The Songs Of 2008

This blog is out of date cos I'm into writing in my own language. But I'll post this list cos I want the ho to read it.

The Bubbling-Under:

20. "Like You'll Never See Me Again" by Alicia Keys/"Lamento" by Céu
Although the former sounds like a song played in any Felicity episode, it swayed my best and lonely soap-opera-ish moments. The later was one of my faves at the psycodelic moments and sunsets during the year.

19. "Wikked Lil' Grrrls" by Esthero
Esthero was one of the most scrumptious discovers of the year. This song, that blends Hip Hop and Jazz, had the charming Canadienne singing in so many different voices that she sounded like a whole girl band, but better harmonized.

18. "Nanny Nanny Boo Boo" by Le Tigre
I've had an Electroklash momentum and Le Tigre is the best band for me. This song is deliciously poser joke about the cult of fame.

17. "Let Me Know" by Róisín Murphy
The most sensual woman from the [Dance] Electronica scene. LMK is one of the most romantic and sexy Pop songs and has one of the coolest videos I'd seen this year.

16. "Warwick Avenue" by Duffy
Yes, I prefer Duffy than Winehouse and this song comes on the peak of my drama-queenism.

15. "Rapture" by Blondie
Including one of the coolest raps from Pop Music history, "Rapture" is the opening song of my imaginary band.

14. "Let's Reggae All Night" by CSS
For months my moto was "if you want, my friend, we can drink in the afternoon". Result: after several alcoholic months, one day I ate a light sandwich and spent the night puking. Conclusion: keep junkie. Viva CSS!!

13. "Boyz" by M.I.A.
May it be "missing in action" or "missing in Acton", these two terms aren't enough to summarize who owns this alias: Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam. "Boyz", from her second album Kala, is the aesthetic ideal blend of Dance, World Music [although this is a poor category to box M.I.A. in] and political lyrics.

12. "Like A Drug" by Kylie Minogue
Minogue is part of a group of artists that never lets me down. This sexy and suggestive track, from X, was the one that mostly reverberated this year.

11. "Modern Love [Mark Moore & Kinky Roland Vox 12" Mix]" by Kish Mauve
Mima makes me think of artsy divas like Edie Sedgewick or Twiggy. She has the cold sexiness and beauty that Ladyhawke forgot in New Zealand.

Top 10:

10. "Migrate" by Mariah Carey
Factum #1: I don't like Mariah Carey.

Factum #2: I'm never that rough when what she does at least amused me.

This year Carey released the sequel from her ultra-hype 2005 album, The Emancipation Of Mimi, the E=MC². It got mixed reviews and didn't please the fans so much; as for me, luved it!, perhaps cos in her attempt to show that she has the brains in her head and not in the boobs, playing with Einstein's mass–energy equivalence, Mariah doesn't seem much like the annoying and boring Mariah we know.

"Migrate" has one of the nicest openings of 2008 Pop; besides it has Carey doing what she does best: self-celebratory lyrics that are actually fun.

09. "Black And Gold" by Sam Sparro
My favorite male discovery: Sparro is talented, hot, Aussie and gay! lol Not that the latter is a premise for me liking an artist, but it's way more real to fancy sexy with him than with Julian Casablancas, for instance. "Black And Gold", best track from his debut album, has ultra-romantic lyrics that always kills me and it was one of the best ElectroPop singles of the year; it also swayed my trip to Rome.

08. "American Boy" by Estelle
Spoken as 2008's Hip Hop revelation, Estelle was the first artist of the genre that i actually became fan. After her I opened myself to the wonderful land of Hip Hop.

Featuring Kanye West [gênio!], "American Boy" is one of those radio songs you're not afraid to admit you love, cos it's actually pretty good!

There I was at the backseat of my cousin's ex-husband's backseat, on my last night in Italy, beside my [cute] cousin's son listening to a "mix-tape" he made and I couldn't help feeling fuzzy inside when we sang it from top to bottom.

07. "Je Veux Te Voir" by Yelle
Finding Yelle was one of the most fun things of the year. Like every French girl, she's chic and glamourous, but it was her deprived and blasé features that got me hooked. Pure IndiePop fashion and naughty songstress, Yelle's music are exciting for its explicit lyrics, but above all, for the wonderful production worthy of any dancefloor.

