Posted January 5, 200718 yr Singer Mika tops BBC talent list BBC Entertainment News Flamboyant pop singer-songwriter Mika has been named the best new talent in the BBC's Sound of 2007 music poll. The Beirut-born, London-based 23-year-old has been compared to the Scissor Sisters and Freddie Mercury. More than 130 UK-based music critics and broadcasters took part in the poll by naming their favourite new acts. Birmingham rock band The Twang were second, with "new rave" group the Klaxons third. Corinne Bailey Rae came top of last year's Sound of 2006 list. The BBC News website's new music survey is now in its fifth year. Rapper 50 Cent, Keane and The Bravery have been among previous winners. SOUND OF 2007 TOP 10 1. Mika 2. The Twang 3. Klaxons 4. Sadie Ama 5. Enter Shikari 6. Air Traffic 7. Cold War Kids 8. Just Jack 9. Ghosts 10. The Rumble Strips Razorlight, the Scissor Sisters, The Feeling, the Kaiser Chiefs and KT Tunstall are among the others that have appeared on past Sound of... lists before making it big. Mika's debut single Grace Kelly has already received heavy radio airplay and is currently the most frequently played song on BBC Radio 2. He said he was "thrilled" at his position on the Sound of 2007 list. "It means a lot, especially if you look at the people who have won in the past five years. It's great company to be in," he said. He asked the public to give him a chance and not judge him too quickly. "I really want people to know me, to find out about me, and if they really like me, to stick with me," he said. "Hype is scary. But this is one of the best things to happen to me so far because the people doing this poll have nothing to gain." Radio 2's head of music, Colin Martin, praised Mika for being "infectious, immediate and melodic". "Every so often an artist comes along with hit written all over them and 2007 looks like being Mika's year," he said. Alison Howe, producer of influential TV show Later... with Jools Holland, said he was "a natural pop star with style, personality and great pop songs in spades". And Q magazine editor Paul Rees said: "He looks the part and his songs suggest what would have happened had Queen cross-bred with the Scissor Sisters." SOUND OF... POLL GREATEST HITS Sound of 2006 - Corinne Bailey Rae (1st), The Feeling (3), Guillemots (5), Chris Brown (7), The Automatic (10) Sound of 2005 - The Bravery (1), Bloc Party (2), Kaiser Chiefs (5), KT Tunstall (6) Sound of 2004 - Keane (1), Franz Ferdinand (2), Razorlight (4), Joss Stone (5), McFly (6), Scissor Sisters (7) Sound of 2003 - 50 Cent (1), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (3), Dizzee Rascal (5), Sean Paul (10) Below Mika on the list, The Twang have been called "Britain's best new band" by the NME, while the Klaxons incorporate infectious leftfield guitar pop with rave attitude and imagery. R&B singer Sadie Ama, sister of 1990s soul star Shola Ama, is at fourth, with Enter Shikari - a band who mix hardcore rock and trance - in fifth place. The poll was complied by asking the UK's most knowledgeable and influential tipsters to name their favourite three new acts. The responses were weighted to take account of each pundit's stature, genre and record in previous polls, as well as the order in which they ranked their tips, with the results compiled into a top 10. Artists were not eligible if they had already had a top 20 single or album in the UK, or if they were already famous for any reason. Any comments about the acts in the Sound of 2007 music poll?
January 5, 200718 yr The #1 was a bit predictable and some of the other artists were as well, but there were a few that I didn't think would be included. Here's my take on all the artists though: 01 Mika A bit predictable that he was #1. Still he's gonna be massive in 2007 and will probably have the most impact in the charts at least out of all these ten acts. He's a very good artist though and Grace Kelly seems to be going down a storm at the moment. 02 The Twang I can't make up my mind about The Twang. I dunno whether they will be big this year though, although a lot of people seem to think they have the potential to do so. 03 Klaxons Part of thw whole Indie/Disco scene. Golden Skans seems to going down very well at the moment and I think their album should so pretty well because of GS. 04 Sadie Ama Fallin' is brilliant. One of the best UK RnB talents i've heard of in ages. Should hopefully be huge this year. 05 Enter Shikari Very different to the current music thats popular at the moment. I like some of their stuff, but i'm not too keen on some of their other stuff because of the excessive screaming, 06 Air Traffic Have the potential to be absolutley massive this year. Very good band with catchy songs. 07 Cold War Kids A lot of people have been raving about them for a while, but I just don't like them. 08 Just Jack Should be pretty big this year with his album. Starz In Their Eyes seems to be going down quite well at the moment and I think he's very good at what he does. Far better then Mike Skinner IMO. 09 Ghosts They remind me of The Feeling a lot for some reason. I dunno how well they will do this year though. 10 The Rumble Strips I don't like these. :( I dunno how well they'll do again though.
January 5, 200718 yr The Fray should be huge. R1 are already backing 'How To Save A Life'. It's massive in America and I have loved it since October! :P That Mika track is amazing - heard it today -definately a #1 in 2007! Not heard anything by any of the others though some sound interesting. ^_^
January 5, 200718 yr The Fray should be huge. R1 are already backing 'How To Save A Life'. It's massive in America and I have loved it since October! :P That Mika track is amazing - heard it today -definately a #1 in 2007! Not heard anything by any of the others though some sound interesting. ^_^ Gotta agree there about The Fray. ^_^ I heard How To Save A Life today and its very good. :o I've been and heard a few of their other tracks as well and they're pretty good as well. ^_^
January 5, 200718 yr Can I download stuff by these artists or at least go somewhere where I can hear clips?
January 5, 200718 yr http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6169551.stm You can listen to one song from each here...
January 5, 200718 yr Thanks Mark. 01 - I think 'Grace Kelly' could be this year's answer to 'Crazy'. It looks like to be having that sort of impact. I look forward to hearing more from Mika. 02 - The Twang song has an amazing intro - good song in general. I thought they'd fit into the Keane/Feeling/Kaiser Chiefs catergory but the singer's voice is very rough and gravely against such beautiful music. Not sure they will be huge though... 03 - "Klaxons come over as a mouthier McFly pretending to be The Prodigy." I totally do not see that. :lol: MILES better than anything McFly could ever record but very dull, repetitive, heard it all before. 04 - I hate the annoying little noise in the background on that Sadie Ama song. Very slow,soulful track - the UK's Alicia Keys anyone? Not my cup of tea really. 05 - Shikari are amazing. On first listen that song is definately up my street. :o Such an unusual blend of music too which makes them even more interesting. I shall be watching them. 06 - Again Air Traffic are nothing new but a very good, strong song nonetheless. Not much to say really. 07 - Is it me or is The Cold War Kids song's identical to something you'd expect to hear from Maroon 5? That aside I think it pisses all over Maroon 5. My fave of the bunch so far :wub: 08 - Not sure I like Just Jack - not my kind of music. Much better than anything th diabolically $h!t Streets could ever release. 09 - I like Ghosts. Again just another generic Feeling/Keane ripoff but no doubt they'll be massive in 2007. 10 - Don't think much of them :zzz: All in all a 50/50 list - sets 2007 up for quite a promising year to be honest - wha with all this lot and many more new artists to emerge plus comebacks from some huge stars should be very interesting to see which of these will go on to be huge this year and which will fade into obscurity like The Bravery. :D
January 15, 200718 yr Enter Shikari only have one decent song. They're not really new though. None of them are really new though. The majority of them have already had singles out like Mika, Just Jack and Klaxons for example.
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