Hello there! This thread made me want to post! Which is a thing I don't usually do. Hahaha.
So, here goes:

Luísa Sobral

http://www.hardmusica.pt/discos/2011...Q74N757108.jpg

Luísa Sobral is a Portuguese singer that edited her first album 3 months ago.
She first appeared on the 'Idol' show here in Portugal in 2003 when she was 16. She didn't win but ended up in third place. Some time after that she went to the United States of America to study in Berklee College of Music, where she finished her graduation in 2009.
Her first album, titled 'The Cherry on My Cake', was released March 14th 2011, which reached 3rd place in it's first week on the Portuguese charts.

During her stay in the USA, she was nominated for "Best Jazz Song", at Malibu Music Awards in 2008; "Best Jazz Artist" at Hollywood Music Awards; "International Songwirting Competition" in 2007 and "The John Lennon Songwriting Competition" also in 2008.

Some of the artists who influenced her are: Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Björk, Regina Spektor, Rui Veloso, Jorge Palma, Bernardo Sassetti, Sara Tavares, Maria João e Mário Laginha.

Most of her songs in the album are in English, but she also has songs in Portuguese.

Her first single from the album:

Not There Yet

http://youtu.be/vs1PUNzWy3M

Two more songs from her album:

Clementine

http://youtu.be/yaJbN7WvV04

Déja Vu

http://youtu.be/S7gaghP7oBw

(The music video for 'Déja Vu' was made by me and my group as an assignment for my degree.)
I included the links for the videos on YouTube in case the player doesn't load.

Hope you like it! :)

Here's some Canada for you.

Keisha Chanté
Language: English
Genre: R&B, Pop, Dance
Main Studio Albums: Keshia Chanté (2004), 2U (2006), Night & Day (2011)

Here's the song and music video to one of her newer singles, "Table Dancer". She debuted as an R&B vocalist but is now venturing into pop and dance.

@Luna&1LOVE: I like Love Love Love! And the music video is just super sweet~<3
@Kazeyomi: Italian is one of my favorite languagages in the World [right after Japanese, actually] it's so beautiful~ I mostly listen to the famous Anime/Cartoon singers from your country, a.k.a Cristina D'avena and Giorgio Vanni at the moment [I have also listened some Laura Pausini], but Elisa sounds promising! Almeno tu nell'Universo sounds beautiful!
@R Hikki Good song! She's little like Canada's own Kuu-chan, aren't she? : D


Hey, I must ask, because I have always wondered this. How Finnish sounds to you guys? I heard that many foreigners say it sounds a little like Japanese, and it's partly right, because one thing is certain [after this you can try to read or sing along with lyrics!]:

If you know how to pronounce Japanese [and of course y' guys know since you all are Japanese music lovers :D], you get basic idea how to pronounce Finnish as well.
However, of course we do have some differences:
-> all the vowels are pronounced basicly in the same way in both languages, but...
-> While Japanese u-sound is sometimes called as "mix between Finnish u- and y-sounds" the pronouncing of both are clearly heard in Finnish. u-sound is pronounced like in English word until. Y might be pretty difficult, but it's little like Japanese u-sound.
-> Japanese l/r-sounds are sometimes mixed, but in Finnish there is always a noticeable difference. However, although many say that Japanese r is pretty soft, I would disagree with this. For example, Kuu, Ayu and Namie use sometimes pretty hard r-sound while singing. If you can notice this, you get the knowledge how Finnish r-sound sounds always. Also, our r sound is heavily similiar to Italian r.
-> While Japanese j is almost always pronounced like the English one, Finnish never uses this kind of pronouncing. It's always pronounced like in the word "york"
-> Although ä and ö are exclusive to Scandi countries, you guys are pronouncing it in your words!
cat, is a good example for ä. Here the pronouncing of the a is just like Finnish ä-sound!
word is a good word [not pun intended XD] for ö. Here the o is the one which sounds like Finnish ö.
-> h-sound is like Japanese hikari or English holy.
-> t-sound is like English "the" [without h-sound]
-> i-sound is like Japanese hi or English in.
-> Like in Japanese one letter equals one sound. Same with syllables.
-> Also just like in Japanese, Finnish is conjugated via case suffixes [we have tons of 'em...]
-> The main stress is always on the first syllable
-> we have also shared words, though they mean something completely different! : D For example "sora" [sky in JPN, sand in FIN], "pika" [shine in JPN, quick in FIN], kutsu [shoe in JPN, invitation in Finnish] etc. Though we do have one shared word which means the same thing, that's "masto" [mast in both languages!]
-> Finnish is unique language in the way that it can have almost any kind of word order and be still understandable. Of course this depends of the sentence used, but sometimes I have hard time translating the lyrics because of this ^_^;

So now you will understand why Finns think that Japanese is the easiest language to pronounce in the World : D Some Japanese say so too about Finnish.

