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Posted by: Bré Sep 3 2016, 06:57 PM

Posted by: Bré Sep 3 2016, 06:57 PM

Posted by: Bré Sep 3 2016, 06:57 PM

Posted by: Bré Sep 3 2016, 06:59 PM

(I will post my delayed BJSC87 summary / rankings in this thread soon lol, been too busy working on this largely pointless thread revamp the last week or so ~)

Posted by: Mattias Sep 3 2016, 07:16 PM

I had no idea I was that high in your "points received" in spin-offs, niiice! Was listening to The xx - Angels today and it just suddenly hit me that it was your near-misses entry! Will try to keep keeping up with much "famous rambling summaries of the final results of each contest" and more, in this new thread

Posted by: Bré Sep 3 2016, 07:20 PM

Yeah this was the first time I'd actually worked out my spinoff voting histories! I had kinda guessed beforehand that Dan & Ethan would be my top 2 as they tend to send pretty great songs to the spinoffs though. Could probably have had a decent guess at who'd be #1 on the received list too Thank you for all your support! x

Posted by: Bradders Sep 4 2016, 11:56 AM

Persephonia not reciprocating the love we've had for you so far here in Brechtoria!

You're definitely going to hate 88 as well, so maybe 89 we can pinch a couple of points from you!

Posted by: Bré Sep 4 2016, 05:44 PM

Apols, hopefully I can return some of the love in the near future! (Not really expecting great things from your current entry indeed based on your description but you never know lol). I did at least throw you a few points in Reinvention! x

Posted by: Bré Sep 4 2016, 10:37 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 04/09/2016
publication delayed by political instability

BJSC 87 summary

- In the final of BJSC 87 in Lambrini City, Pupok, TWRR's 'Water Frozen' secured Persephonia a third top 20 in a row and a fifth out of seven entries this year so far, coming 20th with a total of 187 points and once again DEFYING the predictions from international pundits *.* It becomes our first song to finish 20th meaning the only remaining top 20 positions we have yet to finish in are 7th-11th and 18th. 24 countries voted for 'Water Frozen' with top support coming from Terra Avium, who gave it its only 18, and Ethanola and Jadakissnia who both gave it 15. Although it was Persephonia's 2nd lowest final position out of our 2016 qualifiers, it was revealed that it matched our highest semi-final position of the year (8th) with our highest semi-final points of the year to date, 85. That meant that unlike most of our previous entries this year 'Water Frozen' actually did a bit worse than expected from the semi-final results (having been projected 15th).

- Their qualification record hasn't been as consistent this year as it was in 2015 but Cor Lupus achieved what they didn't manage in their opening run of 8 qualifiers, getting their first win in this contest with The Naked And Famous' 'Higher' (actually their first top 3, beating their previous #4 peak with Five Knives' Savages') stomping all competition to finish on a total of 432 points, tying Meg Myers' 'Sorry' for the third highest points total ever (after 477 for Sigala's 'Easy Love' last year and 465 for Salt Ashes' 'Save It' earlier this year). The country's first solo hosting job (they previously co-hosted the infamous BJSC 78) is now already underway in New Beacon City. The Naked And Famous are the first act from New Zealand to win BJSC. 'Higher' fell short of the final points record but did beat the record for points in the semi-final, winning semi 2 with a monstrous 186 points, 13 more than the record set by 'Save It' only 3 contests earlier. 'Save It' held that record for a much shorter time than the previous holder, Eva Simons' 'Silly Boy' in BJSC 19. Finally, 'Higher' had 44 voters in the final, enough to tie that record which is also held by 'Save It'.

- Way back in 2nd place with 361 points was the country with the ever changing name, competing in BJSC 87 as FKA FKA FKA π but now already having changed their name again to People's Independent State of Slutland. Mai Lan's 'Technique' gave the five-time winners their first top 10 hit since The Midnight's 'The Years (Prologue)' also came 2nd back in BJSC 69. That song originally seemed to be a bit of a last hurrah for the country as after their following entry DNQed, they announced that they were to quit the contest, and indeed they sat out BJSC 71, the first contest they had missed since their debut in the fourth edition (under the name Elëdan, a name they used continuously up to BJSC 70 apart from competing in BJSC 56 as Slutland). However, despite continuously insisting they are going to quit, they have still entered most of the contests since then under various different names, having served several one-contest bans for not submitting votes but not yet actually missing more than one contest in a row. Persephonian News Bulletin hopes that they do remain a permanent part of the contest now xx They would in fact have broken their top 10 drought 2 contests earlier with their last entry '$ORO' by Lost Under Heaven if that hadn't been given a non-voting deduction. 'Technique' is clearly a FAR better song to break the drought with.

- Just missing out on the silver medal, Hendinia came 3rd with 359 points with That Poppy's 'Money' (the winner of semi-final 1). This gave them a third top 10 hit in a row, and their first top 3 since Sophia Del Carmen's 'Lipstick' back in BJSC 65 (with seven top 10 hits between them), but means Hendinia have to continue the search for a 4th winner having not won since BJSC 39 with Ricki-Lee's 'Raining Diamonds' despite their entries topping odds and predictions many, many times since then, with 'Money' only adding to that list. Poor Hendinia. Completing the top 5 were 2 of the other most successful countries in BJSC history: Aeroche bounced back from their shock DNQ in the previous contest to come 4th with Little Big's 'Hateful Love' on 332 points (receiving 6 18s, the most of any song in this contest) and FSR Rontvia continued a year that has seen them nearly ascend to the levels of dominance they had in the past, getting a second top 10 in a row and their third of the year with a 5th place on 287 points for the absolutely stunning 'Ilumbarada' by Ortiga (bringing their cumulative points received since they debuted in the first ever contest to over 10,000, still well ahead of all other countries). Both nations have thus closed the gap a bit on the YTD top 2 of Yehesi and Pupok who both did significantly less well this month than they did in the previous 5 contests.

- Some fresher names in the lower half of the top 10: Harmonica (returning after forgetting to enter the previous contest) got their first ever top 10 hit on their 23rd attempt, coming 8th with MEG MAC's 'Never Be' after previously peaking at a frustrating #11 with Coasts' 'A Rush Of Blood', while Avalonia achieved their second top 10 hit to date with Symphobia's 'I Do' coming 6th. Between them in 7th place was Cadelicia's entry 'Banana Brain' by Die Antwoord which gave them their third top 10 of the year, meaning they've doubled their total number of top 10 hits to 6 within the last 5 contests. Also earning a sixth top 10 hit was Jadakissnia coming 9th with a surprise (but VERY well-deserved *.*) hit in FM-84's 'Arcade Summer', while an even more recent debutant, Dobago, are also very quickly racking up the top 10 hits as they picked up their second in a row and fourth in total (all this year) after coming 10th with Kida's 'Ja Kem Nis'. That's the second Albanian-language top 10 of the year (after Era Istrefi's 'Bonbon') and neither of them were sent by Bøtanikkä

- No other countries besides Cor Lupus and Harmonica set national bests this month (apart from the one debuting country Bubblelands, although their appearance in the contest was just a little bit pointless as they did not vote in either the semi-final or the final, and came 33rd - second last - in semi-final 2 with Ta-Ra's 'ORION' (feat. ISSUE), its position not being affected by the deduction from 18 points to 12). However, Taahino remained consistent as ever, now racking up a record 7th top 20 without ever making the top 10, with a 16th place finish for Ghost Town's 'Spark' giving them a run this year of 18-15-23-14-14-15-16. Ultraviolenceland's Lauren Aquilina came 21st with 'How Would You Like It?', just barely sparing them also getting a 7th top 20 without a top 10 to their name (you can 'thank' us for that UVland!!)

- Four more returning countries made the final: FARC came back from a one month break with a 22nd place finish with the Monsieur Adi remix of morgxn's 'love you with the lights on'; Jukianië returned after a four-contest absence with GNUČČI's 'Work!' which seemed surely destined to beat their national record of 26th but sadly 'only' came 33rd, still better than their last four entries which all DNQed and their best result since BJSC 72; Desbuanda also came back after Harmonica's forgetfulness resulted in them also forgetting to enter the previous contest, although apparently their forgetfulness wasn't cured as they didn't vote on time in the final and thus came 35th after a 33% deduction with Suns' 'Catalyse' (in fairness there were other factors at play and they may or may not be avoiding the ban in BJSC 88... although the situation is still unclear with the entry deadline less than an hour away at the time of publication :')); and finally Kluminican Republic were back after serving a ban and came 39th with 'Bones' by wens. There was less luck for the other returning nations (of which there were quite a few in this contest): the sporadically competing nations of Ajanaeda, Alteria and Frandoot all fell short of the final on their latest comebacks (Alteria are still yet to get a qualifier after previously attempting and also failing in BJSCs 51 and 67, giving them one of the weirder participation records in the contest), as did Ojnoj on their return after a 7-contest absence and Sandebörg who were right back after missing a contest for the first time. Unfortunately Ajanaeda and Alteria won't have a chance to join us again in the current contest as they didn't vote in the final (as if Alteria were going to enter again so soon anyway) and are thus (definitely) banned from BJSC 88, as are Bubblelands and Oslol. Danaelanda's DNQ in the previous contest led them to civil war and a rebrand to just South Danaelanda for BJSC 87. That rebrand didn't help as they DNQed again.

- The wooden spoon went for the second time this year to Bignia-Zaragovina, and they didn't need a deduction to be last this time as they came 42nd out of 42 with 91 points with Greyson Chance's 'Back On The Wall'. They could have avoided last place if The Actual Republic of Bellamia had voted for the song as you'd ASSUME they would do, but alas they protested and gave it no points due to a ~domestic dispute~, much like Highasakite-gate in the previous contest (play nice kids). That thus saved Beaverdonia the ignominy of coming last twice in a row.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 87

Final

Points awarded:
18 FSR Rontvia // Ortiga - Ilumbarada
15 Syndare // Yoko Ono and Penguin Prison - She Gets Down On Her Knees
13 Jadakissnia // FM-84 - Arcade Summer

12 St. Burbia // Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia - Dum Dee Dum
11 FKA FKA FKA π // Mai Lan - Technique
10 Jukianië // GNUČČI - Work!
9 Aeroche // Little Big - Hateful Love
8 Cadelicia // Die Antwoord - Banana Brain
7 N DNTN // Kitty - 285
6 Beaverdonia // Shreya Ghoshal and Osman Mir - Nagada Sang Dhol
5 New Lexico // King Deco - Castaway
4 Medhelnia // FMLYBND - Come Alive
3 Cor Lupus // The Naked And Famous - Higher
2 Unovia // Ali Barter - Far Away
1 Taahino // Ghost Town - Spark

16th-41st:
Avalonia // Symphobia - I Do
Dobago // Kida - Ja Kem Nis
Thelonia // Dub Fx - So Are You
Yehesi // LYRA - Emerald
Desbuanda // Suns - Catalyse
Hendinia // That Poppy - Money
Singerpurear // Fitz And The Tantrums - HandClap
Brechtoria // GLADES - Her (Loving You)
Harmonica // MEG MAC - Never Be
Bignia-Zaragovina // Greyson Chance - Back On The Wall
Bøtanikkä // Vita Chambers - Tell Me
Hushkanukia // Cardiknox - Wild Child
Kylienips // Icon For Hire - Supposed To Be
Espen // CAPPA - Mad About U
Pupok // Sasha Pieterse - R.P.M.
Fljótavík // Kitten - Fall On Me
Kluminican Republic // wens - Bones
Greenfroze // Matilda - Ghost
Ramrynia // NEIKED - Sexual (feat. Dyo)
Land of DW // Ward Thomas - Carry You Home
D'yermak'er // RIVRS - Falling
FARC // morgxn - love you with the lights on (Monsieur Adi Remix)
Usfland // Midnight To Monaco - One In A Million
Altyr Muunilinst // High Contrast and Clare Maguire - Who's Loving You Part One
Ultraviolenceland // Lauren Aquilina - How Would You Like It?
Republic of Adonia // OH MY GIRL - Liar Liar

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 St. Burbia // Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia - Dum Dee Dum
10 Syndare // Yoko Ono and Penguin Prison - She Gets Down On Her Knees
8 Terra Avium // Essaie Pas - Le Port Du Masque Est De Rigueur^†

7 FKA FKA FKA π // Mai Lan - Technique
6 Aeroche // Little Big - Hateful Love
5 Jukianië // GNUČČI - Work!
4 N DNTN // Kitty - 285
3 Beaverdonia // Shreya Ghoshal and Osman Mir - Nagada Sang Dhol
2 Ethanola // Green Velvet - Bigger Than Prince (Hot Since 82 Remix)^†
1 Taahino // Ghost Town - Spark

11th-33rd:
Yehesi // LYRA - Emerald
Hendinia // That Poppy - Money
South Danaelanda // Tobtok - Aber^†
Thelonia // Dub Fx - So Are You
Brechtoria // GLADES - Her (Loving You)
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Isac Elliot - Worth Something^†
Singerpurear // Fitz And The Tantrums - HandClap
Flynnonda // Fickle Friends - Cry Baby^†
Federal Republic of Ashton // Walking On Cars - Speeding Cars^†
Harmonica // MEG MAC - Never Be
FARC // morgxn - love you with the lights on (Monsieur Adi Remix)
Espen // CAPPA - Mad About U
Ajanaeda // AJÁ ROSE - Paradise Blue^†
Ojnoj // Chelsea Lankes - Bullet^†
Aelandor // Imperial Leisure - Man On The Street^†
Frandoot // Miya Folick - I Got Drunk^†
Greenfroze // Matilda - Ghost
Kluminican Republic // wens - Bones
Ultraviolenceland // Lauren Aquilina - How Would You Like It?
Quintessa // Lali - Soy^†
Daehun // Namie Amuro - Hero^†
Tartford // Dominique - I Think I'm Fallin (Manotett Remix)^†
Tinnmark // Katastrofe - Sangen Du Hater<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

3rd Trifoski // Anna Meredith - Nautilus
5th Bubblelands // Ta-Ra - ORION (feat. ISSUE)
9th Suedeonia // The Very Best - Makes A King (feat. Jutty Taylor)
11th Aeyundoré // Keys&Cages - Invisible
12th Cumulonimbia // The Len Goodman Independent Artists For Online Kindness Collective - Theme For BuzzJack (BBC News Remix)
14th Skall // Kollektivet - ÆØÅ (Size Matters)
15th Alteria // Shiggy Jr. - Beautiful Life
16th Séyetana // Beware Of Darkness - Dope
21st Sandebörg // Espen - Werk Like Beyoncé
25th Bhangra // Henri Pfr - Home
29th Oslol // Hey Violet - Brand New Moves
31st Triangledonia // The Aces - Stuck
32nd #00274E // Noréll - Howl
33rd Deandria // NOËP - Move

Posted by: Jade Sep 4 2016, 10:59 PM

Congrats on the top 20 placing for 'Water Frozen'! *.* I was a lil worried for it with the subpar predictions (as with my own entry!!) so g'won at outdoing expectations. The most points I have given you this year so far, t'was just such a beautiful song. Yay for swapping medal positions and both doing well, good month for Jadaphonia *.*

Slay me with this thread revamp btw! I'm so here for Lillian T. Chombo (!) as nu president. Plus stats galore *.*

Also, in response to this statement in your latest write-up: "They would in fact have broken their top 10 drought 2 contests earlier with their last entry '$ORO' by LUH if that hadn't been given a non-voting deduction. 'Technique' is clearly a FAR better song to break the drought with." As good as 'Technique' is... nah m8 x

Posted by: Cody's Glory Sep 4 2016, 11:02 PM

This must have been a pretty weak contest for you if even the likes of Ward Thomas/NEIKED/Sasha Pieterse aren't in your bottom 5

Posted by: Bré Sep 6 2016, 01:34 AM

President Chombo is v much looking forward to working with King Bellsprout and PM Kisselovich hehe x And thank you as ever, high hopes for another good month for Jadaphonia this time! Us finally getting to be in the same semi again for the first time in a while *.* x



Well it was a fairly weak contest for me indeed but none of those are actually particularly awful anyway (in fact I actually almost LIKE 'R.P.M.' shock horror).

Posted by: Bré Sep 6 2016, 02:05 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 06/09/2016

Persephonia's entry to BJSC 88 revealed: could this be the contest øf dreams for us?

Persephonia's representative at BJSC 88 in New Beacon City, Cor Lupus has just been announced in a ~sleek and snazzy~ showcase, so we can now officially confirm our 67th main contest entry is 'Thelema' by French producer Øfdream (who we have heard through the grapevine was recently also in contention for an appearance in the contest under the flag of Aeroche, with his other song 'Ninth Gate'... which would probably have had much greater hit potential but let's not think about that any more!)

'Thelema' is an instrumental track whose genre would be best described with some combination the following words (choose any 2 and put them together): 'chill', 'witch', 'trap', 'wave'. Think a more chilled version of BLVCK CEILING's 'WVFFLIFE' (CHVRN Remix), or a more trap version of Audialist's 'Burning'. Or maybe don't imagine it at all and just have a listen to it below!



