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Song of the Day #3,536: ’10’ – Elouiz

Elouiz is a Swedish singer whose website and Instagram profile both go to broken pages, despite being linked from her recently-updated Facebook page. It really shouldn’t be that hard for an aspiring musical artist to maintain a robust web presence. Even if you can’t afford to pay somebody, just dedicate an hour or two of your own time and you’re in business.

’10’ is a song about finding hope amid despair. Its video depicts a young woman (portrayed by Elouiz, I presume) contemplating suicide but ultimately choosing life. The “you” referenced throughout could be a romantic partner, a friend or family member, or even god.

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Song of the Day #3,535: ‘9’ – Jus D

Jus D is another obscure artist with almost no web presence. I have nearly twice as many Twitter followers as this guy, and I tweet maybe once a month.

Interesting sound, though. A blend of hip-hop, island beats and house music, ‘9’ has a laid-back vibe I really enjoy. I like to think that my meager little blog is giving some exposure to these artists they might not have otherwise found.

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Song of the Day #3,534: ‘8’ – Nic Kush

Earlier this week I mentioned that heavy metal bands produce a lot of numbered songs. But even that genre takes a back seat to rap. I could have easily tackled this project using only rap songs. In fact, much of my research time was spent digging around for non-rap songs to prevent the list from being too rap-heavy.

I guess that’s because a lot of wannabe rappers have access to sophisticated enough recording equipment (read: a laptop) to produce halfway decent songs.

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Song of the Day #3,533: ‘7’ – Prince

Prince’s ‘7’ is one of the most popular tracks in my ’31 Numbered Songs’ series. Released in 1992 as the third single from Prince’s Love Symbol album, the track reached #7 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

Filled with Prince’s trademark religious imagery, ‘7’ is presumably about the seven deadly sins. The song’s video features then 18-year-old Mayte, a dancer who married Prince four years later and divorced him four years after that. They had a child, who died less than a week after his birth.

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Song of the Day #3,532: ‘Six’ – Mansun

Fewer well-known artists than you’d think have songs named after numbers, so this exercise has introduced me to quite a few new performers.

It’s hard to tell just yet whether I’ve stumbled across any bands or solo acts I’ll listen to beyond their contribution of ’12’ or ‘Twenty nine’ or whatever, but there’s always a chance.

Take the English alt-rock band Mansun, which recorded for a decade starting in the mid-90s. I doubt I’ll ever seek them out again, but parts of ‘Six’ are intriguing.

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