06. "Electric Feel" by MGMT
Indiest moment of the year, MGMT was recived by me with some resistence. The hype around them irritated me at first because the psychodelic album Oracular Espectacular sounded like nothing more than a faux-modernization from 1970's Prog Rock. The way indie world copies the past and unashamedly call it retro always pissed me off, but in the end I lost cos the duo's music is actually pretty.

"Electric Feel" is about the shocks we feel when we see the creature we have a crush on... and Lord knows how much I'm addicted to them.

05. "Paparazzi" by Lady GaGa
This year's most recent addition is Lady GaGa, my current Pop adoration object. "Paparazzi", according with Germanotta, is indeed a stalker song, but much more about our daily obsession with the celebrity life, perpetuated by the loved/hated paparazzi. For me it's romantic, dramatic and lovely to sing-along, like every Pop song should be.

04. "That's Not My Name" by The Ting Tings
Jules De Martino and Katie White, The Ting Tings, are the current personification of cool. Best ElectroPop release of the year they are posers, but talented - that's why I talked a lot about them during the year.

"That's Not My Name" is a genius Electro song that always puts everyone rocking, plus it has fun lyrics about the contempt the industry has on artists that don't follow their patterns. The lyrics also synthesizes the duo bio, they were discarded by labels until they reached Britains pop-charts with this track.

03. "Womanizer" by Britney Spears
Yes, she's been one of the most trashed human beings of the past year, but in 2008 Britney Spears REALLY returned!!! Although she's not as complete as I wished, I can't deny how much she's evolved as an artist. Circus IS one of the best albums of the year and is the proof Spears are capable to do real good stuff. I had noticed with 2007's Blackout, but only when I wrote Circus's review that I could express arguments about Spears's evolution: it's like she's finally lived and now has tales to tell.

Although nowadays Womanizer isn't my favorite track from "Circus", it was important as the mark of Britney's return to mainstream.

Britney's top 5:
a. Womanizer
b. Kill The Lights
c. If U Seek Amy
d. Phonography
e. Shattered Glass

02. "My Love Is Better" by Annie
I spent most of the year following Annie. When I read she was producing her sophomore album and that it'd be released this year, I revesited her discography, searched her references and craved for every track tht leaked. 2008 was the year that being an Annie fan became important for me, because I realized the underestimated maturity she has as an asrtist. Unfortunately Don't Stop [although being fully leaked on the web] will not be released this year and risks not seeing the daylight: Island Records did to Annie what Mercury Records did to White and De Martino. And now, labeless, she keeps writing and producing songs for her new album, that I really hope is released.

"My Love Is Better" [produced by Xenomania] is an essentially Pop track, with catchy chorus, LSD-ish synths and Diva pose.

Annie's top 5:
a. My Love Is Better
b. I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me
c. I Can't Let Go
d. What Do You Want [Breakfast Song]
e. Marie Cherie

01. "Heartbeat" by Madonna
I was one of the people that trashed Hard Candy at first. Last week I read an article from the Washington Post that explained this weird relationship Madonna's fans X Madonna's new work: when Madonna releases a new album [and consequently a whole new artistic and imagetic proposal] most of the fans spend hours explaining why they hate the new album, to then have a change of heart and buzz at friends' ears saying why they now love it.

With me and "Hard Candy" was the very same thing. I coudln't understand how there could be a Madonna album in which she wasn't the one and only star. By working with mega-hyped producers and not with the Industry's underworld beings, she got out of her comfort zone and shared the spotlight. What mostly comforts me as a critical human being is that not only the fans but also the media didn't get that like many other, this was totally predicted move in her career.

In 2008 Madonna turned 50 and once again the world demanded a certain behaviour from her, and once again she refused to accept it. Months after the album's release, she started touring with her Sticky & Sweet Tour. It was when I heard the repertoire's musical reinventions and read about the show's concept that I finally understood that Madonna wasn't the same, thank G-d!

The concert was conceived as a musical patchwork quilt, like a Hip Hop album/show, using samples and various visual references. The self-celebration was more than comprehensible, after all, like a friend says "Madonna is a person that immortalize images"; and she is now in a moment of life [third age] in which not only a woman's image but everything about her is rejected by society. Still Madonna not only proved she has a lot to say and do, that she is stil able to drag our attention with exactly what is said to be disposable on a woman of 50: the image.