'Thelema' is taken from Øfdream's August 2015 four-track EP 'Black Bones', which also features the aforementioned 'Ninth Gate' which samples Cassie's buzz single 'Balcony', as well as another Cassie sampling track 'The Great Beast' using the more recognisable 'Me & U'. We'd nearly have been tempted to send that one if it wasn't such a prominent and veto-tempting sample (not least because that very sample was already featured in a previous BJSC entry, Le Youth's 'C O O L'). 'Thelema' being an instrumental we think clears it of the possibility of also sampling Cassie, and we do think is is the highlight of the EP but as ever we encourage any fans of this song to check out the artist's other work!

Øfdream makes it two French artists on the trot for Persephonia and our third entry with a French lead artist to date, as well as our second instrumental entry of the year (after Digitalism's 'Blitz') and our eighth instrumental main contest entry in total. Clearly drumming up the anticipation for the instrumental spinoff which is apparently on the verge of FINALLY HAPPENING very soon

The song has been drawn into slot 18 (out of 34, as entry numbers have remained at last month's astronomical level) in semi-final 1. Keep an eye out in both semi-finals for a couple of Persephonian alumni getting a second outing in the contest as well - our criminal BJSC 54 DNQs Kadie Elder are opening our semi-final representing Singerpurear with 'First Time He Kissed A Boy', while over in semi-final 2 Cadelicia have returned our BJSC 52 entrant Spor to the contest, this time under his more common pseudonym of Feed Me, performing 12th with 'What It Feels Like' (feat. Nina Nesbitt). Do us proud Singerpurear and Cadelicia!
Update: it has since come to our attention that another Persephonian alumnus is also (sort of) in this contest - TĀLĀ, who represented us in BJSC 64 and has also since appeared in BJSC 69 for Bøtanikkä and BJFestivalen IV for π (aka People's Independent State of Slutland), is the uncredited vocalist on MssingNo's 'Scope' which is in BJSC 88 representing none other than Jadakissnia! That unintentional recycling *.* 'Scope' is drawn in slot 24 of semi-final 1.

Posted by: Jade Sep 6 2016, 12:16 PM

Well 'WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)' is still my second favourite entry of mine, so I am VERY excited at your comparison of 'Thelema' to that!

Witch house + trap is a match made in heaven *.* cannot wait to hear this on description alone.

As you brought up in your response to my last comment in here, yay for Jadaphonia in the same semi again at last! Cannot remember how many times we have been together this year but it's been very little

Posted by: Bré Sep 13 2016, 03:29 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 13/09/2016

Øfdream continues our qualification streak

Øfdream's 'Thelema' has seen Persephonia through to another BJSC final, our 49th to date (could we have an anniversary entry to celebrate our impending 50th finalist? no? okay ~) and 38th passing through a semi-final. It makes it 7 out of 8 qualifiers in 2016 and 4 in a row in our current streak. The song has been drawn in the 23rd running order slot of the 42 finalists in New Beacon City, Cor Lupus.

The top 6 of Persephonia's semi-final 1 votes all qualified, but the remaining 4 songs that received semi-final points from the Persephonian televoting fell short. These were Kingdom of Horanius' long-delayed debut entry 'Licht Uit' by The Opposites which got our 4 points, a disappointing and unexpected DNQ from Desbuanda, A R I Z O N A's 'Cross My Mind' which we awarded 3 points, another surprising miss from Ethanola who had been universally predicted to qualify but actually ended up second to last in the semi-final with Attom's 'Afterglow' (feat. Ciele), our 2 pointer, and Quintessa who picked up 1 point from us with Hannah Peel's 'All That Matters'. 3 songs which made the top 1 of the Persephonian rank of semi-final 2 also didn't qualify: Deandria with 'When You Wish Upon The Stars' by Maya's Moving Castle (we ranked it 5th), Cumulonimbia with 'Love No More' by Soulé (7th) and Utopia with 'When Will You Be Mine' by Average White Band (8th), the latter two sadly being the bottom 2 in the semi-final.

A month after #00274E's qualification streak ended, so has Taahino's - they fell just one point short of getting an 11th qualifier in a row. Sadly this news has resulted in Taahino announcing they will likely be taking a break from the contest. Persephonian News Bulletin hopes to see them participating again in the future (that is, if they don't immediately change their mind and continue entering anyway like #00274E did in this contest after also hinting at taking a break after losing their streak, managing to start up a new one ) Taahino's miss has seen FSR Rontvia return to the top of the list of countries with the most consecutive final appearances (at 10 in a row), continuing their successful 2016.

Persephonia does well in the BJSC (country name rate)

Prior to the semi-final results being announced, there were some other results for a rate of the names of countries that have participated in the contest this year. The person who was appointed to be in charge of submitting our rate was *cough* otherwise engaged and ended up forgetting to submit it on time, but nonetheless, 'Persephonia' picked up a top 10 finish as it was rated the 4th best country name of 2016 with an average rate of 7.79. Bow down to us etc.

Posted by: Pavel Sep 13 2016, 05:42 AM

Well done to your song enema

Posted by: Bré Sep 16 2016, 09:20 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/09/2016

Kobbar announced as host city for BJSC Instrumentals spinoff

And so it has come to pass ~ After a long wait since we initially proposed it (was it our idea originally? oops if not but we're claiming it anyway), the BJSC Instrumentals spinoff is finally materialising and will be taking place here in Persephonia, the first and arguably still only country to have won the main BJSC with an instrumental entry (with Jay Dabhi and Moises Modesto's 'Cry For Freedom' back in BJSC 67) as well as one of only two countries with an instrumental entry in the current contest alongside Dobago ;o

The city of Kobbar, situated on the River Alexis in upstate Sargia, has been selected as the host city for the spinoff, becoming the fourth Persephonian city to host a BJSC event following the BJSC 62 semi-finals in Jungyu, the entirety of BJSCs 68 and 75 in Carellis and BJSC Re:LOADED IV in al-Robāt. The mayor of Kobbar, Gerald "Gezza" Houston Jr., has said that he is looking forward to welcoming delegations from any and all interested nations, and has advised against tactical homicide of performers to improve contest performance on this occasion.

All relevant information can be found in the http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=193877. Confirmations for the contest will be opening some time tomorrow (17th September) if all goes well.

Posted by: Bré Sep 21 2016, 10:34 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 21/09/2016

BJSC 88 summary

- The final results of BJSC 88 took place last night in New Beacon City, Cor Lupus and throughout most of the reveal Persephonia were trailing well behind in last place, receiving points from just three of the first 40 voting nations (and two of those only barely). However, we snatched an unremarkable but decent result from the jaws of an embarrassing failure as the higher points rolled in from several of the later voters, ultimately avoiding the bottom 10 entirely with a 31st place finish and 138 points in total with our entry 'Thelema' by Øfdream. It was our least successful entry of the year aside from BJSC 84 DNQ 'Mirror Moon' by Bachar Mar-Khalifé by any sensible measure, although notably it did receive two 18s (from Jadakissnia and Skall), matching our most of the year also achieved by BOOTS' 'C.U.R.E.' and Color Guard's 'In Your Bones'. It also picked up 15 points from both Cumulonimbia and Espen, among its small but solid fanbase which consisted of 14 voters, 8 of which gave it at least 10 points. Thank you to all who did give us some points with what was clearly a bit of a love/hate (or at least love/find boring) entry <3 'Thelema' came 14th in semi-final 1 with 64 points, giving it a projected final position of 24th, meaning we underperformed from the semi-final again, oops ~

- N DNTN picked up their second BJSC win to date, following Hervé and Zebra Katz' 'Tear The House Up' in BJSC 65, topping the list with RAYE's 'Shhh'. 'Tear The House Up' was a historically low-scoring winner that only barely won its month (and arguably wasn't even N DNTN's biggest hit despite being their only winner until now), but that was far from the case with 'Shhh' which scored 394 points to win quite easily. This was a much better showing for RAYE than when she was in the contest last year representing Jukianië, coming only 35th with 'Bet U Wish' - insert cries of Jukianië racism (although in fairness we all know 'Shhh' is way better). N DNTN were one of two clear favourites to win the contest along with Jadakissnia, but in the end the silver medal went to N DNTN's border/allied/rival nation #00274E - we started the month not knowing if they'd even be in this contest after their DNQ in the last contest and ended with them nearly getting a third win, although they were a way behind on 343 points with Yuri and Seohyun's 'Secret', nonetheless still the most successful K-Pop entry in BJSC history (and Daehun weeps). Jadakissnia still managed a strong third place finish with MssingNo's 'Scope' on 323 points, marking their first time in the medal positions and indeed the top 5, having previously come 6th earlier in the year with BLVCK CEILING's 'WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)', and giving them a second top 10 hit in a row and their 5th this year. A main contest win to add to their 3 (yes, 3!!1) spinoff wins can't be far away ;o They did at least earn their first semi-final winner, topping semi-final 1 with a towering 165 points, beating 'Shhh' into 2nd place there. Semi-final 2 was won by #00274E.

- Cadelicia continued to make 2016 by far their most successful year, getting back to back top 10s again and their second top 5 hit with Feed Me's 'What It Feels Like' (feat. Nina Nesbitt), coming 4th with 319 points. Unovia are also having a very successful year, entering the YTD top 10 this month following a 5th place finish on 302 points with 'Are We Awake' by Tal, their sixth consecutive top 20 hit (though only one of the previous ones also went top 10). That was the top ranked of a seemingly higher than usual number of entries (5 of them) by French artists in this final - our own entry at least avoided being the lowest ranked of those, praise Stupeflip. ( )

- It's been a long wait for Syndare to earn another BJSC top 10 hit but they finally cracked the top tier again this time with Firefox AK's 'Heart Of Mine' coming 6th, their first top 10 since Embody came 10th with 'Make A Stand' (feat. Barnaby) in BJSC 67. Proving that recycling old Persephonian artists is very en vogue this month, as well as the top five finishes for Jadakissnia and Cadelicia, even our former second-to-last-in-the-semi flops Kadie Elder have achieved some well earnt justice as 'First Time He Kissed A Boy' came 7th representing Singerpurear, the country's 3rd top 10 hit since they shook off the tag of never even being able to qualify. Pupok slipped up a bit with their auto-qualifier last month but returned to success as usual, getting their 6th top 10 out of their last 7 entries with Claudia Kane's 'Einstein' finishing 8th. Another underperformance by Yehesi has now allowed Pupok to claim the year-to-date #1 spot with two contests to go. Former contest winner Agnes Obel couldn't repeat the success of 'Riverside' but finished a solid 9th place for Fljótavík with 'Familiar', giving them their second top 10 hit of the year. Also getting a second top 10 of the year, both of which came 10th, was Séyet Terra Avium who provided the contest's longest entry with the 8 minute epic 'Travelling Light' by daydreamer.

- As well as Jadakissnia, two other countries set national bests in this final. The country formerly and once again currently known as Summericia - as they have announced their return to this name after competing in the last three contests as Aeyundoré - had qualified for the final 5 times before but never previously made the top 30, peaking on their debut at #32 with Tungevaag & Raaban's 'Parade', but that has now changed as they came 25th with the Dave Audé Club Mix of Billie Ray Martin's 'The Glittering Gutter'. Meanwhile Brechtoria also just about beat what was previously their debut and peak, coming 28th with Kelsea Ballerini's 'XO', one place higher than Tigertown's 'Lonely Cities' which they debuted with three contests ago. There were four countries competing in the main BJSC for the first time in BJSC 88, though out of them only Lomaja qualified for the final. Their debut entry 'Born To Be Wild' by HYOYEON, Min and Jo Kwon featuring JYP finished 29th. Kingdom of Horanius had entered 2 spinoffs already and even confirmed for a main contest before withdrawing during confirmations, but finally made their debut in BJSC 88 with The Opposites' 'Licht Uit' which sadly fell short of the final. Also missing out on debut qualifications were Niceland with MÖWE and Daniel Nitt's 'Lovers Friends' and Buzzjack Mountain whose entry we will NOT SPEAK OF after it came close to derailing the entire concept of the contest. We look forward to another entry from them next month which should be less controversial. x

- Three countries made comebacks in this contest: Florina pulled out at the end of last year but thankfully have graced the contest with at least a temporary return, coming 19th with comeback entry 'Echo' by Foreign Air. Moving on from previous ~scandals~ Mulgracia were also back after their one-contest ban and came 23rd with Monarchy's 'Dance Like Hell'. Finally Utopia made another fleeting return with 70s cut 'When Will You Be Mine' by Average White Band - it was never likely to be a qualifier and this wasn't helped when they failed to submit votes for the semi-final before the deadline, resulting in a 33% deduction leaving them floundering in last place in the semi. They also didn't vote in the final so won't be joining us in BJSC 89 - and neither will FARC, Thelonia or Hendinia after they also didn't submit final votes. (Of these only Hendinia had actually made the final. They finished 40th with Love Thy Brother's 'Love Me Better' (feat. Ariel Beesley) following a 33% deduction in the final). Other results in the final included Ultraviolenceland this time getting a 7th top 20 without a top 10 hit to their name, coming 15th with Liv Dawson's 'Still' (come on guys, this one really did deserve to go top 10! :'(), Tinnmark bouncing back from 5 DNQs in a row to come an impressive 16th with dark folk offering 'Odal' by Wardruna (watch out for Persephonia's EOY where it will be much higher than this xx), South Danaelanda's 50th entry anniversary 'Dear Boy' by Avicii featuring-but-not-really-featuring MØ (this cheapness went down exactly as you'd expect) coming a middling 21st, our instrumental partners in crime for the month Dobago finishing one place above us in 30th with T2Kazuya's 'Youth' (instrumentals stick together! and you can find a lot of them - and even add one of your own - http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=193911 #promo ) and both of the auto-qualifiers undeservedly finishing in the bottom 10, with surprisingly the higher of the two being People's Independent State of Slutland in 34th with Ariel Pink's 'Not Enough Violence', while hosts Cor Lupus fell a bit flat in 38th with Nhato's 'WAY OF LIFE' (feat. Sasi).

- To the surprise of absolutely no one this month's wooden spoon went to Medhelnia who scraped through to the final in 20th place in semi-final 2, causing much confusion, and finished a distant 42nd out of 42 in the final on 86 points with Hey Violet's 'Fuqboi', the only finalist that didn't crack the 100 point mark. If something about this seems very familiar, we remind you of BJSC 79, when Syndare similarly were the only country to not reach 100 points and claimed the wooden spoon with Tanika's 'FUCKBOY'. Whoever keeps voting for these fuccbois in the semi-final PLEASE STOP. Medhelnia can add this wooden spoon to the one they got in the semi-final with their second entry. x

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 88

Final

Points awarded:
18 Tinnmark // Wardruna - Odal
15 Skall // Stupeflip - Stupeflip Vite !!!
13 Jadakissnia // MssingNo - Scope

12 Terra Avium // daydreamer - Travelling Light
11 Cor Lupus // Nhato - WAY OF LIFE (feat. Sasi)
10 People's Independent State of Slutland // Ariel Pink - Not Enough Violence
9 Dobago // T2Kazuya - Youth
8 Ultraviolenceland // Liv Dawson - Still
7 N DNTN // RAYE - Shhh
6 Trifoski // La Femme - Sphynx
5 Mulgracia // Monarchy - Dance Like Hell
4 Singerpurear // Kadie Elder - First Time He Kissed A Boy
3 Pupok // Claudia Kane - Einstein
2 Fljótavík // Agnes Obel - Familiar
1 Florina // Foreign Air - Echo

16th-41st:
FSR Rontvia // Theia - Roam
Harmonica // PARRI$ - NASTY
Séyetana // Kalafina - to the beginning
Syndare // Firefox AK - Heart Of Mine
Lomaja // HYOYEON, Min and Jo Kwon - Born To Be Wild (feat. JYP)
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Ryan Lawrie - If Only
Hushkanukia // Emji - Lost
Aeroche // Project 46 - Stars (feat. Haley)
D'yermak'er // Sada Vidoo - The Actress
Bøtanikkä // ALMA - Karma
Aeyundoré // Billie Ray Martin - The Glittering Gutter (Dave Audé Club Mix)
Cadelicia // Feed Me - What It Feels Like (feat. Nina Nesbitt)
#00274E // Yuri and Seohyun - Secret
Ramrynia // Sabrina Carpenter - On Purpose
New Lexico // BB Diamond - Praying
Altyr Muunilinst // SHAED - Running Through The Fields
Yehesi // Nakita - Where Are You?
St. Burbia // Sarah Mark - Tun Up
Brechtoria // Kelsea Ballerini - XO
Tartford // Sons Of Sonix - Numb (feat. Melanie C)
Medhelnia // Hey Violet - Fuqboi
South Danaelanda // Avicii - Dear Boy
Unovia // Tal - Are We Awake
Hendinia // Love Thy Brother - Love Me Better (feat. Ariel Beesley)
Federal Republic of Ashton // Lisa Ajax - Give Me That
Republic of Adonia // Hayley Kiyoko - Gravel To Tempo

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Skall // Stupeflip - Stupeflip Vite !!!
10 Jadakissnia // MssingNo - Scope
8 N DNTN // RAYE - Shhh

7 Ultraviolenceland // Liv Dawson - Still
6 Trifoski // La Femme - Sphynx
5 Singerpurear // Kadie Elder - First Time He Kissed A Boy
4 Kingdom of Horanius // The Opposites - Licht Uit^†
3 Desbuanda // A R I Z O N A - Cross My Mind^†
2 Ethanola // Attom - Afterglow (feat. Ciele)^†
1 Quintessa // Hannah Peel - All That Matters^†

11th-33rd:
Suedeonia // Brian Eno - Here He Comes^†
Espen // Cosima - Had To Feel Something^†
Usfland // Andrew Luce and graves - Up To You (feat. Chelsea Cutler)^†
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Ryan Lawrie - If Only
Harmonica // PARRI$ - NASTY
D'yermak'er // Sada Vidoo - The Actress
Hushkanukia // Emji - Lost
Lomaja // HYOYEON, Min and Jo Kwon - Born To Be Wild (feat. JYP)
Séyetana // Kalafina - to the beginning
Aeroche // Project 46 - Stars (feat. Haley)
Thelonia // Jauz and Netsky - Higher^†
Sandebörg // Peg Parnevik - We Are (Ziggy & Carola)^†
Bøtanikkä // ALMA - Karma
Fljótavík // Agnes Obel - Familiar
Flynnonda // Ruth Koleva - Oceans^†
Kylienips // Danrell - White Noise (feat. Ryder)^†
Tartford // Sons Of Sonix - Numb (feat. Melanie C)
St. Burbia // Sarah Mark - Tun Up
Daehun // TAEYEON - Why^†
Avalonia // Silver Cities - Lights^†
Hendinia // Love Thy Brother - Love Me Better (feat. Ariel Beesley)
Unovia // Tal - Are We Awake
Beaverdonia // geO Louis - Him<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

5th Deandria // Maya's Moving Castle - When You Wish Upon The Stars
7th Cumulonimbia // Soulé - Love No More
8th Utopia // Average White Band - When Will You Be Mine
11th Aelandor // Relient K - Cat
12th Land of DW // Indaqo - Boom Boom Boom
13th FARC // Patrick Hagenaar - Turn Back Time (Back To The Time)
14th Kluminican Republic // DENM - Green
15th Taahino // Jeremy Shada, Shauna Case and Annie Sertich - Running Errands With My Mom
22nd Niceland // MÖWE and Daniel Nitt - Lovers Friends
28th Triangledonia // Emma Carn - Bad Boy Genes
29th Jukianië // Teyana Taylor - Undercover
31st Greenfroze // Vicetone - Anywhere I Go
33rd Bignia-Zaragovina // Chord Overstreet - Homeland
34th Buzzjack Mountain // The Snake - Wasting My Life (feat. Doctor Blind)

Posted by: Bré Sep 21 2016, 10:46 PM

(soz to Republic of Adonia coming last in our final rank 2 months in a row we did vote for the one before that though!)

