by Isaure Cointreau

The first time I met Douglas it was at a little Moroccan style bar on Calle Colereros. I was just looking forward to have the best mojitos in Madrid, though that night there was a concert and I ended up having the best of times. With his guitar, Brazilian accent, suave and energetic songs, one would define his style as “world music”. However it’s much more than that, mixing popular themes and modern rhythms, Douglas Aguiar has a real talent to transmit to his listeners a southing and thrilling vibe.

Since then I bought his CD, went to a couple of his other concerts, had a few charlas and eventually he became a friend. I could say I’m somewhat of a fan, though I believe that all the people that have been able to be acquainted with his music have become so as well.

The Brazilian musician has been living in Spain for almost ten years now, and although he will never forget where he’s from, going back and forth at least twice a year, he doesn’t plan on leaving anytime soon. As the guitarist’s first motivation for coming to the Iberian soil was his high interest in the flamenco style, it did not stop at that. Madrid, as it does for most of those who inhabit it, grew on him and now embodies his first years into adulthood. Starting a new life, making new friends and having his first career experiences, Madrid became part of him.

In 2007, mixing the different universes he had experienced, the project of launching an album succeeded.  Produced in Sao Paolo, the CD is the result of a mix between Spanish and Brazilian culture. As a result his work is an overall delightful warm fusion Brazilian “root music”. On the twelve different compositions, eight are in Portuguese and the other four in Spanish. These are not the only tokens of variety one would find as the different rhythms and climates go from soft to more upbeat, and this all for the very pleasure of its listener.

The album goes by “Boca a boca”, and seems to be referring to multiple meanings the intelligent lyrics keep on illustrating.  Based on a double metaphor, two concepts are being winked at. La boca as in “the mouth” is referred to as a communicative instrument and symbol of desire. As it appears the artist seems to take at heart the manipulation of rhetoric and globalization led by the hand of mass media. However, although “Boca a Boca” has a language of its own, it invites the public to interpret the songs as they please.

Although Spain is now his main musical stage the artist plans to travel throughout Europe. He has already performed in Toulouse for a while, and in October, Paris seems to be his next destination. So we might see more of this musician, singer and composer in the future and around the world.  Until then, I would encourage anyone to log on to his myspace to check out his talent and next performances. 

http://www.myspace.com/douglasaguiar

by Martin Quinn

Tonight in Palacio Municipal de Congresos, the Australian Pink Floyd Show are performing the rock Opera The Wall in its entirety. Now if you’ve never seen this king of cover bands, you’ll be blown away. Aussie Floyd play Floyd like Floyd don’t play Floyd and Floyd admit that themselves. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour even hired the band to play at his 50th birthday bash a few years back they’re so close to the real thing. I saw them in Galway a couple of years back when they performed the whole Dark Side of the Moon album and I must say I was impressed. My top three bands are Floyd (for their complexity), AC/DC (for their simplicity) and Jimi Hendrix (well, simply because it’s Hendrix). It takes a whole lotta skill to emulate any group or performer and these boys have it.

As it happens, I’ve opted for Liverpool versus Real but I’ve lined up a wee alternative. If you fancy something a little less polished, go to Joy Eslava this Friday night. Pink Floyd they ain’t, the raw-edged Stiff Little Fingers are in town. The Belfast punk rockers led by Jake Burns are letting off a few suspect devices in Joy, a place I thought I’d never set foot in again (after I was overcharged for a vodka/Red Bull by a prick with a poncy haircut). Well surely SLF will grease the place up and get the heads shaking wilder than the DUP (NI’s very own No-Boys) after they’ve been asked to share power with “them on the other side”.

SLF themselves liked to think they saw beyond the political divide in Northern Ireland and at times, they did. Their lyrics, especially in songs like Wasted Life and Tin Soldiers, described the group’s opinions on joining the paramilitaries or the army, backed up by a classic kick-in-the-guts punk rhythm. Now that the beast of the conflict has forced its head back into the international headlines, these songs have a very contemporary value, whatever your opinions of this most depressing of wars. So, if you dare venture out this Friday the 13th, go to www.ticktackticket.com and book up for a bit of anarchic dandruff-shaking. It might also be a good opportunity to explain to Spaniards what two straight fingers directed with the back of the hand actually mean.

by Peter Moore

Number Nine – Kōji Kondō; Super Mario Brothers

Christmas is now hurtling towards us at a pace. We’re up to ninth day of December, the ninth day of this Vibe Box advent calendar, and in little more than a fortnight we’ll be fetching the presents out from beneath the spiky branches of the tree.

