Patrick El-Hag (Sweden) (ft. Emilia Granér) – Gwendolyn (single)
Patrick El-Hag last visited these shores just over a year ago with ‘I ett glas’(‘In a glass’), Part Two of a trilogy about the made up character Hertigen av Brandgul (The Duke of L’Orange), and performed in the first person, meaning the Duke himself.
You guessed straight away that Patrick doesn’t play around with the likes of “she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” or “please please me” or “love me do”. Who wrote that stuff anyway?
He’s a serious musician, a philosopher and you never know what’s coming next. This time out he serves up a new single ‘Gwendolyn (Allt för kärleks skull)’ or ‘Gwendolyn (For the sake of love’), which he describes as “a Swedish House/Disco/Pop-banger of a rarely seen kind.”
With it comes a lyric video featuring said Gwendolyn, a comely wench as Shakespeare would have described her and one who definitely “fills the cups” which is a line in the song and which would come with a warning on the BBC, along with a motley crew which seems to include A-ha’s Morten Harket and Keith Emerson amongst others.
Gwendolyn is distinctly the life and soul of the party:
“Lets down her long hair/Opens the party
Yet she always remains/Last guest
Dances all night long/Dim halls
Laughs flow, desire awakens/Wine speaks”.
Is she on Tinder?
She’s quite a lass, seeking out her Prince Charming, and someone who could drink him under the table if I read the lyrics properly.
It’s a sort of Shakespearean comedy mixed with a put-down of the Jante law in the Nordic countries which tells you to be a modest mouse and not to get above your station.
All very entertaining, and with the added bonus that, with Patrick, you’re always confident that he’s saying something really profound but you don’t quite get it.
There’s more to come. His theme album ‘The History of Brotherhood’ will be released at the end of May.
Find him on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PatrickElHagArtist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickelhag/
Iris Gold (Denmark) – Boys Boys Boys (single)
It’s always risky to borrow a song title from Lady Gaga and from Sabrina’s disco classic, especially when the opening refrain bears similarity with Sabrina’s but it serves a purpose when you are dealing with a subject as serious as this one.
Let’s cut to the chase. This is sombre stuff.
No means no is the unambiguous message of Iris Gold‘s new song ‘Boys Boys Boys’. The song and music video are released today, 10th May, in partnership with Plan International, to raise awareness of gender-based violence – something Iris Gold has experienced first-hand.
The track stands in stark contrast to her last outing here, back in October 2021, the first month of NMC’s existence, with ‘Lover of my own’, a flirty little ditty from someone who was evidently keen to establish her own identity and to do it her way and if you got in her way then look out.
But things have a way of coming around and ‘Boys Boys Boys’ chronicles the violence women are habitually on the receiving end of.
I suppose I could take a defensive position on behalf of men generally here and argue that if you put yourself first all the time and are prepared to dump people on a whim then eventually nature dictates you will end up with some or other bad apple who dominates and abuses you.
But I won’t do that because the song doesn’t concern her this time around but instead a bunch of women in Zimbabwe who are not much older than children and who have been victims of prolonged sexual violence.
The difference between Zimbabwe and Denmark of course being that there are no hotlines, or counseling or shelters in the former.
The lyrics are startlingly graphic at times, indicating right from the start pedophilic abuse from the age of six and then one of the most disturbing lines I’ve ever heard in a song – “wasn’t easy, had to grow up quick/never showed it why my skin got thick”.
The atmosphere of the song stands at odds with the jaunty R&B rhythm which conversely adds an even more ominous tone to the song.
You wouldn’t be likely to hear it at Eurovision and it isn’t really a song for ‘the end of the day’ either (don’t have nightmares) but I admire her cojones in writing a song like this and hope it has the desired effect in Zimbabwe and elsewhere.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/irisgoldmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irisgoldmusic
