Love songs of spring ♥

 Hello!

 Since I last posted on here, in January, spring seems to have come to Manchester! There is blossom on the ground, the birds are singing... And I just can't help feeling happy.

 A few other things have happened since I last posted: I have turned 20, I have had several important University exams, and I have made big steps in trying to become a published novelist. Re. the novel, watch this space: I really hope to have good new for you one day!

 2014 is going scarily fast - I really hope it slows down a bit so I can enjoy it while it's here, and make it a year to remember.

♥

 What music have I been listening to? Well, I've been listening to On ira, a French song by Jean-Jacques Goldman.

 I first discovered most of Mr Goldman's music when I was at sixth-form college, and listening to his songs always brings me back there. Sitting in the infamous "Islands" computer area, with my earphones in, waiting for my bus and supposedly doing some work while actually just listening to the song. Happy days.

 If you speak French and are interested, I wrote a piece in French about Jean-Jacques - click on the link to read it, or click his name above the video to read another piece I did about him in English. (Yes, I'm a huge fan!)

 ♥

 There's also All Out of Love by Air Supply. 

 I heard this for the first time in a long time on the radio last year, and assumed it was a woman singing the choruses - I was in for a surprise!

 The radio DJ described this as "one of the best love songs ever written," making it sound, as DJ's have a tendency to, like this sentiment were universal. When it played, I thought, it isn't that amazing. 

 However, I did like it and I started listening to it on YouTube, and one day I heard the beautiful simplicity and sadness of the opening bars and realised it is an incredible song. One of the best love songs ever written? Quite possibly. I'm really glad I heard it on the radio that day.

♥

 After I listened to All Out of Love on YouTube just now, Right Here Waiting came up in the suggested videos, and I decided to share it here as it fits my developing theme of simple but beautiful love songs.

 This was one of the first songs I ever knew. It was on a compilation album called "Bitter Suites" that my parents used to listen to when I was very young. It was probably the first song on the album that I learned to recognise and to like. 

 The words meant little to me and I couldn't understand his accent a lot of the time, so the song was less a story, something with meaning, than a beautiful series of sounds and - in my head - colours and patterns. 

 Soon I knew most of the songs on the album, and I think I might do a blog post about it (so again, watch this space!) but Right Here Waiting was always, and will always be, special to me.

♥

 Another song that follows in a similar vein is In Too Deep by Genesis.

 I heard this on the radio in the car late last year. I liked it. I was pleased, as I was looking out for Genesis songs I might like, having spent a vast amount of 2013 listening to what was undoubtedly my song of the year, Follow You, Follow Me.

 For a while, In Too Deep was nice but not mindblowing. Then something changed. I realised it was playing in my head at random times. I dreamed of singing it at karaoke. While it will never replace Follow You, Follow Me in my affections, it has become another song whose simplicity, for me, makes it a classic.

♥

 I'll end this list of simple but effective love songs with one of my favourite such songs: I Want You, by The Silencers.

 My parents used to play this at home, and I quite liked it. Then when I was at sixth-form I played it to myself and I realised I really liked it. It has become one of my favourite songs. So simple, so beautiful. It's near the top of my list of "songs I will learn to play first if I ever master the guitar." It would be just wonderful to be able to play it and sing it with joy and pride and so much love.

♥

 I've just realised that I have managed to collate a song each from France, Australia, the US, England and Scotland. This wasn't intentional and just shows that all over the world people are writing simple, beautiful love songs - it is a genre that spans continents and cultures and that we all can enjoy and respond to.

 Well, night's coming in and it's nice and cool, and people are milling about outside, probably unable to believe their luck that spring seems to have come overnight. I certainly appreciate this change in the weather - good weather really can lift your mood. Time for spring, for blossom, for lighter nights and birdsong and feeling great ♥

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: On ira - Jean-Jacques Goldman - 1998

All Out of Love - Air Supply - 1980

Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx - 1989

In Too Deep - Genesis - 1986

I Want You - The Silencers - 1991

A few more JSC songs

 Hello!

 You may remember that in July last year I started a song challenge. I used the prompts from a photo challenge but chose songs for them instead.

 I never finished this challenge due to travelling and generally being busy, but I had an unfinished post with three days worth which I just stumbled upon and thought I should post so it wouldn't be wasted. Here it is.

✈ ✈ ✈

 Prompt 2: Shoes

 I've picked Diamonds on the Souls of her Shoes by Paul Simon.

 I used to like this song but it always came second to You Can Call Me Al - recently, however, they seem to have switched places in my affections. It's just so upbeat and a song you want to run down the street dancing to. Well I do, anyway.

 It's also a song I imagine being played at the end of a film; an everything's-turned-out-okay kind of song. If I ever write a film I might include it.

