Inna, real name Elena Apostoleanu, has been hitting our screens for quite some time, she is definitely a worldwide star. She is from Romania, and they almost had her for Eurovision 2012, however she was touring, and wouldn't have been able to do it, so instead Romania used their usual selecting process. Also something has changed recently. Inna has released 4 singles recently under Roton Romania Records, here in the UK, all of which had no music video release and zero promotion. She used to release under 3beat, who has served her pretty well, making sure the music video is played a lot on the music channels, and then releasing the song at the best possible moment. I am unsure of what is actually going on. 3 months ago 3beat released the music video to "Club Rocker" on to YouTube, but there's no news on a release as of yet, does this mean she's swapped record labels? I don't know. But if she is going to release in the UK she really needs to promote a lot more.
"Amazing" was written by Sebastian Barac, Radu Bolfea and Marcel Botezan. It was the second single to be released, and I remember going out and buying the CD single. Her most recent release is "Un Momento" under 3beat, which I reviewed on here. She is definitely one of my favourite dance artists, alongside Basshunter, Cascada and Alexandra Stan. But could she quickly disappear from the UK as quickly as she appeared? With next to zero promotion, how on earth she is going to get those important chart hits, I don't know.
This music video is a little surprising after "Hot", especially since it's a beach scene, whereas "Hot" was set in a club. Although, we end up expecting this sexy side of Inna as her further music videos are willing to shock. There isn't a lot going on but it's interesting to watch. I especially like the comment on YouTube that says "These cameramen have the best job ever", that just made me laugh lots.
Inna is surfing until she gets knocked over by a wave, and an 'amazing' lifeguard comes and saves her. I'm not sure who the lifeguard is played by, but if someone could find out and show a reference for it I'll happily add it in this blog post. I presume the song is about the lifeguard, as that is the only prominent male person in the video.
I have to comment on the beach shower, I don't know about overseas, but I've never seen one of them before this video, there's none in the UK, as far as I know, but to be honest I haven't been to every beach in the UK, maybe there is one about somewhere. But now these showers are popping up everywhere, there's one in Cascada's "Summer Of Love" and I'm sure I've seen others in other videos.
Overall it's a good sexy video, which we have learned to expect from Inna. To be honest, compared to other videos this one isn't that over the top. I am a big fan of hers, and I hope she manages to keep charting in the UK, and hopefully manage to promote a new single. I am also hoping that a UK tour will pop up soon, as I will definitely be there. I really don't want to see this girl disappear from the UK music channels, so keep strong Inna, and start promoting over here.
Justin Bieber has finally appeared on my blog, there was absolutely nothing on the music channels today, and this music video was the only one I took an interest to. Then all the music videos after this one I had already previously reviewed. I'm not much of a fan of Justin Bieber, although I do commemorate him for being a great singer, and managing to sell a lot of records. He has never had a number one in the UK before, however this is his highest charting position to date, charting at number two. He is currently going out with Selena Gomez, and has been for over a year.
"Boyfriend" was written by Mike Posner, Justin Bieber, Matthew Musto and Mason Levy. I'm surprised to see another singer's name pop up in the writing credits, which is Mike Posner, he sang "Cooler Than Me". Could Justin Bieber have written this for Selena Gomez? It is definitely one of those songs you expect Justin Timberlake to sing, and it's extremely different to what is actually about at the moment, sometimes that is a good thing, when others it's not so good, but with the Justin Bieber's fans (aka Bieber Fever), it looks like he can never release a bad song, and even if he did, it'll still do well on the charts no matter what.
This music video seems extremely short. It finished, and I was like, is that it? However it's over 3 minutes long, which is the amount of time most music videos are. So was I so intently watching it that time passed me by so quickly? Or was I expecting something better?
They could have done a lot with this music video, it could have been a narrative storyline, there could be a lot more choreography... However they decided to make it subtly sexy, or try to at least, but I don't think it's paid off, we're left with wanting something more. The double start is a little on the infuriating side, as the singing really stand out from his rapping, therefore choreography could have been built in. So we have to wait a whole minute until he starts to sing, which would normally be okay, but in the video not much is happening.
Before the video was released, there was camera shots released online, showing Justin Bieber near flames, and under water and various other scenes that other critics had commented on. Some were excited about the video and others were saying it could be a little on the erotic side which wouldn't be good for his fan base. Before the release of this music video, it got scrapped and this one was filmed and released. Could it be possible that they were not too happy with the feedback from the previous video? What ever happened to taking a chance? No wonder this video seems simplistic and restrained. Personally, by the looks of the shots and the thoughts of other critics, I think I would have preferred the previous music video.
Overall it's an average music video, not much going on, and it leaves you wanting more, there's a few choreography scenes interspersed throughout but not enough, I wanted to see additional dancing scenes. However it's quite a catchy song, so I understand why it got to number two.
Britney Spears once again appears on my blog. She is a worldwide star and has recently been confirmed as an X Factor USA judge. I was kind of hoping she'd be signed for the UK, but guess not. Will she be a good judge? I'm not sure, but guess we'll find out soon enough. This song brought a lot of attention upon herself, with many people not happy with the song lyrics.
