Guess The Song: Let's Dance!

Over the past 3 weeks I have been following the Swedish version of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Let's Dance on TV4.
My love for Sweden has never been a secret on this blog, however I'm going to tell you an other reason why I love this country!
Firstly I do not watch Strictly in the UK, they take it far too seriously and as a result it has become predictable and quite dull. Let's Dance, however, is a celebration of dance and music packed with fun, and not 'Strict' at all!
The reason I love Let's Dance is their sometimes bizarre music choices. Once again in the UK Strictly are quite stuck in their traditional ballroom/latin music, and old artists such as Frank Sinatra. I understand these songs are perfect for the style of dance, but the resulting playlist would not be seen dead on my mp3 player!


Here are two perfect examples of how Strictly use modern music:

Both sound practically the same as the original music, timing and rhythm wise. And they do fit to the timing and rhythm of the dance, but there is nothing very exciting about them!
Flip over to Sweden though and as ever, when it comes to music, they are AMAZING!
Check out these Week 2 performances by Elin Kling & Daniel da Silva and
Mattias Andreasson & Cecilia Ehrling:

I much prefer Mattias to Elin based on performance, but musically I am besotted by what Let's Dance have done to the tracks. Unlike Strictly who would ignore these tracks because they are not tango tracks, Let's Dance say "sod this let's just make them tango!" creating the perfect Spanish holiday covers band! Though elements of the original tracks are there, the majority is just a random tango tune set to the lyrics! Perfection!

Last night,Week 3 unleashed the 'Greatest Hits' so far of Let's Dance!
First up, Claudia Galli & Tobias Wallin with this slightly altered track & spectacular performance, full of stomping:

These two don't particularly work, but get an A+ for trying using the song and trying extremely hard to fit it to a dance style! First Molly Sandén & Jonathan Näslund with a eerie cover, especially the zombie noises and the end. Then Stefan Sauk & Malin Johansson cover which sounds like it is being played from an old cassette that started speeding up with age. Loving the bell use 55 seconds in!
Try guess the song before the lyrics kick in:

Now time for a direct comparison between Let's Dance genius and Strictly predictability! From Let's Dance we have Peter Wahlbeck & Maria Bild taking a track and completely redoing it for the sole purpose of dancing the Quickstep to it! Watch this clip before Ali Bastian & Brian Fortuna and see if you can guess the track, and which you prefer:

FABULOUS! FABULOUS! FABULOUS!

Finally here are by two favourite song remixes of the night, by coincidence it is Elin and Mattias again! 100 points to anyone who can guess where Elin Kling och Daniel Da Silva's song is going before the lyrics start! I was baffled but the Grease style twist to the track makes a hot jive! Mattias Andréasson och Cecilia Ehrling's shows his amazing dance skills, but also the most amazing show band vocal! Half the rap may be mumbles but I'm still impressed! You would never hear this song on Strictly! Jive Bunny 2010?

So what have we learned? To get better ratings, well at least one more, Strictly need to start dancing to any track as long as it is amazing! Imagine Alexandra Burke's Band Boys as a Jive, or Cheryl Cole's Fight For This Love as a Tango? And Let's Dance need to release and album like Strictly but in the style of Anna Book's album!
I can't wait to see what remixes Let's Dance has in store!