A new year has begun! So this is the time for ‘best of’ year lists. I joined my fellow team members at JaME for my favorite Japanese artist and releases, but I thought my last.fm stats from the last 12 months give a better overview.

Most listened artists of 2011:

1. Birdy

I’ve been listening almost non-stop to Birdy since her album came out in November, otherwise she wouldn’t have ended up as the #1 in 12 months time. I’m totally in love with the way she covers all those indie songs, her fragile voice and the beautiful piano arrangements.

2. Mohombi

Ok this is getting a little embarrassing, lol. I had honestly not expected him to rank so high. But yeah, I like his rhythms!

3. A.R. Rahman

Rahman makes the best Bollywood soundtracks! I got interested in his music through the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire and also found some of his other soundtrack albums.

4. The Baseballs

After seeing The Baseballs live in concert in October, I fell even more in love with them (their music, of course XD). Looking forward to new music and new gigs from the boys this year!

5. Ed Harcourt

An excellent singer-songwriter. I guess I’ve been listening a lot to his music in the first part of the year before I went to his gig in Utrecht. His 2011 album Lustre is pretty great.

6. Usher

Haaa I seriously can’t believe the artist I listen to sometimes. Uh, I believe I had this obsession with one of his albums earlier this year but right now I don’t care much for Usher.

7. Adele

Following the rest of the world, listened a lot to Adele as well. She’s got a gorgeous voice and I’m addicted to Rolling in the Deep and Set Fire to the Rain.

8. Lil Eddie

Ok ok I admit being into cheesy R&B sometimes!

9. PUSHIM

I’ve barely listened to Japanese music this year… The only one remaining was the Queen of Reggae, whose newest album Milestone I love to pieces.

10. Belle and Sebastian

Indie music like Belle and Sebastian’s music is good for listening to when writing, makes the words flow much easier!

Favorite concerts of 2011:

1. The Baseballs on 5/10 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2. Stamatis Spanoudakis on 9/9 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece.
3. Ed Harcourt on 4/3 in Utrecht, the Netherlands
4. Matthew and the Atlas on 20/5 in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
5. LUNA SEA on 22/10 at Saitama, Tokyo, Japan

Earlier this month I went to see Bruno Mars live in Amsterdam. I don’t usually go to pop concerts, so this was an interesting experience, to say the least. The opening act was the English singer-songwriter Natalia Kills.

Personally I don’t really get the concept of opening acts, some people say “it gives you something to do while you wait” but they just delay the main show and you have to wait even longer. In my experience it’s a horrible artist half of the time, but this time it was a pretty decent show.

According to Wikipedia, Natalia Kills is from the UK and released her debut-album “Perfectionist” in April. She wears shiny outfits and creates electro-pop music. Both the outfits and music are slightly reminiscent of Lady Gaga, but hey, it’s easy to call someone a Gaga-copycat these days.

Below is the song “Mirrors”, which she also performed in Amsterdam. Unlike many upcoming pop acts, Natalia Kills has actually a great voice and is able to sing on-key live.

Here’s a list of the concerts I’ve been to since 2003 (or at least the ones I can remember 8D). The links lead to live reports I’ve written for JaME, 3voor12 Friesland (Dutch) or my blog.

I’m afraid my list of bands I want to see live is even longer…

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I was reminded by my friend that the new hosting year is coming up and realized that I haven’t posted anything in my blog for ages. Oops!

So let me tell you about a gig I went to recently. This March, British singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt performed an acoustic show at the Leeuwenbergh church in Utrecht. It was part of a series of acoustic themed concerts organized by Dutch actress Carice van Houten. It’s funny, she’s been acting in Hollywood movies together with celebrities such as Tom Cruise, but she kindly helped us to find our seats.

During that week my friend from the UK was staying with me. We have basically zero in common when it comes to music, but surprisingly we both like him so we went together. The concert was really awesome, Ed played a mix of new songs from his Lustre album and also older ones. After the gig my friend was cheeky enough to go and ask Ed Harcourt for an autograph, so I got my ticket signed as well.

Here’s a song from one of his older albums, hadn’t heard it until the concert but it has turned into a favourite: