(Spanish, derived from Arabic al-qasr, "palace, castle")

A fortress, castle or palace, erected by the Moors in Spain or Portugal.

Among the more elegant examples of the alcázar architecture of the period of Islamic dominance of the Iberian Peninsula are those of Toledo, Sevilla and Segovia.

Swedish disco act with penchant for quoting corny pop standards

Alcazar has been around since 1999, when minor male pop-starlet Andreas Lundstedt (who once came 2nd in the regional swedish finals for the Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson) teamed up with minor female pop starlets Tess and Annikafiore to form a band. How things in showbiz go, 3 weeks later they had a contract with BMG Sweden. I wonder how long it took the Super Furry Animals to claim a record deal. Must be those swedish looks, as the S.F.A. are not very attractive.

BMG organised our beautiful trio their ticket to fame by teaming them up with (swedish) camp pop-genius Alexander Bard who already cavorted around in the hilarious (swedish, but thanks for checking) ultra-gay spectacle that was Army of Lovers. With his help, another camp video (probably done in Sweden) featuring the band members in red latex and silly animal masks, some serious sampling (Sheila B. & the Devotion's "Spacer") and the usual silly lyrics they had a Euro Pop number one before you could say Kopenhagen: "Crying at the Discotheque" had everything a good club hit had to have: a well sampled, melodious base (thanks to Sheila and her devoted men), lyrics that were easy to remember but not quite as bad as the Vengaboys's "Sex on the beach" (ok, one can never repeat that one) and the aforementioned video and all the little teenagers were busy jumping the around their clubs.

To be fair, their first album is actually not half bad: with some definite overblown abbaesque harmonies and some unusual sampling and quoting everything that's halfway popular (combining a sample from Diana Ross's "Upside down" with the chorus of Genesis' "World of confusion" is pretty clever) the band manages to qualify for the upper echelons of (swedish) pop.

Discography:

Al*ca"zar (#), n. [ fr. Ar. al the + qacr (in pl.) a castle.]

A fortress; also, a royal palace.

Prescott.

 

© Webster 1913.

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