Year 8, Day 184

Hey guys. Today's song is I'm A Mess by Avril Lavigne and YUNGBLUD.

So I've featured Avril Lavigne before and therefore aren't going to focus that much on her today. She's a Canadian singer active since 1999 and has released seven albums since then, the first in 2002 with her latest being from 2022, which is where this song is from and as you saw above, it's a collaboration with Yungblood. Yungblood is the stage name for Dominic Harrison, an English singer active since 2017. Before breaking into music, he was actually an actor on a soap opera, which is not something I expected. He released an EP in 2017, then supported K.Flay on her tour before releasing his debut album in 2018. He continued to do touring and released EPs through 2019, then was nominated for four different NME awards, winning one of them. He released his second album in 2020, then in 2021 he released a short film based on his song Mars, He started releasing singles for his upcoming third album through the beginning of 2022, before the album was released in September. For being relatively new in the industry he has collaborated (whether musically or through his videos) with a lot of big names, so this song with Avril is no exception. I'm sure he was stoked though, since she's listed as one of his musical influences. It's a great song, and I'm interested to see what else he's got. Hopefully you guys are too.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 183

Hey guys. Today's song is I Don't Even Like You Anymore by Anna Clendening.

So I've featured Anna Clendening before, but her career is still somewhat in its early stages so we'll do this overview really fast. So she's an American musician and internet personality from Vine (when that was a thing) and has been active in the industry since 2008. She was a contestant on America's Got Talent in 2014 before releasing her debut EP in 2019 followed by a small tour around the States. As of 2020 she has signed with a large label and released another EP. This is one of her newer songs released this year, and like all the other ones I've heard from her, it's fantastic and has instantly become one of my favorites to be featured this year. So give it a listen and tell me if you agree.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 182

Hey guys. Today's song is For The Last Time Once Again by Siné.

There's no official bio ago so I've been trying to peruse and make sure I'm talking about the right person. So from what I can gather she's an artist from Denmark, since it's the Denmark branch of Universal that her social media is linked to. There has been a dedicated musician page on Facebook since 2015, but it was only recently in 2021 that the page name was for Siné, so I don't know if that just indicates a name change or a member change, like maybe it was a duo before and now it's not? I don't know. All I do know is that I really enjoy this song and want to here more and have more people appreciate this song, so I'm showcasing it for you today. Enjoy.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 181

Hey guys. Today's song is Not Sad Anymore by Clara Mae.

Photo by: Justin Higuchi

Clara Mae is the stage name for Clara Hagman, a Swedish singer/songwriter active since 2008 when she placed second in a singing competition called Next Star. She was in another singing competition the next year, but failed to reach the finals. In 2009 she was asked to join Ace of Base, joining fellow newcomer Julia Williamson to replace the Berggren's. They released an album in 2010 before Clara left the group in 2012. She adopted the stage name in 2014, and spent a few years releasing singles under that name before joining Gabriela Gunčíková onstage as a backing vocalist in the 2016 Eurovision contest representing the Czech Republic. Clara was signed to a label in 2017 and has since released an EP in 2018 and an album in 2020. This song was posted last year, so she has been doing music since, so check out more of that if you're curious.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 180

Hey guys. Today's song is Participation Trophies by Madelline.

Alright there is no official bio so bear with me. Madelline is a Canadian singer based out of Montreal and is still relatively new in the industry, with this song being one of her first major hits and it was only released this year. She's been releasing music since at least 2020, with a couple singles before releasing an EP in 2021, then an album this year. I really like this song and the sound of it (the musical theatre thing at the end made me laugh too) so I'm curious to see where she's gonna go from here. Anyway hope you like it and keep an eye out for her in the future as well. 

Peace.

Year 8, Day 179

Hey guys. Today's song is Title by Meghan Trainor.

Photo by: Ronald Woan

Meghan Trainor is an American singer active since 2009. She turned down a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, instead signing with Big Yellow Dog Music in 2012 as a songwriter. She wrote the song All About That Bass with producer Kevin Kadish in 2013, but no label would pick it up for an artist because of the doo wop style. Instead of being for another artist, that song ended up being the one that got her signed to a recording contract in 2014 and it became a huge hit. Since then she's released five albums, with the most recent released this year. She seems to have been doing pretty good over the pandemic. She had met her future husband in 2014, and they had their first child in 2021. Along with giving birth during that time, she was also held a Live At-Home concert series to raise money to feed those in need during the pandemic. I'm sure we'll see more from her in the upcoming see and I for one am looking forward to it.

Peace.

Year 8, Day 178

Hey guys. Today's song is Christmas Without You by Ava Max.

Photo from: El Hormiguero

I always like to throw some newer Christmas songs into the mix along with the classics because even though I do love the classics, there is only so many times you can listen to them before you're kind of done. So new Christmas music (that isn't just a new version) is refreshing. I hadn't known Ava had any festive songs until I stumbled on to this one, but I think it's great. Obviously we've talked about Ava before: Ava Max is the stage name for Amanda Koci whose been active in the industry since 2013. She adopted the middle name Ava at 13, saying she never felt like an Amanda. Originally known as just AVA, she released her debut single in 2013. She failed to get a demo picked up for a couple years until meeting the record producer Cirkut in 2015. In 2016 she released a song she worked on with him through SoundCloud, which gained popularity and led to her being signed. This is when she added the last name, which according to her adds a masculine element to the femininity of just Ava. She has two listed albums, one from 2020 and another that is one deck to be released in early 2023 and has some singles from that already floating around to tease it if you want to check those out. But for now, this will close out our Christmas week and tomorrow we'll be back to our regularly scheduled songs. Happy Holidays!

Peace.