♦♦♦

 Prompt 3: Cold

 I've picked Sun Burns Gold by Maura Kennedy.

 I've mentioned the Kennedys often on this blog and have even have the honour of interviewing them - I simply love their music. Sun Burns Gold is a solo effort by Maura and I found it on Retrospective, their best-of album on which I just keep finding new and wonderful songs.

 In the song, Maura describes very vividly and beautifully the wintery scene around her and wishes summer would come. It's an ode to the summer - yet it's an ode to the winter at the same time. It's very cleverly done.

 In the instrumental in the above live clip she does amazing things with her voice. I don't think this is as prominent in the album version where the instrumental is mainly the guitar, but it is still a lovely instrumental, simple but very powerful. All in all, I really like this song and am glad I found it.

☀☀☀

 Prompt 4: Red, white or blue

 I have chosen Red, and The Right Thing by Simply Red for my song.

 I first encountered this song on the way to college in the car - the fact that I was going by car rather than bus suggests I had an exam that day, and I have a strange feeling it may have been biology, though I can't say for sure.

 I have since been a big fan of this song. One of the top comments on YouTube says the best bit of the song is the key change at the end, but I actually much prefer the sound of it before the key change. The key change sounds like Stars a bit too much! Before that it sounds so sophisticated and jazzy and is a unique song, I feel.

✔✔✔

 So there you have it; days 2-4 of the challenge. I had picked songs for other prompts but hadn't written about them; maybe I will sometime. For now, I hope you enjoyed my song selection.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: Diamonds on the Souls of Her Shoes - Paul Simon - 1986

Sun Burns Gold - Maura Kennedy - 2010

Simply Red - The Right Thing - 1987

Interview with Eddi Reader

 Hello all!

 In October I had the honour of interviewing Eddi Reader for The Mancunion ahead of her gig at the RNCM on 1st November. I was then given the chance to review that gig, which was brilliant, and afterwards I met Eddi! She came across as a lovely, down-to-earth person and the whole experience was fantastic.

 You can read my interview of her here and my review of the gig here. I hope you enjoy them.

Eddi and me

 Let me now share with you some Eddi Reader videos. 

 I wish there was a video for Married to the Sea, a gorgeous song she performed at the concert I saw. Look out for that song, it's wonderful.

 Bell, Book and Candle is probably my favourite song that she sings, and this live version is so beautiful.

 There's also Patience of Angels, which I heard in a music quiz last year and which I recognised but couldn't place. I'm sure I heard it when I was much younger. It's a lovely song and always has that sense of déjà vu for me.

 Here is Perfect. I never was a massive fan of this until she performed it live at the RNCM gig, and since then it's grown on me. I love this performance:

 Finally, here is one of my favourite music videos of all time, Is This Love? by Alison Moyet, in which she, Eddi and the rest of the band dance on the beach and look so happy and carefree - that's how all music videos should be!

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz

Songs: Bell, Book and Candle - Eddi Reader - 1998

Patience of Angels - Eddi Reader - 1994

Perfect - Fairground Attraction - 1988

Is This Love? - Alison Moyet - 1986

The days of our lives: The songs from my first French trip film

 Bonjour!

 In my first year of sixth-form college - I was seventeen - I went to the south of France for nine days.

 It was a trip arranged by the French department at my college and by Ecole Klesse, a French language school in Montpellier. During the week we stayed with French families in Montpellier and attended the Ecole, and during the weekend we explored Carcassonne, Arles and Saintes Maries de la Mer.

 For me it was a formative experience which I feel improved my French, made me fall in love with the south of France and - cliché coming - helped me grow as a person.

 I was a volunteer for my college's TV station and I really wanted to make a film of the trip. So I did, and it can be found below.

 I want to tell you about the five songs I used in this video, and why I used them.

☀☁♥✭✈

 Firstly, Vélomoteur by Les Calamités, which is the first song playing and covers the Carcassonne part of the trip.

 Like many of my favourite French songs, I first heard Vélomoteur on the brilliant Platine 45 compilation album that my brother and I have. It was one of the last songs I discovered on it, having simply never got around to listening to it before. When I did hear it, it was shortly before the trip, and I just knew I had to use it.

 I decided to use it as my opening song as it is so upbeat and I feel it puts the viewer in a positive mood from the start.

☀☁♥✭✈

 The second song is Joyride, by Roxette.

 It covers our exploration of the city of Montpellier. 

 I chose this song whilst on the trip, as I could see ways in which I could tie the footage I already had to the song. For example, the mention of "going downtown" while my friends descended an elevator, "following the stars" for a night-time shot, and "book of wisdom" as my friends read the Montpellier newspaper.