+ because the promo was quite hidden in that post... http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=193911 (holding off on a hype post for our own entry partially because we might change it and partially because it would give it away too much lol)

Posted by: Jade Sep 21 2016, 10:49 PM

That ridiculous drought for 'Thelema' was painful to witness so I'm glad it clawed its way up the scoreboard nearer the end. Doing a Poland making a not so impressive position seem way more exciting tbh *.* I think the 27th I received for CROSSPARTY in the same kind of way feels like way more than just any bog standard 27th place, 'cause of the circumstances Anyway~ at least you beat 'Fuqboi' right xx That was the true battle here.

Pleased that you managed to attract a lot of big fans out of those who voted for you, as those are the best kind of fans *.* Thanks very much for the discovery as I'm playing it a lot at the moment

SLAY ME at acknowledging that I have actually won 3 spinoffs <3 Ryan TAKE THAT.

Posted by: Bré Sep 21 2016, 11:10 PM

Indeed haha, seems to be a theme emerging with witchy entries (at least the less popular ones lol) ~ I was actually kind of laughing at how horrendously I was doing for the first 2/3 of the reveal though (and oh yes Persephonia vs. Medhelnia the true fight *.)

#justiceforbj10 x

Posted by: Cody Hough Sep 23 2016, 02:38 AM

I was a little surprised at how much "Thelema" was behind because I thought there would be more people taking a liking to this sort of Future instrumental lol. Then I saw all the high points and I was just like "oh."

Posted by: Bré Sep 27 2016, 10:57 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 27/09/2016

Persephonia get another hosting job assisting Jadakissnia for BJSC 89!

As N DNTN were sadly unable to host BJSC 89 after their win in the previous contest, hosting rights fell to the next highest new host which turned out to be 3rd placed Jadakissnia, and now after some more slightly last minute arrangements to make sure they didn't also have to pass on the rights (lol) it's been confirmed that Persephonia shall also be assisting in hosting the contest, lending Carellis as the venue city for the semi-final performances and totalling up the semi-final votes. All international delegations will be given complementary first-class seats on the Bradestar undersea railway line immediately after semi-final voting has closed for the remainder of the contest to take place in Nadallius, the beautiful and scenic capital of Jadakissnia. This will not affect Persephonia's other current hosting venture, the Instrumentals spinoff - more on that in the next headline story - though as the Persephonian BJSC Committee's resources are split between the two, the BJSC 89 semi-finals will be a slightly lower budget affair than previous contests that Persephonia has hosted and co-hosted. x

http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=194197

Confirmations for BJSC 89 have opened tonight (clicky clicky above x) and we hope to see as many countries as possible putting forward their tunes to be performed at Carellis Arena in the semi-finals next week! Per BJSC regulations as usual we cannot reveal our own entry yet but we can confirm that we are adding Slovakia as a new nationality (and Slovak as a new language #waronenglish) that has represented us, with a stringtastic chilled out electronic beauty that the PBJSCC is very much looking forward to being in the contest, although they're not the most confident they've ever been in qualifying. ;o

obligatory teaser image



Jake Chudnow representing Persephonia on home soil for the Instrumentals spinoff

Also kicking off in a very eventful evening for BJSC is the voting stage for the Instrumentals spinoff in our very own city of Kobbar. Turnout has been unexpectedly excellent with 41 countries taking part, the most for an 'official' spinoff since Worldvision I (although the BuzzJack 10th Anniversary contest also had more entries), despite initial expectations/fears that the theme would be considered a little more niche and inaccessible than most spinoffs. Hooray! Now bring on the complaints that it's too long. x



Anyway, this of course means that we can confirm our entry, and it's one that might be familiar to people who paid attention to the dying days of our last national thread (hence the lack of a teaser image, although if we did one it would be the one above because CATS ~). Representing Persephonia shall be London based electronic music producer Jake Chudnow with 'Shona', which was one of the six potentials we put forward for our entry to BJSC 87, ultimately losing out to TWRR's 'Water Frozen'. Have a listen and a watch of the rather trippy official music video below:



Chudnow's music, including this track, is best known for being featured in the background of many (all?) of the videos uploaded by the educational YouTube channel Vsauce. We recommend people check out this channel if they don't know about it already. But that's irrelevant to the song x 'Shona' is an ambient techno track clocking in a little over 5 minutes and mostly based around a simple repeating synth riff but with lots of cool and interesting sonic twists and turns throughout ~ anyone who has been a fan of the output of the likes of Skall and Ethanola in BJSC over the last year we hope may be a fan of this too. And anyone who hated all of those entries will doubtless hate this as well. But we kind of hope there are less of those people inclined to actually enter an instrumentals spinoff. The song dates back to at least November 2013 according to its YouTube upload date but was released to iTunes in March 2015 on the Bloc label, alongside a B-side confusingly named 'Prelude To Shona' which is also a pretty great little piece of music, but it's not quite as good at keeping attention and is 3 minutes longer so we stuck with the original 'Shona' for this contest. x

'Shona' has been drawn in the 14th slot of the running order which you can view http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=194201 - and get cracking with listening to the fine selection of instrumental tunage! ;o

Posted by: Jade Sep 27 2016, 11:10 PM

Sorry for making you such a busy bee in the BJSC world this month on top of Instrumentals But I am so excited to be co-hosting BJSC 89 with you! We shall have a lot of fun with it. <3 Excited to hear your Slovak song for the first time, sounds pretty daym interesting on nationality alone ;o

As for Instrumentals, I am so pleased with your choice for it! As I already commented in your thread when you wanted feedback on your potentials, 'Shona' was one of the strongest that you had ~ I am a sucker for synths. *.*

Posted by: Bré Oct 7 2016, 09:21 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 07/10/2016
already starting to drift into posting these a few days late again lamfoo

Fallgrapp to compete for Persephonia in Persephonia for BJSC 89!

The semi-finals of BJSC 89 are now underway in Carellis following the last-minute hosting arrangement change that brought the contest here again! So performing to a home crowd shall be our 68th main contest entrant Fallgrapp with 'Vlasy', the second single from their first and to date only album 'Rieka', released back in May 2014. Fallgrapp is a project by Slovak electronic music producer Juraj "Jureš" Líška in collaboration with numerous other artists including Nora Ibsenová, the vocalist on 'Vlasy'.

Continuing our periodic war on the English language, we move from an instrumental in the last contest to another fresh foreign language here, of course Slovak in this case, which joins Icelandic (one-and-a-half times), French, Persian, Arabic (twice), Japanese and Mandarin Chinese in the list of non-English languages that Persephonia have sent to the main contest, while Slovakia also joins our http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=176034&view=findpost&p=5003665. As already teased, the track is a chilled electronic/trip-hop track with a lovely strings section (and some lovely vocals which don't seem to translate into anything meaningful in English something about hair, as that is the translation of the title). It is inspired by and has been compared to the music of Bonobo, who Fallgrapp has also performed live with. Listen to the song and watch the video (important as ever with our entries!!1) below:



'Vlasy' has been drawn as the 20th song out of 33 in semi-final 1, any and all support is appreciated! Would be a tad embarrassing to DNQ in a semi-final we hosted eh.

Continuing our watch for former Persephonian alumni turning up again in recent contests, Terra Avium have selected Kids Of The Apocalypse - of course behind our BJSC 61 silver medal winner 'EMPIRE' - to represent them in this contest, performing in the 18th slot in semi-final 2 with 'Better Life' (feat. Wes Period), their comeback song which surfaced earlier this year after they seemed to drop off the face of the planet following the release of 'EMPIRE'. In fairness, we actually kind of borrowed them from Terra Avium to begin with, as their debut track 'Masters Of The Sun' had previously appeared in Unknown Pleasures sponsored by the Terra Avian government. Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's 'Dance The Way I Feel' has also very belatedly shown up in the contest, representing Medhelnia in semi-final 2 slot 6, after Persephonia had previously come very close to sending it ourselves in BJSC 70 (by which time it was already several years old). The Persephonian BJSC Committee fully endorses this belated appearance as well as KOTA's return.

Also, as we forgot to mention it in our last bulletin, 2 more Persephonian alumni appear in the Instrumentals spinoff: Beat Connection (our BJSC 34 DNQs and Your Best of BJSC - The Rejects moral winner with 'In The Water') are in slot 24 in the spinoff representing Syndare with the not-quite-instrumental-but-close-enough 'Theme From Yours Truly', and just three songs later is another former Persephonian artist, DANCE WITH THE DEAD who of course gave us our most recent medal (3rd place in BJSC 79) with 'Waves', also an instrumental, and now return representing Cor Lupus with 'Poison'.

Posted by: Mattias Oct 7 2016, 09:30 PM

VLASY :wubwubwub:

Posted by: Jade Oct 7 2016, 09:32 PM

This is an utter beaut of an entry Though after you singing it IRL, I'm afraid the actual vocals on this just do not compare

Srsly though this was a definite standout in a semi that felt pretty underwhelming in places. I will be so disappointed if it DNQs but I think it will stand out enough to make it. One at least hopes.

Yasss with the foreign language diversity *.*

Posted by: Bré Oct 7 2016, 09:32 PM

(Also as I privately discussed with Mattias already it may have been a bit of unintentional stealing from his Unknown Pleasures potentials oops. Well at least I know I have one fan in my semi! x)

Posted by: Bré Oct 16 2016, 09:36 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/10/2016

Fallgrapp puts us in our 50th BJSC final

As announced on Tuesday, Fallgrapp's 'Vlasy' has made it through to the final of BJSC 89, now being held in Nadallius, Jadakissnia, increasing our current qualification streak to 5 (and our 2016 total to 8 out of 9 qualifiers) and notably becoming our 50th BJSC finalist! This total includes the seven contests of the One Big Final era, three further contests where we auto-qualified and BJSC 64 where all songs qualified after the semi-finals were cancelled (though our entry then would have qualified anyway). FSR Rontvia continue to be the country with the longest qualification streak, making it to an 11th final in a row. 'Vlasy' has been drawn in slot 37 of the 42 songs in the final.

There were some very harsh losses in semi-final 1 with 2 of the top 3 from our votes not qualifying - our 12 did make it, but we awarded 10 points to Clément Bazin's 'With You' representing Deandria which somehow finished second last, and 8 points to Beaverskankdonia's The Eden Project with 'Chasing Ghosts' which also fell short. Of the rest of our votes, our 4 pointer (Espen with Mashrou' Leila's 'Kalam' (H4Z3 Private Mix)) was the only other to not progress, while from the Persephonian public's semi-final 2 rankings the top 7 all qualified but 8th-10th (FKA FKA FKA π with Francis And The Lights' 'I Want You To Shake', Ethanola with Noir and Olivier Giacomotto's 'Reste' (Raxon Remix) and Kluminican Republic with ODESZA's 'It's Only' (feat. Zyra) respectively) did not.

BJSC Instrumentals summary

In news that is also several days out of date (slacking), the Instrumentals spinoff in our very own nation concluded on Wednesday with a very welcome result for the host entry. The Persephonian BJSC Committee had hoped that Jake Chudnow's 'Shona' would be better suited to this spinoff than a main contest and while we'll never know that for sure, it looks like that may well have been the case as it finished a very strong 5th place out of 41 with 199 points. That's the most points we have ever received in a spinoff, beating the 178 scored by SEXWITCH's 'Kassidat El Hakka' in last year's Halloween I spinoff. It's also our fourth top 5 success in a spinoff, though we are still yet to finish in the medal positions in any of them (unless you count BJFestivalen IV as a spinoff), having two fourth places and two fifth places as well as two other top 10s. Thanks to all of the 23 countries who voted for 'Shona' (also a record for us in a spinoff), especially Syndare who were our biggest supporters providing us a 15, and Aeroche, Deandria, Flynnonda and Skall who each gave it 13 points.

The race for the win was very close throughout, with the main contenders initially looking to be Terra Avium and Avalonia, but ultimately after a burst of very high scores (including four 18s in the space of five votes), Fljótavík came from behind to take the lead in the last few votes and ended up winning the whole thing with Underworld's 'And I Will Kiss' (feat. Evelyn Glennie and The Pandemonium Drummers). The song, famous for its excellent use in the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony, clearly didn't put off too many people despite being more than twice as long as any other song in the contest (at a total length of 17 minutes and 15 seconds), still being among the songs with the most votes and also having the most 18s with six in total. This was Fljótavík's first top 10, let alone winner, in the spinoffs. Its score of 250 points was just 5 more than second place which went to Terra Avium with Lights & Motion's 'The Spectacular Quiet', thus meaning their search for a contest winner continues as it is their second (and far, far, far superior) spinoff silver medallist (after 'Nightcall' by Kavinsky feat. Lovefoxxx in BJSC Movies) while their main contest peak is 3rd. Narrowly behind them in 3rd with 238 points was Avalonia with Thomas Bergersen's 'Empire Of Angels', Avalonia's first medal position in either a spinoff or a main contest. The fourth and final song to pass 200 points - as we fell frustratingly short ~ - was Taahino with a Nightcore version of BanYa's 'Beethoven Virus', with 226 points, also marking a new peak for them.

The rest of the top 10 was completed by Federal Republic of Ashton in 6th place with Ludovico Einaudi's 'Le Onde', Deandria continuing to have much more success in the spinoffs than the main contest, 7th place with Vessels' '4AM', St. Burbia 8th with 'Hearing' by Sleeping At Last, Medhelnia 9th with 'Yebisah' by Mark Knight and Aelandor at last getting a good BJSC result coming 10th with Gramatik's 'Illusion Of Choice'. Dobago would have likely come around 7th with Eric Johnson's 'Cliffs Of Dover' had they submitted votes but a 33% deduction kicked them down to 19th. Notably for a contest some expected to be dominated by dance songs, only our own song could really be called dance out of the top 8 (another moral victory??), with the contest as a whole turning out to be pleasingly varied in genres. We had a lot of fun hosting this spinoff, thanks to all who participated, and the campaign starts now for the sequel we now move swiftly onto the Country spinoff in Unocastellia, Unovia.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC Instrumentals

Points awarded:
18 Republic of Adonia // Lone - Backtail Was Heavy
15 Fljótavík // Underworld - And I Will Kiss (feat. Evelyn Glennie and The Pandemonium Drummers)
13 St. Burbia // Sleeping At Last - Hearing

12 Terra Avium // Lights & Motion - The Spectacular Quiet
11 FKA FKA FKA π // Arca - Vanity
10 Jadakissnia // Op:l Bastards - Scorpius
9 South Danaelanda // Steve Hill and Technikal - Technique
8 Taahino // BanYa - Beethoven Virus (Nightcore)
7 Ethanola // Frank T.R.A.X. - Nebuchan (O.R.G.A.N. Mix)
6 Bøtanikkä // Mellow Trax - Phuture Vibes
5 Avalonia // Thomas Bergersen - Empire Of Angels
4 Syndare // Beat Connection - Theme From Yours Truly
3 Aeroche // AFX - PWSteal.Ldpinch.D
2 Deandria // Vessels - 4AM
1 Federal Republic of Ashton // Ludovico Einaudi - Le Onde

16th-40th:
Trifoski // Eats Everything - Big Discs
Skall // Fatima Yamaha - What's A Girl To Do
Cadelicia // ZUN - U.N. Owen Was Her?
Niceland // Arpadys - Monkey Star
Aelandor // Gramatik - Illusion Of Choice
Séyetana // Ken Arai - Next To You
Alteria // Teenage Fanclub - Is This Music?
Cor Lupus // DANCE WITH THE DEAD - Poison
Land of DW // Sunbeam - Outside World
Quintessa // Yoko Shimomura - Hikari (Kingdom Orchestra Instrumental Version)
Medhelnia // Mark Knight - Yebisah
Thelonia // Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - American Dream Part II
Dobago // Eric Johnson - Cliffs Of Dover
Ramrynia // Johan Liljedahl and Calle Rasmusson - The Grey People
FSR Rontvia // Sonority - Chase The Sun
Triangledonia // Moonbootica - June (Robby East Remix)
Flynnonda // Melvv - Reflection
Suedeonia // Blancmange - Sad Day
Mulgracia // Glude - Breathe
Hushkanukia // David Brockett - The Last Stand
Pupok // César Dávila-Irizarry and Charlie Clouser - American Horror Story Theme
Altyr Muunilinst // David Buckley - Hitting The Fan
Ultraviolenceland // Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Kluminican Republic // Hans Zimmer and John Powell - Oogway Ascends
Lomaja // Lets Be Friends - Allow It

And a teaser for our upcoming Country entry (likely the only time we'll ever be sending something that can be decribed as country but we look forward to a very different spinoff ;o)...

