Search results for ""icona pop""
Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker – Spa
A steamy collaboration if ever there was one. In the EDM world, both of these two duos are hot. Sweden-based Icona Pop already reached the mainstream with their 2012 debut single I Love It (feat. Charli XCX). Meanwhile, America’s Sofi Tukker (consisting of Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern) are building a large audience of their own, via live gigs as well as radio.
Collaborative single Spa offers the best of both worlds. The beats and verses are trademark Sofi Tukker, while the chorus has all the right sing-along ingredients of an Icona Pop song. This results in a radio-friendly dance track that has the potential to set fire to both dancefloors and airwaves.
Gonna make you sweat!
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
Additions to the Carte Blanche Music playlist (week 17)
Not all, but only the best new music. Added to the playlist this week (alphabetically):
- Beach Bunny feat. Aly & AJ – Clueless
indie | pop - Blossoms – Joke About Divorce
indie | pop - Graham Coxon – Billy Says
indie | pop | rock - Daphnie – 28
indie | rock - Duran Duran & Nile Rodgers – Free To Love
indie | pop - Egoism – Summer Again, Sung To The End
indie | rock - Icona Pop – Dance To This
dance | electronic | indie - Lights – Right Through You
electronic | indie | pop - Miki Núñez – Un Altre Cop
latin | pop | ska - The Waterboys – Too Close To Heaven [Soul Version]
indie | rock | soul - Suki Waterhouse – Tiny Raisin
pop
Check them all in the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music Spotify playlist.
Add it to your library (click ‘+’) to hear the best new music first.
Partly selected via input by Musosoup. Submit your music here. #sustainablecreators
Wildcard (week 36):
Nea – Cold Turkey
Linnéa ‘Nea’ Södahl is one of Sweden’s most acclaimed writers. You can find her name in the credits of hits by Zara Larsson, Skott, Felix Jaehn and many more. Hence she stepped into 2023 with over 2 billion streams as a songwriter and several international awards behind her.
But Nea is also an artist in her own right. Her first single Some Say was an immediate success in 2019, with 240 million streams on Spotify alone. The Felix Jaehn Remix did even better.
In November, she’ll release her debut album Transparent, and Cold Turkey is the fourth single to be released ahead of it. It was written by Nea, Joakim Åhlund (Charli XCX, Robyn, Sia), Cecilia Mix and Erik Hassle (Shakira, Icona Pop). Åhlund produced the track with Daniel Ledinsky (Shakira, Rihanna), who also produced large parts of the album.
Cold Turkey is a swinging bop, influenced by Nea’s personal favourites, such as No Doubt, Alanis Morissette and Fleetwood Mac. It’s stuffed with production tricks and treats, which provide a fresh and modern sound.
She says about the song: “Cold Turkey plays on the darkest sides of being in love. When the feeling of never wanting to let go of the other person goes to such an extreme that you seriously never intend to let go, until death literally do us part. But with a large dose of self-irony :-).”
Cold Turkey by Nea is the new Carte Blanche Music Wildcard. This implies that it will be prominently displayed at the top of the blog for an entire week.
Follow Nea on Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
In the Wildcards 2023 playlist you’ll find all of this year’s Carte Blanche Music Wildcards so far.
Your ‘All-Time’ Favourites (2017-2022)
The last six years, starting in 2017, I posted 10 musical recommendations per week on this blog. A total of well over 3.000 tracks, mostly by upcoming – often female (fronted) – artists from all over the world. As I explained yesterday, Carte Blanche Music is entering a new era. One in which I’ll focus my efforts on my constantly updated Spotify playlist.
For sure, that doesn’t mean the blog is closing down. It’ll continue to be the home of my ‘best of’ collection (Werner’s Weekly) on Monday mornings (CET) and my favourite new track (the Carte Blanche Music Wildcard), every Wednesday morning. Also, I’ll post the latest additions to my playlist on Saturdays. For updates, follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
No better way to round up the last six years than by publishing the Your ‘All-Time’ Favourites, a chart compiling the 500 most popular (as in best-read) Carte Blanche Music recommendations from 2017 to 2022. You’ll find the Top 25 below, but click through for the full list. My original recommendations are behind the links. If you’re an artist, don’t be shy and search (Ctrl+F) to find out if you made the list. You might be surprised…
Enjoy and thanks for joining the ride so far. Follow the Carte Blanche Music playlist (click ‘♥’ in Spotify) for many more recommendations to come!