☀☁♥✭✈

  The third song is Toi et Moi by Guillaume Grand, which I used for the segment about Arles and Saintes Maries de la Mer.

 If you can speak French then it's fairly self-explanatory: it's a song about going to the seaside and having a good time.

 It was one of the songs featured at our college's French Music Club not long before the trip, and if I remember correctly we also sang it on one of the coach journeys during the trip itself - so it was reasonably well known to the group, which is another reason why I used it.

 Finally, it's from 2010 - the film was made in 2011 - and I thought at least one song should be fairly current. So Toi et Moi it was.

☀☁♥✭✈

 Fourthly, we have Can't Fight This Feeling by REO Speedwagon, which I used for the aquarium section.

 This had been a favourite song of mine for a couple of years before the trip; it featured in my first ever post on this blog and I wrote more about it in my special fiftieth blog post.

 Around the time of the trip the song had featured on a TV ad, and as a result was fresh in people's minds; I seem to remember at least one member of the trip singing it to themself in France.

 Another reason why I thought of this song for my soundtrack is the mention of the ship and the way I could tie that in nicely with the footage of the group in a ship simulator.

 The music went with the footage even better than I had imagined, and those few seconds make up one of my favourite moments in the whole film.

☀☁♥✭✈

  The final song is These Are the Days of Our Lives by Queen, which covers the crêpe party, the zoo, salsa dancing, bowling, trams, LazerQuest, the crêpe parlour and then a general overview of the trip.

 I had heard this song a few times and quite liked it, but I only really sat down and listened to it just before making the film - maybe it was serendipity.

 I was looking idly through songs I had on my computer, shortlisting ones for the film, and saw this one and thought it might be suitable. I listened to it through and knew then it was perfect for the film - and that it was more beautiful a song than I had ever realised.

 Looking back at that final montage always makes me so happy that I had the opportunity to go on that amazing trip - and makes me want to go back to Montpellier!

☀☁♥✭✈

 
 Go back I did, the next year - and of course, I made another film, which you can watch here:

 I'm working on a blog post about the songs in this second film, so watch this space!

 I hope you enjoyed this post,

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs: Vélomoteur - Les Calamités - 1987
Joyride - Roxette - 1991
Toi et Moi - Guillaume Grand - 2010
Can't Fight This Feeling - REO Speedwagon - 1984/5
These Are the Days of Our Lives - Queen - 1991

Musical royalty

 Hello!

 This is a special post to celebrate the birth of Prince George of Cambridge, in which I am going to discuss musical royalty. 

 I don't mean amazing musicians who may be described as musical royalty; no, I mean royals who exist within songs. Perhaps they exist in real life, too, but a song was where I first met each of them. 

 An example is the the Queen of the Slipstream, in the song by Van Morrison, which is the first song I am going to share with you.

 From when I first heard this song I have regarded it as one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. The album it features on, Poetic Champions Compose, is also an exceptionally great album in my opinion; other well-written songs on it include I Forgot That Love Existed and Did Ye Get Healed?.

 This song is important to me as a memory holder, as listening to it invariably brings back very clear memories of listening to it in our car on the way to badminton practice when I was about sixteen. 

 We would drive past Trencherfield Mill, Wigan's big old cotton mill, with the sky beautiful; sunset or dusk or just turning to night time. I love badminton but have recently been too busy to play; hopefully I can find the time to play again some day soon.

♪♥♫

 The second royal song I want to highlight is King of Wishful Thinking by Go West.

 I had heard and liked this song without knowing what it was called or who sang it. Quite recently my father played this song and I heard it and thought, "Finally! I can find out what it's called." 

 I was pleasantly surprised at it being Go West; I was always underwhelmed by We Close Our Eyes, which is probably their biggest hit. I think King of Wishful Thinking is a lot better, just pure eighties - even though it was released in 1990 - and something you can really dance to.

♫♥♪

 The third royal song is The King of Rock 'n' Roll by Prefab Sprout.

 My mother for some reason always pairs this song in her head with Somewhere in My Heart by Aztec Camera, and one time I was listening to the latter and she said, "What's that other song, the one about Albequerque?" So we looked it up and found The King of Rock 'n' Roll, and I like it. 

 It's one of those songs I often forget about, then when I remember and listen to it, I think, "How could I forget this?" I really need to listen to it more often; it can put you in a good mood. 

 Listening to good music is always a mood-lifter, and the madness of the video really helps: a lot of songs try to do the "completely mad video" thing and it fails because they're making too much of an effort. 

 While I acknowledge that a lot of effort probably went into this video, it just emits such a chilled vibe; like the madness was accidental. Maybe it was. Either way, it's one of the most iconic and well-done videos I've seen.

♪♥♫

 The fourth song I want to share is Dancing Queen by ABBA. 