Posted by: Jade Oct 16 2016, 09:47 PM

Ooh what an honour it is for your 50th qualifier to happen in the Jadaphonia contest *.* Slay me, this was way too good of an entry to miss out so yas BJSC voters for letting both of us qualify.

Very smooth and all-round excellent Instrumentals hosting (not that I would have expected any less of course!) *.* and getting a top 5 out of it is an amazing result. Well done *high five* for the exact point swap also :cheeseblock:

Looking forward to hearing your country entry ;o I hope you may enjoy mine but we shall see.

Posted by: 24k Cody Oct 16 2016, 09:53 PM

I should just quit spin-offs and just focus on the regular contest

Posted by: Mattias Oct 17 2016, 07:35 AM

opposite for me it seems haha

I do enjoy the spin-offs, thanks for another great one Bré! I did have an inkling it wouldn't be dominated by dance, there are so many great instrumentals out there that ain't dance, as we have now proven. And almost all of these were discoveries (of the good kind) for me, I vaguely knew the Gramatik track and one or two of the soundtracks, I guess I probably should've also known the winner seeing as it was used in the Olympics (plus I quite like the artist in general), but I must've not been paying that much attention

Congrats on new points total in a spin-off too, that must be so annoying being ONE point away from 200! And wow, 50th BJSC final, that's quite something And what a song to do it with! 'Vlasy' is nothing short of lush

Posted by: jakewild Oct 17 2016, 12:18 PM

slay me this month tbh

Posted by: Bré Oct 21 2016, 11:35 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 22/10/2016

Persephonia go country for the new spinoff with Jason Isbell

Rapidly following up our Instrumentals spinoff, the follow-up started on Thursday night with two-time spinoff winners Unovia hosting (in the city of Unocastellia). The theme for this one is Country and Persephonia have put forward American (duh) singer-songwriter Jason Isbell with 'Elephant', perhaps a bit closer to folk/Americana than country music but we have seen it described as 'alternative country' so that'll do. x



Isbell is a former member of the band Drive-By Truckers who have had a couple of UK top 40 albums since his departure, while he himself had a #17 album last year with 'Something More Than Free'. 'Elephant' however is from his non-charting fourth solo album 'Southeastern' (released in 2013). Be warned, this is a real tear-jerker of a track, telling the heartbreaking tale of a significant other suffering from cancer (the disease being the titular 'elephant' in the room that Jason and his woman want to avoid talking about). We hope that a few other countries in the spinoff appreciate the ~emotion~ though we certainly have pretty low expectations with such a gloomy and depressing entry amongst what we assume will probably be mostly upbeat country-pop songs. x The song has been drawn 3rd in the running order out of 27 entries in total.

BJSC 89 summary

- Following our hosting of the semi-finals the final of BJSC 89 was expertly hosted by Nadallius, Jadakissnia with the results on Tuesday evening. Fallgrapp's 'Vlasy' was another successful entry for Persephonia, finishing 20th out of 42 songs in the final to deliver our 6th top 20 hit of the year, matching the national record we set last year! (It's also the second time in three contests we've come 20th after never doing so previously). Its points total of 195 was our third highest of the year, and included points from 26 different countries - tying our year to date best - with the full 18 points awarded to us by Deandria and Terra Avium, and 15 points coming from Aelandor. The former two both awarded Persephonia their top marks for the second time this year. As we already knew but could not previously report 'Vlasy' came 11th in semi-final 1 of the contest with 73 points, putting it on course for a 19th place finish in the final, more or less in line with what actually happened (which seems surprisingly rare recently). Much appreciation as ever to all who voted for us! x

- The winner of BJSC 89 was, for once, one that wasn't even picked out as a contender by bookmakers across the BJSC world. After their DNQ two contests back #00274E seem to be stronger than ever: they came second in the last contest and followed it up this time with a very unexpected win with their auto-qualifying entry, 'Relax' by Crystal Waters, a song which predates the existence of BuzzJack (and this editor being born x) as it was a UK #37 hit back in 1995, though is not near as well-known as her classic 'Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)' (which was incidentally also in BJSC already in the Dance Anthems 90s spinoff representing B.a.N.G, and actually did nowhere near this well, finishing just 15th). 'Relax' breezed past all of the favourites while seemingly completely lacking any visible hype to narrowly finish on top with a total of 317 points. #00274E did well to wait until this month to finally send it (they had apparently kept it up their sleeve ever since they joined the contest) as it is the lowest score for a winner this year, but still the highest score in this contest which is of course all that matters ;o The song gives them their third contest winner after Carli's 'Look Up' in BJSC 53 and Delta Heavy's 'Ghost' in BJSC 80, putting them one gold medal ahead of N DNTN once again. x

- Second place went to another song not picked up as a major winner contender (though it did get better odds than 'Relax') - and also another song that wasn't released in the current decade, dating back to 2009. It was Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's 'Dance The Way I Feel', the once Persephonian potential entry that the Persephonian BJSC Committee is definitely not at all bitter about not sending now, representing Medhelnia. 'Dance The Way I Feel' picked up 306 points, only 11 away from giving Medhelnia their first win, but as it is it gave them a second silver medallist just 4 contests after their first, and a third top 5 hit overall out of 7 main contest entries, making them by far 2016's most successful new country (despite having a couple of fairly dramatic flops under their belt as well, of course including last month's disastrous 'Fuqboi' thing). It did manage to win semi-final 2 however, their second semi-final win, which also made them the projected winners (and they would have done it if it weren't for that auto-qualifier!!) The highest ranked song in the final that did get predictions to be a winner contender was the entry from Aeroche who continue to casually slay the contest nearly every month and got another bronze medal with Sophie Beem's 'Skyline' coming 3rd with 302 points. It might take a minor miracle now (i.e. Yehesi and N DNTN both DNQing) for Aeroche to snatch the year-end #1 for a fourth year running in the year's final contest but they aren't giving up without a fight ;o

- The winner of semi-final 1 was the newly stylised Bøtanikkä with Sagi Abitbul and Guy Haliva's 'Stanga', also heavily tipped as a winner contender as it bears a resemblance to other 2016 winners like 'Free Tibet' and 'Aide', but ultimately coming 4th in the final with 285 points. It did win the battle of the Bulgarian language entries though, which would normally be a bit of a hollow victory but by some inexplicable alignment of the planets there were actually three different songs sung entirely in Bulgarian in this contest's top 15 - Dobago came 8th with DARA's 'K'vo Ne Chu' to claim their fifth top 10 hit of the year, while Séyetana actually underperformed expectations a bit to 'only' come 11th with Christopher Tin's 'Temen Oblak' (feat. Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares), still a very strong showing for a 7 minute Bulgarian language classical-flavoured track (albeit by an artist who had previously finished in the top 2). 5th place with 278 points were Yehesi with Maan's 'Give You All I Got', their fifth top 5 hit of the year after a couple of slightly less successful entries in the last two contests, which has put them back on top of the YTD rankings.

- An auto-qualifier was heavily tipped as a possible winner this contest but it wasn't #00274E's, rather it was the other one, from last month's winners N DNTN. They didn't quite pull through with the double win but did have another successful performance with Nadia Tehran's M.I.A.-esque 'Cash Flow' finishing 6th (the same artist, then called Nadya, also gave N DNTN a top 3 hit in the first edition of the Worldvision spinoff last year with 'Refugee'). N DNTN of course weren't able to host BJSC 89 but it has been revealed that they will be co-hosting BJSC 90 with #00274E, and really that's only right to immediately follow up a Jadakissnia/Persephonia contest #squadgoals *.* Filling out the rest of the top 10: Mulgracia got their 5th top 10 hit with Cobi's 'Don't You Cry For Me' coming 7th; FSR Rontvia's bumper 2016 continued with their fourth top ten in the last six contests, coming 9th with Alyss' 'T S I E R'; Hushkanukia also got their 5th top 10 hit with FRANKIE's 'Gold' coming 10th, though they've still only come higher than 9th with their winner 'St. Patrick' by PVRIS. 'Gold' held Séyetana out of the top 10 by only one point, slightly switching it up for the country that usually finds itself on the other side of very borderline top 10 battles.

- Three countries set new national bests in this final, with two of those being countries making the final for the first time: Aelandor suffered through five consecutive DNQs since their debut but finally broke through this time with Sœur's 'Pass Out', though they still struggled a bit in the final and finished 37th. That was still a better performance than that of Buzzjack Mountain. Their 'controversial' debut in the previous contest unsurprisingly came nowhere near the final but they qualified on their second attempt with Water Juice's 'In Love' (feat. Audrey Graham), only to end up walking away with the wooden spoon as it finished in 42nd place out of 42 points, narrowly being the only song to not pass 100 points (it finished on 98). After also debuting last month and actually qualifying, Lomaja made it to the final again this time and finished 6 places higher, coming 23rd with Kero Kero Bonito's 'Trampoline'. Niceland's second entry on the other hand did much less well then their debut (neither of their entries qualified, but their BJSC 89 offering 'I Wanna Love You' by Royce Lovett was dead last in semi-final 1 with just 4 points, oops). Kingdom of Horanius pulled out of the contest after only one entry for now. BJSC 89 did have one debuting country of its own: Zanmatony, who also offered a 90s dance track that charted in the low top 40 in the UK but didn't do anywhere near as well as 'Relax'. Their debut, Amber's 'Sexual (Li Da Di)', did not make the final.

- 3 more countries made returns in this contest, with two of them making the final. Oslol were banned from the last contest but came back with a #15 hit with Hayley Orrantia's 'Strong, Sweet & Southern', a pretty good performance for what was a last-minute replacement for a vetoed entry, and also a high finish for a country song. N-Lazone mysteriously vanished for 5 contests after getting one of their biggest hits ever in BJSC 83. They were back this time with ILOVEMAKONNEN cover 'Tuesday' by Burak Yeter featuring Danelle Sandoval which also did pretty well by their standards to come 21st, though still didn't become the song to end their quest for a top 10 hit (they hold the record for most entries without a top 10, this being their 40th - someone just give them one already! though pretty glad it wasn't this song). Bhangra also sat out the last contest but returned again to continue their 2016 revival with an old Moldovan Eurovision reject, 'When Life Is Grey' by Karizma ONE, which is now also a BJSC reject as it didn't qualify.

- Other noteworthy results this month: host nation Jadakissnia didn't get an auto-qualifier but still made it to their own final easily and came 14th with FEYNMAN's '1-800MYLOVE'; Terra Avium came just ahead of Persephonia with our former artists Kids Of The Apocalypse, coming 19th with their 'Better Life' (feat. Wes Period); Suedeonia and Triangledonia both got only their second qualifiers of the year, the former coming 29th with Superwalker's 'Lost (As I Am)' (two places lower than their only previous qualifier) and the latter 34th with The Him's 'Don't Leave Without Me' (feat. Gia Koka); Summericia celebrated the return to their original country name with a classic Summericia result, that is making it to the final but then finishing near the bottom of the scoreboard, coming 40th with Genevieve's 'Colors' (PLS&TY Remix). A few other countries also competed under new (or old) names in BJSC 89: Ashton dropped the 'Federal Republic of', and are now apparently going to be competing under their old stylisation République d'Ashton again from BJSC 90, while there was apparently another coup in the country once called Elëdan as they reverted from People's Independent State of Slutland to FKA FKA FKA π, and Beaverdonia rebranded as Beaverskankdonia. Only Ashton out of those three made the final (they came 39th with Coco Morier's 'Dreamer'), and they'll also be the only one of the 3 with any chance to make the next final, as Beaverskankdonia and FKA FKA FKA π both did not submit votes for BJSC 89 and will have to sit out the next one (as will Brechtoria). We hope to see them all return in BJSC 91 under whatever name they choose to go with this time. x

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 89

Final

Points awarded:
18 Medhelnia // Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel
15 Land of DW // Marusha - Deep
13 Bøtanikkä // Sagi Abitbul and Guy Haliva - Stanga

12 Séyetana // Christopher Tin - Temen Oblak (feat. Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares)
11 Singerpurear // Princess Chelsea - The Cigarette Duet
10 Suedeonia // Superwalkers - Lost (As I Am)
9 N DNTN // Nadia Tehran - Cash Flow
8 Cumulonimbia // Dan Deacon - Change Your Life (You Can Do It)
7 Republic of Adonia // Lorn - Acid Rain
6 Yehesi // Maan - Give You All I Got
5 Jadakissnia // FEYNMAN - 1-800MYLOVE
4 Desbuanda // Lilyer - I Was On Your Side
3 Terra Avium // Kids Of The Apocalypse - Better Life (feat. Wes Period)
2 Aelandor // Sœur - Pass Out
1 Unovia // Atiye - Abrakadabra

16th-41st:
Cor Lupus // The Birthday Massacre - In The Dark
FSR Rontvia // Alyss - T S I E R
Syndare // Chiara Hunter - Hammer
Aeroche // Sophie Beem - Skyline
Avalonia // of Verona - Better With You
Mulgracia // Cobi - Don't You Cry For Me
Trifoski // The Go! Team - Buy Nothing Day
Ashton // Coco Morier - Dreamer
Hushkanukia // FRANKIE - Gold
Buzzjack Mountain // Water Juice - In Love (feat. Audrey Graham)
Taahino // Fingertips - Kiss Me
Ramrynia // MY - White Water
Lomaja // Kero Kero Bonito - Trampoline
Daehun // Red Velvet - Russian Roulette
Summericia // Genevieve - Colors (PLS&TY Remix)
Greenfroze // Perttu - Waves (feat. Alexandra)
South Danaelanda // Steve James - In My Head (feat. RKCB)
Triangledonia // The Him - Don't Leave Without Me (feat. Gia Koka)
Harmonica // Joseph - White Flag
Oslol // Hayley Orrantia - Strong, Sweet & Southern
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Catey Shaw - The Ransom (Tommy Walker Remix)
Dobago // DARA - K'vo Ne Chu
#00274E // Crystal Waters - Relax
Sandebörg // SMILO - Young Again
Cadelicia // Jane XØ and Dannic - Undone
N-Lazone // Burak Yeter - Tuesday (feat. Danelle Sandoval)

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Bøtanikkä // Sagi Abitbul and Guy Haliva - Stanga
10 Deandria // Clément Bazin - With You^†
8 Beaverskankdonia // The Eden Project - Chasing Ghosts^†

7 Republic of Adonia // Lorn - Acid Rain
6 Suedeonia // Superwalkers - Lost (As I Am)
5 Yehesi // Maan - Give You All I Got
4 Espen // Mashrou' Leila - Kalam (H4Z3 Private Mix)^†
3 Aelandor // Sœur - Pass Out
2 Cor Lupus // The Birthday Massacre - In The Dark
1 FSR Rontvia // Alyss - T S I E R

11th-32nd:
Pupok // GIRLI - Girl I Met On The Internet^†
Desbuanda // Lilyer - I Was On Your Side
Avalonia // of Verona - Better With You
Usfland // AUTOBAHN - Society^†
Aeroche // Sophie Beem - Skyline
New Lexico // Tatianna - The Same Parts^†
Hushkanukia // FRANKIE - Gold
Syndare // Chiara Hunter - Hammer
Flynnonda // Mount Tyrant - One Night^†
Trifoski // The Go! Team - Buy Nothing Day
Altyr Muunilinst // Nick Talos - Crush On You^†
Ramrynia // MY - White Water
Ashton // Coco Morier - Dreamer
Niceland // Royce Lovett - I Wanna Love You^†
Taahino // Fingertips - Kiss Me
Quintessa // Satchmode - Further Away^†
D'yermak'er // Scavenger Hunt - River Runs Dry^†
Oslol // Hayley Orrantia - Strong, Sweet & Southern
Greenfroze // Perttu - Waves (feat. Alexandra)
Tinnmark // kid joki and CLMD - Wait For Love^†
Bhangra // Karizma ONE - When Life Is Grey^†
N-Lazone // Burak Yeter - Tuesday (feat. Danelle Sandoval)

