Music Discoveries 2026 April-June

Of course, the big news is that Asha Bhosle died last week (Obit, W). Here’s a fun and catchy song “Sanam Tum Jahan” from the 1981 movie Kaalia (with dance moves and lipsyncing from Parveen Babi).

EUROVISION FOR AMERICANS: For the first time ever, Americans will be available to watch the Eurovision finals on YouTube without being geo-blocked. The finals start Saturday at 2 PM CST & lasts 3 hours. (PS, also streamable on Peacock).

Articles and Interviews

The news about a new Eurovision for Asia really blew my mind. 10 countries have signed up so far. The first competition will be November 2026. I would bet that at least Japan or Indonesia will sign up before the deadline.

Related: here’s the 2025 winner of Innervision (Russia’s Eurovision clone). Song was average, but maybe I’m not Asian enough for it.

Bandcamp Purchases

1. Begin

Youtubey/Podcasty Things

Here’s a rare 60s recording by Curt Boettcher (who went on to start several sunny California bands.

This NYT profile of Boettcher by Alexandra Molotkov says:

College students would steal and hoard their parents’ copies of his records. As it stands, Boettcher — a pop-music producer whose heyday was the late ’60s — now survives in rock history mostly as a liner-note credit. He could have been, but never was. Yet he enjoys a godlike status among a select group of music fans, for whom obscurity is more enticing than fame.

Freegal and Library CDs

Here’s a pretty amazing collection of free/downloadable/streamable 1980s Italo-Disco and Euro-Disco tracks. Euro-Disco provides a fun and semi-mindless listening experience. Cover versions of many synthpop songs, lots of German and Italian singers singing in English (!) and long techno remix sections for just about every song! This treasure trove of 80s music is certainly going to change my generally negative impressions of 80s music.

Reviews (Rateyourmusic/Personal Reviews, etc)

See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.