But enough of the sentimental claptrap, and back to the music. Scrolling back through the first few entries, I’ve noticed a distinct prominence of the letter ‘B’ in here. I started off with Blur, progressed to Brendan Benson, thrown in a bit of Bowie, Blind Blake and, just on Sunday, I posted one of Jeff Buckley’s most famous songs.

I suppose at the inner core of any man there is a mysterious schism: the point where his likes and dislikes split and the core of his personality is formed. Well, for marketers around the world, the mystery at the heart of my character has been exposed. It’s the letter B. Come and get me when you’re ready.

So, despite the fact that I have The Beatles, Badly Drawn Boy, The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan to go, today I’ve decided to fly in the face of my primeval inclinations. Today’s a silly little one.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the name Kōji Kondō doesn’t ring any bells, but I’d bet that a high proportion of you are familiar with his music. Kondō’s name is shackled for eternity to that of the Nintendo video games company from Japan, as the individual responsible for the memorable soundtracks to a flurry of their most famous titles. The best of these include Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda and his first ever release, Duck Hunt (which could, perhaps, be rebranded today as ‘Duck Chaney’).

And in this age of rampant capitalism, when presents trump piety every time, who’s to say that the soundtrack to Super Mario Brothers isn’t a more accurate soundtrack to the festive season. Enjoy.

(For those of you who fancy an alternative version on guitar, you can find a rather amusing one here)

Our summer Vibe Box is by European Vibe’s own Helen Macrae.

She brings us her top ten songs to listen to while enjoying the summer/lazing by the pool.

These are the final four:

Toots and The Maytals – 54-46 Was My Number

Energy 52 – Cafe Del Mar ‘98 (Three ‘N One Remix)

Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome – Dance Wiv Me

Groove Armada – Edge Hill

Our summer Vibe Box is by European Vibe’s own Helen Macrae.

She brings us her top ten songs to listen to while enjoying the summer/lazing by the pool.

These are the second three:

Manu Chao – Me Gustas Tu

Planet Funk – Chase The Sun (Club Mix)

Skee-Lo – I Wish

Our summer Vibe Box is by European Vibe’s own Helen Macrae.

She brings us her top ten songs to listen to while enjoying the summer/lazing by the pool.

These are the first three:

 Terrorvision – Tequila

Cassius – The Sound of Violence (Club Mix)

The Beach Boys – I Get Around

This month, European Vibe Magazine’s art director and biggest football fanatic Phily McIvor brings us his all-time top ten football-related songs.

10 – Glenn & Chris – Diamond Lights – 1987

9 – Tottenham Hotspur – Ossie’s Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way To Wembley) – FA Cup Final 81

8 – Liverpool FC – Anfield Rap – Cup Final 88

7 – Collapsed Lung – Eat My Goal [used in Coca Cola ad] – World Cup 98

By Khilen Mehta

Although Kylie Minogue is a likeable personality, she has never been to everyone’s taste. Her career has often seemed a series of attempts to expand on this basic likeability. But in her two decade career, the tiny Aussie wonder has dominated the charts by providing non-stop fun in her performances.

Throughout her battle with breast cancer, everyone’s favourite pop princess was constantly thanking her followers for their loving support, and judging by the success of her most recent comeback performances, her fans couldn´t be more pleased in seeing her back on the stage. Her huge grin, her flamboyant costumes and the over-excited crowd are everything that makes a Kylie gig so memorable.

Throughout her career, Kylie has won countless awards, and had plenty of top tensingles. In the 2008 Brit Awards, she won Best International Female Artist and she also received the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008, which is France’s highest cultural honour. With a tally of over thirty top ten singles, Kylie is the second most succesful woman in British chart history after Madonna. Kylie’s biggest single was “Can’t get you out of my head”, which reached number one in over twenty countries and sold more than four million copies worldwide.

It was reported that every ticket scheduled for her UK tour was snapped up in an unbelievable thirty minutes after going on sale. Tickets are likely to go fast for her performance in Madrid as well, so make sure you snap yours up nice and early!

Here is an example of what you could be missing out on…

Long live the Pop Princess!

by Maja Gojkovic

The Eurovision song contest 2008 kicks off this evening with the first leg of the competition, the semi final. For the first time in the history in the competition there will be two Semi Finals held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final.
The first Semi Final takes place today, Tuesday, 20th of May.
The countries participating in the first Semi Final will be Montenegro, Israel, Estonia, Moldova, San Marino, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Slovenia, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenia, The Netherlands, Finland, Romania, Russia and Greece.
The 19 participants are getting more and more nervous and tension is rising as they all are hoping to qualify for the Grand Final that will be held on Saturday.
The Semi Final competition will be aired live and will be shown live in all the 19 participating countries and also live on German NDR and Spanish TVE.
Other countries may also broadcast the competition as well, so check the timetables of your local broadcasters to see if the Semi Final will be shown in your country.
If you miss the Semi Final you will have the opportunity to watch it again as it will be available for 7 days on Eurovision TV.
The Semi Final televoters from the 19 participating countries will be able to vote for their favourite songs as well as the TV audience in Germany and Spain. The local televoting numbers will be displayed on screen during the show and will also be available on your national broadcaster’s website.
We at European Vibe will be following the competition, so if you’re a Eurovision Song Contest fan like me, I will be covering the highlights and lowlights of the show. So stay tuned for all the latest Info.
The second Semi Final will take place on Thursday 22nd May.

