Critic Jonni

So last week I stopped blog posting, unfortunately I got the cold that everyone else in my house has got, so I'm kind of not happy about that, I am feeling better now, well sort of, but not fully 100% yet. However nothing was going to stop me reviewing Cascada's Summer Of Love, and hopefully promote this song, and get a couple more sales for it, as this song is definitely chart worthy. I bought it yesterday and I cannot get enough of it!

Cascada is a dance band from Germany, I have reviewed their music videos again and again, so you can probably guess that I'm a fan. The band consists of Natalie Horler, Manian (real name Manuel Reuter) and Yanou (real name Yann Peifer). They have had quite a few successful hits in the UK, and managing to score those all-important number ones a few times. They have released quite a few new singles over the past couple of years, but they have failed to chart, or they charted low. The reason being is little promotion in the UK, and this is usually extremely important, since some radio stations aren't giving this song airtime, and so all this song has to go on is the music channels playing the music video, and although I have seen it a couple of times, I just don't think it'll be enough to help this perfect song. Will it chart? Well it's climbing up the iTunes chart it's currently at number 422 & 888 at this current moment.... Let's hope it climbs much higher in the following days.

"Summer of Love" is probably one of my favourite songs by this band (I bet I say that about every song of theirs), but I find it uniquely different to what is about at the moment, but it also keeps the Cascada sound and you can't prevent yourself from enjoying it. I just don't think enough UK people know about it, and I'm fearing that the song will not chart and instead be known as their fourth song to not make the UK chart. Fingers crossed that it will gain a lot of sales in the next few days.

This music video is pretty interesting. Again it's different, which links in well with the song. It is performance based, but also has a narrative side to things. It also has scenes where Natalie Horler is dancing, now hide that shocked face! She has danced in previous music videos, but this one seems more relaxed as if she danced unintentionally, which makes it all the more perfect.

Some of the dancers and the dancing in this music video makes you go WOW. There's 2 guys throughout who do amazing back flips. There's also a lot of choreography along with many other dance moves I can't even name, I love some of the vivid images you get from them too, there's one which I can only describe as the "butterfly" that looks quite tranquil. But I do have one bug-bear... Natalie Horler, right at the end, does "heart hands" I know they look good now, but 10 years from now we would have stopped doing it, and we'll look back on it and think "oh no".

Overall, an amazing song, and it's remixes are even better, so what are you waiting for UK people, go and buy it now! The music video is great, got lots going for it and it leaves you amazed. My favourite bit is when Natalie Horler texts: "Free drinks at La Caleta!" so that they can skip the queue, hahahaha it always makes me laugh. This is a great music video with scenes reminiscent of "San Fransisco" and DJ Fresh Featuring Rita Ora's "Hot Right Now". I just hope this song charts on Sunday!

Buy on iTunes

JoJo, JoJo, JoJo. Real name Joanna Levesque, JoJo was at the height of her career back in 2006, with hits like "Leave (Get Out)", "Baby It's You", and "Too Little Too Late", how could she possibly have disappeared? But of course it's down to record label, just like previous artists Avril Lavigne and September. Now JoJo is back, or so we are told, but so far in the UK, no sign of any new releases... She has released this song in the US and mainly all around the world, but has she forgotten that she has a big fan-base in the UK? Or is it, once again, down to the record label? I have been waiting for this release since Demi Lovato's "Skyscraper", and this single even got a remix EP which I was expecting to be released in the UK, but how wrong can I be... Will it ever be released? Or will the UK be waiting endlessly for the JoJo comeback that might never happen here?

"Disaster" is definitely one of my favourite songs at the moment... But I think I've been saying that for the past 8-9 months. It was written by Joanna Levesque, Gino Barletta, Mario Marchetti and Marc Himmel. Again another artist who has written most of the song, making it personal to her. This also explains why the song is so emotionally based and is another reason why I like it so much. However it hasn't impacted the world the way JoJo wanted it to, although would it do well in the UK? Well JoJo will never know until it gets released... With the right amount of promotion, it could chart quite high. The song has been spotted a number of times on UK music channels, and some rumoured release dates have been popping up in the last 6 months, but still no sign of this song on iTunes or anywhere at the moment, I will keep hoping for a release date soon!

Rant over, now to the music video. It links in emotionally well with the song, you can tell how strongly she feels about the song, which is exactly what we need in the performance based side of this music video. The narrative side is top-notch too, it has Rafi Gavron in, I know him mostly as Bug from Life Unexpected, but he has been in Inkheart, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist and many other films and TV series. JoJo and Rafi build a great emotional relationship that ends up as a disaster which is exactly what they wanted to portray. Their acting skills are amazing to watch, and shows that JoJo is a triple threat, great singer, great actor and great songwriter.

Overall this music video has everything we need. JoJo used to be very innocent when she was younger, and I remember she was the talk of me and all my mates, now as we've grown older and she's grown older, she has a sultry, sexy, confident look, and it's great how she's grown up and her music has grown with her, it's rare to find an artist like that. The video is amazing and I haven't got one bad thing to say about it. Apparently there was meant to be a bike crash that Rafi Gavron is in, but obviously they cut that scene out, and I'm glad they did, it keeps it simple, neat, and all-so-perfect.

Not released in the UK

Maroon 5 has quickly become an international famous band, but a lot of people knew who they were before hand with songs like "She Will Be Loved" and "This Love". They disappeared off the radar with their second album, but thanks to the likes of The Voice (US), Maroon 5 is once again at the top of their game, and I very much doubt they'll ever come down again. The band used to be called Kara's Flowers, which isn't exactly a great name, so I'm glad they changed it before becoming famous (however would we be saying that if they did make it under that name?) The band consists of Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Michael Madden, James Valentine and Matt Flynn. This song is their second number one in the UK in a row, this band will be around for a long time. Wiz Khalifa features on this song, he's real name is Cameron Thomaz. He is an American rapper, who has had a number of hit singles, both solo and featured. I feel like he is one of these artists who is trying to make an impression on the UK chart and just isn't quite getting there.

"Payphone" is the first single from Maroon 5's album Overexposed. The song was written by Adam Levine, Benjamin Levin, Ammar Malik, Dan Omelio, Shellback and Cameron Thomaz. Most of these songwriters have appeared on my blog before, and it's quite a collaborative effort, no wonder the song got to number one in the UK. This song will be remembered if not for the catchy tune, definitely for the cover version entering the top ten. Precision Tunes, who tend to do covers of songs and release them on iTunes before the original song gets released, did a cover of this song, it was released early, and managed to peak at number 9 on the UK chart the week before the original got released. Will this happen again in the future? It seems unlikely, however there are a lot of songs that aren't released until later on in the year, and we're already seeing a few cover versions already making the top 100, so I presume it's always possible.

This music video is extremely high budget, it's the only words I can come up for describing it, it is reminiscent of a James Bond movie, and if given a few more minutes I reckon this would have been a great video, however continuity errors really gets on my nerves in music videos, it happens a lot of the time, but this one really shows them off, and is something a lot of people have already picked up on.

I like the overall storyline, of how there's a robbery at the place where Adam Levine works, but then I feel like everything goes out of proportion. First up, he steals a gun, like that would help him much, and then instead of firing he runs away, and somehow he's quick enough to dodge the bullets... Instead of running to the police he runs down the street, and loses the cops, but then he steals a car for no reason, why do such a thing? And then when loads of cops and helicopters are chasing him, he manages to make 2 or 3 police cars crash, and somehow that gets rid of all the vehicles chasing him, and then furthermore he parks the car (going straight past a guy who's standing on the walkway, what that guy is doing there? Who knows), and walks away from the car and then it blows up, and he doesn't get hurt by the explosion... This just doesn't all add up that well does it?

However I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt, this should be 8-9 minutes long, instead it's cut short into 4-5 minutes, so continuity errors are expected. However they could've have made them less obvious. The song is really catchy and this music video does shine out of the crowd, so it is definitely worthy of this rating.

Well, I was going to do Lady Antebellum's "Wanted You More" for my new release, as some sources have announced it was to be released this week, however after looking on iTunes and other downloadable sites, this isn't the case. So yet again I am doing another X Factor star for my New Release, but that's okay since Misha B is climbing the charts, I don't blame the British public for buying this single as it is simply quite catchy (after a while).