"Heartbeat" is for me the best track from HC. Pharrell showed it ready for Madonna, containing the vocals of one of the Pussycat Dolls's strippers ; Madonna loved, but she reworked on the lyrics that was like every other Pop/R&B song about love and sex, turning it into an ode to dance and music. In the beginning, Madonna wanted to be a dancer and with this track she explains why. "Heartbeat" is the best description of how music and dancing are capable of turning any mortal into gods, like Madonna herself.

I like to think this as a sequel to Michael Jackson's song Off The Wall, that has the same premise. What makes Heartbeat a better sequel is that it is simple and straightforward; somehow, this serves as a hymn to the nightlife and dancefloor lovers.


Madonna's top 5:
This year I also fulfilled my dream of seeing Madonna live. She finished S&S with five shows in Brasil; I was in both of her Rio de Janeiro dates. They were the most incredible experiences I had in life till now; much more important than getting into college or having sex. That because I saw in front of me and felt with all my body the reason I have Madonna as a main reference in life. Therefore, all of the Sticky & Sweet's setlist could easily be on the list.



Honorable Mentions:

- "Echo" by Cyndi Lauper: it's my week's addiction and the song with potention of turning me into a Lauper admirer.

- "Off The Wall" by Michael Jackson: this year I became a Jacko's music lover. I always accepted him as King of Pop, comprehending his phenomena and acknowledging his importance to Pop Culture. But this year I stopped, sat my ass down, listend to his music and got up to dance. "Off The Wall", the album, is my favorite of his as a solo artist - I even think it's better than his greatest trademark, Thriller; the song remits me to a déjà vu that I love having when I hear a song: the one you simply feel and the more you try you can't find where it came from.

- "Déjà Vu" by Beyoncé: DI-VA!! Beyoncé is the true 21'st century Diva; a person that is born to a fan embedded to her hair couldn't be anything less! "Déjà Vu" Bey's song I mostly like to play - it's shrill, paranoid and terribly romantic. However what mostly attracts me to Beyoncé is her appeal: no matter how wrong her artistic choices seem, you can't help find yourself loving it; and it's not only on the superficial, her works' references and aesthetic quality have become each time more intereting. May come Sasha Fierce!!

I'll always love the unusual and unexpected indie versions of dirty pop music! Even if this sounds a million light years better than the original version, it makes me want to pole dance with Britney instead.
Thanks to Glenn for alerting the world to this gem.

Current Favorite Music Ladies Top 6

With a gloomy and cloudy day outside I suddenly woke up with a feeling I didn't have in a long time: introspection. Ever since I moved, most of my days were filled with nothing or not-exactly-fulfilling activities, but outside in the hype of the streets and between my lovely eloquent friends; today I don't feel like going out, apart from the Cinema Week that is going on in town.

So this moodiness made me feel like writing anything again; go beyond the thematic and just write about anything I want. And since I'm always writing about music here, here goes the list of the top 6 artists I'm listening the most. Not so surprisingly they're all women.

6. Juliette And The Licks

There's an awesome aura of coolness around Juliette Lewis and her band that they inspire me. I had to buy ribbons to imitate the lead-Lick's indian style. Plus her raspery voice and delicious posture as a rockstar makes me want to have my own band. *giggles* My favorite songs are 20 Year Old Lover, Bullshit King, American Boy and Hot Kiss. "Lover" and "King"'s dialogues by the end of the songs thrill me to the bone with its sass and rhythm, showing an attitude that is mesmerizing.

5. Britney Spears

"It's Britney, bitch!" Okay, I only have one thing to comment about this: who'd ever thought that in the worst moment of her career and life, Miss Spears would manage to release such a great and genius album?! Say what you want about the vocals, but this album has amazing beats and hooks... who cares about the lyrics? Radar and Get Naked are pure delight!

4. Kylie Minogue

There's this woman in Brasil called Erika Palomino who is told to be Brazillian's Anna Wintour; she's the best fashion reviewer, the one who all the models and designers want to be protogé of, the one who's the trend spreader... anyways, one day she was invited to a chat on a website and somebody quentioned her why wasn't she talking so much about Madonna anymore. Palomino replied that Madonna now was in another area in which her personal life was more important and she wouldn't become The Sun and publish every little thing Madonna said or did, "besides, it's Kylie Minogue's momentum!"

