Tjeklisten...

Tjeklisten is a weekly (and quite popular) radio chart voted for by listeners of Danish Radio P3 and every Sunday afternoon the new list is published. Normally this is the playground for artists like Britney, Robbie, Madonna and (shudder) Lady GaGa (check the list of the 100 most popular artists in the history of the list and you’ll be hard pressed to find 10 decent ones), but every once in a while I do check the list to see if any interesting acts have entered or are being tested (see my post from last Monday). At home it’s (believe it or not) my wife, who decides what’s played on the stereo, so yesterday it was all radio, meaning that I for once had the chance to (or was forced to) listen to Tjeklisten in its entirety. As usual 95% of the content was pure garbage, but at least 4 things were worth noticing, thus justifying this post.

For the third week in a row the list was topped by The Balcony (video) by The Rumour Said Fire. Apparently the song wasn’t even close to being dethroned, so a 4 week reign (at least) seems very likely. I remain seriously puzzled by this, which made me utter the following to my wife. “This is stuff I like and not something that is supposed to be mainstream”. Not exactly an everyday occurrence that a band becomes this popular (not in Denmark at least), when their only release is a 6 track EP! Much deserved though!

Entering the chart at no. 20 is Bone Will Break Metal (video) by Ginger Ninja. Another band I’d hate to see go all mainstream, but since you cannot ignore the financial side of things a long stay in this chart can mean the world to an upcoming band. So please vote for these guys and help them move up the chart.

First song tested was the grand SDP by The Kissaway Trail. It became an immediate favorite, when I heard it the first time back in December, so definitely another track that deserves making the chart.

Finally the new single Hjärta by Kent was among the songs tested, but since this is the most popular band in Scandinavia, cracking the chart isn’t of the same importance as it is for the three aforementioned bands. Kent, at you all probably know, is my favorite band, but they do pick odd tracks as singles, as Hjärta has to be among the weakest tracks on Röd. I really don’t see this as a track that will make people stop and listen if the song is aired on radio, which I’ve always thought was the main purpose of a single? But now having watched the video for the song, it has become quite evident that the band picked Hjärta as their next single with a complete different purpose in mind!