Misha B, real name Misha Bryan, first found fame on The X Factor UK 2011. That year had a lot of talent and I bet a lot more of those finalists will be popping up here there and everywhere. At the minute we have: Little Mix (Winners), Marcus Collins (Second), Amelia Lily (Third), Misha B (Fourth) and 2 Shoes (Thirteenth). But I bet there will be more to come. I have to admit I didn't think much of Misha B, I believed she didn't have a strong enough voice for the songs she was given, however now, with her own releases; we might get the real Misha B.

Home Run is her first solo single release, it was written by Misha Bryan and MNEK. This is exactly what we wanted, we don't know enough about Misha B as we could, and songs written by the artist who performs it, is so personal that we are able to understand that artist.

This music video is an expected first music video, it isn't WOW, but it's not rubbish either, and it's usually what artists release as their first music video, it's typical because they want a good reaction, rather than trying to push the boat out. As for this music video it's intricately great, and kind of reminds me of a Nicki Minaj music video... I very much doubt Misha B will shake that comparison any time soon; she definitely is a young British Nicki Minaj, and a pretty good answer to be honest...

I like the use of silhouettes at the beginning and at the end, and the neon paint is extremely clever, however I think the colourful images on her face allows the Nicki Minaj comparisons as it is a little over the top, and I really don't see how it links in with the song, although it could be a way to interest the younger audience into buying the single...

Overall a great song that took it's time to grow on me, it's accompanying music video is a bit on the safe side, and is missing a few things, however it's a good first music video and I can see this single performing well on the UK chart. I can also see Misha B becoming an international star sometime in the future; I can't wait to see where her career will take her.

As most of you probably know, I was on holiday last week in Turkey. In our hotel from about 10am our entertainer guy for the hotel would play song after song after song, so people don't fall asleep on the sun beds. My brother (CamCam) was complaining at the fact that it was all dance music songs with no rap songs at all, and very little British artists. This song was played almost every day, and it's easily very catchy, it's a worldwide hit, and probably the only song from these 2 artists that will hit the UK. Don Omar, real name William Riveria, also goes under the name of El Ray, as he does in this video, has been releasing songs since 2003 but this is his first single to chart in the UK. Will he try and chart here again? It's possible but it depends if the song is catchy enough. This song features Lucenzo, real name Luís Oliveira, who has been about since 2008, he seems to be one of these artists that will be around for quite some time, and will be trying his best to become a worldwide hit.

"Danza Kudro" is the most known version of this song... A lot of people believe it is the original but they aren't quite right... There have been 3 versions of this song. The original is sung by Lucenzo Featuring Big Ali and it is called "Vem Dançar Kuduro", the video can be found below on the left side. Then this song was created by Don Omar featuring Lucenzo. Then the song gets developed again... This time by Qwote Featuring Lucenzo and Pitbull this final version was sung in English and released in the UK as "Danza Kuduro (Throw Your Hands Up)" this video can also be found at the bottom, but on the right side. Personally, I prefer this version, I think the reason is because I've heard it so many times. The 3rd version's lyrics seems rushed as if they don't quite fit with the song. And as for the original... I'm not sure I like the inclusion of Big Ali. But what do you guys think? I can understand how people have jumped on to the bandwagon of this amazing song, and have made it that little bit better and more marketable for specific countries. Danza and Kuduro are two types of genre of music hence where the name comes from. This song was written by Don Omar, Lucenzo, Faouze Barkati and Fabrice Toigo.

The music video is your usual up-beat dance music video, it's what you used to expect before the likes of Basshunter and Cascada. And I'm not quite sure if I'm into this music video. I'm sure I could go on to YouTube and find quite a few similar videos, which makes this typical dance music video quite boring.

The video shows Don Omar and Lucenzo as millionaires with girls dancing around them. At one point the girls are dancing to a set of choreography on the beach, the dance is similar to the big choreography shown in the music video of the original song: "Vam Dançar Kuduro".

This video is extremely lacking, it is showing off wealth of some people, and this can be shown as arrogant. The song is extremely catchy, and that is why I may be willing to let the video off. But I don't see how it links in with the song, With inclusions of a big yacht and a mansion and an expensive car... I just don't see the need for it. The original song's music video is definitely my favourite music video, whereas the third music video is more of an adaption of this one.

This is the original music video Lucenzo Featuring Big Ali - Vem Dançar Kuduro