Let me tell you though, while the pronouncing is almost oddly similiar, Finnish and Japanese aren't related to each other in any way. That's the oddest and funniest thing in it! :D

And that ends our little "How to pronounce Finnish" lesson. ^_^ Sorry to go a bit off-topic, but those who liked Finnish music will now have [hopefully] basic understanding how to pronounce this language of ours, which by the way has more vowels in words than any other language in the World! Also, There's not more than 2253 different forms for every noun in Finnish. How easy, should I say! :P

I would like to translate couple more songs from Jenni Vartiainen ^_^

The first one is called "Malja" [Bowl] it's pop-rockish song, and it's one of my favorite ones from her! Malja is from her first album Ihmisten edessä.
Music video includes some random clips from her Live Tours.


This next one is again from Seili, called "Eikö kukaan voi meitä pelastaa?" [Won't someone redeem us?]
It has similiar lyrical meaning as Ayu's everywhere nowhere [sort of] but from different point of view [In this case relationship]

VIA Gra / NU VIRGOS

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/3446/57836689.png

I adore this group so much! They aren't only sexy, they are truly beautiful. I remember how they first appeared at russian MTV and I thought like "oh well, one more pop-group" :P but as more music videos were released the more I fell in love with them. Last year they had 10th year anniversary concert, I saw it just week ago on TV and I was singing all theirs songs by heart! I didn't even realize how I actually love them.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4733/98520117.jpg

They also made debut outside of Russia. And it seems like they had a success in Japan, cause their first English album reached n.4 at japanese charts, which is very good I think.

The group members changed frequently and there were 12 members overall. But the best "the golden time" was in 2003-2004, when there were Nadezhda Granovskaya, Vera Brezhneva and Anna Sedokova.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5199/via6.jpg

By the way, if you know Jolin Tsai and her song "Love Love Love", I want to say that the originally it is the song by VIA Gra called "Stop! Stop! Stop!"


+ some PVs and videos from youtube. they all are in Russian, but you can find English versions if you want :yes


Brillianty - Diamonds (2005)


Ne ostavlyay menya ljubimiy - Don't Ever Leave Me, Love (2003)


STOP! STOP! STOP! (2002)



Tsvetok i nozh - Flower and Knife (2006)



Ya ne vernus' - I Won't Come Back (2001)



almost all members Brillianty - Diamonds (2011)

OMG, OMG, OMG!! You know what? You flashbacked me! you flashbacked me so hard! : D
I have heard this song sometime during 2002~2003 when I was 9~10 years old! I remember that background mix! But I'm pretty sure it was the English version :yes
I still like this song~ Brings back memories.

^
wow, I'm happy to hear this! you can easily find English version at Youtube if you want :)

^ I'll check it for sure! ^__^

And, now just one more song from Chisu : D
I wanted to include this, because this is really different from Chisu's usual style. Here, she uses heavy trance beat [to be heard during the climax of the song].
It has quite simple lyrics, but it's still pretty pretty good song!

This is from her first album, Alkovi. The name of the song is Yhdessä [Together]

Secretly, I wish I was from Korea so I could introduce you to some awesome K-pop music :roflmao

Haha! : D
I thought, if someone Japanese came and introduced ayu here, I would laugh X,D

If I get the Korean nationality, does that mean I can post Korean music here ....


:laugh

Same here XD
I would like to introduce non mainstream Kpop which are great :D
Too bad we're not Korean :laugh

Oh, I listened to her and I really loved her voice <3 She's so beautiful too~ I liked the first two songs quite much!
And my friend liked her pretty much! [She loves latino music and Portuguese/Spanish, so that's not any wonder ^.^]
And pretty cool video, good job!

Maybe I should do "Introduce Asian artists/bands" thread too? :3 Then there would be double intoruces! XD

I'm glad you explained all of that. A few of the Finnish songs that you shared with us sounded like J-Pop to me at first and I was like "am I the only one hearing it?!" It's cool how two languages from two completely different worlds can sound very similar... Yet the differences are obvious too.