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

8th FKA FKA FKA π // Francis And The Lights - I Want You To Shake
9th Ethanola // Noir and Olivier Giacomotto - Reste (Raxon Remix)
10th Kluminican Republic // ODESZA - It's Only (feat. Zyra)
14th Brechtoria // The Boxer Rebellion - Big Ideas
15th Skall // Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened
16th Ultraviolenceland // FLETCHER - Over My Head
17th Bignia-Zaragovina // StrangeFaces - Swimming
18th St. Burbia // iSHi - There For Me (feat. Shenie Fogo)
20th Zanmatony // Amber - Sexual (Li Da Di)
21st Tartford // BLKMGK - You Don't Deserve Me (feat. Amina Mine and Jayy Starr)
26th Florina // Echos - Gold
27th Fljótavík // Sir The Baptist - Raise Hell (feat. ChuchPeople)
33rd Kylienips // Adam Jensen - Drugs

Posted by: Bré Oct 21 2016, 11:37 PM

Oh yes *.* a great contest to hit that milestone xx

(+ thank you Mattias, glad you enjoyed Instrumentals so much! <3 x)

Posted by: Jade Oct 21 2016, 11:53 PM

Fabuloso write-up as ever I feel like I probably say that every month () but the sheer effort is always wonderful to observe. Anyway~ congrats on the top 20 for 'Vlasy'! I was pleased to see it hold on at the end with all the points being so close. Thought you may be satisfied that you narrowly beat your least fave of the final to a top 20 placing Overall a lot of faves doing well and I loved being a part of the co-hosting w/ you. Thank you for the 'expertedly hosted' comment btw, that was a lovely thing to read. <3

Oh my goodness, that description of your country entry sounds incredibly moving. I am looking forward to hearing what this song will sound like. Tissues at the ready in case necessary. I hope you may enjoy my entry also but I'm not sure what you will think of it, so we shall see. #TeamIceland anyway *.*

Posted by: jakewild Oct 22 2016, 01:39 AM

ia your write ups are always so good <3

Posted by: Bré Oct 23 2016, 08:13 PM

(thank u both x)

Posted by: Mattias Oct 25 2016, 07:49 AM

I can sense that this will be good. I'm already getting Sevdaliza vibes from the description and the picture

Posted by: Bré Nov 14 2016, 11:58 PM

Fallen a bit behind updating this thread ;o shall do a big post to catch up with all of BJSC 90 and the results of the Country spinoff in the near future ~ but in the mean time lemme just hop on the bandwagon with this lovely and slick video recap of all of Persephonia's main contest and spinoff entries of 2016 which Jade has kindly put in the effort to make for us.



(will also try to do some sort of EOY in here soon, but probably not gonna be *quite* as ambitious as last year's since I never got round to properly finishing that lol ~)

Posted by: Mattias Nov 20 2016, 12:54 PM

Persephonia 2016 was pretty great, I watched that video in full and I gave points to a fairly high number of the entries, including two 18s obviously, and in general whenever I pointed you it always happened to be a high score. Always was a nation this year where I looked forward to hearing what they came up with *.*

Posted by: Bré Nov 25 2016, 08:32 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 25/11/2016
big catchup edition ~ [1/2]

BJSC Country summary

The latest and final (?) spinoff of the year was another fairly successful one for us as Jason Isbell's 'Elephant' finished 11th in the Country spinoff in Unovia with 61* points coming from 9 countries, including 4 who ranked it in their top 3 of the contest: Aelandor, Aeroche and Suedeonia were our joint biggest supporters giving us 10 points each (the 2nd place points as the slightly lower entry turnout necessitated a switch back to the 12 point system) and Quintessa also gave us 8 points. Thanks to those who gave us their points to give us another top half finish! x

The hosts Unovia completed a hat trick of spinoff wins in the last three that they've entered, following up their Worldvision II and Reinvention I wins with a third gold medal courtesy of Miranda Lambert's 'Oklahoma Sky' which topped a close top 3 with 120 points. That makes them the first country to get three 'official' BJSC spinoff wins, matching Jadakissnia's 2 canonical wins plus the BuzzJack 10th Anniversary non-contest-non-spinoff enigma. The silver medal went to Hushkanukia with Autumn Hill's 'Can't Keep Waiting' on 114 points - making the overall top 2 the same as the top two in Persephonia's votes but flipped around - and Ultraviolenceland clinched third place with 111 points for Ward Thomas' 'Guilty Flowers'. The top 5 was completed by Ramrynia in fourth with '80s Mercedes' by Maren Morris (with 90 points) and Taahino who managed to find a song by Paramore that fit the country theme and were rewarded with a second spinoff top 5 in a row, 'In The Mourning' coming 5th with 88* points.

Whoever inevitably sent Carrie Underwood to the contest was bound to get a hit and it was Federal Republic of Ashton who got in there with 'Cupid's Got A Shotgun' and sure enough came in sixth place. Filling out the rest of the top 10: the monstrosity 'Shut Up And Fish' by Maddie & Tae (at least the whole contest wasn't like this lmao) came 7th for Cor Lupus, Lomaja achieved their first top 10 in a BJSC event coming 8th with 'Bullet' by Jessie James Decker, and Séyetana and Aelandor finished back to back in 9th and 10th with Theory Of A Deadman's 'Livin' My Life Like A Country Song' (feat. Joe Don Rooney) and Mt. Desolation's 'Platform 7' respectively, the latter giving Aelandor their second straight top 10 scrape in the spinoffs.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC Country

Points awarded:
12 Hushkanukia // Autumn Hill - Can't Keep Waiting
10 Unovia // Miranda Lambert - Oklahoma Sky
8 Jadakissnia // Björn Thoroddsen - Leave It All To You (feat. Anna)

7 Suedeonia // Poco - Rose Of Cimarron
6 Aelandor // Mt. Desolation - Platform 7
5 Terra Avium // Keston Cobblers' Club - The Heights Of Lola
4 Séyetana // Theory Of A Deadman - Livin' My Life Like A Country Song (feat. Joe Don Rooney)
3 Medhelnia // Vigiland - Pong Dance (Acoustic)
2 FSR Rontvia // BlackByrd - From The Bottom Of My Heart (feat. Craig Hinds)
1 The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Hunter Hayes - Light Me Up

11th-26th:
Aeroche // Norah Jones - Creepin' In (feat. Dolly Parton)
Cadelicia // Juice Newton - Queen Of Hearts
Lomaja // Jessie James Decker - Bullet
Taahino // Paramore - In The Mourning
Deandria // Mindy McCready - Ten Thousand Angels
Ramrynia // Maren Morris - 80s Mercedes
Ultraviolenceland // Ward Thomas - Guilty Flowers
Niceland // Douwe Bob - How Lucky We Are
Avalonia // Faith Hill - Sunshine And Summertime
Ojnoj // Mickey Guyton - Better Than You Left Me
Harmonica // The Wreckers - My, Oh My
Federal Republic of Ashton // Carrie Underwood - Cupid's Got A Shotgun
Quintessa // Sugarland - Stay
Flynnonda // Jana Kramer - I Got The Boy
Cor Lupus // Maddie & Tae - Shut Up And Fish
Beaverdonia // Gretchen Wilson - Redneck Woman

*a couple of the final numbers in the thread were slightly off including our own entry missing one all-important point ~ http://i.imgur.com/Ub4NiSf.png for the corrected scoreboard if that's something you particularly care to see

Baby Blood rounds off Persephonia's 2016

Unfortunately the plans for #00274E and N DNTN to host BJSC 90 fell through due to *ahem* technical difficulties, meaning the hosting duties were taken over by the capable hands of the moderator team of Bignia-Zaragovina, Daehun, République d'Ashton, Ramrynia and Aeroche, thankfully not in quite as controversial circumstances as the last mod team hosting coup (BJSC 64, never again).

Anyways, Persephonia's entry to the final contest of the year, our 69th entry to date (lol), was provided by Zambian-born (*.*) Danish singer/rapper Lucy Siame, previously known as Lucy Love but now performing under the new androgynous and enigmatic supervillain alter-ego Baby Blood with 'Figurine', her first single under that name which originally surfaced in November 2015 and was later featured on an EP named 'Await The Coven', released in June of this year. Apart from being our first entry by an artist of African origin (possibly look out for a couple more of those in 2017 ;o) it's also our second Danish entry after 'Simple Guy' by Kadie Elder.

Baby Blood's Facebook describes her sound as 'alternative bass / future RnB', which seems a fitting enough description for the dark and bassy track featuring some wonderful synths and distorted vocal sections making it perfect for Halloween Blogs have compared it to the likes of Purity Ring, FKA twigs and SZA (and Mattias' post in here saying it sounded like Sevdaliza vibes seems fairly apt too). Here's the very purple music video for the track, starring Baby Blood in her slightly creepy wrestling mask:



'Figurine' was drawn as track 6 of 31 in semi-final 2, hosted by Daehun (with Bignia-Zaragovina handling the other semi-final, and the final being hosted by Ramrynia, with République d'Ashton and Aeroche presenting the semi-final and final results respectively). This is where we might normally be begging people to vote for us but of course the contest is already over so...

Baby Blood continues our qualification streak

Indeed, 'Figurine' made it to the final, increasing our qualification streak to 6 in a row and finishing the year with 9 out of a possible 10 qualifiers, only missing out with Bachar Mar-Khalifé's 'Mirror Moon' in BJSC 84. With lengthy qualification streaks by Yehesi and Cadelicia coming to an end, Persephonia move back up to joint 4th in the list of longest active streaks. FSR Rontvia sailed through again for a 12th time in a row to stay #1 there, while N DNTN made it 10 in a row making those 2 countries the only ones to be in every 2016 BJSC final. Unovia may have done so as well if they hadn't sat out BJSC 82 - they are third in the list with 8 in a row, and they also qualified in BJSC 81.

Unfortunately the rest of the semi-final 2 results were a bit of a bloodbath for our votes - like in the last contest we lost 2 of our top 3 but unfortunately this time our 12 pointer was one of them, with Ethanola falling agonisingly short of qualifying with V.O.'s 'Mashisa' (Dub Mix) our first semi-final 12 to DNQ since Arthur Beatrice's 'Who Returned' in BJSC 81. Rejects justice pls. x Our 8 pointer, Thelonia with LeBrock's 'One Night', also failed to qualify as did three more of the songs we voted for: 6 pointers Tartford with Luce Drayton's 'To Be Loved' (Disco Citizens Remix), 5 pointer 'Hologram' by Vogel representing Deandria and most surprisingly of all Singerpurear who recycled their own former top 5 artist Kishi Bashi with 'Ode To My Next Life' but this time didn't make the final, getting 2 points from us. More of Persephonian voters' top 10 tracks in semi-final 1 made it through, only losing fleeting returnees Pagasa (Marineros' 'Torbellino', 8th in our ranking) and, in another surprise result, Yehesi (Shay's 'PMW', 9th).

This post is long enough already so shall split the rest of the contest summary into a separate post ~

Posted by: Bré Nov 25 2016, 08:32 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 25/11/2016
big catchup edition ~ [2/2]

BJSC 90 summary

- In the final results announced in Aeroche just under two weeks ago (almost caught up!! x), there was some more good news for Persephonia as Baby Blood's 'Figurine' proved to be one of our most successful entries of the year. It finished 13th out of 42 with a total of 202 points, our third highest finish and 2nd highest points total of the year (the third time we broke the 200 point mark, just two of those being by the skin of our teeth). That completed a set of 7 top 20 hits for Persephonia this year, actually one more than we managed in 2015 even though we only had the one top 10 hit this year compared to 5 top 5 hits last year! It was also another entry of ours to get 2 18s, matching our best of the year again for the 3rd time in a row, with the maximum marks this time coming from N-Lazone (with whom we had a rare high points swap) and Usfland. It received points from 24 countries in total, including two other medal positions (a 15 from Aeroche and a 13 from Skall). 'Figurine' also came 13th in semi-final 2 with 70 points, which nominally put it in projected 19th place (although bearing in mind the projections were distorted by semi-final 1 having far more non-voters than semi-final 2).

- The title of the winning song of BJSC 90 was all too appropriate for its circumstances: 2016 had been curiously lacking in BJSC wins by Aeroche thus far, and they had been taking a backseat in the year to date rankings to the likes of Yehesi, Pupok and N DNTN. It would have been Aeroche's first year where they failed to win a contest if that had continued - with previous wins in BJSCs 46-48, 51, 66 and 79 following their debut in BJSC 44 - as well as the first year since their 2012 debut that they didn't top the end of year list. But it was just 'Fate' !!1 that they'd pull out the miracle they needed to keep up their streaks at the last possible opportunity. Like we ever really thought we'd go a year without an Aeroche win!! Indeed, they got to announce their own win with cheeky Kelly Clarkson sampling witch house track 'Fate' by Fraunhofer Diffraction topping the scoreboard with a total of 304 points (and what a delightful winner *.* certainly the correct song to do it for them, being the second time this year our 18 pointer has won after 'Free Tibet' in BJSC 82). That points haul coupled with Yehesi's surprise DNQ and bottom half finishes for N DNTN and Pupok also saw Aeroche leap to claim the end of year #1 for a fourth time in a row despite not leading in any of the previous updates. (Incidentally our own performance was just good enough for us to cling onto 10th place in the EOY despite only having one song go top 10 individually, giving us a second year in a row in the top 10 doing well in the BJSC). Aeroche thus moved a step closer to matching FSR Rontvia's long-standing record for most wins (getting a 7th win, behind FSR's 8). It's no surprise that 'Fate' also won semi-final 1, giving Aeroche their 9th semi-final winner, putting them a win clear of Altyr Muunilinst as the country with the most. It's amazing they've fit them all in when half of their songs are auto-qualifiers really (and yet another of those to come in BJSC 91) Semi-final 2 was won by Bøtanikkä with Ratty's 'Sunrise (Here I Am)', their 6th semi-final win in total and second in a row (the new diacritics in the name are clearly helping), however they fell just short of the top 10 in the final, coming 11th.

- That's not to say that Aeroche had an easy victory though - they were the favourite to win but did so with the lowest total for a winner in 2016 and also the smallest margin of victory. Just 8 points behind them, the silver medal went to Jadakissnia, getting a new main contest peak for the second time in three contests with the splendid 'Earth Not Above' by HÆLOS, improving on their bronze medal with MssingNo's 'Scope' two contests back. This gave them their 6th top 10 finish of the year, joint most of all countries alongside Pupok and (who else) Aeroche, and also means they eclipsed our achievement of 5 top 10s last year (IT'S ON in 2017 xx). And then only one more point back in a nailbitingly tight top 3 were South Danaelanda with Basto's 'Gregory's Theme', matching their best finish to date of 3rd (previously achieved by the united Danaelanda in BJSC 81 with TheFatRat's 'Monody' (feat. Laura Brehm)), marking the second month in a row that a few-years-old song previously overlooked by BJSC participants was picked back up and came top 3 after last month's Ou Est Le Swimming Pool. (It's also incidentally a song that was previously almost an Aeroche entry). It was also very close between the last two tracks in the top 5: Cor Lupus finished 4th with CONTACT's 'Never Stop', their third top 10 of the year, on 279 points, while 5th place went to Altyr Muunilinst with 'Closer To Life' by Atella and Frøder on 277 points, 'only' their second top 10 of the year.

- They had little fanfare in odds and predictions but Trifoski pulled it out of the bag to come 6th with 'Electrify' by Oliver feat. Scott Mellis, their first top 10 for 19 contests (last getting there with all-time classic 'O.N.E.' by Yeasayer in BJSC 71). In unrelated news, purveyors of the anti-Trifoski agenda have recently been reported struck by lightning and tragically killed. Unovia capped off a highly successful year with a 7th place finish with Jackie Tech's 'You Can Have It All', while former Unovian artist FRENSHIP returned to BJSC this time representing recent comeback nation Florina, finishing 8th with '1000 Nights', marking improvements in both song quality~ and performance in the contest over Unovia entry 'Capsize' by FRENSHIP and Emily Warren, which came 20th in BJSC 84 (and has since gone on to become a minor worldwide hit thanks to Spotify payola). '1000 Nights' became Florina's 5th top 10 and second biggest hit to date, only behind machineheart's 'Circles' (feat. Vanic), the runner-up in BJSC 67.

- At the start of the results reveal Harmonica jumped out to a gigantic lead with Lauren Alaina's 'Road Less Traveled', as the countries most inclined to vote for country songs tend to vote early on, and this contest was no exception, with the spectacular outcome that Harmonica got 5 of the first 9 18s, and another 15 on top of that. They ended up not getting any more 18s after that - although still finished with more of the top scores than any other country even so - and gradually faded but still finished 9th, a very respectable position for a country track and Harmonica's 2nd top 10 just 3 contests after they first broke that duck. Speaking of breaking top 10 ducks, BJSC 90 was finally the time for Ultraviolenceland to break into the top tier, finishing 10th with ARIA's 'Maze' after previously topping out at 11th with NIMMO's 'Dilute This' in BJSC 81 and again two contests later with Lucy Hale's 'Lie A Little Better'. There was less luck for two other countries with long-running inability to make the top 10: N-Lazone continue to be the country with the most appearances (41) and no top 10s, but got one of their best results to date, coming 16th with John Rous and Alfie Rhodes' 'Oasis', while Taahino's torture was prolonged again too, with Courage My Love's 'Stereo' coming 18th. That's their 8th top 20 hit, 7 of which were this year, but still none of them getting higher than 14th thus far. Maybe next time??

