Scandinavia
had quite a few hit-making artists when eurodance was hip. However, I
was never particularly fond of domestic eurodance artists, so I spend more time with artists from neighboring countries. The most
memorable artist for me was Danish-Norwegian Aqua whose cheerful
bubblegum dance music has clearly left a permanent impact on me even
though I nowadays prefer other kind of bubblegum music. Lene Nystrøm
channeled the bubblegum vocal style while René Dif rapped, creating
quite a contrast.
When
I now think about Aqua, the first thing that comes to mind is the
lawsuit concerning their biggest hit, Barbie Girl. Back then I surely
fondly listened to every song on Aqua's hit album Aquarium (1997).
Most people remember Aqua by catchy hit songs and entertaining music
videos (Doctor Jones, My Oh My). Turn Back Time still sounds timeless, while Lollipop (Candyman) has a very strong 1990s feel to
it. Quite interestingly Aqua is apparently the most commercially
successful Danish group ever.
I
also have to mention another Danish band, a girl duo called S.O.A.P. because they
were just awesome. S.O.A.P. only released two albums, the second of
which I never actually even listened to. Trends came and went pretty
fast in my life at that time. S.O.A.P.'s first album Not Like Other
Girls (1998) was created by the best of Danish eurodance production and sung by sisters Heidi and Line Sørensen.
The
album included of course energetic dance pop hits (This Is How We Party,
Ladidi Ladida, Romeo & Juliet) as well as
more melancholic melancholic material such as Wishing and Who Can I Talk to, and it is especially these latter ones that I find the most
memorable. There is indeed plenty of timelessness in S.O.A.P.'s pop melodies.
