2010 is here and so is the new Eurovision season. Preselections, National finals, Melodi Grand Prixes or whatever you call them, are in full swing and a few days ago Denmark announced their 10 hopefuls. (info here at DR TV)Song # 2, All About A Girl by Joakim Tranberg is written by the same team as last years Danish entry Believe Again: Lars Halvor Jensen, Martin Michael Larsson & Ronan Keating.
Ronan Keating is Mr. Rollercoaster of Boyzone, but you already knew that.
Of course there's 9 more songs and if the quality is as good as last year you should put some cash aside for the DMGP 2010 CD which will be released early februari.
Last year in Moscow the Danish entry performed by (Niels) Brinck ended 13th in the final, which is respectable but not exactly winning.
Believe Again scored a #1 hit in Denmark and got a platinum award. It also spent 2 weeks on the Swedish charts reaching # 44.
Who knows what could have been if there had been a proper release in Europe.
But almost a year later Believe Again is a winner at Eurocovers with the most successful coverversions of the year. Brinck homepage Brinck at The Moscow Collection
Jeroen Van Der BoomJeroen van der Boom, one of the Toppers (Dutch entry 2009) has recorded a Dutch version of Believe Again on his new album Verder (Red Bullet Music, released in September). The track is titled Weer Geloven.
In november it was released as a cdsingle which also includes an acoustic version of the song.
In Christmas week the cdsingle took the #1 spot on the Dutch singles-sales top 100, a second # 1 hit for Jensen, Larsson & Keating.
Jeroen Van Der Boom Home
South AfricaFour South African singers have recorded Believe Again song in Afrikaans, but it's Heinz Winckler who gets the clearance to release it. Wincklers version, Ek Kan Weer In Liefde Glo (I can believe in love again), is released on his new album which is out on Selekt Musiek in September.
Heinz Winckler was the winner of the first Idols (Pop Idol) in South Africa in 2002. You probably have seen him on the (one off) international show World Idol in 2003, where he finished 4th performing Aerosmiths I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing. (The winner was Kurt Nilsen from Norway).
Winckler released three albums, all sung in English and the new one is the first with songs in Afrikaans (although five songs are in English).
You can see the video in this post. The clip is also at Heinz Winckler MySpace where you can listen to some earlier songs (in English).
The first Afrikaans coverversion of Believe Again was recorded by Henri Alant. The track is called Ek Glo (I believe) and was originally planned to be on Alant's forthcoming CD, which seems unlikely now.
Ek Glo is already issued on a 6-track advance promo CD Sal Jy by Artists Warehouse.
Two other artists in the battle for Believe Again were Kobus Muller and Francois Marais.
Charl StoneA fifth South African singer who has recorded Believe Again is Charl Stone.
Newcomer Charl is a policeman from George (on the south coast). He recorded Believe Again in English for his album 'n Nuwe Geur (a new scent).
You can listen to Believe Again and some other tracks from his debut at his MySpace.
Excepts of all album tracks are at RhythmMusicStore.
AustraliaOrianthi Panagharis is an Australian rock singer/guitarist who covers the song in English on her new album Believe (Geffen records).The track is now titled Believe without the Again.
Read more about Orianthi at her website and find out about her Michael Jackson This Is It auditions at Popdirt.
The first single from Orianthi's album is According To You which is currently on the Australian charts (reaching #8 last december).
According To You also charts in the US Billboard hot 100 (currently at #26) and in various Canadian and Japanese charts.
Please note there's also a track called Believe on Orianthi's 2007 CD Violet Journey, but that's a different song. Obviously.
Special thanks to Roy & Songfestivalweblog and Dominique.
Parts of this article have already been featured at Eurocovers and the Moscow Collection.
Jeroen Van Der Booms cdsingle is available at BeaRecords who also stock the Brinck CD.
Both the Heinz Winckler & Charl Stone albums are available at Kalahari. (Heinz, Charl)
Digital versions are available at Rhythm Music Store. This South African download store offers mp3's worldwide, but I haven't tried it yet.
Orianthi's CD is available through all regular uni-ama-play-tunes webshops.
