AmazingAmanda

Amanda Jenssen Fans Association

2008-05-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

I have started a fan club for Amanda Jenssen (aka Amanda Jensen). For this purpose I also started another blog, amandajenssenfans-ajfa.blogspot.com. The blog is in Swedish but if you want to join Amanda Jenssen's fan club and don't speak Swedish you're still welcome.

I am building a message board for members only and there will be an English section if there is an interest from people outside of Sweden. Or you can ask things in the Swedish section as well. Everyone in Sweden speaks fairly good English.

Amanda Jenssen Fans Association (AJFA) is aiming for Sweden mostly at the moment. But anyone that want to meet and talk to other Amanda Jenssen fans is welcome to join.

AJFA is still a very small club. But the people that have joined so far are all die-hard fans.

New Music by Amanda Jenssen

2008-05-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

On May 17:th Amanda Jenssen performed two songs in Partille near Gothenburg. I was very happy to be there. The first song was a completely new song, written two weeks ago called ”My Raspberry Man”. Amanda said that the song is finished to perform with her band. Actually that is what she's saying at the beginning of the video I'm linking to here.

”My Raspberry Man”, live on May 17:th

It has also been confirmed that the song Amanda Jenssen and Pär Wiksten performed in Stockholm on May 12:th is a new song written by them. I linked to that song in the former post.

Another great performance by Amanda was in a radio show, also on the 12:th of May. It's the best performance I have ever heard of the last song on the album, ”Our Last Goodbye”. The video is possible to download. Hopefully that will work in other countries as well.

”Our Last Goodbye”, performed live on radio, May 12:th

Killing my Darlings #1 in Sweden

2008-05-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

After just one week Amanda Jenssen's debut album "Killing my darlings" enters the Swedish album top list at first place. Amanda Jenssen's official web page also reports that the album is #3 on iTunes in Europe, which is quite amazing in my opinion since there to my knowledge has been no promotion outside of Sweden.

iTunes is selling "Killing my darlings" with an extra track, "Maple trees". "Maple trees" barely made it into the Swedish single top list this week without even being released in any other form. Another page sells the album with "Maple trees" in wma format but besides that I don't know anyone selling that song.

Amanda played the song "For the sun" together with Pär Wiksten on radio recently. The version was very different from that on the album and much closer to the demo version on her myspace. It's possible to download the live version HERE. Click on "Amanda spelade live från nya plattan - For the sun" and Media Player will open the file. It's an mp3 file.

Amanda Jenssen and Pär Wiksten has been in a lot of places lately. Amanda has signed albums for fans and often they performed a couple of songs too. In Stockholm on the 12:th of May they surprised everyone by performing what seems to be a new song:

Amanda and Pär live in Stockholm, 12:th of May. New song?

On the 17:th Amanda will sign albums at a supermarket just outside of Gothenburg and she and Pär will perform a couple of songs as well. I guess I don't have to tell you I will be there.

Some Information about the Album

2008-05-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

About the Album

When "Killing my darlings" was recorded it wasn't a usual recording. It all started when the producer Simon Nordberg entered the studio in a golden suite. Amanda got inspired and the next day she dressed up in a red cocktail dress. And it was decided that everyone involved with the recordings had to dress up before coming to the studio. It looked more like they were recording an old mafia movie or something like that. The idea was that it should have an effect on the recordings. And when listening to "Killing my darlings" one can hear, or rather feel, there's something in the air. This is not an ordinary pop album, far from. Listening to Amanda's debut album is like being brought back to a time where everything was new and fresh and life was still a mystery. Still the music is not retro or old fashioned. It's as fresh as the music back then.

Amanda often gets compared to artists like Amy Winehouse or Duffy. Duffy once said in an interview something like this: "Everyone says I make music like in the sixties and I say yeah, well ok. I don't know. I wasn't alive back then." Like Duffy, Amanda Jenssen doesn't go for a retro sound. She wants to capture the feeling of innovation and adventure from the fifties and the sixties. Amanda, Amy, Duffy and other artists get bunched together as retro artists but they don't have much in common. The only common thing about them is that they make real music that gets right to the heart of the listener.

This is why "Killing my darlings" gets so many great reviews. It's a great album and Amanda Jenssen is a very talented artist. She can sing as well as play both acoustic and electric guitar and she writes her own music. That's not what most people expect from a woman today but it was no problem in the late sixties and early seventies when everyone could go their own way. The only thing that is retro about Amanda is that she goes her own way. And that says more about the World of today than it says about Amanda.

About the Songs

1. For the sun

Written by: Amanda Jenssen
Backing vocals by Amanda Jenssen.

This song was written two years ago. There is an old demo out on Internet which sounds very different. The original version was slower and quite sad. This is a very cheerful version. I like both versions but I must say I like the album version the best.

2. Amarula tree

Written by: Amanda Jenssen, Pär Wiksten
Backing vocals by Amanda Jenssen

This was released as Amanda's second single. It reached the fourth place but is still a big hit. Amanda has said in several interviews that it is about not having a home but that life is ok anyway. Amanda moved to Stockholm to get closer to were most things happen in Sweden. It's hard to get an apartment in Stockholm even for a new born star, so she has moved from place to place.