 When planning this post I'd been intending to leave Dancing Queen out on grounds of cheesiness, but then it came on one of the music channels on telly and I realise it's a lot less cheesy than I'd remembered; in fact, it's actually very sophisticated for a seventies song.

 Something else that struck me when watching the video was how the two women carry themselves: they seem completely confident and in control and enjoying performing the song, and they both seem so happy in their own skin. 

 Compare this to a lot of female artists today who seem so insecure and seem to think the only way to sell records is to submit to men - either with skimpy outfits, or provocative dance moves, or by having some male artist say degrading things while they dance devotedly around them, or saying degrading things themselves. 

 A lot of these women are essentially selling their bodies when they sell records - whereas Frida and Agnetha clearly had no time for that sort of rubbish and just sold songs, songs they sung brilliantly. I think modern female artists should aim to be more like Frida and Agnetha.

♫♥♪

 The final song I want to celebrate is Queen of the New Year by Deacon Blue, which of all these songs is probably the first I discovered, when I was young and we had a mix tape made for car journeys that featured a lot of Deacon Blue.

 I always heard this song as a country music, barn-dance type thing to be performed in cowboy get-up with a dance routine and spectators standing around in the barn and cheering and joining in.

 Having seen the video and learnt more about Deacon Blue, it's more Scottish folk than barn-dance, but other than that my mind's eye view of it performed seems accurate enough; they have a dance routine of sorts and a delighted and dynamic crowd.... They're just missing the cowboy get-up.

 I always liked the line, "All the stars in Heaven go dim," although I did used to hear it as "All the stars in Heaven go down," which left me with images of lots of stars falling beautifully to earth and sparkling around the lovers in the song. I still find that this song conjures up that image even now I know what the actual lyric is.

 While I love music videos and seeing live performances, I think it's nice with some songs to hear them for a while before you see them, if you know what I mean, so that you can create your own music video in your head; come up with your own interpretation of what the song means without a video telling you.

♪♥♫

 Well, I hope you liked this post about royal songs and the kings and queens in them. I like how apart from possibly Dancing Queen, which may have been written for the Queen of Sweden at the time, none of the songs refer to actual kings or queens - as far as I know - nor do they use "king" or "queen" in the literal sense, meaning monarch. 

 They mean them figuratively, and are used to describe a lover (Slipstream and New Year), or someone who's the best at something (Dancing Queen, Rock 'n' Roll, Wishful Thinking) or who epitomises something (New Year). It shows how words can evolve; that they can be used to mean so many different things, and also how important kings and queens can be in culture.

 I wish the British Royal Family, and especially Prince George, the very best for the future.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs:

Queen of the Slipstream - Van Morrison - 1988

King of Wishful Thinking - Go West - 1990

The King of Rock 'n' Roll - Prefab Sprout - 1988

Dancing Queen - ABBA - 1976

Queen of the New Year - Deacon Blue - 1989

JSC: Happiness is...

 Hello!

 You are maybe wondering what JSC stands for. It stands for July Song Challenge, and is a challenge I have invented for myself using the daily prompts of the Fat Mum Slim July Photo Challenge.

 Basically the original challenge is to take a photo each day of the month on a specific theme. I decided to twist it to pick a song that I feel suits each theme and share it with you, my readers, along with the story of why this song is important to me, and why it fits the theme if it isn't obvious.

 The story of my challenge is that I decided I wanted to choose a song a day for all of July, and that each song must have a theme. I wanted the themes to come from an external source rather than me making them up as I wanted a real challenge where I may have to really think to find a song that fits.

 My friend Kylie (click green link for her blog) had done the FMS photo challenge a previous month which was how I had heard of the monthly challenges and I decided it would be a good source of a daily theme. So, please note: I don't have any links or endorsement with Fat Mum Slim or the photo challenge; I'm simply using it as a source of daily themes.

 Day 1's theme is "Happiness is..." I had to think for a bit, as there are many songs that make me happy but in the end I settled for Love Changes (Everything) by Climie Fisher.

 This was my second-favourite song for a bit - my favourite being Is This Love? by Alison Moyet. The reason why the latter is not my happiness song is that I just feel Love Changes (Everything) is more upbeat and therefore better fits the theme.

 It a song that makes you happy and hopeful and you just want to get up and dance to it! Well, I do; who knows, I may be in a minority, but you cannot deny that it is a song that fills you with hope - even if things are going badly, love can change everything.

 Plus it is a beautiful and well-produced song that is simply nice on the ears and I think would make enjoyable listening - and make you happy - even if you couldn't understand English, because the tone of the song is just so positive.

 I wrote a post about this song when I first started this blog two years ago, at which time I was obsessed with the song; feel free to check it out.

