Japan Jamaica Popp! (and a bit of Ronan Keating)

Here’s a fab Japanese cover of André Popp’s classic Eurovision songs L’Amour Est Bleu (Love is blue).

Japanese reggae dubsters Little Tempo mix with Yoko Fujita (藤田陽子) and Ao Inoue (of Dry & Heavy, another Japanese reggae outfit).

It’s from some undergroundish dub remix compilation I didn’t find many details on, but it’s just plain great.

Koi Ha Mizuiro  (恋は水色)

L’Amour Est Bleu was 4th in the 1967 contest representing Luxembourg. The original French lyrics were written by Pierre Cour.

The song was featured many times at Eurocovers. Here's the song as the 2nd most covered Eurovision song and here's another Love Is Blue Special.
Here's some from India and one from China, one by Ann Margret and a groovy Bagpipe version by Rufus Harley. The first ever Eurocovers post features Paul Mauriats 12"inch disco version.

And a bit of Ronan Keating news.
Ronan Keating will release Believe Again as his next single in Australia and New Zealand. Believe Again is the Keating co-penned* 2009 Eurovision entry for Denmark.
Original singer Brinck finished 13th with the song at the Moscow contest, but the song proved to be a popular tune and was covered several times (See below)

Believe Again will be a duet with an as yet unrevealed artist (My bet is on Orianthi, but Olivia would be great). It will be included on the album Duet, especially created for the Australian/New Zealand market.
update: The singer is Paulini Curuenavuli. (website)
You can listen to the song at Soundfiend.

The album will include some previously recorded duets (Lulu, Elton, Cat) alongside new songs with antipodean artists.
The single will be out on November 12. Both album and single will be released exclusively in Australia and New Zealand, so rekindle your contacts with those long lost pen pals. (Or wait for the'Bay).
Keatings most recent album is Winter Songs from 2009, a christmassy album which is also almost appropriate again.

Source: Ronan Keating website
Believe Again at The Moscow Collection has all the details on the coverversions. Or check this Eurocovers post.
See an Afrikaans version by Heinz Winckler here at Eurocovers.

* Keating wrote Believe Again with Lars Halvor Jensen and Martin Møller Larsson. In 2010 the trio wrote All About A Girl for Joakim Tranberg for the Danish selection.

Moscow revisited: Believe Again

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 Boom
Jeroen 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 Africa
Four 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 Stone
A 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.