3. Greetings from space

Written by: Amanda Jenssen, Pär Wiksten

Amanda wrote this when she lived in a very small one room apartment. She wanted to write a classic that the old masters forgot to write and this is her try. A lot of the songs were recorded as demos in Pär Wiksten's small studio, "The slow room". But the demo vocals for this song were so good they decided to keep them. Actually the vocals on this song is the very first take. "Greetings from space" is considered by many fans and journalists to be the best song on the album. The album version is 5:16 so the version you can listen to on youtube misses the very powerful last part. I think this song is one of the best ever written in the history of music.

4. Do you love me

Written by: Vincent Pontare, Mack and Astma

This was Amanda's first single and it was a number one hit for many weeks and was played all the time on the radio. It still gets some air play. This song is different from the others. The rest of the songs were recorded live in studio with a band. On this song Vincent Pontare plays all the instruments except strings and horns. It is very produced and it's easy to hear it's not a band playing. It doesn't fit in very well with the rest of the material and is considered by a lot of people to be the weakest track. Still it's a good song and I like it. On most other albums it would have been one of the stronger tracks. I have no idea who Mack and Astma are.

5. So far away

Written by: Amanda Jenssen
Backing vocals by Amanda Jenssen.

This is another song on the album that was written two years ago. These vocals are recorded in "The slow room" just like the vocals on "Greetings from space". They felt the vocals on this demo as well were good as they were. I think this is a very good song that gets better all the time. One of my very favourites.

6. Don't worry

Written by: Amanda Jenssen, Pär Wiksten
All instruments by Amanda Jenssen and Pär Wiksten

This is an interesting recording since everything was recorded in Pär Wiksten's studio "The slow room". Pär Wiksten handled all the production and mixing and all the instruments were played by Pär and Amanda. It doesn't sound very different from the rest of the songs since Pär Wiksten and Simon Nordberg produced most of it. But this is a very playful recording and it's easy to hear they fooled around with a lot of stuff, having a lot of fun while making it. There's a lot of Amanda Jenssen in this recording.

7. Darling, go home

Written by: Amanda Jenssen

I think this song in some ways is similar in style with "Don't worry". But while "Don't worry" is a very good song I think this is even better. This is another favourite.

8. Numb

Written by: Amanda Jenssen

I think this is one of the most beautiful songs ever written and the arrangement is lovely. I just love this.

9. Come on (you have arrived)

Written by: Marit Bergman, Sundbladh
Backing vocals by Amanda Jenssen and Linda Sundblad

This is one of the songs that Amanda didn't write herself and still decided to keep for the album. She has said in an interview that she thinks the song is very good and will be great to play live. I must admit I like this as well. I think it could be another huge hit. The song is really that strong.

10. Rising up

Written by: Lucie Silvas, Eg White

Some journalist wrote that this song don't fit on the album. He doesn't think it's Amandas style. Well maybe. Or maybe not. Does she have to make music in a certain style? It's very different from the songs she writes herself. But she does a very good version of this song. And to me, that is all that counts. I love it.

11. Our last goodbye

Written by: Amanda Jenssen, Pär Wiksten
Acoustic guitar: Amanda Jenssen
Backing vocals by Amanda Jenssen and Pär Wiksten

This is a very good ending song and what you can hear in the final version was partly recorded in "The slow room". Together with "Numb" and "Greetings from space" this is one of the most beautiful songs ever written if anyone asks me. Well you didn't have to ask, I told you anyway, didn't I.

About the Cover Design

I must end this by commenting on the design of the cover because I don't think it has been mentioned anywhere else. The cover design is beautiful and this is to a big degree as a result of the pictures. Severus Tenenbaum who took all the pictures is a very talented photographer. She is really an artist and I am really glad they chose her for the job. Every time I see a new Amanda picture from Severus I get amazed. There is a lot more pictures to see on her blog that I link to,both with and without Amanda.

Also, a big thank you to Lars Sundh who designed everything into the beautiful package it became.

Nice Times for Amanda Jenssen Fans

2008-05-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

A lot is happening around Amanda Jenssen right now. And I really mean a lot. A journalist described it as she had been shot out of a cannon and now she's everywhere.

Amanda Jenssen was quiet for a long time concentrating on her album. But suddenly, when the release date was getting close, everything exploded. I don't think that even Amanda's hard core fans expected her to get this much attention. Amanda Jenssen's album "Killing My Darlings" has been reviewed in pretty much every newspaper all over Sweden. A lot of the biggest papers had the review as the most important of the week letting it cover a full page with a huge picture of Amanda. She mostly got very good reviews. A few even seem to think it's nothing less than a masterpiece and it has been compared to Elvis' debut album.

Sweden's biggest fashion magazine for men, Café, had a great 8 pages long interview with a lot of fantastic pictures of Amanda Jenssen. It's the best and longest printed article about Amanda so far.

