By Chris McPherson

After a light scan of the blogosphere, today I discovered Beldina. If you troll music blogs daily, you’ll find tons of up-and-coming artists trying to get their music heard. They’ll promote their twitter/facebook page, music on their “official” youtube, and maybe even an Instagram, but personally it takes something special for me to make that click and check an artist out. Beldina managed to do that.

Beldina just released her new single What Can I Say. A quick google search shows the Swedish singer has been around for a little while: a few songs on Myspace here, a youtube video there, but this new single seems like the beginning of a hard debut for this girl. After a couple plays on repeat I have some mixed feelings toward the single.  By this I don’t mean on whether or not I like it. It’s definitely a solid song, and well-produced. The song uses a diverse array of genres which has me wondering what kind  is to be expected of Ms. Beldina in terms of future music, and dare i say a full length studio album.

The song felt like a mainstream atempt at pop/r&b infused with hip hop. Beldina manages to sing the majority of the song in a soft falsetto coated in a hip hop bass undertone, but somehow supported by some heavy piano keys worked in the middle. There also seems to be some interesting call-outs of a man shouting the title “What Can I Say” throughout the song that felt like a homage to old school 80s rap. All of these different musical elements make it difficult to pinpoint the direction she is headed. Will she use those strong vocals into a pop career like Rihanna, or will she remain in the shadows of R&B like Chrisette Michele. Don’t get me wrong, Michele is a great vocalist, but top 40 is something she’s shied away from. I would say she has the potential to get some radio play in the United States.

I will say it is about time that a African American musician rise from the ashes of the once-chart topping divas of music past. The Ciara’s, Ashanti’s and Keyshia Cole’s cry from the graves of their past success. Don’t get me wrong, those women are/were great in their own right, but they have definitly lost some steam along the way. It was beginning to seem like we were living in a world where only Beyonce and Rihanna could survive as pillars of black songtresses. I was compelled to name Kelly Rowland, but nah.

You can get your own opinion of Beldina at her twitter page @Beldina and her single What Can I Say is below.