Blacmore's Night, a late-90s project of Ritchie Blackmore, who some folks might recognize as a member/founder of the heavy metal/rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow and his later wife, it's more a folk-skewed English soft rock band than anything, with some pop elements that worm their way in for hooks and fun.
Loreley is probably one of the prominent examples of their more folks stuff, while I gravitate a bit towards the more pop side of their lineup with stuff like the below:
Fun stuff to be had there.
It's basically just pop in foreign language. But I still kind've enjoy it. Helena Paparizou and Nanne Gronvall. Both keep up a really light, upbeat tempo to things much of the time, with occasional fneaky-suckers that break up the dancehall cliche-dom with what is, admittedly, probably schmaltz that just has an aura of mystery to it because I don't understand some/most of it usually...But it's schmaltz I enjoy dangit (Gronvall's '
The Dolphin' is especially guilty of the schmaltz, and in English for a change, but I still find myself recomending it to people because of it)!
Keeping with the theme of foreign pop artists (but this time who do some recording in English), I also have to mention Cascada and Shakira--because we might as well make this recommendation a world tour of my shitty pop inclinations. Cascada is just fun and, at least to me, exemplifies that mid-00s, semi-techno-y dance music really well with the occaisonal breakdowns and haring-off into alternative sounds briefly before returning to the 'hook'--kind've the genre of stuff that Lady Gaga came in and took over a few years later.
Shakira I must say I'm partial towards not just because I have the musical sensibilities of a 90s teeny-bopper, but because as far as I remember it's the first 'real' concert I went to of someone who was actually a big-time artist when I was a teenager. Pretty standard pop-music fare (with latin flair!
), but I distinctly recall just how good of a dancer she was making an impression in my mind--and particularly how much fun she seemed to be having doing it.