Amanda is doing interviews and is playing live as well almost every day at the moment on most of the radio channels and some Swedish TV stations as well. Below are two live performances she did on Swedish TV 4 earlier today as well as a lengthy interview. The videos are of surprisingly good quality for being on youtube.

Our last goodbye, live on Swedish TV 4 on May 11:th
Amarula tree, live on Swedish TV 4 on May 11:th

On the release date of "Killing My Darlings", the 7:th of May, Amanda Jenssen had a release party in Lund, the town where she was born and raised. At the moment she lives in Stockholm but she wanted to have the release party in her home town. She performed five songs live, "For the sun", "Amarula tree", "Do you love me", "Greetings from space" and "Our last goodbye". The guests were friends, family, old school teachers, journalists and of course her own fans.

Here is a sample you can listen to as well as watching her arms move in every direction^^:

For the sun, live at the release party on May 7:th

There are more bits from the release party on youtube but they are of worse quality.

At the moment Amanda Jenssen is signing albums all over Sweden and sometimes performing a couple of songs as well. This is what Amarula tree sounds like with only Amanda and her guitarist Pär Wiksten, from the group Wannadies:

Amarula tree, acoustic live version from Eskilstuna on May 10:th

A video is out for "Amarula tree" as you can see in the upper right corner of this blog. Some fans love it, some think it's not very good. I would say it's not a masterpiece but Amanda Jenssen is as entertaining as always. If you want to see the video in better quality, go to this address.

Poll No 5

2008-05-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Poll no 4 is off and it ended like this:

Which musical style do you not want to hear from Amanda in the future?

Ballads - 2 votes (3%)
Jazz - 5 votes (7%)
Blues - 2 votes (3%)
Rock'n'roll - 3 votes (4%)
Gospel - 7 votes (10%)
Uptempo - 4 votes (6%)
Soul - 7 votes (10%)
Country - 23 votes (35%)
Vintage - 2 votes (3%)
Acoustic - 10 votes (15%)

65 visitors voted this time which is far from the number of voters in poll no 3. Maybe a lot of Amanda Jenssen's fans don't care what she sings as long as she sings it well. One thing is clear though. More than a third voted for country so that is not too popular among Amanda's fans. A fascinating thing is that only five visitors voted for jazz. Considering that most of her fans are very young that is pretty amazing.

Poll no 5 is not a very original idea but it is the obvious one. I know that the same poll is on another Amanda Jenssen homepage but this gives people outside of Sweden, that found their way to this blog, a chance to have their saying. So the question is, of course: Which song is the best on Killing My Darlings?

If you live outside of Sweden there is a big chance that you haven't heard the songs. So below you have a very long snippet from every song. In some cases it's almost all of the song.

For the sun
Amarula tree
Greetings from space
Do you love me
So far away
Don't worry
Darling, go home
Numb
Come on (you have arrived)
Rising up
Our last goodbye

Amarula Tree Peaked at No 4

2008-05-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Amanda Jenssen's latest single Amarula Tree peaked at number four on the Swedish Top List which makes it another successful single. This week it is down at the eleventh place, after the list was updated today. The Swedish Top List reports all the sales of singles.

On Digilistan, that reports the sales over internet, Amarula Tree is at the moment in a second place. It will be updated on Sunday. An interesting fact is that Amanda Jenssen's first single Do You Love Me got hotter this week too; it climbed from place no 44 to no 36 on Digilistan!

A video for Amarula Tree is on its way. Hopefully it will help this single stay in the charts for a longer time. But it's a shame they didn't make a video for Amanda's smash hit Do You Love Me. It was a number one hit for several weeks in Sweden and on Digilistan it sold more than twice as much as number two for a while. Do You Love Me also got some attention on a few American blogs, like aurgasm.

Hopefully Do You Love Me will be released worldwide later on. It's strong enough to give Amanda Jenssen the World hit she wants and deserves.

Poll No 4 is Here

2008-04-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

The third poll is closed. 100 people voted this time and it ended like this:

Which artist is Amanda most similar to?

Amy Winehouse - 9 votes
Natasha Bedingfield - 1 vote
Gwen Stefani - 5 votes
Johnny Cash - 4 votes
Elvis Presley - 6 votes
Amanda is unique - 75 votes

The new poll will be slightly different. This time you're not supposed to vote for your favourite alternative. This time I want you to vote for your least favourite alternative. Which musical style do you not want to hear from Amanda Jenssen in the future?

Why not just vote for what you want to hear the most? Well, it's kind of a psychological thing. Maybe we all think that we know what we like her to sing and it would be easy to give an answer. I tried to choose only musical styles that more or less would suit Amanda. Some fans could easily pick one type pf music. Some would like anything if she does it well. Even if you like all these musical styles, try to pick one anyway. And yes, you're right, all the alternatives are not actually musical styles.

When the poll is over we will know what people don't want Amanda Jenssen to sing if they have to choose. And from that it's easy to tell what people really want her to perform. At least the die-hard fans that reads this blog.

