IDOL RECYCLING

This handsome young bugger (left) is 22 year old Ola Svensson. Ola was a top ten finalist on Sweden’s version of Idol back in 2005. But imagine our surprise when we stumbled upon the video for his debut single and found that we actually knew the song. Furthermore, the production on this version sounded pretty much identical to the version we’d heard. Could this be another way that the worldwide Idol franchise makes money, we wondered? It was a number one hit for Ola in his homeland and was the first in a string of top five singles for him. Ola’s most recent release in Sweden, “Love In Stereo” (which featured bagpipes no less) narrowly missed being picked as Sweden’s official entry to Eurovision 2008, an honour which ultimately went to Charlotte Perrelli. But we digress. This single (the original) was a number one Idol hit here in Australia and went on to sell more than 140,000 copies.

 Australia's first stop for pop!