One year ago tonight...

...I discovered Salem Al Fakir and his wonderful music for the very first time. If you've been to my other blog EuropeCrazy, you will know the story of how this happened. But if you haven't, well here goes!

14.07.07. Saturday night at EuropeCrazy HQ, and the usual late night journey around the internet. The 14th of July always meant one thing to me - Bastille Day - but in Sweden it has another significance, as it's Crown Princess Victoria's birthday, and this is usually celebrated with a big concert on Öland. I knew that Måns Zelmerlöw would be appearing, so I decided to check out the rebroadcast on SVT's website. Fast-forwarding through the show, I stopped at one point to watch this young man whom I had never seen or heard before, singing and playing the piano, and I was immediately spellbound by his performance and his songs - a medley of "It's True" and "Dream Girl". The next day I returned to watch the show again, and decided that he was the best singer/songwriter I'd heard in years. The same day I caught up with "Allsång på Skansen" from 10.07.07 - and there he was again, this time with the more than aptly named "Good Song". By this time I was completely hooked!

Over the subsequent weeks and months I trawled the internet for any information I could get about Salem and his music, his concerts, his life story. I bought "This Is Who I Am" and over the past year it has arguably become my most played album of all time.

By December 2007 I had decided that Salem-mania had taken over my blog to the extent that I didn't have room for anything else, so I decided to create Planet Salem, so called because it was my little parallel universe which I could completely devote to my favourite singer. My other reason for creating this blog was that I couldn't find any fansites for him, so I thought I'd make my own.

To all of you who've ever visited this blog: many, many thanks to each and every one of you! And even though there has been little news to report this year, I hope you've enjoyed what you have read and that you will keep on visiting, as there will be lots of news once he releases his second album...whenever that may be!