Amanda Jenssen is Shooting Video in Barcelona

2008-04-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

Amanda Jenssen's new single Amarula Tree is climbing the charts. This week it moved from place 34 to # 4 on the Swedish Top List. It looks like it could be another huge hit single for Amanda.

At the moment Amanda Jenssen is in Barcelona in Spain recording the video for Amarula Tree. She has started up a new page at Bilddagboken and she says it will be updated every day or at least very often. In fact the picture she posted today is taken in Barcelona so watch out for more pictures from Spain. There is a new link here to that page under Swedish Amanda Jenssen Links (Amanda på Bilddagboken). "Bilddagbok" means "picture diary" so that would pretty much tell you what it's about. It's no problem to comment on the pictures in English but the text there is in Swedish.

Some News and a Home Visit

2008-04-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

The weather in Sweden has been great for the last three days so I suspect that all Swedish bloggers have been lazy. We haven't got this much sun in three days for nearly a year I think. It has been raining pretty much every day. They say it's because of the greenhouse effect. I don't know, but it's nice to finally get some sun.

Some news about Amanda Jenssen: Her new single "Amarula Tree" is climbing all charts and it's not unlikely that it will be another big hit. It got a really positive review in one of Swedens biggest evening papers and that guy didn't even like Amanda before.

Groove, a magazine that is distributed for free outside record stores in Sweden, has a fine review of Amanda's coming album "Killing My Darlings". For Swedish readers I put the link here.

An interview is coming soon on AmazingAmanda. Hopefully there will be more interviews in the future.

The fan base of Amanda Jenssen is growing bigger all the time. One of Amanda's biggest fans is probably Ellen who lives in Örebro in central Sweden. She is very active on all the forums about Amanda and of course she has her own Amanda blog. She seems to chat regularly with Amanda and knows about pretty much everything before anyone else. But most impressive is her bedroom wall. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the most beautiful wall in the World. At least if you love Amanda Jenssen.

What's So Familiar with Amarula Tree?

2008-04-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

The first time I heard Amarula Tree I thought it was something familiar about it. I couldn't put my finger on it. Was it the style of music? I couldn't decide what style of music it was. It seem to be ska, rock, dixie jazz and possibly even more styles in a perfect blend. But something was very familiar. Then, after four days, it hit me. It was an old song from 1979, Night Boat to Cairo by Madness. I found that song on youtube and compared it to Amarula Tree.

The song Amarula Tree is completely different from Night Boat to Cairo but there are a lot of similarities I think. Night Boat to Cairo (NBTC) starts with a lonely saxophone, then the drummer starts kicking the snare drum before the music starts. Amarula Tree (AT) starts with a trombone, then the drummer starts banging the snare drum and the music starts.

In NBTC the similarities get obvious at 00:34 when the actual song starts. The bass playing is in parts exactly the same as in AT, especially the first notes. An exotic melody is played in NBTC by what I think is a guitar and a saxophone at the same time, before the saxophone takes over. In AT the trombones are playing a slow dixie jazz melody but accompanied by Amanda Jenssen's aaahhh's and 'dreeeaaam' in the background it blends into an exotic dreamlike melody.

In NBTC the guitar is playing "backwards", a so called off-beat. The bass and drums play on 1, 2, 3, 4 all the time like in most music styles. The guitar plays the chords between 1 and 2, 2 and 3 and so on. This is typical for Jamaican music styles like ska and reggae. In AT the tambourine plays that off-beat so it is not as striking as in NBTC. That is one of the reasons I didn't recognize the similarities at first.

There is a lot of crazy shouting in NBTC as well as in AT. Both songs also have an exotic title. There could be more similarities but this is what I found when comparing the two songs for a while.

Still, AT is in many ways very different from NBTC. And Amanda Jenssen's singing isn't even close to what the singer Graham McPherson did with NBTC back in 1979. It's completely different and I'm not sure that Amanda Jenssen herself has even heard NBTC. But someone helping out during the recording sessions possibly had that song in mind. And possibly other songs by Madness as well. They made several songs in this style early on in their career.

Amanda Jenssen's official homepage is finally alive and kicking and you can download Amarula Tree from there if you want it. And who wouldn't, it's a great song. Believe me, it's going to be another hit just like I said in a former post. And by the way, the home page is in English.

Amanda Jenssen!? She was in Idol?

2008-04-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

Amanda Jenssen's new single is out in stores now and I found it today. It was supposed to be released today but I think it has been out for a couple of days already. I searched through several of the biggest CD stores in Gothenburg before I found it in Västra Frölunda. I told all the stores to order it and most of them did while I was standing there. Skivhugget is the biggest one on internet and they didn't even know about the new single :/ Of course, if you're one of the visitors from USA, China or Brazil or some other country you probably don't care about this^^

And it was not what I was going to write about today anyway. I was going to write about the fact that Amanda Jenssen is the first competitor in Swedish Idol that the newspapers write about without mentioning her time in Idol. She is not Idol-Amanda. From day one after Idol she was known as Amanda Jenssen.

