Sweden’s latest teen heartthrob and Melodifestivalen 2014 finalist Oscar Zia released his debut album today. He finished 8th on both Swedish X Factor and at Melodifestivalen. Maybe that’s why his new album I Don’t Know How to Dance has eight tracks, including the Melodifestivalen entry Yes We Can.
Before the album release, Oscar released two singles, #fail and Without U. Both of them are super-cheesy teenage pop with cliché lyrics. Oscar knows what’s trendy, but using hashtags on song lyrics is a little tacky. The message of the song is simple: when something goes wrong, try not to worry about it too much.
http://youtu.be/6iKS9HFMk9M
The weakest song on the album is the title track Kiss (I Don’t Know How to Dance). Although Oscar professes “he doesn’t know how to sing”, using this much autotune doesn’t make it any better. The lyrics are hilarious. He admits he can’t sing or dance, but he does know how to kiss. How sweet is that?
When the sun sets, Love On The Run is a must-listen. But the best track is a song called Ballare Con Me. The song could be a sequel to Adelén’s Bombo and just like Love On The Run, it is a real summer anthem with a lot of bass. One line of Italian in the chorus makes it a little more exotic. For me it’s one of the best songs released this year. I really hope it gets some attention outside of Sweden!
This album isn’t all about dance. There are two pop ballads – Embers and Breathe. Oscar wrote the album’s final track Breathe together with the songwriting duo Mirja Breitholtz and Tony Nilsson. The song has big drums and Oscar’s vocals sounds very nice on this one. Paddy Dalton, who has also worked with Jedward, wrote Embers together with Tony Nilsson and it’s a great track, which builds nicely to the chorus.
Overall, “I Don’t Know How To Dance” is a nice pop album, even if it doesn’t really bring anything new to the scene. But at least Ballare Con Me will be playing on loop on my iPod all summer.
http://youtu.be/K8Cx-UWSRY0
Sami Luukela contributed this report from Finland. Follow him on Twitter @ssami_. You can also keep up with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following wiwibloggs.com on Twitter and Facebook.
Can anyone tell me who wrote & produced this song? I am listening to it day in & day out.
Thanks for your kind words about Oscar’s album 🙂 really love this shit! … and actually Ballare Con Me is going to get noticed outside of sweden, I’ll promise haha 😉 @oscarziagermany on twitter