Lenka in the Live Lounge

Good news! Lenka's delightfully jaunty single The Show went into the chart at 33 last week, and it looks set to climb higher on Sunday.

The Aussie singer-songwriter has been in the UK this week helping the single along, and she turned up at Radio One yesterday for a bit glockenspiel-tastic Live Lounge action - performing both The Show and a cover of Friendly Fires' Jump In The Pool.

The whole set is up on the R1 website, or if you'd prefer a copy you can keep, try the following:

:: Lenka - The Show (acoustic) [yousendit link]
:: Lenka - The Show (acoustic) [sharebee link]
:: Lenka - Jump In The Pool (acoustic) [yousendit link]
:: Lenka - Jump In The Pool (acoustic) [sharebee link]

If you found that unbelievably twee, like a fairy sprinkling glitter over a Hello Kitty poster in marshmallow land, then don't worry - Lenka's album is a bit more ballsy than the acoustic session would suggest. If by ballsy you mean "can peel a banana unaided", rather than "would rip your face off with its teeth".

I don't mean this as a criticism, by the way. As saccharine la-di-da pop princesses go, Lenka is at the top of the list. Lend your ear to this fabulous NPR session to see why.

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Quirky female singer-songwriter news

Regina Spektor was on Jools Holland last night playing new song Blue Lips with a string quartet. Have a look below: Her vocal is out-of-this-world, and the modest little curtsey at the end is super-cute (if you can do a curtsey on a piano stool, that is).

Regina Spektor - Blue Lips


The studio version of Blue Lips is up on Regina's MySpace, along with new single Laughing With. The latter is a mediation on the nature of God and, compared to the eccentric jollity of her breakthrough album, Begin To Hope, more than a little po-faced. We're hoping the "mature" sound isn't 100% indicative of the new album, Far, as Regina's always been best when she's yelping quirky lyrics about Orca Whales and statues of baby jesus.

Thankfully, Pitchfork reveals that one of the record's new songs, Folding Chair, "features Spektor doing an uncanny dolphin imitation". But just in case Spektor really has gone all serious and librariany on us, here's a suitable replacement...

She's called Lenka, and she's from Australia. You won't be surprised to hear that she used to be an actress (working on a TV drama is a form of national service in Oz) but now she lives in LA and has brought her acting skills to this unbearably cute video.

If this doesn't put a smile on your face, you are dead.

Lenka - The Show

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