The 2023 entries
Remo Forrer – “Favorite Kind Of Lonely” (EP)
Last year’s Swiss entrant Remo Forrer sings about doing a “Full 180”, sings about death on “The Letter” and more on his new EP “Favorite Kind Of Lonely”. Strong vocals and richly produced piano tracks abound, with Remo Forrer regulars Pele Loriano and Tom Oehler producing throughout the album.
Mimicat – “Aqui Pinatmos Todos”, “Dança Comigo”
“Aqui Pinatmos Todos” (Here We Paint Everyone) is the title of Mimicat’s latest release, which is a charity single in honor of the Portuguese children’s rights organization Instituto de Apoio à Criança. The song itself is an anti-bullying track on which Mimicat brings her usual excellent levels of energy.
She followed this track up with “Dança Comigo” (Dance With Me), a gorgeous blend of traditional Portuguese musical elements and more pop ideas to create a very danceable acoustic track.
Feuerschwanz – “Memento Mori (feat. Lord of the Lost, Chris Harms) – English Version”
German folk-metal band Feuerschwanz are celebrating their 20 year anniversary with “Warriors”, their first album in English. For the translated version of “Memento Mori” (which was a title track on their album released late 2021), they invited none other than, who else, Lord of the Lost and Chris Harms. Chris, who truly the king of collabs, lends his amazing voice to this slight rework of this guitar-shredding, beautifully progressing, shout along track. One of my top recommendations of the month! Also, Patty Gurdy is on this album too, featuring on the equally excellent track “Song of Ice and Fire”.
Luke Black – “Chainsaws In Paradise” (LP)
The long-awaited album by Serbian singer and songwriter Luke Black is finally here! “Chainsaws In Paradise” clocks in at 11 tracks, with 4 new and the rest previously released (the title track, plus “Winter Dahlia“, “God’s Too Cool“, “I’m So Happy“, Eurovision entry “Samo mi se spava”, and this month’s “Drinking Jack With Daddy”). The album is an eclectic mix of musical genres and styles, with Luke Black’s distinctive voice holding it all together as the listener gets suddenly dragged from one song and mood to the next. An excellent album, and almost entirely (co-)produced by Luke Black and Shurk (who has also worked with Bambie Thug).
Gustaph – “Faith In What You Feel”
Belgian’s good daddy in a hat wants you to have “Faith In What You Feel”, which is Gustaph’s second release of the year. This uplifting track is, according to the artist on Instagram, “the pat on the shoulder we all need every now & then”. The sound is very summer festival ready, and I can already imagine that bassline booming over speakers at Pride events across Belgium and the Netherlands.
Alessandra – “Supposed To Be”
Also ready for the summer and pride festivals is Alessandra, who is singing that this is who she is “Supposed To Be”. This is a loud, proud, and fun bop that sees Alessandra use the entire range of her voice, which is musically inspired by early 10s electronic music, which makes perfect sense when considering the track is produced by Jarly (Sigala, Becky Hill, John Newman).
Theodor Andrei – “FANTOMA”
“FANTOMA” (GHOST) is Theodor Andrei’s latest track, and it sees him once again go in a different sonical direction. This time, he is tapping right into my youth by making some excellent late 00s – early 10s emo indie rock. Energetic, fun, yet also sad about something that may or may not happen, this is a track I highly recommend to fans of this specific poppy emo sound.
Brunette – “Superstar Illness”, “U De Mi Or”
Brunette goes trilingual on “Superstar Illness”, which sees her singing in English, French, and Armenian. On this new track, Brunette once again combines orchestral elements with house, R&B, and more for an ever-mesmerizing sound. She followed this up with the release of “U De Mi Or”, a song for the aesthetics and music focused platform COLORSXSTUDIOS. This track is much more chill, with the beats being melded into and subdued under many layers of Brunette’s stunning vocals, which have a lounge-esque sound on this song.
Gušti – “Tudi Jaz (feat. Joker Out)”
Slovenian guitarist Gušti has made a host of contributions to the Slovenian music scene, but Eurovision fans might recognize him as the dad of Kris from Joker Out. Gušti has now released his latest album, “Ljubezen osvobaja” (Love liberates), and one of the tracks sees him work with Joker out. “Tudi jaz” (Me Too) is a chant along track that, as was revealed in an interview with Siol.net, is actually a track dating back to Joker Out’s earliest of early days. Besides “Tudi Jaz”, Kris also worked on album opener “Nehati ne nehati” and another track that goes unmentioned in the interview. Regardless of whether all that info was of interest to you or not, it is worth mentioning that this is a very, very fun song that is definitely worth a listen!
Blanka – “If U Want Me”
Poland’s 2023 representative Blanka sings about what you need to do if you want her to fall for you on “If U Want Me”. It’s a breezy, EDM-y pop track written by Louise Lindberg (Felix Jaehn, Armin van Buuren, Omar Rudberg), Lova Sönnerbo (represented Sweden in JESC 2012, now releases under the name LOVA), and Victor Sjöström (Tiësto, Jubël, Robin Bengtsson). Victor also produced the track, together with Sebastian Atas (Tiësto, Jubël, Steve Aoki).
TEYA – “Not Scared of Growing Old”
TEYA continues her amazing old-lady-wig journey on new track “Not Scared of Growing Old”, which follows hot on the heels of her collab with Aiko last month. The song is exactly what it says on the tin, with TEYA singing about how she will always be partying and living it up regardless of what society expects from her as she gets older. “Not Scared of Growing Old” also is the title track and the second song to be released so far of her upcoming EP.
Salena – “Picky Promise”
Salena has a “Picky Promise” on the last day of May. Bas Wissink (aka 21Lights) produced the track, while Salena co-wrote the new song together with Tamara Kramar (best known for her songs “Mirror Talk” and “Hey Pretty Girl”).
TVORCHI – “Shine”
Ukraine’s 2023 entrants Tvorchi are ready to “Shine” with their new single. More uptempo than most of their recent releases, “Shine” has a banging beat throughout, and the chorus melds TVORCHI’s typically modern sound with elements of synthwave and more, for an entertaining and eclectic package.
Victor – “Enemy Lines”
Victor Vernicos heads behind “Enemy Lines” on his new single, which is a short electronic bop, despite the dark mood. The song, as always, is written and produced by the young Greek man himself. The song was written, as Victor notes on YouTube, in that emotionally chaotic time of late night/early morning.
Next page: The best and biggest new releases from other Eurovision artists
Giwrgos Oiko