On the cover of her first single there was no picture of Amanda. Just her name and the name of the song. There were no interviews or anything in the newspapers or magazines. Still Do You Love Me was a number one hit. When that single was released Amanda Jenssen was already a big star.

Now when Amarula Tree is out in stores her time in Idol seems so far away. Instead of singing covers she has released one of her own songs, written by her and Pär Wiksten. Instead of wearing mostly retro outfits in red, white, pink and black, she is now wearing mostly sailor outfits in blue, white and indigo. The next time we see her she probably changed to something else. She seems to be in a constant move, always trying something new, in clothes, music or whatever. She seems to have a lot of influenses from the latest 80 years or so. She's open to a lot of styles.

There is one funny thing from the time in Idol 2007. All the time Idol-Daniel (Daniel Karlsson) was the favourite. He was voted out late in the show. He is still known as Idol-Daniel and the only reason he is still mentioned in Swedish media is because he is the boyfriend to Amanda Jenssen now.

AmazingAmanda Lights a Candle for Engla

2008-04-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we all got the news that Engla was murdered. The murderer also admitted that he murdered another woman in 2000. It is suspected that he has killed even more women through the last ten years or so. Engla was the youngest victim for this mass murderer. She was only ten years old.

More News about "Killing My Darlings"

2008-04-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Today Amanda Jenssen was interviewed in Swedish Radio. She set the record straight about how much she wrote for her album. Four songs are written by her alone and four songs were written jointly by her and Pär Wiksten from The Wannadies. She said that she gets along very well with Pär Wiksten. In fact he is even going to be in her band during this summer tour.

The song list for "Killing My Darlings" was official today through the new official homepage. The homepage is still under a temporary address but will most likely be moved to the official address soon. This is the song list:

1. For The Sun
2. Amarula Tree
3. Greetings From Space
4. Do You Love Me
5. So Far Away
6. Don’t Worry
7. Darling, Go Home
8. Numb
9. Come On
10. Rising Up
11. Our Last Goodbye

Some songs we know already. "For the Sun" we already got from Amanda Jenssen's myspace page as a demo. I will love to hear how different it will sound with a proper production. "Amarula Tree", "Do You Love Me", and "Numb" are out in stores or on the internet. The rest of the songs are completely new to me. "Greetings from Space" sounds like an interesting title.

In 23 days "Killing My Darlings" will be out in the stores. I can hardly wait.

Some News and Thoughts About the Album

2008-04-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

I wrote some while ago that there was a rumour saying Amanda Jenssen has written eight songs for her debut album "Killing My Darlings", although officially she wrote only four. Yesterday the Swedish radio show P3 Populär reported that Amanda has written 75% of the material on the album so the rumour could very well be true.

This is good news I think, and I know a lot of her fans, if not all, think the same. Three days ago Amanda Jenssen's record company Sony BMG released another song from her debut album on youtube, Numb. We also got the opportunity to download her new single "Amarula Tree" for a cheap cost. Unfortunately it's only possible to download it from Sweden so far but the single will be released on Wednesday.

So now we have heard three songs from "Killing My Darlings". Her first single, Do You Love Me, was a big hit and "Amarula Tree" will most likely be a hit as well, but Numb is the real masterpiece here. I was impressed the first time I heard it and after some more listenings I was stunned by it's beauty and I couldn't stop listening to it. If Amanda wrote 75% of the music on the album there is a big chance that we will get more of this and not too many pop songs.

In 1971 Roy Wood wrote Whisper in the Night and recorded it with early Electric Light Orchestra, way before they turned into a pop band. For many, many years I thought that was the most beautiful song ever made, since I first heard it in ca 1977. Then I heard Numb, and changed my mind. Believe me, if you have lived passed 40 and thought most of your life that the most beautiful song you know will probably be the one played at your funeral, and suddenly you hear one song that is even more beautiful...well, it's huge.

I have a feeling that "Killing My Darlings" will be more than just the album of the year. At least for me it could be the album of a lifetime. I wouldn't say that if I didn't know already that Amanda Jenssen can write fantastic music. There's a lot out there on youtube.

Numb is an amazing song by our amazing Amanda. If there are more songs like that on "Killing My Darlings" this album will be historical.

Footnote: The version of "Whisper in the Night" that I linked to is not the best version but it's the only one on internet I know of. Roy Wood looks weird too as a Santa Claus lookalike, but heck, he always looked weird. He was a great songwriter though and is the only artist in the history of music that had top hits with three different bands and as a solo artist. He also plays more than 25 instruments!

Time for Poll No 3

2008-04-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, here is another poll. In the first poll there were 32 voters. In the second there were 72 voters. More and more Amanda fans find their way to AmazingAmanda. This is how the latest poll went:

Which one of Amanda's own songs do you like the most?

Lockdown - 15 votes (20 %)
I think I'm ready to go - 1 vote (1 %)
For the sun - 15 votes (20 %)
Heartache - 12 votes (16 %)
It's gonna be alright - 7 votes (9 %)
Safari - 5 votes (6 %)
Salvation - 7 votes (9 %)
Johnny's song - 4 votes (5 %)
I can't sleep - 6 votes (8 %)

The least popular song is "I think I'm ready to go". I think it's a good rockin' song but the quality of the recording is pretty poor which probably doesn't help it's popularity.

