Here’s a lady we’ve been listening to a lot today. So we thought – why not write a little bit about her on here. For some of you, it’ll be something of a blast from the past. And for most, it’ll be an introduction to two genuinely brilliant but largely ignored pop songs from half a decade ago.
Sylwia Chaliss was launched in 2003. A Swedish model turned Swedish pop star. Although despite her looks and career history, she wasn’t quite to be compared with the likes of say – Victoria Silvstedt – as Sylwia was actually a musician, and involved throughout the writing, recording, and production process of her debut album ‘Loud Enough’. Singles were released, videos were made, and summer tours were embarked upon – to varying levels of success or lack thereof. Yada, yada, yada. However, it’s her even more illfated attempt at a comeback three years later in 2006 that gets us much more interested and excited. And not just in a typically gay sucker-for-a-pop-diva-commercial-tragedy kind of way either. More because the two songs produced for said comeback were properly amazing and miles ahead of anything from her first album.
They were called ‘Blinded By The Light’ and ‘Meet You At Midnight’, and it was Jonas von der Burg at the helm – so their quality was expected and guaranteed accordingly.
Let’s start with ‘Meet You At Midnight’;
Couldn’t you just DIE?!
This goes beyond your standard ‘dreamy’ and crosses over into dreams of the wet variety. The perfectly crafted and executed pop song. Delivered by Sylwia’s seductive vocal with an air of superiority – balanced out by some seriously sweet backing vocal riffs. And all wrapped up in a trademark Von der Burg synth and string sequence.
Next – ‘Blinded By The Light’;
Whereas ‘Meet You At Midnight’ was relegated to shelved-release hell, ‘Blinded By The Light’ actually saw the light of day as a single. As such, it took both the honour of being the official comeback launch for Sylwia – and the shame of being the reason why nothing of hers was ever released again. We can’t see why though – it’s absolutely tremendous. And sonically even more in line with the big hits that Von der Burg produced for September at the time – which makes its lack of success all the more baffling.
The knowledge that she was working with Jonas von der Burg for her second album, makes its failure to come to fruition a much more bitter pill to swallow. And the thought that there might be a handful of more gems like the two above…. well we just hope that they either have showed up or will show up on releases by other artists instead. We’d sleep better at night, we really would.
Props to you Sylwia – you left a little bit of a pop legacy.