 So, I intend to pick a song a day. I probably won't post daily, as I once did that for a bit and I saw these posts got less views than others on the blog, which suggests that people maybe don't have time to see each daily post before the next one arrives. So I'll probably be posting three or four days worth of songs at a time.

 I hope you enjoy them! Also, watch out for none-song-challenge-related posts as there will be some of them as well. I have a post linking royalty and music planned to celebrate the birth of the royal baby, who is due some time this month, so watch this space!

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Song: Love Changes (Everything) - Climie Fisher - 1987

Beaches and broken hearts

 Dear readers,

 I hope you are all well. I have finished all of my university exams so now I can relax for the summer - although I am still busy with writing and poetry. One of my poems - a poem about music, actually - is going to be published in an online magazine soon! So I am very happy about that.

 I was recently listening to Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler and remembering how much I love the film Beaches - I really must watch it again soon.

 I also never knew the girl who played Bette Midler's character at eleven in the film is now Sheldon's girlfriend (or sort-of girlfriend or whatever; I don't watch it so don't know the ins and outs of it) in the Big Bang Theory.

♪♥♫

 Recently I heard this song in the car, on the radio, and remembered how much I like it: I'll Stand by You by the Pretenders.

 When I was younger I heard the Girls Aloud version a lot and discovered far too late that there was a brilliant 90s song behind the awful over-the-topness GA made it into. When I found the original I was amazed by Chrissie Hynde's sumptuous vocals. This is one song I would love to be able to sing really well.

♫♥♪

 You know when you keep hearing a song and you don't know what it is, and you'd love to hear it again? Well, once on a car journey I heard a song on the radio that I accepted was clichéd but which I really liked, and all I could remember was a lyric about open arms.

 I then heard it again very recently in a café and listened as hard as I could to try to hold onto something I could look up and hopefully find the song. This time I caught enough lyrics to find it, and it turned out to be... drumroll... Where Do Broken Hearts Go by Whitney Houston.

 I was surprised, I had expected it to be from before her time. I am also not generally a big Houston fan; however I do really like this song.

                                                                               ♪♥♫

 I have been watching bits and pieces of The Voice UK and my favourites out of the four finalists have to be Matt and Mike, with Mike being my winner (though I don't think he will actually win, sadly. Ah well, I can hope).

♫♥♪

 I've been learning Cantonese for a month or so (I already speak some Mandarin) and I wanted to share this song by Faye Wong: versions exist in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Here is the Cantonese one.

 I would recommend learning a Chinese dialect to anybody: there is so much fascinating culture attached to the language and idioms.

 In addition, I imagine learning a language made of characters instead of letters (assuming your first language is one that has letters) probably improves lateral thinking too. I feel that it's had that affect on me, anyway.

♪♥♫

 I think that's it for now; thanks again to all my wonderful Uni friends for a great first year; thanks as well to all my non-Uni friends for some amazing times together.

 Just after starting Uni I shared this song and described how it captured my feelings about the new friendships I was making; it still does now.

 Thanks for reading,

 Liz x

Songs:
Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler - 1989
I'll Stand By You - The Pretenders - 1994
Where Do Broken Hearts Go - Whitney Houston - 1988
Don't Close Your Eyes - Mike Ward - 2013
No Regrets - Faye Wong - 1993
We Are One - Cam Clarke and Charity Sanoy - 1998

Songs from China

 Hello! Ni hao!

 As you may know I spent three weeks in Beijing over Christmas and the New Year as part of a project called Study China, which is managed by my university. I have a blog about all my adventures there, which I hope you will enjoy.

 However, I also wanted to write a post on this music blog about songs I encountered in China - songs from China and also from other parts of the world - which I now cannot listen to without amazing memories flooding back of those three weeks in Beijing.

♥

 Firstly, I had a long journey to get there - three flights, which took me nearly a whole day. I travelled from Manchester to Amsterdam, which was a relatively short flight, then Amsterdam to Moscow. I then had a huge, eight-hour flight from Moscow to Beijing.

 I have trouble sleeping on planes - or on any kind of transport for that matter. I kept falling asleep then waking up and not knowing where I was and that wasn't very pleasant. One time I fell asleep and in waking up managed to spill my drink on myself.

 The bottom line is that it wasn't the most comfortable journey I've ever undertaken, but it was certainly an interesting experience, and it has made me feel more prepared for if I ever want to go to Australia or Canada or somewhere else that involves a really long flight.

 I tried to pass time by listening to some music, and there is one song that I listened to almost by proxy, as it came on my mp3 player after a song I liked and I couldn't be bothered to move past it, and I realised I liked this song more than I remembered. It is Desert Moon by Dennis DeYoung.