I couldn't agree more. Ever since the Showgirl Homecoming Kylie has been heating up the vaults of anticipation with her upcoming album. Early in the year several songs leaked and we had the pleasure of knowing the marvelous In My Arms; now 2 Hearts is everywhere and soon we'll have the full album in our hands. It's already leaked... but while I wait for The Ho to finally sending me everything, I feed my addictions to the following top 3 ladies.

3. Vanessa Carlton

Heroes & Thieves is such a singular and sweet piece that it could not be done by anyone else than Miss Carlton. Its body is more than the collection of songs that Carlton's previous albums felt like, and though at first you might twist your nose and think that it's more of the same, you'll be totally wrong if you stick to that idea. In H&T Vanessa is in her best shape as a songwriter and arranger, bringing songs filled with breezy percussions and drums always sided by her sweet and inspired piano. The lyrics are other joys to notice; her poetry is filled with even more honesty and imagery. My favorite ones are Hands On Me, My Best, Come Undone and More Than This.

2. Björk

Uhhh... is there anything to say about my complete fascination and addiction to this woman? After the concert I attended I have been unable to write freely about my experience, as if it's too overwhelming. But it's coming out, especially now that I'm discovering even more genius stuff by this G-d. Whoever uploads me the whole Family Tree collection I'll owe sexual favors forever!

1. Feist

[That's my favorite pic of Feist's, I'll definitielly imitate it.] If I'd known Feist before the Tim Festival I would've undoubtedly bought tickets to her concert and stayed beyond pissed when she cancelled her gigs due to labyrinthitis. Her sweet and somewhat hoarse vocals are enough to charm you and make you feel like you're in love. Some of the lyrics are pretty melancholic, but are arranged so beautifuly and yet very minimalistically that it's impressive. Right now I'm beyond addicted to her sophomore album, Let It Die, which features marvelous self-penned songs such as Gatekeeper, One Evening, Mushaboom, Leisure Suite and the tittle track, plus wonderful covers like Inside And Out and When I Was A Young Girl. I'm getting into her latest album as well, The Reminder; Sea Lion Woman is my favorite - one of the best arrangements ever done!

Top 5: Music For The Road

Breaking my habit of only traveling by bus at night, Monday I came to Salvador by noon. The bus left at 30 past 12 and thankfully it had a conditioned air, because the heat was disgusting [the kind that makes you sweaty and viscous]. The night before I had got high, therefore I had a weird night/morning of sleep; but the point I'm trying to get is the music!
When I bought the Antony And The Johnsons and Björk's tickets I had planned in filling my mp3 player with their music and only, when the time came for me to go to Rio. Well, lines above you happened to know I ended up high and surely forgot to do that; but I'm glad. Coming to think about it I'd end up sick of them by half of the trip and the surprise of hearing the songs live must come fresh.
So in the bus, during my REM sleep, I played the folder with random artists and had wonderful trips. I've already posted about the sleep and music combo, how you come to have these crazy dreams and images flashing through your eyes, as you brain decides between sleeping and listening to the tune.
So, here follows the 5 tracks [+ bonuses] that gave me best dream-intros.
5. Gimme More - Britney Spears
Mhmm... I'd be wondering as well how could that catchy-but-lazy track by Miss Long-Time-Ago-Promissing-Pop-Princess bring good dreams. Well the thing is, to be in REM is like being under the influence of E and every little sound the penetrates your mind becomes powerful and dreamsome. Spears's track has lovely synth-details that woke me up to see that my hips were unconsciously moving.
4. I Talk Too Much [featuring Kylie Minogue] - Just Jack
Just Jack is the stage name of British singer Jack Allsopp. I never heard of him before the day his sophomore album was released and I happened to learn that he had a duet with my lovely Kylie Minogue. I downloaded I Talk Too Much from a Kylie fan-site and thought it was cool but didn't give much attention to it later, until I found myself having wild and crazy sleepy-imagery to Jack's rushy vocals, Minogue's acute and incisive voice and the wonderful horn samples from the track.
Note to self: download JJ's albums.
3. LDN - Lily Allen
Suddenly the lyrics came full and clear in my head and again the horn arrangements blew my mind away. Everytime I the song played I'd wake up to sing along, which is not bad cos this is one of my favorite tracks to sing along. It's pity I'm missing her show in São Paulo in two weeks.
2. Spell Of Desire - Kylie Minogue
This is one of the rejected tracks from Kylie's forthcoming tenth studio album. Produced by Mylo the
6-minutes-long song is a delicious fest of synthesized beats and spacebeeps [never as boring as Orbit's]; try to imagine this sci-fi atmosphere when you're half-awake/half-asleep. Like Sophie [Ellis-Bextor] would say I had to surrender to the party in my head. The wildest and marvelous abstract images became alive in my mind... but still not as powerful as the #1...
1. Stop Running Away [featuring Deborah Anderson] - Télépopmusik
This French trip hop group was presented to by the ho and now they remind me of Saint Etienne. Last year Jose told me to download Etienne and I ignored him; later I found myself addicted to the band.
When I felt I was waking up I forced myself to remain eye-shut, because the visions I was having shouldn't be erased by boring real imagery. It was Deborah Anderson's layered vocals on track "Stop Running Away" giving me the best dream I'd had in days. Suddenly I was a choir arranger conducting a group of fiveplets singing the wonderful lyrics, while I also played the beautiful and organic synths. No matter how thoughtfully I try to describe the feeling and sensation you will only know/feel what I'm saying after you listen to the track.
Right after SRA, came the wonderful Into Everything also featuring Anderson's sweet vocals but this time accompanied by marvelous beats and programming - and after the lovely surprise by its end I was all the into Télépopmusik's fandom-land.