Your ‘All-Time’ Favourites (2017-2022)
- Videoclub – Roi
- Wildcard (week 7): Drew Sycamore – 45 Fahrenheit Girl
- Aili x Transistorcake – Dansu
- Wildcard (week 13): Placebo – The Prodigal
- Super db – Wait For Me
- Wildcard (week 12): Shanguy – Toukassé
- Japanese Breakfast – Paprika
- Saint Motel – A Good Song Never Dies
- IBE – Table Of Fools
- Angèle – La Loi De Murphy
- Wildcard (week 22): Håkan Hellström – Alla Drömmar Är Uppfyllda
- Rick Astley – Every One Of Us
- Friedberg – Go Wild
- Wildcard (week 26): Videoclub – En Nuit
- Agnes – Here Comes The Night
- a-ha feat. Ingrid Helene Håvik – The Sun Always Shines On TV (MTV Unplugged)
- Angèle – Libre
- Temples – Paraphernalia
- Lola Le Lann – Portofino
- Pixey – Free To Live In Colour
- Eliza & The Delusionals – Just Exist
- Videoclub – Enfance 80
- Izzy Bizu (feat. Chris Martin) – Someone That Loves You ’19
- Mina Okabe – Miss Those Days
- Just – Walk Slow Smile More Read More →
Carte Blanche Music Top 2020
Ahead of your favourites among this year’s Carte Blanche Music recommendations, which I’ll publish tomorrow, these are my personal choices from the songs that came out in 2020. This list holds only 100 tracks, but you can find all of my 994 recommendations in my container playlist Carte Blanche Music 2020.
As always, I love to share some statistics about the Carte Blanche Music Top 2020. These findings are further evidence of the fact that the music radio stations play for you is far from representative of the wealth of great new music out there. Thankfully, there are blogs like Carte Blanche Music that are independent and unbiased, and don’t want to please everybody at the same time. We’re here to surprise you with great new music, no matter what genre or gender, origin or orientation. Just a few statistics:
- Judging from this Top 100 alone (let alone the full container playlist), 2020 was a great year for pure pop music, young artists, ‘80s influences, independent releases, the Australian music scene, queer pop-rock and female vocalists
- A whopping 70% of the tracks in this year’s list feature female lead vocals (and I thought the 60% in the Carte Blanche Music Top 2019 was impressive already)
- Overall, rock ruled. 54% of the tracks in my year-end chart is guitar-based (just over last year’s tally)
- The list clearly shows there are more countries that produce great artists than Great-Britain and the United States alone. This year, more nationalities than ever are represented in my Top 100. You’ll also find artists from Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland
- As a result, although most lyrics are in English, you’ll also hear songs (partly) sung in French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish
The Carte Blanche Music Top 2020 features 100 tracks, which are presented below in alphabetical order. You can listen to them all via the Spotify player. If you prefer another order, just use the shuffle button 😉.
Meanwhile, you can read my original recommendations through the links below.
- A Is For Arrows – Every Now And Then
- Abbie Ozard – True Romance (WC)
- Aili x Transistorcake – Dansu
- Aitana – 11 Razones
- Alex The Astronaut – I Think You’re Great (WC)
- Alice & Moi – T’aimerais Que Ce Soit Vrai
- Altered By Mom – Better On The Page
- Amy Allen – Difficult
- Archie X – Loud Boy (WC)
- Ava Max – Kings And Queens
- Awolnation feat. Alice Merton – The Best
- Badflower – 30
- Baxtr – Bloom (WC)
- Bée – Nothing Alike (WC)
- The Beths – Mars, The God Of War
- Betty Who – The One
- Blossoms – It’s Going To Be A Cold Winter
- Bloxx – Off My Mind
- Bloxx – 5000 Miles (WC)
- Calogero – La Rumeur
- Charles – Far Gone
- Daði Freyr & Gagnamagnið – Think About Things
- Dagny – Coulda Woulda Shoulda (*)
- Don Diablo – Invincible
- Don’t Bring Stacey – Waiting For It
- Dopha – Anti Breakup Song
- Doves – Prisoners (WC)
- Dua Lipa – Physical (WC)
- Dua Lipa – Break My Heart
- Dua Lipa (feat. DaBaby) – Levitating [Single Version]
- Efecto Pasillo feat. Huecco – Funketón [2020 Version]
- Egoism – You You (WC)
- Ella Grace – Unfree
- Ellur – Alive
- The Flowers – You Don’t Say!