 My main criticism of this song in the past has been that it is cheesy - however, there are some occasions when cheesy music can actually make you feel better, and on this tiring flight, this song brought me some comfort. 

 My mp3 player was being odd and kept restarting it in the middle, so I became very well-accustomed to the first few bars of this song! (By the way, am I the only one who thinks the beginning of this song sounds very like that of "You're in Love" by Wilson Phillips?)

 It is inevitable that I will never be able to hear this song without remembering my voyage to China; sometimes you can preserve memories in a song better than just about anywhere else.

♥

 When I finally got to China, I got a taxi to our apartments within Beijing Normal University, found my room, slept a lot, and gradually got used to my immediate surroundings - a few shops and a student canteen which has the best yoghurt drinks I've ever had.

 I arrived on Saturday, and on Monday we had our Opening Ceremony. This song was playing, which I really liked - Liekkas by Sofia Jannok.

 If you are wondering, as I was at first, what language this is, it appears to be Sami. I liked this song when I first heard it and it has grown on me even more as I have listened to it since getting home - maybe because of all the memories it brings back. Thank you to Sally for letting me know the name of this song ♥

♥

 We settled into the routine of Mandarin language lessons in the morning, economics lectures some afternoons and activities such as calligraphy and tai chi in others. One afternoon when we were free we decided to go to the Silk Market, a big shopping centre/mall.

 A song that played on their sound system was Sitting Down Here by Lene Marlin.

 Another song I'd liked but not been passionate about, but hearing something familiar in such an unfamiliar place was somewhat reassuring, and I like this song a lot more now. I have also learnt through writing this that Lene Marlin is Norwegian; I had thought she was American.

♥

 At the end of our first full week in Beijing, a group of us went to a karaoke bar, and we had a great night. Hai, one of the BNU student volunteers, looked after us well, so Hai, if you're reading this, xiexie ♥ (to the non-Mandarin speakers, that means thank you).

 There were memorable renditions of many songs, but one song was especially interesting for me as I had never heard it before and really liked it, and that was 1973 by James Blunt.

 I don't know who chose this for karaoke (everyone kind of sung along to everything rather than someone picking a song then singing it by themself), but whoever you are I am very grateful as you introduced me to a song that I now really love and which enters my head at odd times and reminds me of Beijing and that night at karaoke ♥

♥

 Another song that featured at karaoke is L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. by Noah and the Whale.

 I had known and liked this song before Study China, but now I love it, and it has so many memories attached to it of good times in Beijing. It got properly stuck in my head for the rest of the trip and I kept absent-mindedly singing it... It's a brilliant song.

♥

 We then had Christmas, which was wonderful, if a bit surreal. We went to a restaurant and then played pool, and it was a lovely night.

 Boxing night I went with some friends to a bar on campus called Laker's. The lads danced to Gangnam Style - about which I will talk more later on! - and another song that played was a Korean version of Maria by Blondie. 

 I was not keen on the Korean version - the key was changed which I felt affected the whole feel and dynamic of the song. However, it reminded me of how much I love the original, which I will share here.

 I talk more about this song in my blog post, "Four songs and a dragon" - feel free to check it out.

♥

 I was ill for a few days, and listened to a lot of songs on my mp3 player while I lay in bed wishing I was well and could join in the cool excursions the others had planned to the Temple of Heaven and Tianjin.

 New Year's Eve came, and found us in Laker's, which was by now a favourite haunt of many of the group. 

 I spent some time there and then headed back to our apartments, where some of the others were watching a film - Miss Congeniality - so I joined them and enjoyed a really lovely night.

♥

 In the next few days we climbed the Great Wall, went to a Korean restaurant, visited Olympic Park and the Bird's Nest and saw a Kung Fu show. 

 We finished our presentations for economics class, had one last meal out together, sat our mock HSK exam - I got 195 out of 200! - and then, suddenly, it was the Closing Ceremony. Time had flown so fast.

 Again, Liekkas was playing, which made for a nice full circle from the Opening Ceremony and the start of our adventure. We could reflect on all we'd achieved. Then each of the three Mandarin classes performed a song we had been practising. Here is each of our performances with the original song:

Beijing Huanying Ni

This is my group!

Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu

 There are various versions of this song, but the one above is by Chinese singer Faye Wong. The name she was born with, however, is Wang Fei, which is also the name of one of our brilliant Mandarin teachers!

Dui Mian De Nu Hai Kan Guo Lai

 After the formal ceremony, there was a lot of taking photos together, and then we set off for - where else? - Laker's! 

 We had a lovely last night, with lots of music and dancing, and two songs stuck out for me. 

 One was Lonely by Akon, which was played in the bar and which suited how I felt at the time - not that I was lonely; I was surrounded by friends. But it was the last night and I felt really sad that it was ending. I felt like my mixed feelings were reflected in the bittersweet song.

