The debut single from Sweden’s latest pop chap. Oscar Zia and ‘#Fail’. Not ‘Fail’. ‘#Fail’. That’s hashtag fail. ‘#Fail’.
Who is this Oscar Zia though, and where has he come from – you might ask. Well actually, this fellow has barely been off Swedish TV recently. He must be exhausted. In the last six months he’s been a contestant on the X Factor, competed in Melodifestivalen (as the singer of Behrang Miri’s ‘Jalla Dansa Sawa’), and he’s currently winning more fans as a contestant in the latest season of Let’s Dance, which is still running. Who the hell does all that in six months?! Oscar Zia does. And kudos to him and EMI Sweden for getting a song out today to capitalise on all this exposure. Striking while the iron’s hot, and all that. And speaking of hot – let’s talk about the song.
It’s a an upbeat and catchy pop number that screams summer sunshine, basks in its own heat, absorbs the vitamin D, and radiates an infectiously happy glow. So yeah it’s pretty good. It’s pop that takes its influence from the humble guitar, so it’s right in vogue with what his contemporaries Eric Saade and Danny Saucedo both put out as their new singles last month.
The lyrics do often fall into Rebecca Black levels of cringeworthingly awful, but in the words of the song itself : “hashtag fail, fail, it’s ok yeah, give it a minute and we’ll laugh it off“. But the bad lyrics are balanced out by a cracking melody. The melody is truly super.
‘#Fail’ was released today on Spotify in Sweden (and probably elsewhere in the world too, as EMI Sweden usually don’t bother with all that territory restriction nonsense), with a release on iTunes to follow on Monday.
The song has been written by Linnea Deb, Joy Deb, Joakim Harestad Haukaas, and Charlie Mason.
