The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.
Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.
O is for Oh My God released by Ida Maria as a single in October 2007 and re-released in January 2009.
Ida Maria was born in 1984 in the small town of Nesna, Norway. At the age of sixteen she moved to the bigger town of Bergen, looking to try and make some sort of career as a musician. It took another move, this time to Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden, before she was able to gain some success, fronting a band and becoming a reasonably popular live act within the Swedish rock scene without any commercial success or record deal.
It would take until 2006 to make her name back home in Norway, thanks to winning national competitions for unknown artists and capturing the attention at rock festivals. She was signed to the Norwegian arm of Universal Records, releasing Oh My God as her debut single in late 2007, with the album Fortress Around My Heart following in July 2008.
The album was a huge success in Norway, and was also picked up on by the music press in the UK, thanks largely to the success of the single I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked, which was a Top 20 hit and helped land Ida Maria slots at summer festivals as well as an appearance on Later With Jools Holland.
The decision was taken to re-release Oh My God as the follow-up, but for whatever reason, it was held back on a couple of occasions and didn’t hit the shops until January 2009. It didn’t crack the Top 75, despite it being an infectiously catchy piece of indie-rock:-
mp3 : Ida Maria – Oh My God
Here’s the b-side from the original release
mp3 : Ida Maria – We’re All Going To Hell
Later in 2009, Ida Maria released a remix of Oh My God, one win which a grizzled rock veteran added his co- and backing vocal:-
mp3 : Ida Maria – Oh My God (remix featuring Iggy Pop)
It’s a pity that I’ve previously featured The Passenger on the blog as it would have made for a neat follow-up tomorrow.