 The other song was, of course, Gangnam Style. Here is the original:

 Here is our, far superior, version.

 I have about four different Gangnam Styles recorded from our time in Beijing, and I think I will make a mash-up of them; should be fun!

♥

 The journey home was a lot more comfortable than the journey out, I am pleased to say. I watched American Beauty on the aeroplane's entertainment system, except the end was cut off because the plane landed before I could finish. So I will have to finish that film sometime.

 Then I was home, sweet home and I slept for a long time. I have so many wonderful memories of my three weeks in Beijing, and would encourage anyone who is thinking of applying for Study China to go for it as it really is a once-in-a-lifetime experience ♥

 Thanks for reading!

 Liz x

Songs: Desert Moon - Dennis DeYoung - 1984

Liekkas - Sofia Jannok - ????

Sitting Down Here - Lene Marlin - 1999

1973 - James Blunt - 2007

L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. - Noah and the Whale - 2011

Maria - Blondie - 1998/9

Beijing Huanying Ni - various artists - 2008

Dan Yuan Ren Chang Jiu - Faye Wong - ????

Dui Mian De Nu Hai Kan Guo Lai - Richie Ren - ????

Lonely - Akon - 2005

Gangnam Style - PSY - 2012

Starring on Steve Wright!

 Dear readers,

 On Tuesday I was made extremely happy by the fact that my Oldies were featured on Steve Wright's Non-Stop Oldies on BBC Radio 2 in the afternoon!

 Here is a link to the show - my Oldies start at about 1 hour 3 minutes into the broadcast.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pt4sg

 I thought I would talk you through my Oldies, why I chose them and what they mean to me.

 Firstly, First Time (very apt for the first song) by Robin Beck.

 I first heard this song on one of the music channels on TV, and I really liked it - it is very much the archetypical 80s love song: big-haired, big-voiced singer; moody video; strong beat and a really catchy tune. I love the lyrics and find them a lot deeper and more sensitive than many 80s love songs; I particularly like:

"Like a break in the clouds, in the first ray of sun, 

I can feel it inside; something new has begun."

 And, 

"It's an uncharted sea, it's an non-opened door, 

But you gotta reach out, and you gotta explore."

 I love this song; I had forgotten about it for a bit and then something recently reminded me of it and I fell in love with it a second time. Brilliant song. And I'm glad they put it on first out of the Oldies; whether it was an intentional pun or not, it amused me.

♫♪♫

 Secondly, we have the Rah Band and Clouds Across the Moon. 

I first heard this at the gym, on some mix-tape they had of old songs. I'd hear snippets and really liked the chorus, but with machines whirring it was hard to hear the rest of it properly, so I went home and looked it up. 

 I really liked the song when I heard it through; however this was on Spotify, so I remained blissfully unaware of the bizarre video until I finally thought of looking for it on YouTube.

 Though I do think the end of the video is really touching; you can see her despair at having to wait a whole year to hear her loved one's voice again.

 Some people may see this as some sort of novelty song - a woman calling her husband who is fighting a space war is certainly an interesting concept - but I think it stands on its own as a really good song, novelty or otherwise. Certainly, as Steve says, there "doesn't seem to be a hint of irony." 

 I like to think this song is a serious exploration of what a space war could mean for the people left on Earth. To be honest this song could be used as an exploration of war generally and its effect on civilians; before I heard this properly I did think it was about a woman talking to her soldier husband in a more conventional war.

 I also found out that the singer is called Liz! ♥

♪♫♪

 Next we have Maria Vidal with Body Rock.

 I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this - doesn't that tend to be the way with songs that are special to us? I first heard Body Rock while on the way to badminton practice one night; we were driving past the DW Stadium except it was probably the JJB at the time; I remember the song reminded me of Rhythm of the Night by DeBarge at the time, though now I can't hear that much of a similarity.

 It was me and my Mam in the car and I think I remarked to her that I liked this song; it has since been played on many car journeys. It just makes me want to dance! Not easy in a car, I know, but when I listen to it at home I do confess that I usually end up dancing about to it.

 This seems to have been Maria Vidal's only big hit; I think it's a shame as she had a lot of potential. She was pretty in a way that seems far more natural than some other female pop singers of the era and she had a really nice and quite unusual voice. 

 I think she wrote this song, though I don't know for definite; if so she is a talented songwriter. I'm surprised she didn't achieve greater success in the 80s, as this is another song that epitomises the 80s for me!

♫♪♫

 The next of my Oldies is Crazy For You by Madonna.

 I included this in my choices partly for my Mam, as it is one of her favourite songs, and also for myself as I love it too, and as I like a lot of Madonna's music I was keen that she be represented in my Oldies. 

