At The Discoteque" by Annikafiore. Click on the song title to see what we first wrote about the song.


Annikafiore had the #1 song on the countdown last year with "Don't Wanna C U 2nite." And this year, she released the long-awaited original video for the song but set to a new remix by Italian musician Piol.


Her song "Love 2 Live" also came in at #6 last year. And this year, she let fans have the layers to make their own remixes. Davearama tried a few mashups with not much luck. But he did make one that is quite good. He used the instrumental to L2L and used an interview with Annikafiore over it. And then it ended in a big chorus. Perhaps one day it will see the light of day.


"Crying At The Discoteque" is the song that put the Swedish group Alcazar on the map. And Annikafiore was a founding member of the group. You can read Poptastic Confessions about the history of Alcazar here.

Annikafiore recorded a new version with producer Antti Vuorenniemi, who also co-wrote and produced her 2011 debut EP Preaching To The Choir. Their new version of "Crying At The Discoteque" is very dark and full of glorious layers from the Swedish strings to the live drums and booming bass. Our favorite part is when Annikafiore hits the big note during "Let the music take you high." It's absolutely brilliant. The video below is of Annikafiore performing it with the famous Diamond Dog Drag Queens of Stockholm, Sweden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOMUykzi2No


However, there is another version of "Crying At The Discoteque" that Annikafiore released on her Recovered remix EP that came out this summer. Piol's remix quickly became the summer jam. We dubbed it the "Chill Beach" version. As you just imagine yourself lying on tropical beach with a piña colada in hand while listening to this mix. It is heavenly!



Annikafiore sang Piol's remix version of "Crying At The Discoteque" at Andreas Lundstedt's 40th birthday party. Andreas and Tess (of Alcazar) joined Annikafiore on stage for the last part of the song. And luckily, the last 1:45 was caught on film with the original trio getting down and Annikafiore ad libbing. It all ended in a group hug. Unfortunately, this video hasn't been posted on YouTube. We've asked the owner of it if he would. He said he would need to ask Andreas. We shall see ...


Annikafiore had planned a video for "Crying At The Discoteque." Some footage was shot, but she told us it didn't turn out the way she had hoped. So for now, no video. However, you can hear the Piol remix here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSSBTpnk4oc


Annikafiore's music is available on iTunes. But it is also available on CDBaby.com which supports independent artists by giving them more profits of their sales. So, if you like the song, please consider buying it from CDBaby.com or both!

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Sunday, December 30, 2012

#3 of 2012

#3 in Poptastic Confessions Top Songs of 2012 is "Ymbelydredd" by Gwenno. Click on the song title to see when we first wrote about the song.



This is very exciting because this is the first song sung in Welsh to be on any of Davearama's countdowns. Gwenno is most famous for being in The Pipettes. Davearama was lucky enough to meet her in 2007 and again in 2011 when The Pipettes toured America and came to San Francisco. Davearama also interviewed Gwenno for Poptastic Confessions earlier this year.

Gwenno's EP by the same name came out in August. It quickly became the soundtrack to the end of summer. Davearama reviewed the EP for the blog, too. Here in San Francisco that means lots of fog, which is perfect for Gwenno's dreamy music.



"Ymbelydredd" was the first single and a montage video surfaced in July of this year. The word "Ymbelydredd" translates into "Radiation." But it's not all toxic gloom and doom. Instead, it is about how love radiates. Thankfully, Gwenno translated the lyrics from the EP to English on her blog.

We were really hoping there would be some promotion or videos for the songs "50C" and the amazing "Despenser St." Both are excellent songs and shouldn't be missed.

Thankfully, Gwenno did film a video for "Ymbelydred" and it was her walking around places in hazy dream. It's very artistic and lovely. Sadly, it is not available anymore. You can see a performance here ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZsVgRN3LeI


Gwenno's music is available on iTunes.

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