The next poll has a couple of choices that could seem odd to some people, especially if you're new to Amanda Jenssen and see her mostly as an Amy Winehouse copy or a Gwen Stefani lookalike. Amanda Jenssen has so much more than good looks and a good taste in clothes. I think I have to explain all the different choices in this poll. Each choice looks at Amanda Jenssen from a different perspective. Vote for the one you think is the most important or the one you think is most true.

Amy Winehouse - Amanda Jenssen has a similar style to Amy Winehouse. Maybe even a similar voice.

Natasha Bedingfield - Amanda Jenssen sounds like Natasha Bedingfield.

Gwen Stefani - Amanda Jenssen looks alot like Gwen Stefani.

Johnny Cash - Amanda Jenssen writes songs in the same spirit as Johnny Cash. She's more of a "storyteller" than a "sing-a-long-artist".

Elvis Presley - Amanda Jenssen neither looks or sounds like the big Elvis but she has the same power when it comes to touching people on the inside.

Amanda is unique - Amanda Jenssen is not similar to anyone. She is one of a kind.

A Lot of Good News Today

2008-04-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, was I happy today when I got home from work? "Amarula Tree" can be downloaded from today and I got a mail from Amanda Jenssen's PR Manager at Sony BMG with some great information and a couple of pictures too.

"Amarula Tree" is really a great song. It's a fast, wild and happy song with a lot of brass and a very jazzy tone to it. It fits Amanda just perfect. I know it's another No 1 hit. With this arrangement and Amanda Jenssen's raspy voice it can't fail. It's possible to by the song here. The price is more or less one dollar. The page is in Swedish but you can listen to a part of the song as well.

As I told you I also got a mail today from Amanda Jenssen's PR Manager at Sony BMG, Katinka Hollenberg. The mail has a lot of interesting stuff. She tells me that the song "Numb" was written by Amanda Jenssen herself. There are also some words written by Amanda about the writing of the song. Here are the words in Swedish and then an English translation by me:

"Låten ”Numb” kom till när jag under två veckor bodde på Rival i väntan på någon lägenhet. Jag skrev ”Numb” sent på natten/tidigt på morgonen och var tvungen att nästan viska fram den för att jag inte ville väcka någon i rummen bredvid. Det blev en mjuk godnattvisa om förlåtelse. Nästa dag visade det sig att det inte hade bott någon i rummen bredvid."

"The song "Numb" was born when I stayed at Rival for two weeks waiting for an apartment. I wrote "Numb" late at night/early in the morning and had to almost whisper it because I didn't want to wake someone in the rooms next to mine. It became a soft lullaby about forgiveness. The next day I realized that no one had stayed in the nearby rooms."

This was nice to know. Another thing Katinka Hollenberg tells me is that Amanda Jenssen's official homepage will be launched this Monday.

Finally she sent me two pictures that will be in the convolute for "Killing My Darlings":

Click on any of the pictures for a higher resolution.

Song from Killing My Darlings on Youtube

2008-04-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

A new song from Amanda Jenssen's debut album "Killing My Darlings" is out on youtube. The song is called "Numb". It is a beautiful song with some excellent studio footage as well.

This is really amazing, so where would you get these news if not from AmazingAmanda.

Edit: I changed the picture in this post to something I cut out from the "Numb" video.

AmazingAmanda - One Month on Internet!

2008-04-10T08:34:00.000-07:00

The main reason for me to keep up the work with this blog is to inform anyone outside of Sweden about Amanda Jenssen and her amazing music. Of course a lot of Swedes visit here too and they are welcome. Everyone is welcome to AmazingAmanda.

AmazingAmanda has now been on the internet for one month. It seems like a short time but to me it feels like I have been running this blog for quite some time. A lot has happened. It started out as "Gautigoth's Blog" but soon I realized this was not a good name for an Amanda Jenssen blog so I changed the name to AmazingAmanda. Then I bought the new web address. It took me days to make it work.

When I bought the new web address through Google my blog was implemented into Google's search engine from day one under the new address. The old address can still not be found in the search engine. Obviously I bought my blog some space in the search engine. That was not the plan but a good side effect. But one can argue about how democratic this is? How many good blogs can not be found out there and how many bad blogs will show up in the search engine because they paid for it?

A lot of sections have been implemented into this blog. The poll will be updated every second week. The plan is also to update with a new video every second week.

There are a lot of links here already and more will come. A new link section is "Related to Amanda Jenssen". The first link is to Daniel Michael Miller's place on myspace. If you have heard "Ghost in the Machine" that he did with Amanda Jenssen, then you know who he is. Daniel Michael Miller have some exciting and beautiful music on his myspace. And of course you can listen to "Ghost in the Machine" there as well. I really recommend everyone to go there and listen to his great music. Daniel Michael Miller lives in Portland, Oregon, USA.

