1) Amanda Louisa Kretz Lameche, known professionally as Amanda, (born March 24, 1985 in French Alps, France) is a French-born, Swedish pop singer who started getting involved in music after her family settled in Täby, Sweden. While taking dance classes, she joined the musical The Sound of Music and was soon singing "Little Stars" at Gothenburg's World Athletic Games. Amanda became the first young female pop act to sign with Madonna's Maverick Records, making her professional debut with "You Don't Stand a Chance", from the Rugrats in Paris movie soundtrack. In 2000, Lameche recorded her debut album, entitled Everybody Doesn't and released it in 2001. The title track "Everybody Doesn't" was her first and only single to date, peaking at #81 on the Billboard Hot 100. There was a scheduled release for a second single, "Can't Stop My Love", but due to lack of album sales, Maverick cancelled the single and dropped Amanda. In 2006 Signature Records gave her a new record deal to record an album set for release in December 2007.

Amanda's younger sister Anaïs Lameche soon joined Laila Bagge's Swedish girl group Play. Amanda received writing credits on Play's debut single, "Us Against the World." When Play filmed a video for "It's a Hard Knock Life" in 2003, Amanda substituted for Faye Hamlin, who was sick at the shoot, in some scenes.

2) Written as AmAndA, this sextet evolved from the southwestern suburbs of Brussels, with a very theatrical (with some original accessories and decors) symphonic prog with a modern edge, but expanding a vast and humorous world, sung in French (and sometimes in Latin), which fascinates the audiences.

Their debut album Qui Est AmAndA? came out in 02, and the group slowly acquired a strong local following, their music sometimes reminding of a proggier Queen (Bohemian Rhapsody-like) and Ange. Two years later the group issued a single called Voilà, which would find a way of the future album. While their second album the excellent La Maison De Flore had to wait until 07, the group achieved another big project almost simultaneously, as they recorded in the Universirté of Louvain La Neuve, their music accompanied by a 50 musician symphonic orchestra. This is also bound to be released soon.

3.) An Arabic singer

4) Project of Lauri Ylönen - the lead singer of The Rasmus

(5) Also known as AMANDA THE POWER CHILD, the "Amanda" recordings have emerged as an unexpected cult sensation on my WFMU program over the past two years. The chronicles feature Amanda Whitt, a growling (think Cookie Monster), defiant pre-pubescent with a Southern twang spewing mayhem over 1980s breakbeats and disjointed shards of pop hits. On some tracks Amanda shrieks while clanging pots & pans. The recordings exude undeniable charm, but there's nothing cute about it. Any sentient adult witnessing this behavior would commence punitive action or summon law enforcement.

Power-child Amanda was recorded between 1986-89 at home in Alabama, between ages 8 and 11, by her older (by 7 or 8 years) brother Joseph (a.k.a. Jody). Joseph and Amanda were a couple of hyperactive kids pretending to be, respectively, a music video director and a child star. Most recordings were captured on cassette, others on video cam, in the lowest of lo-fi. The duo sometimes enlisted friends in the frolics, and often drove their parents crazy (with incidents caught on tape). The most durable performances were titled (e.g., "The Pickle People," "Horrible Hybrid Tulips," "Indian Hoots Echo Baby," "Me Swinging in Cookieland") and compiled on "albums," whose design awkwardly replicated the commercial cassette format. Inserts were pasted up and xeroxed, and collections assigned titles (e.g., Primitive Swagger, Monumental Whopper Turmoil Jam, Empires and 5th Dimension Perspective, and Worship Me). The recordings were not circulated beyond friends.

Amanda's singular appeal is difficult to explain. There's no artifice, and nothing remotely arty. At their best, the recordings are compelling in a car-wreck way. At their worst, they're a couple of obnoxious brats with a cheap tape deck. Yet Amanda's voice conveys elusive qualities with enormous appeal. Her delivery is brutal, her growl unearthly; yet there's a transcendent joy in her lack of inhibition. The gal has a repertoire of shrieks, howls, swoops and pet phrases. Most of my listeners find the recordings diverting and entertaining. A few strongly dissent‹one to the point of suicidal threats. You either get it or you don't. -----IRWIN CHUSID

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