 I love her voice so much in this song, and she looks so beautiful in the video. The production of this record is also gorgeous; from the beginning it it just a real pleasure on the ears. 

 In fact, the beginning of this song is one of my favourite song-beginnings, and it is pretty unmistakeable, especially in the video where it starts with an alarm clock ringing!

 Whenever I see the video I ponder watching Vision Quest, the film featured, but never actually get around to it. If anybody has seen it and could let me know whether it is any good, that would be much appreciated.

 Regardless of the merits of the film, Crazy For you is a really beautiful song and one of my favourite Madonna songs, as well as one of my favourite love songs of the 80s.

♪♫♪

 My next Oldie is Ella Elle L'a (Ella, she has it) by the French chanteuse France Gall.

 As you may have guessed from the fact that she features in the video, this song is a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. It was written by France Gall's husband Michel Berger. I love how happy and carefree France looks in this video, dancing around and looking like she is having a really good time - in her early career she came across as rather shy and demure, but here she seems to be coming out of her shell.

 I love this song; I discovered it when looking for French music to listen to sometime when I was at sixth-form college and a combination of my really inspiring French teacher and a wonderful college trip to Montpellier in the south of France made me really love French culture, music included. As well as France Gall I love Jean-Jacques Goldman, Lio, Niagara and many other French or Quebecois musicians and bands.

 Steve Wright commented on how high he finds France Gall's voice to be; I don't find it particularly high but maybe that is just because I am used to it as I have listened to this song so many times. Anyway, high or low I really love her voice and this remains one of my favourite songs in any language.

♫♪♫

 Next is R.E.M. with Bad Day.

 I have already done a blog post discussing this among other R.E.M. songs, which can be found by clicking above; however to re-iterate, I really like this song; it was one I heard and loved years ago, then lost, then rediscovered and now love as much as ever. And the video is really original and quirky; clearly a lot of effort went into the making of it. I love this song and always end up singing along to it!

♪♫♪

 My penultimate Oldie is Don Henley with The Boys of Summer, which was my favourite song for a while when I was in early high school, maybe 12 or 13 years old.

 We were doing some sort of project in our Music lessons about DJs, and I did DJ Sammy, and through doing so found his version of this song, which brought me right back to finishing primary school, when people were singing it on karaoke - either that or we were just listening to the song, I can't remember - but it was certainly popular at the time and I really liked it. 

 I then heard it in a bowling alley on one of our high school bowling trips, and wondered who sung it. I found out through doing my DJ project, and I re-listened to it and enjoyed it. Seeing that it was a remix of an older song by Don Henley, I listened to the original, convinced I couldn't like it more than the remix. I was wrong. It became my favourite song and I listened to it endlessly.

 The fact that the original is sung by a man makes the sentiment a lot nicer, I feel - the DJ Sammy one seems to be a woman declaring without much shame that she is cheating on her lover but still expects him to be there for her "when the boys of summer have gone," whereas the Don Henley version seems to be a man bitterly acknowledging that his lover is cheating on him but saying he'll always love her and will still be there for her at the end of it all.

 I still love this song and it was lovely to hear it on the radio and to share it with the listeners of Radio 2.

♫♪♫

 My final Oldie is Is This Love? by Alison Moyet, which, again, was my favourite song for a bit - it may still be my favourite song. I have trouble deciding on a favourite at the minute, but this is certainly in contention.

 I have a blog post all about my love for Alison Moyet in which I discuss this song and video, so feel free to check that out. For now I'll just say that I absolutely adore this woman and her music, and this song is so happy and upbeat, and the video just puts a smile on your face; they are all having so much fun on the beach. 

 And the dance they do at the beginning and end is contagious - I find myself doing the actions whenever I hear the song!

 I love Alison Moyet ♥ And I love that my selection of Oldies ends on such a happy note with this jolly little song.

♪♫♪

 I am really chuffed at my Oldies being chosen, and cannot stop listening to that half-hour of all my favourite music ♥ And I have a badge saying, "I chose the Non-Stop Oldies on Steve Wright in the Afternoon." I am very happy.

 I hope you have enjoyed listening to my Oldies as well - please feel free to add any comments below. 

 Thank you so much for reading my blog and letting me share with you the music I love.

 Liz x

Songs: First Time - Robin Beck - 1988

Clouds Across the Moon - Rah Band - 1985

Body Rock - Maria Vidal - 1984

Crazy For You - Madonna - 1985

Ella Elle L'a - France Gall - 1987

Bad Day - R.E.M. - 2003

The Boys of Summer - Don Henley - 1984

Is This Love? - Alison Moyet - 1986

 Lots of 80s songs - I clearly love 80s music! ♥

 Thanks for reading x