Some Important News From Defamer Australia’s Euro Correspondent

It’s been a while between bulletins for our Euro Correspondent Will, and I like to imagine he has been keeping himself busy throwing himself wholeheartedly into the world of Schlagerpop and investigating potential representatives for next year’s Eurovision competition. I have asked him for an opinion piece regarding Kylie’s stylist/gay husband Will Baker’s recent claims that Madonna needs to let go of her youth and stop embarrassing herself with daft outfits, but while we wait for that gripping report, here’s some poptastic news from our hero.

I’m not sure if you’re already on board with this but do you know about Marit Larsen? She is a Norwegian singer/songwriter who was in M2M (remember “Don’t say you love me” -

– from the Pokemon soundtrack? Important key change around 2:39) and she has just released her second album The Chase – recently a number one album in Norway but tragically ignored everywhere else.

She sounds a little Chipmunk-y to me, Willy, but go on. Educate my ignorant self!

The single is ‘If A Song Could Get Me You’. It is absolutely exquisite, and heart-rending, and simple and beautiful and true. Instead of making a video, the delightful Marit has shot several unplugged little performances of the song with her two friends around unexpected locations in Oslo – I find the greengrocer one the most heartbreakingly gorgeous:

- but the one in Nydalen underground station is also excellent:

The no-video thing is kind of interesting because it is possibly – POSSIBLY – an early example of post-credit crunch pop and the way that this sort of thing will be promoted in a vastly scaled-back promotional environment (though I imagine it will take a while before the Pussycat Dolls are reduced to making an acoustic video in a local shop). But I think it’s very effective, whatever the rationale, because of the wonderful MARIT. I JUST LOVE MARIT LARSEN SO MUCH!

Very good, William. It should be noted that William and his amazing pop radar switched me onto Robyn about two years before all the coolsie kids began falling over themselves to appreciate her, so heed his words.