"I'll Be Anticipating..."

I'm all smiles today. After watching a deliciously funny Woody Allen movie [Small Time Crooks], dad and I sat down to look up plane tickets to my trip to Rio in the end of the month. I'm sure I didn't tell about this here before, but I'm going to Rio de Janeiro to see Björk and Antony And The Johnsons live. I don't need to say I'm beyond excited.

I still have some crap to solve, like getting all my papers and bank cards all over again until then [this is starting to freak me out, because time never goes by so slowly when you need it to], and making reservations at a hostel. But despite the weight in my chest that these little problems bring, I'm still floating with the prospect of a whole weekend at one of the beautifulest cities in the world.

And funny thing I titled a post about Björk and a trip to Rio with a line from a Britney Spears song; if I were superstitious I'd take that as a not-so-good omen.

[Song: Twlight - Antony And The Johnsons]

D.A.N.C.E.

They're hype as crap at the New Rave/Indie scene and this would probably make me stick up my nose for them, if it weren't for how cool and funky this song is. Very retro like everything else nowadays, it still keeps itself fresh maybe because the chorus sounds like the Madonna part in the weirdo duet with Britney Spears, Me Against The Music [I mean the part Madge says "come on Britney lose control/party all night long"]. Plus, this video is genius!! I want all of those t-shirts!

Taurus Top 5

We're on the month of Aries. I don't have to say it's my favorite month because I happen to be an Aries, so I won't discourse much on it.

In Kabbalah it's said that the first twelve days of Aries are like preambles for all the other months of the year; it's like they're the first fields where we'll settle our battles, like the recognition of territory. Kabbalist Isaac Luria created a guide to the first twelve days of Aries, each day corresponding to a sign from the zodiac. Yesterday, the 22nd, was Taurus day and we were supposed to “avoid being comfortable” by “listening to others, embracing discomfort, actively sharing with others, avoiding complacency.” My soundtrack for such a day [that started with a stressing walk to the bank and was adorned by a sleepy class and internet troubles] might not have much to do with the essence of Taurus day, but these songs helped get through the day by sometimes reconnecting me to the good part of things, in other words, the Light.

5. “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” by Judy Garland

I closed the day with a screening of one of my favorite musicals, Meet Me In St. Louis. This lullaby-esque holiday song has a so obvious sorrowful tone that it often hides the sweet optimism contained in the lines. The marvelous and magically beautiful Judy Garland, as Miss Esther Smith, sing about living the moment and enjoying the happiness of Christmas, forgetting the troubles of life that will surely melt away in the future.

