andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

When the phrase “pop music” is put in the same sentence as “Sweden,” not much comes to mind other than the 70’s phenomenon foursome ABBA.

Erik Hassle is out to change that.

While the 21-year-old pop singer has already had success in Sweden and is quickly gaining momentum in the United Kingdom, he has bigger dreams: North America. And considering his first single, “Hurtful,” was featured on MTV’s reality show The Hills, the young musician is well on his way.

“It’s always fun to play for the people from your own country but right now the focus is outside of Sweden,” Hassle told andPOP. “I’m quite young still and I’m enjoying being in the world – the big world!”

With wild-yet-styled curly red hair that has quickly become the staple of his image, Hassle making an impression.

His debut album, Pieces, was released in Sweden in August. It has a worldwide release date of Feb. 23, 2010 from Universal Republic Records.

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Four Swedish newspapers plan not to cover Britney Spears’s upcoming concert because of outrageous rules for using photos from the show, reports Perez Hilton. The pop singer has placed several restrictions on using photographs of her taken during the upcoming show, including no resales, expiration of shots after 30 days and not being able to use photos if she looks bad.

The media contract “prohibits papers from publishing pictures of Spears which arrangers deem unflattering” and states that the American pop star be given ownership rights to the pictures her management finds favourable.

The concert is planned for Tuesday in Stockholm and is part of the singer’s current world tour – The Circus Starring: Britney Spears.

“The next step would be to tell critics they can’t write anything critical,” said Roger Turesson, photo editor for Dagens Nyheter, one of the papers boycotting the show.