I'm pretty glad that my instructions were understandable and helped you! ^_^<3
Haha, it seems that you weren't the only one! : D
Yeah, I think that's pretty fascinating, especially when Finland and Japan are basically in the other side of the Globe [almost XD], and also do not share any relations, although languages are pretty similiar pronouncing-way, and even word-way in some cases! : D Also the case suffix and "one letter equals one sound" parts are interesting, since both languages share it. And like Japanese, Finnish is only spoken in the main land.
And yes, of course there has to be some differences too, because like I said we are still speaking about languagaes who aren't related. I guess you can say it is amusing "coincidence"~

They're such a throwback to '80s new wave. I love it!

He is Austrian but seeing how he had most of his success in Germany...let me begin with someone who I am personally not a big fan of(I dislike his use of English and his verses that are simply...spoken in an ugly accent, he isn't even rapping mostly just...speaking them):

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_UMlfInzJNT...0/falco-03.jpg
Falco (1957-1998)
Best known for his US #1 single "Rock Me Amadeus" Falco is an 80s and 90s singer producing rock and hiphop influenced pop music.
He is sometimes considered "the first white rapper" and seen as one of the creaters of the genre, nationally and internationally.
His music is often criticising society and his videos are considered highly influential and wellcrafted.

Jeanny video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5j...y-part-1_music
Part of a trilogy and was highly controversial(even banned on many channels) because it is usually interpreted to be about abducting a girl, however it is giving the mindset of a criminal without glorifying it in any way, actually doing the opposite as seen in the video. It's supposed to be a warning, not a display.
You get a cookie for finding the "Psycho" reference, love how the video was obviously influenced by the likes of Hitchcock and shows you his love for him in full view haha

Rock me Amadeus live:

^ I think the song is okay, bit old-school though : o

Ah, I have wanted to introduce this band for so long, and finally I am able to do it!
It's one of my favorite Finnish duos ever, say hi to:

PMMP
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...Plastilove.png
Stage name: PMMP
Key members (singing): Mira Luoti (age 33) and Paula Vesala (age 29)
Debut year: 2003
Genre: Pop/rock, Punk/rock, alternative
Language: Finnish
Main studio albums:
Kuulkaas enot! (2003) [Hear this, uncles!]
Kovemmat kädet (2005) [Tougher hands]
Leskiäidin tyttäret (2006) [Daughters of a widow mom]
Puuhevonen (2007) [Wooden horse, children's song covers]
Veden varaan (2009) [Flowing to the water]
2000-luku (2009) [21st Century, boxset, includes all five studio albums with alternative cover art]

From Ilosaarirock Festival site (2009):
PMMP's formula has it all: two singers that easily charm the pants off both boys and girls with their simultaneous display of easily approachable spontaneity and saucy charisma; immaculate backing band with co-operation that's polished seamless by the combo's relentless touring; catchy and inventive songs; and, no matter where they go, always an audience that's more than ready to love every move that this mob makes and cherish every precious moment they can spend in their presence. The assemblage is so perfect that if it wasn't there already, it would have to be invented. But in that case, would so many things click in the manner that they do now? We seriously doubt it.

PMMP, originally formed by two young ladies who didn't quite qualify for the local Popstar contest, is one of the most astonishing success stories in the Finnish music scene over the last few years. Even a short time spent in Finland is certain to make you familiar with their music, because it's everywhere. The girls have gained themselves a position where they can do just whatever they please and turn it into gold anyhow: win the hearts and souls of even the most hard-boiled rock media and have their albums and songs unanimously voted as No. 1's in the yearly polls; sell platinum even before a single copy of an album has reached the shops, like they did with their third album; or to release an album full of versions of old Finnish children's songs, like they did after that.

PMMP belongs to the Finnish summer like a candy-coloured umbrella. They're hard to escape and hard to resist, so stop your struggling and join the happy, dancing and pogoing and shouting mob!


There's nothing like PMMP, is there? Well, I guess they are little like our own PUFFY, but I think they are still little more rock than those girls, also they do have really "uncensored" lyrics, they do curse in the lyrics quite a lot, and also have quite many songs with harsh topics, like sexual abuse, etc. But they do have more innocent songs too, and I think the style they have fit pretty well in their songs.

I would like to present some awesome songs from these two! ^__^

This first one is called Rusketusraidat [Tan lines] it's PMMP's first hit, and the most known song from them. It's full of freedom, youth and super good summer feeling, rocking way!



Then, this is a example of more innocent, cute and pop-like song from them.
This is called Onnellinen päivä (Happy Day) it's pretty cute, and it's one of my favorite songs from them <3



The third one has to be their most hard-rock-styled song, called Isin pikku tyttö [Daddy's little girl] it's pretty hilarious song lyrics-wise XD



~more songs coming soon~

There's sooo much good Swedish music so I don't know where to start :(

Totally interesting to see artists of other countries!