It's nice to see that so many people from all over the World have found their way to this blog. Except from Sweden the most visitors live in USA. I think there has been more visitors from USA than all of Europe. People that visited AmazingAmanda this first month has been from Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Israel, Canada, Argentina, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. I probably forgot some countries. I have seen that some people around the World keep coming back, especially from the USA and that's nice.

Two days ago Amanda Jenssen's record company Sony BMG opened an account exclusively for AmazingAmanda where I will be able to download promotional music from their company. If anything by Amanda Jenssen turns up there I will tell you about it.

It has been an exciting first month. I hope the next month will be even better.

I hope you will all visit AmazingAmanda again and find out more about the Amazing Amanda Jenssen and her music.

Gautigoth

Who will Save us From the Plastic Torture?

2008-04-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

If you discovered Amanda Jenssen through youtube there is a big chance you have not realized her true potential. It is a completely different thing to view her on a big TV screen week after week when she is competing against other competitors. Her funny, ironic, cocky and often dirty jokes and comments add to the picture of a girl that is not content with being just another product of the music industry. The way she dresses is as important. Sometimes she's a primadonna, sometimes she's a rock'n'roll chick, sometimes she's a "barbie girl" wrapped up as a present that goes wild on stage.

Although Amanda Jenssen seems to be tough and self-confident she is also humble and very down to Earth. She seems to be utterly surprised every time anyone says something nice about her.

It is a fact that some of Amanda Jenssen's most fanatic fans are middle aged or even older men. This is really not surprising. It is a well known fact that Amanda prefers music from the time period 1930-1970. That means she listens to music that is older than the music I listen to. I am 43 years old and this young girl tells me that most of my music is too modern for her. What does that make me feel? Well, it doesn't make me feel old, that's for sure. Age is suddenly irrelevant, only the love of music is important.

It might seem more surprising that a lot of young kids like her as well. But I'm not that surprised really. I know a lot of kids and teenagers that like to borrow their parents LP:s because they think the best music was made before they were even born. The music of today is very programmed, very produced, very perfect and very boring. It gets played a lot on radio but no one buys the CD:s anymore. Probably because the music of today is a product made for the market and not a piece of someones heart wrapped up in a beautiful package like it used to be.

It is interesting to see that, while pop music hardly sell anymore, extreme metal is hardly downloaded at all. These bands sell more albums than ever. It's very emotional music in beautiful (or scary) and pompous packages and their fans want the real product. It's the same thing with all honest music. If it moves your soul you want the album. If it makes you tap your foot a little you can as well download it since you will be bored with it in a couple of weeks.

The music companies are whining about that no one wants to buy their plastic music. Meanwhile there has been an underground movement in the music industry for some years that is looking back on the old days. But this 'old time music' is getting big. 'Monster Magnet' plays metal as it used to be played. 'The Darkness' does it as well. Amy Winehouse seems to be something coming out of the 60:s. There's a lot of this going on a the moment. Amanda Jenssen is another piece of this.

Everyone seem to be tired of the modern music. We all want something new to come, like Elvis, The Beatles or the punk revolution made movements of their time explode. The movement is here already. All we need is that artist that moves people enough to change the music scene once again.

What will people of the future think when they look at pictures of Amy Winehouse, Amanda Jenssen or other artists of this movement? Will they just wonder who they were since they will be forgotten? Will they think: "Oh, this artists made some fine music. I know a couple of their songs." Or maybe they will look at one of these artists and say: "Wow! This dude really changed the World."

I think that someone, rather sooner than later, will be that person. We can't keep on living in a plastic World anymore. And I think that Amanda Jenssen might have what it takes. Some decades into the future we will know.

Updates About the New Releases

2008-04-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

There are some news about Amanda Jenssen's new releases on Severus Tenenbaum 's blog.

First of all she reveals that the cover of "Amarula Tree" is only half of the photo. The rest of the photo keeps going on the back. It will be interesting to see this package in a week.

There will also be a lot of pictures of Amanda in the booklet for "Killing my Darling". All pictures were taken by Severus Tenenbaum. These news are really exciting I think.

Severus Tenenbaum ends her news section about Amanda Jenssen with this: I have a feeling Amanda and I will do a new project in not too long…

And then there is a picture of something Amanda wrote for Severus in Swedish. This is the first photo of Amanda's autograph as far as I know. This is a translation: Worlds best photographer. Lots of love & understanding. Read the full article here. It's in English.

Finally, yet another American blog is writing about Amanda. Someone who calls herself Poster Girl has posted this about "Amarula Tree" and "Killing My Darlings".

Amanda Jenssen: News Update

2008-04-07T10:59:00.001-07:00

There are now some news about Amanda Jenssen's debut album. The name of it will be "Killing my Darlings" and the cover can be seen at cdon as well as the cover of the next single "Amarula Tree".