- Aside from Jadakissnia and Ultraviolenceland, the only other country reaching a new peak was Summericia, who came 24th with IGNEA's 'Alga', one place higher than the last time they broke their national record two contests back (also mirroring Jadakissnia). There weren't any debuting countries in BJSC 90, but four countries made returns to the contest. Pagasa came back at last after an opening run of only two entries earlier in the year, although sadly this comeback will be even shorter as they didn't vote in the final and are thus banned from BJSC 91 (as are Kluminican Republic and Triangledonia). Thelonia returned after their one-month non-voting ban. Both of those sadly DNQed as mentioned in the last post. There were better results for other comeback nations Ajanaeda and Ojnoj. Both of them have been dormant for most of 2016 (only entering in BJSC 87 where both DNQed) but have sneaked in 2016 qualifiers at the last minute. Ajanaeda came 22nd with Skylife's 'Why' (feat. Summer Rayne), their best result for 2 years, and Ojnoj came 30th with Lao Ra's 'Bang Boom'.

- Daehun came 17th with I.O.I's 'Very Very Very', their first top 20 hit for 14 contests (which was preceded by a string of 7 of them in a row, how the mighty have fallen) - a remarkable turnaround from the semi-final where the song scraped through with just 35 points, one more than the record low for a qualifier, which came from just 4 voters (which may be the first time a song has qualified with that few voters). Flynnonda also scraped through the same semi-final with the same number of points, but didn't have the same turnaround, coming 41st (second last) with just 83 points with Alice Jemima's 'Electric'. It was still a victory of sorts for Flynnonda though as they'd DNQed 7 times in a row before this. Ashton rebranded again, reviving their old name of République d'Ashton. Their entry, 'Happy Days' by Brooke Candy, came 33rd.

- The 'auto-qualifier curse' was back in full force: #00274E followed their win with a 36th place with Ben Delay's 'I Never Felt So Right', and the other auto-qualifier from Medhelnia did even worse, giving them another wooden spoon to add to their collection, as their entry 'Surfboard Fire' by Blitz//Berlin came 42nd and last, two contests after their last wooden spoon entry. 'Surfboard Fire' was disadvantaged from the start as Medhelnia did not submit votes in the semi-finals, which meant they faced a 30% deduction even though they voted on time in the final. However, it was already last place by some distance even before the deduction, and ultimately finished on just 45 points, the lowest of any song since the current voting system was implemented in BJSC 74. Oop ~

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 90

Final

Points awarded:
18 Aeroche // Fraunhofer Diffraction - Fate
15 Terra Avium // Kitchen - Time (Inception)
13 N-Lazone // John Rous and Alfie Rhodes - Oasis

12 Skall // David Lyme - Bye, Bye Mi Amor
11 Jadakissnia // HÆLOS - Earth Not Above
10 Espen // Sacred Spirit - Yeha-Noha (Wishes Of Happiness & Prosperity)
9 Quintessa // Ghost - Square Hammer
8 Séyetana // Arion - At The Break Of Dawn (feat. Elize Ryd)
7 Bøtanikkä // Ratty - Sunrise (Here I Am)
6 #00274E // Ben Delay - I Never Felt So Right
5 South Danaelanda // Basto - Gregory's Theme
4 Altyr Muunilinst // Atella and Frøder - Closer To Life
3 Summericia // IGNEA - Alga
2 Lomaja // Chrystina Sayers - From Here
1 Florina // FRENSHIP - 1000 Nights

16th-41st:
Trifoski // Oliver - Electrify (feat. Scott Mellis)
Usfland // The Brevet - Moving Mountains
Cor Lupus // CONTACT - Never Stop
N DNTN // Kiddy Smile - Let A B!tch Know
République d'Ashton // Brooke Candy - Happy Days
Mulgracia // Off Bloom - Love To Hate It
Pupok // Ängie - Smoke Weed Eat Pussy
Daehun // I.O.I - Very Very Very
Medhelnia // Blitz//Berlin - Surfboard Fire
Republic of Adonia // Jane Zhang - Dust My Shoulders Off (feat. Timbaland)
Kylienips // Cruel Youth - Hatefuck
Unovia // Jackie Tech - You Can Have It All
D'yermak'er // Julia Knight - Ghost Of You
Dobago // Salvatore Ganacci - Dive (feat. Enya and Alex Aris)
Hushkanukia // Hanne Mjøen - Perfect Noise
Avalonia // Deborah Iurato - Sono Ancora Io
Ojnoj // Lao Ra - Bang Boom
Fljótavík // Red Rosamond - Damn
Syndare // Smith & Thell - ROW
Taahino // Courage My Love - Stereo
New Lexico // KAYE - UUU
Flynnonda // Alice Jemima - Electric
FSR Rontvia // Natalia Nykiel - Error
Harmonica // Lauren Alaina - Road Less Traveled
Ultraviolenceland // ARIA - Maze
Ajanaeda // Skylife - Why (feat. Summer Rayne)

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 Ethanola // V.O. - Mashisa (Dub Mix)^†
10 Bøtanikkä // Ratty - Sunrise (Here I Am)
8 Thelonia // LeBrock - One Night^†

7 South Danaelanda // Basto - Gregory's Theme
6 Tartford // Luce Drayton - To Be Loved (Disco Citizens Remix)^†
5 Deandria // Vogel - Hologram^†
4 N-Lazone // John Rous and Alfie Rhodes - Oasis
3 N DNTN // Kiddy Smile - Let A B!tch Know
2 Singerpurear // Kishi Bashi - Ode To My Next Life^†
1 Florina // FRENSHIP - 1000 Nights

11th-30th:
Lomaja // Chrystina Sayers - From Here
D'yermak'er // Julia Knight - Ghost Of You
Unovia // Jackie Tech - You Can Have It All
Altyr Muunilinst // Atella and Frøder - Closer To Life
Mulgracia // Off Bloom - Love To Hate It
Oslol // Merry Clayton - When The World Turns Blue (Melodies Of Love)^†
Bignia-Zaragovina // Jeremy Messersmith - Ghost^†
Hushkanukia // Hanne Mjøen - Perfect Noise
Syndare // Smith & Thell - ROW
Kylienips // Cruel Youth - Hatefuck
Dobago // Salvatore Ganacci - Dive (feat. Enya and Alex Aris)
St. Burbia // Alisha Pillay - Mayday^†
Ojnoj // Lao Ra - Bang Boom
New Lexico // KAYE - UUU
Avalonia // Deborah Iurato - Sono Ancora Io
Harmonica // Lauren Alaina - Road Less Traveled
Greenfroze // Alle Farben - Bad Ideas^†
Ultraviolenceland // ARIA - Maze
Land of DW // Nosfe - Condimente (feat. Ruby)^†
Niceland // AJR - I'm Not Famous<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 1 DNQs

8th Pagasa // Marineros - Torbellino
9th Yehesi // Shay - PMW
12th Tinnmark // Snö - Krig
15th Zanmatony // Metrik - Chasing Sunrise (feat. Elisabeth Troy)
20th Aelandor // Fireflight - Unbreakable
22nd Desbuanda // T.O.L.D. - 2 Young
23rd Ramrynia // The Japanese House - Face Like Thunder
26th Triangledonia // MaRLo - You And Me (feat. Chloe)
27th The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Trevor Dahl - When You Come Home
29th Cadelicia // Paris & Simo - Reunite (Galloway Remix) (feat. Patrick Moreno and Aloma Steele)
30th Kluminican Republic // Mason Jennings - How Deep Is That River

Posted by: Bré Nov 25 2016, 08:34 PM

yay paragraphs

In other news, TBO IX is now underway - any nominations for our 9 eligible songs greatly appreciated! ;o (Although 'The Wandering Songstress' is the only one with even a slightly realistic chance of making it to the semi-finals).

And once Rejects nominations finally surface, #votemirrormoon

Why thank you <3 Have greatly appreciated the Deandria support this year, it's a shame I haven't been able to return much of it with so many of your best entries DNQing :'(

~

(also in other other news - Persephonia EOY 2016 will be commencing some time in December probably. yay. think I might steal Addy/Dan's format)

Posted by: Jade Nov 25 2016, 09:00 PM

Paragraphs galore *.* T'was worth the wait~

Well done on the top 15 placing for 'Figurine'! It was pretty crazy that I actually knew of Baby Blood through 'Gender Science' haha! This was another solid one from her with a pretty cool video alongside. You've been a rather consistent mid-tabler this year ;o Kool that all of those top 20s have amounted to a top 10 YTD placing, congrats on another one of those *.*

Lmao it is onnn for 2017 where top 10 hits are concerned, bring it on xx You'll probably beat me tho, after all - you do well in the BJSC xo

'The Wandering Songstress' 2 slay TBO x (in an ideal world 'Thelema' would be killin' it)

Posted by: Iz~ Nov 25 2016, 09:20 PM

I had no idea Baby Blood was Lucy Love I've had her on my radar for absolutely ages (although as is probably apparent haven't followed her up since like 2013)

Posted by: Bré Nov 25 2016, 09:37 PM

Haha I've basically been doing a Taahino since February with 6 out of 9 songs finishing between 12th and 20th I won't beat you ever again tho, you clearly have the momentum xx (and oh yes if only 'Thelema' had any chance D: x)



I did wonder if anyone would actually recognise that name! (I had never heard of Lucy Love but I gather she had some kind of blog hype before)

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 2 2016, 05:20 AM

OH MY GOD



A-WA are really going up in the world. It's beautiful

after this song right here, Imma need 4 passports

(I saw Pitbull also has a new song that samples Desbuanda entry 'Can't Have' by Steven A. Clark, clearly BJSC is giving him all his ideas lately )

Posted by: Cody Slayberry Dec 2 2016, 05:35 AM

don't kill me but I think Pitbull elevated both songs to a higher level (particularly "Can't Have")

Posted by: Dancember Dec 2 2016, 08:09 AM

Mr. Actual Worldwide remixing A-WA :cheeseblock: amazing.

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 2 2016, 12:20 PM

I can't even begrudge this opinion tbh.

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 4 2016, 11:45 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 04/12/2016

The Shanghai Restoration Project books us a place in The Best of BJSC IX!

Persephonia have a representative in at least the semi-finals of the annual retrospective The Best of BJSC contest for a fourth year running, as our one entry with a non-outside chance of making it through the nominations round did so, The Shanghai Restoration Project's 'The Wandering Songstress' (feat. Zhang Le) getting at least 23 nomination points and taking one of the 7 qualifier slots from BJSC 81 as announced last night in Ramrynia. The result also continues our pleasing stat of making it to at least the semi-finals of TBO with all 11 of our top 10 hits. Maybe not as impressive as it sounds considering they were all at least 6th to begin with, but then again last night proved that a high position is neither necessary nor sufficient when it comes to TBO. Pray for Plaitum, pray for MssingNo, pray for Ou Est Le Swimming Pool, and praise/curses be to whatever transpired that allowed SOFI TUKKER, Sleigh Bells and Hayley Kiyoko among many other non-hits through.

In any case, 'The Wandering Songstress' has been drawn in slot 27 of 40 in semi-final 1 in Bignia-Zaragovina and while it'll be a tall order to make it to the final we are very grateful for its beauty continuing to be recognised to allow it to get this far and any semi-final votes for it will be greatly appreciated



As for our other eligible entries in TBO, unsurprisingly they all fell short in this opening nominations round, but a couple of them were much closer to a qualifier slot than we thought they'd be - primarily BOOTS' 'C.U.R.E.' which was just one point (give or take a tiebreak) off qualifying from BJSC 83, with 20 nomination points in all. Our next highest number of points was for most recent entry 'Figurine' by Baby Blood which got 16 points (9 points less than needed to go through), but the next closest to qualifying was Fallgrapp's 'Vlasy' which got 14 points, only 3 away from possibly qualifying. Tailing off from there, TWRR's 'Water Frozen' also got 14 points, Aron Can's 'Með Mér' got 13 (both were 7 points off the lowest qualifier), Digitalism's 'Blitz' got 12 (8 off), Color Guard's 'In Your Bones' got 9 (13 off) and unsurprisingly our biggest flop was Øfdream's 'Thelema' which got just 5 points, all from Jadakissnia (it would have needed 18 more to qualify). Valiant efforts. x 9 of the 50 songs Persephonia nominated got through, which is not wonderful but certainly could have been a lot worse, especially as there were also some great auto-qualifiers.

Meanwhile the other retrospective contest, The Best of BJSC - The Rejects IX, has also belatedly begun, so here's another plug for our one eligible entry there, Bachar Mar-Khalifé's 'Mirror Moon' which missed the final of BJSC 84. We still think it's pretty underrated. Hopefully some of you guys will agree. x

Posted by: Slade Dec 4 2016, 11:53 PM

Move over M+A feat. DENA ~ A-WA and Pitbull is the true team-up of dreams *.*

Congrats on 'The Wandering Songstress' making it! I had so many highlights of BJSC 81 and that was up there as one of 'em. A complete lack of Persephonia would have felt odd following your dominance last year, so thank gawd BJSC voters. Lmao at me being the only person to point 'Thelema', everyone is sleeping on that tbh. You repaying me with being my sole VHS Glitch pointer Also, 'C.U.R.E.' being so close to qualifying was a welcome surprise

The all of your top 10s reaching the semi-finals of TBO stat is beautiful *.* may it never end.

Rejects to give justice to our weird out-there foreign language songs plz

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 9 2016, 10:10 PM

EOY coming v soon ~ I have put together my top 103 of the year (I'll explain why 103 in a bit xx), the following countries make multiple appearances:

8x Jadakissnia
5x Ethanola, N DNTN, Skall
4x Desbuanda, Fljótavík, Séyetana, Syndare, Terra Avium
3x Bøtanikkä, Dobago, Land of DW, FKA FKA FKA π, Quintessa, Tartford, Trifoski
2x Aelandor, Aeroche, Cor Lupus, Cumulonimbia, Espen, FSR Rontvia, Pupok, Singerpurear, Suedeonia, Yehesi

and 19 other mystery countries have a single appearance. It pained me to cut it off there as I picked out 260 songs worthy of being in my EOY but it has to stop somewhere lest the honour be devalued ;o

Breakdown of number of entries per contest:

15 from BJSC 82
14 from BJSC 89
13 from BJSC 90
11 from BJSC 88
10 from BJSC 81
10 from BJSC 85
10 from BJSC 86
8 from BJSC 84
6 from BJSC 83
6 from BJSC 87

Actually forgot how many huge highlights 89 had as well as 82 & 90 ;o expected those to be the top 2.

I will be doing a rank of every country's entries like I did last year and then shall post my top 103 probably with very minimal commentary a la Chez Wombat because I'd like to actually finish this this year. Hype. x

Posted by: Slade Dec 9 2016, 10:16 PM

YESSSSS! 8 appearances *.* Rly looking forward to finding out where they have landed~

Posted by: CodySleighBell-y Dec 9 2016, 11:40 PM

Another nod for Nhato is always nice to see I wonder what that mystery second entry is...

(Might be Rain Man but I also vaguely remember you liking Pixel Fix as well)

Posted by: angel_lotita Dec 10 2016, 12:09 AM

yas pupok impakt *.* predicting wimbledon and tequila?

Posted by: notfurlong Dec 10 2016, 12:14 AM

ooh 4! surely my best hit rate from the eoy charts so far

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 17 2016, 09:52 PM

Actually decided to expand my EOY so it's now a top 150 (well, 153) like last year. An update on the countries with multiple appearances:

9x Jadakissnia
7x N DNTN
6x Ethanola, Terra Avium
5x Desbuanda, Fljótavík, FKA FKA FKA π, Séyetana, Skall, Tartford, Trifoski
4x Aeroche, Beaverdonia, Bøtanikkä, Cumulonimbia, Deandria, Espen, Quintessa, Syndare
3x Cor Lupus, Dobago, Land of DW, Pupok, Singerpurear, St. Burbia, Suedeonia
2x Aelandor, Cadelicia, FSR Rontvia, Tinnmark, Yehesi
1x 27 other countries

The reason for the 3 extra songs is that there were 3 entries that I wasn't sure whether to include in my EOY at all, as I primarily like them for reasons not related to BJSC (2 songs that I'd known and loved for years before their contests and one that only grew on me after it became a UK hit after I didn't like it that much in the actual contest). I ultimately decided to include them, so I tagged 3 more songs onto the end to show what would have made it in if I didn't include them.