- Francesco Gabbani – Il Sudore Ci Appiccica
- Genes – Super Single
- Gin Wigmore – HBIC
- Grace Farriss – All The People (WC)
- Gracie Abrams – Friend
- Grand Corps Malade – Pas Essentiel (WC)
- Håkan Hellström – Alla Drömmar Är Uppfyllda (WC)
- Harper Bloom – Walk My Way
- Hedda Mae – Madness
- The Hold Steady – Family Farm
- Hollie Col – She Knows (WC)
- Holy Holy (feat. Queen P) – Port Rd (WC)
- Hope D – Second
- Hoshi feat. Corine – Larmes De Croco (WC)
- Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker – Spa
- Indochine x Christine & The Queens – 3Sex
- Izo FitzRoy – Red Line (WC)
- Jaclyn – Energy
- Jake Bugg – Rabbit Hole
- Joan – Want U Back
- Joel Culpepper – WAR (WC)
- Julie Bergan – Commando (WC)
- Kailee Morgue – This Is Why I’m Hot (*)
- Keleketla! – International Love Affair (WC)
- Killboy – That’s OK I’ll Just Fuck Myself
- King Princess – Pain
- Kristiane – Wish I Could Be Your Girl
- La Oreja De Van Gogh – Te Pareces Tanto A Mí
- Lauran Hibberd – Boy Bye
- Lime – Fever
- Lola Lennox – Back At Wrong
- London Grammar – Baby It’s You
- The Lottery Winners – An Open Letter To Creatives (WC)
- Lova – Black Converse
- Lova – One Day Left
- Lucas Hamming – Falling
- The Magic Gang – Make Time For Change (WC)
- May-a – Apricots
- Miss Li – Therapy
- Miss Machine – Tout Autour
- MisterWives – Rock Bottom (WC)
- Monowhales – BL/FF (Fake Friends) (WC)
- Ocean Grove – Dream
- ONR (feat. Nile Rodgers) – Kill TV (WC)
- Palace Winter (feat. Penny Police) – Richard (Says Yes) (WC)
- Pixey – Just Move (WC)
- Pyro – Your Love
- Raave Tapes – Habitual
- The Radar Station – Zanzara [2020 Version] (*)
- Raye – Love Of Your Life
- Red Rum Club – The Elevation
- Ren – I Drive Me Mad (WC)
- Rinse feat. Hatchie – Back Into Your Arms
- Rooue – What You Want (WC)
- Sebu with Eraserfase – The Worst That Could Happen To Us (WC)
- Semisonic – Basement Tapes
- Sidonie with Delaporte – Mi Vida Es La Música
- Slum Sociable (feat. Kye) – You’re In My Head
- Super-Hi x Neeka – Following The Sun
- T99 vs. Youngr – Anasthasia [Youngr Bootleg]
- Temples – Paraphernalia
- Texas & Wu-Tang Clan – Hi
- Town Of Cats – Lemons (WC)
- Veronica Fusaro – Beach
- Videoclub – Enfance 80
(WC) ex Carte Blanche Music Wildcard
(*) album track
Werner’s Weekly (week 45)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:

- Rooue – What You Want (Wildcard this week)
- Abbie Ozard – True Romance (Wildcard last week)
- beabadoobee – Charlie Brown
- Better Person – Close To You
- Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker – Spa
- Kristiane – Wish I Could Be Your Girl
- The Beths – Mars, The God Of War
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Amy Mcdonald, Dua Lipa & Angèle, eels, Kaiser Chiefs, and more.
Werner’s Weekly (week 43)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:

- Palace Winter (feat. Penny Police) – Richard (Says Yes) (Wildcard this week)
- Little Quirks – Florence’s Town (Wildcard last week)
- A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
- Charles – Far Gone
- Creature Comfort – Woke Up Drunk
- Genes – Super Single
- Lauran Hibberd – Boy Bye
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker, Nothing But Thieves, Pearl Jam, Smith & Burrows, and more.
Alma – Bad News Baby
Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Therefore, I’m always hesitant to claim I ‘discovered’ an artist. I like the idea of artists discovering themselves. But If there are two acts in recent years that were very early on my radar, its Dua Lipa and Alma.
The latter’s debut single Karma was record of the week in June 2016 in my then radio show Carte Blanche. A great combination of deep house, r&b and pop. The Finnish singer-songwriter and rapper didn’t only stick out because of her neon yellow hair, but also because of her soulful voice and punk attitude. Her second single Dye My Hair would eventually provide her with her deserved break-through.
Since then, things went quickly. Alma worked with everyone from French Montana and Tove Lo to Icona Pop and Charli XCX. To be quite honest, most of her recent singles weren’t my cup of tea. But on Bad News Baby she’s back in form. It’s a pop song with an edge, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s good news, baby!
Recommended as well:
Alma – Dye My Hair
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
teddy<3 - I Was In A Cult
Teddy Geiger, 29, is one of the most prominent producers and songwriters in contemporary pop, having (co)written hits for artists like Shawn Mendes, One Direction, Icona Pop, Maroon 5, Christina Aguilera, 5 Seconds Of Summer, and Anne-Marie. Last autumn, she announced her gender transition and she just released her first solo single to her own credit: either teddy<3 or, where emojis are supported, teddy💔.
Forget all the names I just mentioned when listening to this solo outing. It has nothing to do with them, sound-wise, and personally, I like it all the more because of that. I Was In A Cult is a fuzzy, sturdy, unpolished rock song about ‘acting from a place of freedom’. It has a hook line that could become for the tens what The White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army was for the zeroes.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.
NoNoNo – Friends
Swedish producers Tobias Jimson (Astma) & Michel Flygare (Rocwell), who worked with Icona Pop before, and singer Stina Wäppling formed NoNoNo in the Spring of 2012, after a mutual friend introduced them to one another. This was just after Stina returned from Great Britain, where she had studied psychology.
The Stockholm trio came to prominence in 2013 with the great single Pumpin Blood, that has been streamed 66 million times on Spotify ever since. Hot on the heels of their latest single Lost Song, which is a beauty as well, they are now back with Friends.
For more great new music follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

