Swedish~ Stereo~

Remember those girls coming to audition dressed as Siamese twins but one of them has turned to have a real talent? That was Jamilla Idris and though being my personal early favorite she hasn't qualified to the final stage and soon has turned to a model path taking part in Sveriges Top Model contest.
Now Jamilla is back to a music career and lately was working on upcoming EP under the name Mila being signed by Norlie & KKV's management. The first sneak peek of it is the single "Lucifer" she was working on with Lorenzo Kilman Jansson. This is very dark sort of electronic (should I even say pop?) stuff with Mila's muted vocals and haunted tune. I guess I'd have a hard time understanding how should I relate to this track if it wouldn't be Jamilla I was waiting so much. But as it's she I directly put this project into a spot of my attention and believe something really special is waiting for us. The first step is already very special!

Every day of this week we'll be watching performances of 24 finally selected Idol-candidates who were grouped and public will be voting for them choosing one girl and one guy who will get to the final stage (when every of 12 participants will be leaving every week). So every of four days public will choose 2 finalists and jury will select 4 wildcards. The most successful wildcard of previous season was Reza Ningtyas Lindh who reached 5th place so it's definitely good that jury has a chance to help audience to listen more of some artists. And another interesting fact is that year before Clara Hagman has left out right on this phase of contest and being noticed got her place in new Ace Of Base so even if someone's going out at this point it doesn't mean we'll never see these artists again.
Last week jury has left a chance to both Jamilla Idris and Madeleine Finck-Björgen to get through to the contest if audience will prefer one of them by voting through weekend and people chose Madeleine (though Madeleine is the sweetest person in the world I think it's a shame Jamilla has gone as artist with one of the biggest commercial potential) but later it went not so good for Madeleine and she was left out of qualification border along with Janine Nyman, Jonathan Garcés and Sebastian Krantz (finalist of Talang-2008).
Two who got their tickets were Chris Andersen - simple but charming country-guy working very well with cameras and providing quite stable vocals and happy performance with his version of "Somebody like you" by Keith Urban and tough rock-girl Linda Varg (who participated in 2002 in another popular TV4 talant-show Popstars and was taken to the band Supernatural afterwards - band has made hit #1 "Supernatural" and album "Dreamcatcher" #1 and split out (male part organized band NEXX later)). Linda performed completely breathtaking acoustic version of U2's "With or without you" that I guess hasn't left anyone doubts that she will win this evening and she did it!

Auditions of new Idol's season are on its way and seems like public has started to note their favorites from the first day as songs covered by some candidates are already climbing iTunes-chart more than successfully and quite rightfully in my opinion, let's check some of them.
First of example is Jamilla Idris who came with her friend dressed like siamese twins obviously just to have some fun and though Jamilla didn't get it serious at all she sounded pretty awesome, jury asked her to perform seriously alone and girl sounded and looked so good that finally jury was convinced, this girl should have another chance.

Another great discovery of audition is Janine Nyman who presented Skunk Anansie's "Weak" and I guess it has sounded even better than Marie Picasso's cover.

Charming Frida Östergren who unfortunately can't move without wheelchair impressed jury with her touching performance Ane Brun's cover of "Big In Japan" demonstrating beatiful voice and great contact with listeners.

Rock-guy Jimmy Claeson who has already tried audition before but having no success finally has broken through with Bon Jovi's cover of "Everyday".

Olle Hedberg who due to presentation was homeless baker living on his own boat (that turned to be channel's fake) presented Blackstreet's "No Diggity" and Modjo's "Lady" with very nice intonation, huge passion and artistic charm.

Two surprises came from Finland. First one was 47-years old Geir Rönning who presented at Eurovision-2005 for Finland and decided to try auditions, jury didn't have anything against and being impressed by Geir's voice gave him a gold ticket.

And another Finnish surprise was Elin Blom vocalist of Finnish rock-band Sister Twister who also tried to get to Eurovision from Finland year before. Girl conquered jury with her star appearance, beautiful voice and charming attitude.

Oh and can I not to mention Irina Bagley who participated with tribute to Michael Jackson in webbjoker contest year before? Unfortunately this song hasn't conquered hearts of MF lovers but it didn't happen with hearts of Idol jury too, however it was not less than fantastic!

But seems like the hugest success was reached by Alice Hagenbrandt who was found by Anders Bagge coming to her own gymnasium being impressed by received record with her. Alice has performed Regina Spektor's "Samson" and personally I've got a winner feeling watching this girl with Kelly Clarkson'n passion, I won't be surprised if it will be Top-3. Currently "Samson" is in Top-10 of Swedish iTunes.

Check first episode of auditions here and the second here.