So here is 153-151 (including how many points / where I ranked the songs in their contest for context ~):

153 Florina 90 // FRENSHIP - 1000 Nights {1 point}
152 Lomaja 90 // Chrystina Sayers - From Here {2 points}
151 Beaverdonia 87 // Shreya Ghoshal and Osman Mir - Nagada Sang Dhol {6 points}

And here are my rankings of the 2016 entries for all the countries who have no songs in my top 150:

AJANAEDA
AJÁ ROSE - Paradise Blue > Skylife - Why (feat. Summer Rayne)

ALTERIA
Shiggy Jr. - Beautiful Life

RÉPUBLIQUE D'ASHTON
Brooke Candy - Happy Days > KITTY - Reach No Higher > Coco Morier - Dreamer > Walking On Cars - Speeding Cars > Evelina - Honey (feat. Mikael Gabriel) > Madison Beer - All For Love (feat. Jack & Jack) > Us The Duo - Slow Down Time > Lisa Ajax - Give Me That > Ella Sanoo - Leave This Town > Jana Kramer - I Hope It Rains

THE ACTUAL REPUBLIC OF BELLAMIA
Jesper Jenset - High > Ryan Lawrie - If Only > Shawn Hook - Sound Of Your Heart > Isac Elliot - Worth Something > The Ready Set - Good Enough > Catey Shaw - The Ransom (Tommy Walker Remix) > Maty Noyes - in my miNd > Joel Adams - Please Don't Go > Trevor Dahl - When You Come Home > Benjamin - Body

BHANGRA
Henri Pfr - Home > Karizma ONE - When Life Is Grey > Timeflies - Once In A While

BRECHTORIA
GLADES - Her (Loving You) > Stadiumx - Mombasa > The Boxer Rebellion - Big Ideas > Tigertown - Lonely Cities > Kelsea Ballerini - XO

BUBBLELANDS
Ta-Ra - ORION (feat. ISSUE)

BUZZJACK MOUNTAIN
Water Juice - In Love (feat. Audrey Graham) > The Snake - Wasting My Life (feat. Doctor Blind)

DAEHUN
IU - Twenty-Three > I.O.I - Very Very Very > Red Velvet - Russian Roulette > LUNA - Free Somebody > 9MUSES - Hurt Locker > GFRIEND - Rough > TAEYEON - Why > Girls' Generation - Gee > Namie Amuro - Hero > Jain - Come

DALISSKA
KNOWER - Hanging On

D'YERMAK'ER
Kiiara - Feels > Smerz - Because > Julia Knight - Ghost Of You > CAPPA - I'm Good > Terror Jr - Sugar > Sada Vidoo - The Actress > Frances Rose - Dangerous > Scavenger Hunt - River Runs Dry > RIVRS - Falling > Ryos - Where We Are (feat. KARRA)

F.D. ANĒNÉ
Martin Jensen - All I Wanna Do

FARAHTYN
Nigar Jamal - Herhalde (feat. Berksan)

FARC
Mahan Moin - Azizami > Salt Ashes - Save It > Patrick Hagenaar - Turn Back Time (Back To The Time) > MUNA - Winterbreak > Noella Nix - Someone > JONES - Hoops > morgxn - love you with the lights on (Monsieur Adi Remix)

FLORINA
FRENSHIP - 1000 Nights [#153] > Foreign Air - Echo > Echos - Gold

FLYNNONDA
Wolfie - Obi Wan > LKA - TURBULENCE > GRACE - I'M FINE > Mount Tyrant - One Night > Ruth Koleva - Oceans > Fickle Friends - Cry Baby > Magic Man - Paris > Panama Wedding - A Brand New Life > Alice Jemima - Electric > Them Swoops - Work Around It

FRANDOOT
Miya Folick - I Got Drunk

GREENFROZE
Perttu - Waves (feat. Alexandra) > The Girl And The Dreamcatcher - Make You Stay > Philter - Revolver (feat. Miriam Vaga) > PMMP - Lautturi > Alle Farben - Bad Ideas > Matilda - Ghost > That Poppy - Lowlife > A.KOR - Always > Vicetone - Anywhere I Go > Sody - Sorry

HENDINIA
Highasakite - Samurai Swords > SASHA ₴ѺѺ - Nightmare (feat. Tuesday Knight) > That Poppy - Money > Against The Current - Outsiders > CLMD - Dust (feat. Astrid S) > Mike Perry - The Ocean (feat. SHY Martin) > Love Thy Brother - Love Me Better (feat. Ariel Beesley)

ISCONIA
Alice Boman - Waiting

JAYRUSALEM
Keke Palmer - I Don't Belong To You

JOEDONIA
LANY - ILYSB

LOMAJA
Chrystina Sayers - From Here [#152] > HYOYEON, Min and Jo Kwon - Born To Be Wild (feat. JYP) > Kero Kero Bonito - Trampoline

NICELAND
Royce Lovett - I Wanna Love You > MÖWE and Daniel Nitt - Lovers Friends > AJR - I'm Not Famous

OJNOJ
Lao Ra - Bang Boom > Chelsea Lankes - Bullet

PROJ
Mystery Jets - Telomere

RAMRYNIA
Sabrina Carpenter - On Purpose > BB Diamond - Feeling > MY - White Water > Venior - Sugar Rush > The Japanese House - Face Like Thunder > Michaela May - 1954 > NEIKED - Sexual (feat. Dyo) > Cilia - Hardcore Heartbreak > Julian Perretta - Miracle > Just Kiddin - Fall For You

SANDEBÖRG
Peg Parnevik - We Are (Ziggy & Carola) > Helly Luv - Revolution > Ohlayindigo - Lullaby > Espen - Werk Like Beyoncé > Brooke - Golden > Ulrika - Oh Sally! > SMILO - Young Again > Lola Coca - Bad Girlfriend

SUMMERICIA
IGNEA - Alga > Dennis Sheperd and Sarah Lynn - Dive > Invader Girl - Stuck On Me > Keys&Cages - Invisible > Boston Bun - Paris Groove (feat. Mayer Hawthorne) > Generik - Late At Night > Genevieve - Colors (PLS&TY Remix) > Billie Ray Martin - The Glittering Gutter (Dave Audé Club Mix) > Hartebees - Justified (Sunrise Funk) (feat. Kaleena Zanders) > VYAN - Hard To Break

TAAHINO
Ghost Town - Spark > Beautiful Bodies - Capture & Release > Icon For Hire - Now You Know > Jule Vera - Die Trying > Fingertips - Kiss Me > Jeremy Shada, Shauna Case and Annie Sertich - Running Errands With My Mom > Tonight Alive - How Does It Feel? > Courage My Love - Stereo > Seven Lions - Lose Myself (feat. Lynn Gunn) > Crystalyne - Punks Don't Dance

TRIANGLEDONIA
TAI and Son Of 8 - In & Out > Tom Sawyer - Marihuana (Into This House) (Million Faces Remix) > The Him - Don't Leave Without Me (feat. Gia Koka) > Different Heaven - OMG > The Aces - Stuck > MaRLo - You And Me (feat. Chloe) > Manse - Freeze Time (feat. Alice Berg) > Alexa Lusader - Fantasy (Sokko Remix) > Emma Carn - Bad Boy Genes

UNOVIA
Atiye - Abrakadabra > Ali Barter - Far Away > Annalisa - Se Avessi Un Cuore > Jackie Tech - You Can Have It All > Baby K - Anna Wintour > Ricki-Lee - Mirage > Rachel Bloom - You Can Touch My Boobies (feat. Nicole Shabtai and Tess Paras) > FRENSHIP and Emily Warren - Capsize > Tal - Are We Awake

UTOPIA
Bleached - Sour Candy > Average White Band - When Will You Be Mine

ZAMINTON
Rykka - Movies

ZANMATONY
Metrik - Chasing Sunrise (feat. Elisabeth Troy) > Amber - Sexual (Li Da Di)

I shall reveal the other rankings as we get to each country's highest appearance in my countdown and will write a short bit of commentary for each of those countries, a bit like Iz's countdown but not in alphabetical order and maybe with not as many words ;o

I also made a ranking of my own entries:

PERSEPHONIA
The Shanghai Restoration Project - The Wandering Songstress (feat. Zhang Le) > Aron Can - Með Mér > Fallgrapp - Vlasy > Øfdream - Thelema > TWRR - Water Frozen > BOOTS - C.U.R.E. > Bachar Mar-Khalifé - Mirror Moon > Baby Blood - Figurine > Color Guard - In Your Bones > Digitalism - Blitz

My two most successful entries of the year are also by some distance my two favourites so hooray for people getting this right! Both songs that I was completely obsessed with for months and still spam regularly. I'm so glad 'The Wandering Songstress' was a big hit because I genuinely had no clue how it would go down but I just had to send it as it was one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I'd ever come across while searching for BJSC entries. 'Með Mér' is rather different sounding but such a huge earworm (I've learnt all the words!!1 phonetically at least lmao), and again one that surprised me a lot in actually doing pretty well. The pattern doesn't continue after that though as 'Figurine' was my 3rd biggest hit but I actually think that was a relatively weak end to the year for me, ranking only 8th (I still love it and all, can never go wrong with some spooky synths, I just feel like I won't go back to it as much as most of these). 'Vlasy' completes my top 3 of standout foreign language entries, this one actually wasn't even one I instantly loved when I came across it, but it was interesting enough to keep drawing me back to it and it wormed its way into my affections after a couple of listens. 'Thelema', in 4th, was much more of an instant love track and I think it's rather underrated considering witchy tracks have otherwise mostly done really well this year, but then I suppose 'Thelema' doesn't have as much to it as most of them, it just relies on a mostly unchanging spooky rhythm. I don't have an issue with unchanging rhythms though. I mean, I loved 'Mutter'. x 'Water Frozen' completes my top 5, a bit of a cold and moody track which I still think I maybe should have saved for the winter but it did well enough for itself anyway, it's all about the build to the delicious instrumental near the end 'C.U.R.E.' comes in 6th, felt good to send in an out and out male-vocalled hip hop track without a pop hook and somehow not completely flop. 'Mirror Moon' was always pretty doomed in retrospect but I'm not gonna be predictable and rank it last out of my entries because I still have a lot of love for it, the vocals are a bit marmite I guess but I still absolutely adore the pianos and the way it builds. The last 2 are quite far behind the rest, I don't disown them completely but I do regret sending them a bit as I usually like to try and send ~distinctive~ songs and while 'In Your Bones' is a pretty good and catchy little indie synthpop number and 'Blitz' is still a banger, ultimately they're both pretty standard songs which have been done many times before and a lot better. It's especially a shame I chose to send something as generic as 'Blitz' to BJSC 82, a contest that was otherwise defined by nearly everyone sending bonkers and unique tracks, which made it my favourite contest of the year, spoiled only by myself. Oops. xx But yes, on the whole... what a great country!!

(my commentary is not gonna be that verbose for everyone... or if it is, this is not gonna get finished lol)

150-101 coming tomorrow probably.

Posted by: CodySleighBell-y Dec 17 2016, 10:01 PM

The mystery continues

Will you be also doing a "worst of the year" countdown? If memory serves me right, the countries that have entered at least 9 times this year and don't have a song in your best end up having a song in your worst

Posted by: Slade Dec 17 2016, 10:02 PM

I applaud the amount of effort you're going to and now 9/10 of my songs in the mix *.*

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 17 2016, 10:04 PM

I'm not doing a worst of the year countdown this time as I kind of felt bad about it in the end last year lmao. (Jana Kramer was the worst tho. #sorrynotsorry)

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 18 2016, 12:57 AM

Actually lemme get this started tonight with 150-126.

2016 EOY 150-126:

150 St. Burbia 81 // Bishop Briggs - Wild Horses {1 point}
149 Beaverdonia 81 // Alfons - Ganjaman {8 points}
148 Jukianië 87 // GNUČČI - Work! {10 points}
147 Espen 81 // Dahlia Sleeps - Hessian {didn't save my rankings for this semi-final oops ~}
146 Tartford 86 // Marsheaux - Safe Tonight {6 points}
145 Terra Avium 81 // U.S. Girls - Woman's Work {didn't save my rankings for this semi-final oops ~}
144 Cumulonimbia 82 // Sasha - Xpander {ranked 16th}
143 Terra Avium 82 // tiasu - Plummet {1 point}
142 Tinnmark 83 // Rockettothesky - Grizzly Man {4 points in semi-final}
141 Pupok 88 // Claudia Kane - Einstein {3 points}
140 Desbuanda 89 // Lilyer - I Was On Your Side {4 points}
139 Fljótavík 83 // Olga Bell - Randomness {7 points}
138 Mulgracia 88 // Monarchy - Dance Like Hell {5 points}
137 Avalonia 82 // Thomas Bergersen - Children Of The Sun (feat. Merethe Soltvedt) {3 points}
136 FKA FKA FKA π 89 // Francis And The Lights - I Want You To Shake {ranked 8th in opposite semi-final}
135 Ethanola 87 // Green Velvet - Bigger Than Prince (Hot Since 82 Remix) {2 points in semi-final}
134 Tartford 83 // Jody Wisternoff - The Bridge (Chicane Rework) (feat. Sian Evans) {ranked 14th in opposite semi-final}
133 Kingdom of Horanius 88 // The Opposites - Licht Uit {4 points in semi-final}
132 Suedeonia 83 // Weather Report - Birdland {7 points in semi-final}
131 Deandria 88 // Maya's Moving Castle - When You Wish Upon The Stars {ranked 5th in opposite semi-final}
130 Pagasa 90 // Marineros - Torbellino {ranked 8th in opposite semi-final}
129 Deandria 90 // Vogel - Hologram {5 points in semi-final}
128 Singerpurear 88 // Kadie Elder - First Time He Kissed A Boy {4 points}
127 St. Burbia 82 // Jorja Smith - Blue Lights {ranked 18th}
126 Trifoski 86 // Pillow Person - Go Ahead {9 points}

So who have we seen the last of here...

JUKIANIË
GNUČČI - Work! [#148] > LL - Lie > Dirtcaps - Bad Habit (feat. Tjindjara) > Teyana Taylor - Undercover
I guess Jukianië eventually got tired of the constant flopping and don't enter too much any more. Aww. The clear highlight from them this year was 'Work!', one of a trio of bonkers and brilliant in-your-face bangers in its contest alongside Die Antwoord and Little Big although it didn't catch on near as much as them for whatever reason. Poor hens. At least it qualified though... of their trio of DNQs, 'Lie' was a very ~nice~ song albeit doomed, 'Bad Habit' was ok but was basically an inferior clone of 'Fools Paradise' and 'Undercover' I didn't really get at all despite the urbanswag.

MULGRACIA
Monarchy - Dance Like Hell [#138] > Chairlift - Moth To The Flame > Cobi - Don't You Cry For Me > Ariana And The Rose - Survival Of The Fittest > Off Bloom - Love To Hate It > Angels & Airwaves - Chasing Shadows > Kaskade and CID - Us > Project 46 - Beautiful (It Hurts) > Phoebe Ryan - Chronic
Mulgracia have really come a long way since they stopped sending dreadful generic dance every month, I generally quite enjoy their new brand of serviceable alt-pop, hoping for some more next year that maybe goes a bit further and actually gets my votes. 'Moth To The Flame', 'Survival Of The Fittest' and 'Love To Hate It' are all cut of that cloth and are about the same level of quite good, as is 'Don't You Cry For Me' which is a pretty decent Hozier pastiche. 'Dance Like Hell' stands head and shoulders above the rest as the only one I voted for, very infectious Inbetweeners-soundtrack-y tune there. 'Chasing Shadows' just sounded like one of blink-182's less essential songs, not that memorable but not bad. The less said about those last 3 songs the better really... 'Us' was ALRIGHT for what it was I guess, 'Beautiful (It Hurts)' was your standard crappy Mulgracia dance entry of old and 'Chronic' was pretty painful (Phoebe Ryan needs to stop the whole singing thing). But on the whole, an improvement this year James.

AVALONIA
Thomas Bergersen - Children Of The Sun (feat. Merethe Soltvedt) [#137] > Janina Gavankar - Waiting For Godot > Symphobia - I Do > of Verona - Better With You > Joy Williams - Before I Sleep > Deborah Iurato - Sono Ancora Io > Nicole Skye - Terminate > Philippa Hanna - Arrow > Carina Dahl - Burning (BRND Remix) > Silver Cities - Lights
I guess we've seen the last of Avalonia now... at least this was longer than their original 2 contest run and they did churn out a few pretty good tracks this year. The big highlight is obviously the epic 'Children Of The Sun' (and also their other Thomas Bergersen entry in the Instrumentals spinoff which was even better - Bergersen/Two Steps From Hell is best appreciated with no vocals to distract, as nice as Merethe's voice is), rightfully their biggest hit, and their other top 10 with 'I Do' is also among their best, a pretty neat classical sample there. 'Waiting For Godot' from the start of the year was a shame of a DNQ, wasn't too far off being a second top 150 entry for them here, a surprisingly interesting song, nice semi-obscure literary reference. 'Better With You' and 'Before I Sleep' are both pretty cool moody alty poppy songs, of Verona have better songs ('Castles' and 'Dark In My Imagination') but this one was another pretty good one from them. 'Sono Ancora Io' was a grower and I like the foreign language but it was a bit of a damp song to end their BJSC run with. 'Terminate' was ok as a 'Dark Horse' ripoff, 'Arrow' is surprisingly decent for something bordering on standard country pop, 'Burning' and 'Lights' were both listenable but not anything standout (Silver Cities pretty much screamed Taahino reject) so not shocking DNQs. Avalonia are (were) probably better than the 3 points I've given them ever makes them out to be.

KINGDOM OF HORANIUS
The Opposites - Licht Uit [#133]
Just the one main contest entry from them as they remain very sporadic in the forum, a new Alteria I guess. Hoping for more from them as Dutch rap was not what I expected from Maurice in BJSC but I LIKED IT. Good production and catchy hook. Thumbs up.

