Salem to guest at Rockkarusellen final

www.newsdesk.se reports today that Salem will be a special guest at the Rockkarusellen final on 31 May. This is a national 'battle of the bands'-type competition.

What's Salem been up to this past week?

I'm catching up with last week's events as I was away on holiday. Last week Salem was a guest at the SKAP event in the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, internet reports stated that he played a new song, however no-one mentioned the title.

Then on Friday 23 May, Salem played an open-air live show in Uppsala and according to various blog/MySpace posts this was a great show and Salem played a number of new songs. This sounds very promising: could there be a new album on the way?

Back soon...

I'm taking a break for a few days and heading off to the Latvian capital, Riga, tomorrow for a short holiday.

This blog will return on Saturday 24th May!

Uppsala next Friday

Uppsala Nya Tidning reports that Salem, along with Veronica Maggio, will be playing in Uppsala next Friday 23rd May, as part of the Linnéveckan festivities. Haven't got much more information at this time but whenever I get it I will post on here.

A couple of pictures from the Stavanger show

Courtesy of the Rogalands Avis newspaper, here are a couple of pictures from Salem's live show in Stavanger last night, although I haven't been able to find any reviews yet.

Just one question....will Salem's "big hair" ever return? I hope so!!!!

Stavanger tomorrow, and a video interview clip.

If you happen to be in or around the lovely Norwegian city of Stavanger tomorrow night, then why not go and see Salem playing at the MaiJazz festival. Wish I was there (as ever)...

Hopefully some lovely Norwegian people will review this on the internet and if I find anything I'll post it on here.

Talking of Norway, if you go to http://www.abctv.no/63128 you will find a recent interview with Salem, in which he is as animated as ever (!) and this is also punctuated by clips from the "Good Song" video. I love the part when the interviewer mentions his 4 Swedish Grammy wins, and Salem's ecstatic response at winning the best composer/producer awards.

Introducing...Tincan!

I recently found out that Gunnar, Jakob and Nisse, Salem’s brilliant backing band, also have a band of their own, along with keyboard player Kalle. They are called Tincan, and they play a mixture of Afro-beat, blues and rock which can be heard over at their MySpace (www.myspace.com/tincantincan).

Tracks include "Pick It Up" (that’s my favourite), "Hold On Strong" and "Leave The Keys". The band is influenced by African music, notably the legendary Fela Kuti. Gunnar is the lead singer - not only is he a brilliant guitarist but he has a great voice too. They played their first gig at Landet in Stockholm on 30.04.08 but plan some more gigs in the next few months both in Sweden and overseas. Hope to hear more from them.

Proud and standing tall.

I have finally seen and heard "Black Sun, Black Moon", from last week's TV4 appearance, and all I can say is ......wow.

I don't usually like this type of slow ballad, but Salem managed to produce three moving, compelling minutes (and a very abrupt ending!). I thought he sang brilliantly too.

This song is totally different from anything he's ever done before, it's quite a sad and emotional song, but the chorus was stuck in my head after just one listen. (It really has an anthemic, Robbie Williams 'Angels'-type quality to it, I can imagine people waving their hands in the air from side to side...!) I'm not sure how the final version will sound: on this occasion Salem was at the piano, backed by three violinists and two backing singers, but I think this song has the potential for a massive orchestral arrangement. (Or maybe that's just my mind wandering again).

Verdict: I like it, maybe not as much all my favourite tracks on "This Is Who I Am", but it shows a new emotional depth to Salem's music. It's just great to finally hear some new material from him. Well done.

Salem was on Swedish TV tonight...

on TV4's "Humorgalan" which I don't know much about but it sounds like a Swedish equivalent of a big charity TV show like "Comic Relief" which takes place here in the UK every couple of years. The proceeds of this comedy & music show go to Unicef, so it was all in a good cause.

No videos available just yet, I was trying to get some info about what he was singing. Putting two and two together in the absence of factual journalism it may have been "Black Sun, Black Moon" as I saw a comment on MySpace about that song. Does anyone have any more information about this? I'll keep checking TV4 and YouTube in my search for video evidence!!

EDIT 02.05.08: Yes it was definitely "Black Sun, Black Moon", lots of people searching for this today - and so am I!! Will someone somewhere post the video on YouTube if they have it? I must hear this song!

Oh and by the way...thanks for visiting!!