by Maja Gojkovic

The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest, and this years competition will be hosted by Serbia. The semi-finals will be held on 20 and 22 May respectively and the final on 24 May 2008 in the capital, Belgrade.
The contest wll be held in Belgrade Arena. The arena is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe, with a total capacity of more than 20,000 seats.
Serbia will be hosting the Contest for 2008 after Marija Šerifović won the Contest in 2007 in Helsinki, Finland.
The contest will be hosted by Jovana Janković, a daily morning show host and Željko Joksimović one of the most successful musicians in the Balkan region. In 2004, he represented Serbia & Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul, Turkey, with Lane Moje, and finished second.
For this years’ competition Serbia will be represented by Jelena Tomašević feat. Bora Dugic with a song entitled Oro. Let’s hope it is as good as last year’s winning song by Marija Serifovic- Moltiva.

Belgrade is known as Beograd by the locals, is the largest and capital city of Serbia. The city has almost 1,6 million citizens. Belgrade is located confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers. It is the cultural and political heart of the country; it hosts several music- and cultural festivals across the city throughout the year.
The city is slowly becoming the new trendy place to be, it is still undiscovered by many people. The City offers various styles of beautiful architecture that dominate the city. Trendy hot-spots such as Knez Mihajlova is one of the most popular pedestrian only streets in Belgrade and offers a wide variety of quaint cafés and restaurants and is definitely a popular place to be seen.
With the help of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, Belgrade have finally be given the chance to show off the amazing sights and exactly what the city has to offer.

The Eurovison Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world with audience figures reaching to anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally in recent years.
Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Australia, Canada, Mexico, Egypt, United States, Hong Kong, India, despite the fact the countires do not participate. Since 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the contest in 2006 online.

The artists who achieved most success after thier Eurovision win that led them to a career and launched them into the spotlight were ABBA, ABBA won the Contest for Sweden in 1974 with their song “Waterloo” after this they went on to be one of the most successful bands of their time.

Other winners who have also achieved international fame due to a successful win at Eurovison include Céline Dion, who won the Contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song “Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi”.

With regard to winners the country that had achieved most success has been Ireland. Ireland holds the record for the most number of wins, having won the Contest seven times which includes wins three times in a row in the mid 1990s.
In joint second place with five wins each are France, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom holds the best record at the Contest in terms of average scoreboard position; having finished in the top two in 20 out of 52 Contests from1956–2007.

The first few years of the 21st century produced a variety of first-time winners, from both “new” Eurovision countries, and old-timers who had entered for many years without a win. Every year from 2001 to 2007 resulted in a country winning for the first time. The 2006 winner was Finland, who had finally won after having entered the Contest for 45 years. Ukraine on the other hand did not have to wait so long, winning with their second entry in 2004. Serbia won the very first year it entered as an independent state in 2007. As of 2008, the country which has entered the longest with no wins to their name is Portugal. They started entering in 1964, and are still awaiting their first win.

For the first time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, two Semi-Finals will be held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final. The first Semi-Final will take place on Tuesday, 20th of May.
Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS. Two of the so-called ‘Big Four’ (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) will also vote in this Semi-Final (to be decided by draw), and possibly the Host Country (also to be decided by draw). Each country’s 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. The top-9 of the tele-voting qualifies for the Final. The highest ranked entry of the back-up jury that has not qualified for the Final in the tele-voting also qualifies for the Final. The 10 qualified countries will be presented in randomly drawn order at the end of the show. The complete results of the tele-voting will not be announced until after the Final, to keep the tension high.

The favourites to win this years’ 2008 Eurovision Song Contest are Russia who will be represented by Dima Bilan with the song Believe. According to bookies PaddyPower the odds on favourites Russia are 10/3. Spain and Ireland stand at 25/1 with the UK in shocking position with odds of 300/1. Spain will be represented by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with the song Baila El Chiki Chiki. Ireland will be represented by Dustin the Turkey with song Irelande Douze Pointe and the UK by Andy Abraham (Runner up of X-Factor) with song Even If.