Want to see bigger pictures? Click these links:
Amarula Tree
Killing my Darlings

What surprises me is that they went all the way to Italy and probably visited several places in this beautiful country to take pictures for these covers and then they chose pictures that doesn't look very Italian at all. So once again I am thinking that they did more than the photo sessions in Italy. Tracks, a big Swedish radio show, reported a while ago that Amanda Jenssen was in Italy, probably to record a video. There has still been no proof of this, but I wonder...

Anyway, I really love the covers, especially "Killing my Darlings". It's a great black and white picture and the text is simple, yet in bold colours which makes the cover somewhat dramatic. On all the pictures we have seen of Amanda Jenssen she mostly wears clothes in four colours - white, black, pink and red. That is the colours of "Killing my Darlings".

"Amanda Jenssen" is written in a pure heavenly white colour. "Killing my Darlings" is written in blood. That's Amanda Jenssen, as naked and dramatic as ever. I'm sure the music will be as good as we all hope.

New Video on AmazingAmanda

2008-04-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

The new video I am linking to compares Amanda Jenssen to Natasha Bedingfield where you can hear both of them sing a part of Natasha's These Words. Amanda's part is from her final audition in Idol 2007 with the backtrack from Natashas recording.

I really don't listen to much pop music, mostly metal and older music like The Kinks or Elvis and some artists that hardly no one today has heard of, like Roy Wood or Bill Nelson. Natasha Bedingfield is one pop artist I really like to listen to although I don't have any records with her. And looking at her doesn't really hurt my eyes.

A funny thing is that I had forgot that Amanda was singing this song in her final audition when I heard her single for the first time. When I heard the single I thought: "Wow, this new single from Natasha is really good." I was at work and had to do a lot of stuff so I didn't hear much of the song. The second time I heard the single it hit me: This was Amanda! When I got home I started to google on Amanda to get the release date. I bought the single the first day it was out. Some days later I bought another copy so I could have one in my car and one in my appartement. It's the first time ever that I have bought two copies of a record.

I think this video is excellent when comparing these two artists. And concerning that Natasha's version is a studio recording and Amanda's voice is from an audition for Idol, I think Amanda is pretty much on pair with one of the finest and most popular pop artists. And this is not even Amanda's style and she didn't chose what song to sing that day.

Confessing My Love a Thousand Times

2008-04-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

I just realized one thing today. I think I must have listened to Do You Love Me more than a thousand times. It was released about 70 days ago and I have probably listened to it more than 15 times per days. Well, go ahead and do the math. It's crazy! Yes, Amanda, I do love you.

Is this an obsession? I don't think so. I just like to hear her voice and this is the only really good production of any Amanda Jenssen song so far.

I am really looking forward to "Amarula Tree", but I hope it's a very different song from her first single. I like the beat and the rhythm in Do You Love Me, but I don't want Amanda to make just dance music or pop music. Of course, "Amarula Tree", will most likely be a pop song as well. Few people releases a song as a single unless they expect it to be popular.

However, I hope Amanda Jenssen's album will not be a regular pop album. A lot of classic albums through all times have a few hit songs, but usually it's the rest of the songs that makes the album a classic and not the pop hits. The hit songs are good for one thing though - they will make more people find their way to the music of the artist.

Finally, this picture has nothing to do with Amanda Jenssen. I just thought it was cute.

Amanda Jenssen - Very Much at Heart

2008-04-01T10:25:00.000-07:00

It will be interesting to see how much impact Amanda Jenssen's summer tour will have on what media writes about her and how much she will be exposed in media. She has been very quiet since Idol 2007 was over and she doesn't do interviews. On January the 2:nd, the same day as her record deal with Sony/BMG was official, she made an interview with Sydsvenskan, a local newspaper in her own county Scania (Skåne). In that interview she said that she would rather do an interview with them instead of Aftonbladet, one of the two biggest evening news papers in Sweden. Aftonbladet hasn't written anything about her after that as far as I can tell. And since she doesn't do interviews at all at the moment she is hardly mentioned in any news paper.

For any participant from Idol behaving like this would be devastating for the career. Has it had any effect on Amanda Jenssen's career? It doesn't seem so at all. Her first single was a top one hit for several weeks. In fact it was twice as popular as number two for some time at Digilistan, that lists which songs are downloaded the most.

Amanda Jenssen seem to have a huge group of fans and some are very fanatic about her. There are a lot of Amanda haters as well. By reading some discussions on youtube one can get the impression that it is English football supporters shouting at each other and not about music.

To some people Amanda sounds horrible. Someone wrote on youtube that she sounds like a horny moose. That's okey, some people just hate her. But a lot of people are touched by her singing, and her music as well. When Amanda's voice shoots right through your ribs and gets to your heart, then it becomes a very serious thing. It changes you. I know. It happened to me. And, by telling from her huge and fanatic following, it probably happened to others as well.

I think it's great that she had a number one hit, but to me it's not that important that she keeps recording big hits. I just want to hear her amazing voice and her lovely music. Just Amanda and a guitar is ok for me. Or anything she wants to do really, as long as it is Amanda Jenssen herself and not Amanda Jenssen The Product. As long as she keeps touching my heart I will be a loyal fan, and I will wait patiently for every new release.