The song was written by Max Martin, Shellback, Savan Kotecha and Alexander Kronlund. Once again they have created a great hit. This song wasn't going to be released as a single, Britney decided to ask Facebook followers what should be her next single, and they chose this one. It worked out well as it charted high in some countries, but in others it didn't fair out so well. In the UK it got to number 20, which is quite low for Britney. Although it has been 8 years since she has had a number one hit.
This music video is quite shocking, I love how it's a reference to the song's meaning. For those of you who don't know there are two meanings, one is: "all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if u seek Amy" suggesting they want you to find Amy, and the other one is "all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to F-U-C-K me", this explains the start of the music video perfectly.
The second half makes Britney look like a traditional mom, with a family and a normal life, with the paparazzi unaware of what is going on behind close doors. This is yet another paparazzi Vs. Britney music videos, which are frequently popping up with "Piece of Me" and "I Wanna Go".
There is quite a few references to past music videos in this video, these include the start for "Piece of Me" and at the end where her "daughter" is dressed in the school wear found in "...Baby One More Time".
Overall I love this song, and the music video is quite surprising, but are we getting bored of these paparazzi vs. Britney story lines for music videos? I'm not sure I could cope with another one, but guess we'll eventually find out. Also, a little more trivia... Amy is possibly Britney's alter-ego, hence why their trying to find her. But also when Britney went "off the rails" so did the now late Amy Winehouse, could the Amy in the song reference her instead?
The Wanted once again gets my New Release, they have only previously been reviewed on this blog twice, and that was for "Glad You Came" and "Lightning". They have released quite a few singles since then, but none got to number one. From the iTunes chart, this song has only been out for a day and it's right at the top spot. Looks like these boys will gain another UK number one hit this Sunday. The Wanted consists to 5 guys, who are Nathan Sykes, Max George, Tom Parker, Jay McGuinness and Siva Kaneswaren.
"Chasing The Sun" was written by Alex Smith and Elliot Gleave. This surprised me as Elliot Gleave is in fact Example! I just couldn't believe it. No wonder this song is so great, although I am not too fond of Example, I do appreciate his music, and to be totally fair this is probably my favourite song by him, and although he hasn't personally sung it himself, it still counts in my eyes. It has already charted in Canada at number 50, which isn't too bad to be honest, but is that its peak? Or will it climb higher? This song is also set to be the theme song to "Ice Age: Continental Drift (AKA Ice Age 4)". And apparently, while filming the music video, they caused a blackout in LA, because an electrical transformer blew out. Read more here.
The music video once again gives us a total different meaning to what we were expecting. I just thought maybe they'd follow the sun partying here and there, but they have some great creativists behind them, as I would have never had come up with an idea like this, and it is a distinguishable music video.
I like the idea that they are chasing the sun tattoos, that are on the girls, and once again, thankfully, there is a girl for each of them, unlike previous boy bands... I also like how the girls are all vampires. According to really old vampiric lore, if a vampire bites you, you too become a vampire. However, authors have recently changed people's thoughts on these supernatural creatures, and clearly The Wanted aren't vampires, since they can walk in the sun, with no rings on, and they don't go shiny either... So... Taking a leap out of some of the other, more erotica books are they?
Overall I really like this music video, it links in with the song perfectly, although not totally expected, which always makes a nice change. I haven't got anything bad to say about this music video, and the song is extremely catchy. Although I didn't like it first time around.
So I chose Rihanna as my Sunday revisit, purely because I have never watched this music video before, but I had heard the song many times. Rihanna, real name Robyn Rihanna Fenty, first released this song back in 2005, and she looks very different to what she looks like right now. She kind of reminds me of Christina Milian, and to be frank this is the sort of song Christina Milian would release.
"Pon De Replay" was written by Vada Nobles, Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers. None of which have been mentioned on my blog before, as far as I'm aware of. This is the song that made Rihanna, if she hadn't have released this song, would she be where she is right now? It's pretty doubtful, although with that voice, she may have gotten there. "Song Pon De Replay" translates loosely to "Put The Song on Replay", as Pon means upon.
The music video is one of the classic music videos you used to see in the late 90s early 00s. With artists such as Christina Milian's "Am to Pm" and Pink's "Get The Party Started", so it's quite surprising that in 2005 a similar music video popped up, but it failed to get to number one in the UK, only grabbing a number two. Would a different music video have helped to push it that little bit further?
There's not a lot to say about this music video, there is a lot of choreography, and it kind of reminds me of "Don't Stop The Music", that also had the non-music bit at the start, which I always like to watch in a music video. Also the DJ in the music video was played by DJ Cipha Sounds, there is also a cameo appearance from Kardinal Offishall. I also loved the human bicycle at the end, it's not something you usually see.
Overall, a great music video if it was released in early 00s but it was released in 2005, and it obviously got lost amongst the videos that were being released by other artists. This is definitely a catchy song that gets stuck in your head easily, but the music video is missing some sort of spark. If you're going to release a video like this, make sure that there's something extremely different about it.