4. “Peach Trees” by Rufus Wainwright

It’s amazing how this song sounds fresh to me even when I’ve listened to it a million times. Wainwright performs it with an ailment and emotion that the sad lyrics become somewhat soothing after a while. It’s a song that not only grows on you but also grows itself, feeling like a giant wave that is to crash on a shore of resignation. The lines “’cause I’m so tired of waiting in restaurants/reading the critics and comics alone” [that happen to be some of my favorite lines ever written] ends in a delusional and magic meeting with James Dean. For a stressed and heartbroken person they bring nothing but hope.

3. “Like A Virgin” by Madonna

What’s to say about a song that goes: “I was beat, incomplete/I’d been had/I was sad and blue/but you made me feel/yeah you made me feel shiny and new/like a virgin/touched for the very first time”? I guess it’s enough said.

2. “Vibrate” by Rufus Wainwright

“My phone’s on vibrate for you”. Waiting, anticipation, suspense. These things alone are enough to make an Aries stressed, not because of others but because we still wait. If you read my latest posts you’ll notice my mind and heart have been waiting for the next best thing to happen. I know I should not expect the Universe to always give me what I wish - I’m working on that – but this song translates a lot of this kind of depressing feeling that has been hanging on me for a while. The Britney Spears mention in the lyrics is very witty and I’m sure the melody is inspired, if not totally sampled, by Bach.

1. “On The Radio” by Regina Spektor

This song goes about human behavior, of how we live our days trying to make it right, connecting one fact or thrill to the other - sometimes losing ourselves in the process – but always companied by memory. On Aries day [the 21st] we were supposed to “remember the past to avoid repeating mistakes” and though in the rapid pace and careless life of ours we do repeat craps we are always aware of them. Spektor’s song juxtaposes actions getting a kind of stream of consciousness/life rhythm: “no, this is how it works/you pear inside yourself/you take the things you like/and try to love the things you took/and then you take that love you made/and stick it into some/someone else’s heart/pumping someone else’s blood/and walking arm in arm/you hope it don’t get harmed/but even if it does/you’d just do it all again”.

The Songs Of 2005

I can’t even remember when music started to be one of the greatest parts of my daily life. Everyone who knows me personally, knows I’m always singing something and while all my friends spend their money in clothes, shoes or alcohol, every little penny I get goes to music industry. Despite of hearing more artists than I did in 2004, 2005 was a very homogeneous year as well. During the year, there were months or bimesters I could only hear one artist. From March to May, for example, Natalie Imbruglia reigned on my CD player. Here the list goes:

1. Hung Up (Madonna): Jose will call me a jealous bitch, because he had written the same post on his blog and the first song of his list is the same of mine. But since he knows I’m a Madge freak like him, he’ll understand no other song could occupy this spot of the list. Well, “Hung Up” was the best thing of 2005. After months of anticipation and a short and unexpected period of musical boredom (dark days when music died… to be more specific: when Mariah Carey and J-Lo were everywhere – bitter drama queen moment), “Hung Up” leaked “and everything went from wrong to right”. I was sure Madonna’s new single would knock me down as soon as I heard it, and it did: ask my knees and feet if they are the same after Hung Up’s launch.

PS: This spot actually belongs to the whole Confessions On A Dance Floor album, but since I can’t put an entire album in it, I chose its ambassador: “Hung Up”.

2. Confide In Me (Kylie Minogue): 2005 was the year that I became a Kylie fan. Ironically, the year before I used to loathe her. After Jose and the “Madonna environment” inject Kylie slowly into my veins, I started to look up for more of her. So I knew Spinning Around, The Loco-Motion, etc etc. I Believe In You and Giving You Up had made me Kylie-friendly months before, but when I bought Ultimate Kylie, it was “Confide In Me” that made me lose my mind. For a latin drama queen like me, that string section is heaven.

3. Counting Down The Days (Natalie Imbruglia): This woman swayed the first part of my relationship with Vag. I definitelly became a fan, for I have all of her albums, but what makes me love this woman is the fact that each song written by her fits perfectly in a certain moment of ours. “Counting Down The Days” is rather obvious, but there’s also, Satellite and Come September from the White Lilies Island album. Now, all of her songs make me think of something that is in the past and sound very aged.

