Last month we introduced you to a new artist called Amy Deasismont, and her debut single ‘One’. Which was in fact the re-launch of an infamous singer who had previously released five albums and a Greatest Hits record (the youngest Swedish artist ever to have released a Best Of album). Amy Deasismont has now finally put to bed the child star that was Amy Diamond. Sad, but totally understandable of course. You can’t live in the shadow of a child star forever. And especially not one who achieved the scale of Amy Diamond’s success.
To put it briefly (cos a lot of you will already know the story, and for the rest of you there’s Wikipedia), Amy Diamond released her first single at 12 years old – which went on to become so big, that she herself became a household name in Sweden almost overnight. She quickly got taken under the wing of a small team of songwriters and producers who penned most of her tracks for most of her career (one of them being the man who ended up later launching Zara Larsson, and even co-writing ‘Lush Life’). More hits, more notoriety, and even Grammy Awards (again – she’s the youngest artist ever to win a Swedish Grammy) followed. And in the process, she put out some seriously brilliant pop music.
And it’s that music we’re looking back at and celebrating now. At the end of an era. And the retirement of a popstar who released her last song at the age of 20.
We’ve put together a Best Of for Amy. And to ape the style of another legendary Swedish pop collection – ABBA:Gold – we’re calling it Amy:Diamond. Yes, there’s a Spotify playlist.
There are plenty of ace tunes in Amy Diamond’s repertoire. But we’ve narrowed it down to the 17 absolutely essential Amy Diamond songs. And no, we’re not being intentionally contrary by not including Amy’s debut single and biggest hit by far – we just think it’s nowhere near one of her best. That the Swedes couldn’t make what was to follow even more huge was their fault, and certainly not that of the music!
Here then, are the Top 17 best Amy Diamond songs. In order;
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(click on the song titles for YouTube links, if the Spotify stream doesn’t work in your country)
17: SLEEPY SUNDAY
Amy headed back to the 60s and into a retro chic haze for what is appropriately enough the ideal easy listening soundtrack to a lazy Sunday.
16: THAT’S LIFE
Life’s great philosophies and lessons wrapped up in a pop song and fed to pre-teens. And therein lay the brilliance of Amy Diamond!
15: TAKE YOUR TIME
The first of only three ballads on this list. It was never Amy’s style to do the big diva ballad. Instead she did the ethereal and ghostly soft stunner. She literally whispered how brilliant she was at doing ballads.
14: IS IT LOVE
The lead single from Amy’s third album. An ever so slightly grown up recreation of the sound that stood out on her first two albums so much. This song heralded the arrival of an updated popstar.
13: WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER
If ‘Is It Love’ heralded the arrival of a slightly more mature sound, ‘We’re In This Together’ from the same album took it a few steps further. A dark lyric about the desperation of being with someone until the very end – with a macabre church organ breakdown. Amy Diamond went all gothic on us!
12: UP
The lead single from Amy’s fourth and final album (if you don’t count the Christmas album or the Greatest Hits) saw her toy with electroPOP. With a definite schlager chorus in case she scared too many old-time Amy fans away.
11: FAST FORWARD
This song was basically Amy singing what would have been an S Club Juniors single had they ever made it to a third album. Amazing obviously.
10: LOOK THE OTHER WAY
One of the strongest melodies she’s ever recorded. We’re still agog that this wasn’t a single. It could even have been a hit for someone twice her age.
09: THANK YOU
Amy’s first foray into Melodifestivalen was quite a big coup for SVT at the time. And she shot straight to the final with this electropopped up version of her trademark sound.
08: IT’S MY LIFE
After lording over Melodifestivalen 2008, it was a bit of a no-brainer that she’d return in 2009. And delightfully, she returned with something even better! Though given that Melodifestivalen 2009 was the greatest Melodifestivalen of all time (FACT), she had to settle for a slightly worse result than the year before.
07: DON’T LOSE ANY SLEEP OVER YOU
Just supremely camp musical theatre really. Transformed into a stonking great pop song.
06: HEARTBEATS
Amy returned with another dreamy ballad that was cruelly tucked away near the end of one of her albums. If anything song could be resurrected and re-recorded by Amy Deasismont for a release in 2016 – it’s this gem.
05: LIFE’S WHAT YOU MAKE IT
Probably the most fun an Amy Diamond song has ever been. Especially in that quite frankly RIDICULOUS production. Her most uplifting of gems.
04: DON’T CRY YOUR HEART OUT
A tweenage Amy shaming a gent for his poor treatment towards his girlfriend. And all via an incredibly strong melody that tugs on the emotions too. Pop genius from start to finish.
03: WELCOME TO THE CITY
Not her debut single, but we class this song as THE proper introduction to Amy Diamond as the brilliant popstar. The sound of this track – from the production to the lyrics – really did shape the style of so much of Amy’s music that she went on to release over the next decade. This is THE iconic Amy Diamond song for us. Though there ARE a couple of others that we prefer just that little bit more…
02: STAY MY BABY
When Amy met Max Martin. Of course this was always going to be one of the absolute highlights of her career. So incredibly good, that Disney ended up wading in and pinching it later on for one of their American stars.
01: IT CAN ONLY GET BETTER
An epic break-up song. With a jaw droppingly accurate delivery. ‘It Can Only Get Better’ is to ‘Amy:Diamond’ what ‘The Winner Takes It All’ is to ‘ABBA:Gold’.