4. Confessions Of A Broken Heart (Lindsay Lohan): After Rumors and Over I thought Lindsay’s music career was worthless attention. When I first heard “Confessions Of A Broken Heart”, however, something inside me clicked: “she’s genius!” With simple and kind of obvious lyrics, this song is interesting because it reveals a part of La Lohan that most of us don’t know (or don’t care to know): the deep, heartfelt girl who lives under the celebrity skin. I was always a fan of her movie career, but after this I love everything she does.

5. Humble Me (Norah Jones): Do you know how many times I must’ve heard this song last year? Neither do I. Strangely enough, it stuck into my brains for the entire year! I lost count of the times I caught myself singing or hmm-ing it while I walked around Marilia.

6. Hollaback Girl (Gwen Stefani): I spent an exact year into Gwen Stefani. In 2004, What You Waiting For? and Rich Girl blew my mind, and when I downloaded the whole album, Cool and The Real Thing were the best things of that year aside Madonna, and it (the album) made me not only a Gwen fan, but also, a No Doubt fan. In 2005, in a moment I thought I’d be already out of Gwen, “Hollaback Girl” hit Brazil. I knew it before, of course, but just then it blew my mind. The sassy, fun and misunderstood lyrics are delightful, it’s the beat, nevertheless, that wins. There’s no way I hear Hollaback Girl and don’t shake my ass like a good ho.

7. Don’t Cha Wanna Ride? (Joss Stone): Just because it’s my song with Nathalia. She turned out to be one of my best friends and this song makes me think of her. Besides, it’s fun, unpretencious and cool: as music is supposed to be.

8. Aire (Fey/Mecano): Whether sung by Fey or Ana Torrojan, this song is perfect by its surreal deepness. Jose, firstly, got me into Fey. However, the song sung by her that I loved was “Aire”, so it was just a step for me to become a Mecano admirer.

9. Pieces Of Me (Ashlee Simpson): Ha! This one’s the best! I H-A-T-E-D Ashlee Simpson. For me, she was just someone who was taking the ride of her unbearable sister’s (Jessica Simpson) fame to release an album. Suddenly, “Pieces Of Me” hooked into my mind for almost a week and I decided to finally listen to her music, so I could have basis for criticism. Ha, it bit my ass, because instead of hating it, I loved and now I’m a fan!

10. Over To You Now (Britney Spears): Right after Britney’s marriage I started to refuse her, and don’t even ask why because I don’t know, and don’t care in investigating. But after a whole year ignoring her work I simply couldn’t ignore this song, released as a b-side from the Japanese edit of Someday (I Will Understand). It rapidly entered my and Jose’s Sluts On A Dance Floor playlist and it turned me into a hopeless fan again.

11. Ainda Bem (Vanessa da Mata): This is the first Brazillian artist I become a fan since Sandy and Junior. My father introduced me to Vanessa’s music and at first I didn’t care much, but soon I fell in love with “Ainda Bem” and the Essa Boneca Tem Manual album.

12. Night And Day (Ella Fitzgerald): This one is simple: Cole Porter is genius and Ella Fitzgerald is G-d! “Night And Day” is the song that got me back into Jazz, especially Ella. This song gives me chills up and down my spine, I get butterflies in my stomach when it plays and my heart speeds up. But only Miss Fitzgerald’s version turns me on like that.

13. Screwed (Paris Hilton)/ Bucky Done Gun (M.I.A.)/ Dako É Bom (Tati Quebra Barraco): Just for the sake of being sassy, frivolous and trivial every now and then. Just for the sake of shaking my ass and being a slut whenever I feel like it. Just for the sake of doing whatever I want and listening to whatever I want to.

Others:

14. All I Really Want – Acoustic Version (Alanis Morissette) = …give me butteflies…
15. Better The Devil You Know/Shocked/What Do I Have To Do? (Kylie Minogue) = …3 Dance Music anthems…
16. Lala (Ashlee Simpson) = …sexy and cool…
17. Step Back In Time (Kylie Minogue) = …last tune of the year…
18. Whenever You Feel Like It (Kylie Minogue) = …cute and makes me dance…
19. Do Somethin’ (Britney Spears) = …infectious…
20. Rumors/Over (Lindsay Lohan) = …first is a slut hymn… second is beautiful…
21. Everlasting Love/Twentysomething/But For Now (Jamie Cullum) = …just because Cullum’s damn cute and deserves to be in this list.