PAGASA
Marineros - Torbellino [#130] > KING - The Greatest > The Range - Florida
Another one that I hope will be less sporadic in 2017 (come back in 92 and don't get banned again please!!), Pagasa really have the potential to be an incredible nation. Three very solid entries from them here, my bias towards ~Iberian~ vocals means 'Torbellino' is my favourite by far, kind of reminded me of a song I was going to send once (I'll send a Spanish entry one day), really gorgeous. 'The Greatest' and 'Florida' are also both really good although missing just something to make them properly stand out as GREAT entries, 'Florida' in particular had a slight unfinished demo sound to it. If Pagasa come back and keep going down this road though I foresee many great entries from them in the future. x

I am writing too much. x

~~~

In other news Persephonia's TBO run is over for the year as Bachar Mar-Khalifé's 'Mirror Moon' unsurprisingly failed to get a spot in the Rejects final, while The Shanghai Restoration Project's 'The Wandering Songstress' (feat. Zhang Le) did way better than we expected in TBO semi-final 1, coming 18th with 102 points (only 3 short of a qualification slot). Whose idea was it for only 15 songs to qualify from a 40 song semi-final :'( Thanks for anyone who voted for any of our tracks anyway, we hope to return to a final of one of them next year. x

Posted by: Riser Dec 18 2016, 02:47 AM

OMG this remix

Posted by: Slade Dec 18 2016, 03:39 PM

Ooh a brilliant start to proceedings. But I would expect nothing less with how similar our taste is!

My ultimate highlights from this section are: 'Woman's Work', 'Xpander', 'Einstein', 'Randomness', 'Dance Like Hell', 'Children Of The Sun', 'The Bridge', 'Hologram' and 'Go Ahead' So I'm glad that you expanded to a top 150 as there were a hell of a lot more good songs that could be packed in!

Really pleased in particular that 'The Bridge' has crept up on you I underestimated it at the time as well but it really shines now.

'Torbellino' would actually be last in my Pagasa rank as opposed to your first, but it's a testament to the high quality of their entries so far as I still voted for it and enjoy it very much!

Loving the paragraphs! there is no such thing as too much writing *.*

Posted by: Michael Bubré Dec 25 2016, 04:57 PM

Moving on with another EOY post because what else is there to do on Xmas Day

2016 EOY 125-101:

125 Espen 83 // L.E.J - La Dalle {ranked 16th}
124 Hushkanukia 85 // Kristina Si - Kosmos {3 points}
123 Vülkyria 84 // The Flavor - Shosholoza {7 points}
122 What 81 // KONTRUST - Sock 'N' Doll {6 points}
121 Quintessa 82 // Gina Kushka - Bring It Down {ranked 23rd}
120 Jadakissnia 85 // OVERWERK - Toccata {8 points}
119 Séyetana 84 // Eluveitie - The Call Of The Mountains {8 points}
118 Trifoski 88 // La Femme - Sphynx {6 points}
117 Thelonia 90 // LeBrock - One Night {8 points in semi-final}
116 Cumulonimbia 81 // NZCA LINES - Two Hearts {10 points}
115 N DNTN 87 // Kitty - 285 {7 points}
114 FKA FKA FKA π 83 // Dinamo Azari - Cyan (feat. S.Y.F and Fritz Helder) {10 points}
113 Beaverdonia 85 // Bang La Decks - Aide {7 points}
112 Cor Lupus 83 // Rain Man - Bring Back The Summer (feat. Oly) {6 points}
111 Bøtanikkä 85 // LP - Lost On You (Live) {6 points}
110 N DNTN 89 // Nadia Tehran - Cash Flow {9 points}
109 Kluminican Republic 83 // Pogo - Mellow Brick Road {9 points}
108 Aeroche 82 // Holy Esque - Tear {4 points}
107 Deandria 86 // Blackbriar - Until Eternity {7 points}
106 Aeroche 87 // Little Big - Hateful Love {9 points}
105 Cadelicia 87 // Die Antwoord - Banana Brain {8 points}
104 St. Burbia 87 // Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia - Dum Dee Dum {12 points}
103 Fljótavík 88 // Agnes Obel - Familiar {2 points}
102 Aelandor 89 // Sœur - Pass Out {2 points}
101 Bignia-Zaragovina 82 // White Night Ghosts - Hope {5 points}

The following countries have their highest ranked entries in this section:

HUSHKANUKIA
Kristina Si - Kosmos [#124] > K.Flay - Can't Sleep > FRANKIE - Gold > Emji - Lost > Hanne Mjøen - Perfect Noise > Cardiknox - Wild Child > COSBY - YEAH! > Starling Glow - Caution Tape > April Ivy - Be Ok > Jillea - Shattered
Nothing particularly bad from Hushky this year. The top 2 both sneaked into my votes, 'Kosmos' is a clear highlight, a lovely foreign language ballad with a hard-hitting chorus, should have done much better in its contest. 'Can't Sleep' is also a pretty fab poppy rappy song although just misses out on the top 150. I have a soft spot for FRANKIE for whatever reason despite her making the sort of pop I usually don't like, 'Gold' wasn't as good as 'New Obsession' but was still a thoroughly enjoyable little song, and 'Lost' is a bit similar to 'Kosmos' in having a great chorus (and that middle 8 *.*) although it's a bit let down by its verses. The quality trails off a bit from there as the other 6 songs are all pretty much in the same basket of fairly decent but ultimately inessential and throwaway pop songs. But yes, at least there was no Ashley Allen moment.

VÜLKYRIA
The Flavor - Shosholoza [#123] > Lushington - You Got Me Baby > Cruels - Give It Up (feat. Salt Ashes) > LU2VYK - 90's > Debris - Game Over
Where oh where is Vülker I wonder. Actually I stalked his Facebook the other day and found he's still alive so maybe he'll be back again around Eurovision time - we miss you, come back to us!!1 Vülkyria are certainly capable of some good entries, their two big hits of the year were both well deserved - 'Shosholoza' was a lovely Dario G / Lion King vibes track and an inspired choice by them, I do tend to love African-flavoured dance tracks as we'll see with a few more of them still to come in the countdown, and 'You Got Me Baby' was a bit of a bop even if not a patch on the much more interesting 'Settle Down' for me. The rest of their entries this year... not as good. 'Give It Up' is pretty much a nothing of a song, but that beats out the other two which are examples of Vülkyria's tendency to occasionally send in some obnoxious rackets.

WHAT
KONTRUST - Sock 'N' Doll [#122]
It's kind of amazing in retrospect that we were even able to convince What to provide us with a second entry, I assume we're not going to be seeing them around these parts again. I loved 'Sock 'N' Doll' a lot more than 'Justice For Saint Mary', a wonderfully bonkers bit of metal with a great video and it was a joy to see it doing so well (and actually not getting the deduction in the final!!), of course I knew it already via plug.dj but it was too good to be confined to there. I hope to hear some more ~crazy~ musical discoveries of Blake's in the future even if not in BJSC.

THELONIA
LeBrock - One Night [#117] > Dub Fx - So Are You > Fether - Tides > KLP - Recover (feat. Remi) > Wild Belle - Throw Down Your Guns > Jauz and Netsky - Higher > Flux Pavilion - Never See The Light (feat. Andrea Martin)
Poor Thelonia didn't have much luck with only two qualifiers this year. My favourite from them was 'One Night', a glorious bit of retro synth that really deserved so much more than it got in the last contest, the best entry from them since their debut with Marian Hill (originally thought it might have overtaken that in my affections but I don't think it quite has), I guess the vocals may have been a bit divisive but I think they worked well on the track. 'So Are You' was a fun and different qualifier, a bit Showtek-y and a bit surprised it never turned up on the Radio 1 playlist as I've always thought it sounded like something they'd spam but would ultimately do nothing in the charts. 'Tides' was lovely, not the most memorable song ever but just had a relisten to it and it was nice to hear again, also relistened to 'Recover' as I didn't really remember it at all and it's far better than I remember it being, slightly dodgy rap section aside, it's a shame the whole token drum n bass hit phase seems to be over. 'Throw Down Your Guns' is ok but I don't like it as much as my Wild Belle entry and even that is one of my least favourites of my own entries now, the chorus falls a bit flat for me. 'Higher' is pretty much another one of those obnoxious rackets that I complain about Vülkyria sending (maybe a little bit better than those) although it's still a bit surprising that it didn't qualify, and 'Never See The Light' was deeply disappointing as I usually really like Flux Pavilion but there was nothing to this one.

KLUMINICAN REPUBLIC
Pogo - Mellow Brick Road [#109] > ODESZA - It's Only (feat. Zyra) > Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World (Matstubs Remix) > DENM - Green > Møme - Aloha (feat. Merryn Jeann) > BLEITCH - Speaking Of Moments > Billie Eilish - ocean eyes (Young Bombs Remix) > Mason Jennings - How Deep Is That River > wens - Bones
Too many of Klum Rep's best entries this year DNQed! The pretty gorgeous 'It's Only' (better than the other more successful ODESZA/Zyra song IMO) and 'I'd Love To Change The World' were both surprising and disappointing DNQs that weren't far off this top 150, at least the latter has some redemption in making the Rejects final. 'Green' DNQing was less of a shock but I still really like it, very underrated entry, fab production. Their one DNQ that was a little bit questionable was 'How Deep Is That River', a curious choice if it actually wasn't an intentional attempt to flop as hard as possible, it's vaguely pleasant I suppose and might make a nice bit of album filler~ Their best of the year thankfully did make it in though, 'Mellow Brick Road' was a big standout and bringing back memories of the iconic Lemon Jelly with that retro vocal sample and hold music vibes (in a good way). 'Aloha' is quite good too with its chilled out tropical sound, deserved better than bottom 2. I don't care much for their other qualifiers, 'Speaking Of Moments' seems like a bit of a random one to be their biggest hit of the year as it's pretty standard forgettable blog pop (though not near to the extent that 'Bones' is, and I thought Klumzee didn't like vague songs!!), and 'ocean eyes' is nice and ok and grew on me a bit but I'm yet to be that impressed by Young Bombs' various remixes.

ST. BURBIA
Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia - Dum Dee Dum [#104] > Jorja Smith - Blue Lights [#127] > Bishop Briggs - Wild Horses [#150] > Sarah Mark - Tun Up > The Free - Freedom Island > Bearson - Want You (feat. Cal) > iSHi - There For Me (feat. Shenie Fogo) > Alisha Pillay - Mayday > MAALA - Kind Of Love > Basenji - Can't Get Enough
The first country to drop out with more than one entry in my EOY, St. Burbia actually sneak three songs in the top 150 but none of them quite make my top 100 (so they're lucky I extended it!!1) The iconic piece of trash that is 'Dum Dee Dum' is on top, it is the lowest ranked song to have got as high as 12 points from me as the appeal of it is just a little bit novelty but it is a genuine bop, I can't not love anything Punjabi-flavoured. A couple of more serious entries from the start of the year also make the cut, the Dizzee Rascal sampling chilled urban offering 'Blue Lights' which has grown on me even more after its little bit of TBO success even though it missed out on my points in the strongest contest of the year, and 'Wild Horses' which scrapes into the top 150 as one of the better blogpop offerings of the year, a bit of chart success for both Jorja Smith and Bishop Briggs wouldn't go amiss as both are promising new artists~ Completing my top 5 Burbia songs of 2016 are two island vibes tracks which I disliked on first listen but both of which grew on me substantially, 'Tun Up' is undeniably catchy and would have made a decent Cover Drive single or something, and 'Freedom Island' does have some kind of charm to it despite being pretty basic tropical house, maybe I just like it more since discovering The Free is from Sudan, gotta love exotic nationalities in BJSC *.* 'Want You' was also a bit of a grower, initially blending in with about 500 other similar bland dancey songs in its contest but it started to stand out more with extra listens, it's pretty decent really. 'There For Me' and 'Mayday' are both alright and I thought they'd do much better than they did. 'Kind Of Love' is pretty eh. I really really really don't like 'Can't Get Enough', like it actually offends my ears a little bit, it's just too sickly and egh idk. Can very much get enough. x

BIGNIA-ZARAGOVINA
White Night Ghosts - Hope [#101] > Ryan Beatty - Passion > Hayden Calnin - For My Help > Jeremy Messersmith - Ghost > Jessarae - No Warning > StrangeFaces - Swimming > Marcus & Martinus - Elektrisk (feat. Katastrofe) > Greyson Chance - Back On The Wall > Sing Street - Drive It Like You Stole It > Chord Overstreet - Homeland
Poor Bignia-Zaragovina have had a terrible run this year which really wasn't deserved, why do we treat our mods other than Ryan this way? x Their biggest hit of the year is also their best, 'Hope' only JUST misses out on a spot in my top 100, to be honest I'm not sure I buy that Jáhq even likes this song because it's so far removed from everything else he's ever sent and actually sounds like one of the more experimental entries by someone like Fljótavík, but it was a wonderful discovery anyway, another example of why BJSC 82 was so great 'Passion' was a good Troye Sivan-ish track which I thought would have qualified. The next few songs are all of their doomed indie entries which unsurprisingly floundered near the bottom of their semi-finals but they were all pretty good, I guess there just isn't really a market for that kind of sound in BJSC. 'Elektrisk' I actually thought was alright, it's a bit naff but it's good fun. 'Back On The Wall' just sounded like one of Joseph's less good entries (Joseph triggered), a bit neither here nor there ~ the last two songs are the only ones that truly deserved to flop, 'Drive It Like You Stole It' was pure cheese that did not need to be freed from the context of the film, and 'Homeland' is just the absolute opposite of my thing.

Posted by: Weiss Schnee Dec 25 2016, 05:11 PM

The effort you're going to *.* I should have checked all of this before now, very pleased to see Eluveitie in here as well, and a great entry for the best of your own in The Wandering Songstress, a true beauty of a song. And plenty of amazing entries from everyone else too.

Posted by: Slade Dec 25 2016, 10:40 PM

Ooh lookie there's the first of my appearances *.* Glad that you extended your top 100 now so that 'Toccata' could get a look in as I just love it so much <3 It was fun going down the spooky route a few times this year.

Other major highlights here are 'Sock 'N' Doll', 'Sphynx', 'Two Hearts', 'Cyan', 'Banana Brain' and 'Hope'

Posted by: Bré Jan 7 2017, 11:34 PM

think that's enough tension for the next section

2016 EOY 100-76:

100 South Danaelanda 90 // Basto - Gregory's Theme {5 points}
99 Jadakissnia 89 // FEYNMAN - 1-800MYLOVE {5 points}
98 N DNTN 88 // RAYE - Shhh {7 points}
97 Desbuanda 88 // A R I Z O N A - Cross My Mind {3 points in semi-final}
96 Cor Lupus 82 // Pixel Fix - You Settle Me {ranked 8th in opposite semi-final}
95 Syndare 86 // Calypso - Numbered {2 points in semi-final}
94 Fljótavík 81 // Arthur Beatrice - Who Returned {12 points in semi-final}
93 Ultraviolenceland 88 // Liv Dawson - Still {8 points}
92 Dobago 88 // T2Kazuya - Youth {9 points}
91 Espen 89 // Mashrou' Leila - Kalam (H4Z3 Private Mix) {4 points in semi-final}
90 Aelandor 85 // Said The Sky - Nostalgia (feat. Missio) {2 points in semi-final}
89 Suedeonia 89 // Superwalkers - Lost (As I Am) {10 points}
88 Varakë 86 // De̊ǰa - Luststruck {4 points in semi-final}
87 Kylienips 82 // Sevdaliza - That Other Girl {6 points}
86 Beaverdonia 89 // The Eden Project - Chasing Ghosts {8 points in semi-final}
85 Land of DW 81 // Lucian and REMMI - Bobby K {11 points}
84 Bøtanikkä 83 // Kungs vs. Cookin' On 3 Burners - This Girl {ranked 23rd}
83 Tartford 82 // Metronomy - The Look {9 points}
82 Republic of Adonia 89 // Lorn - Acid Rain {7 points}
81 Pupok 84 // Rich White Ladies - Wimbledon {9 points}
80 Tartford 90 // Luce Drayton - To Be Loved (Disco Citizens Remix) {6 points in semi-final}
79 N DNTN 82 // The Swiss - Kiss To Kiss (Amtrac Remix) {8 points}
78 Trifoski 81 // Great Good Fine Ok - Take It Or Leave It {5 points}
77 Jadakissnia 86 // Tuna - Seret Aravi {ranked 6th in opposite semi-final}
76 Bøtanikkä 90 // Ratty - Sunrise (Here I Am) {7 points}

Making their highest appearances here we have:

SOUTH DANAELANDA
Basto - Gregory's Theme [#100] > Tobtok - Aber > Maceo Plex - Mirror Me (feat. C.A.R) > Mr FijiWiji, Direct and Aruna - Time To Say Goodbye > Paperwhite - Get Away > Croatia Squad and Lika Morgan - Make Your Move > TheFatRat - Monody (feat. Laura Brehm) > Mickey - It's My Man > Avicii - Dear Boy > Steve James - In My Head (feat. RKCB)
(South) Dan continued to generally provide higher quality entries in the spinoffs than the main contests, although there were still a good few tunes to be found among their main entries. 'Gregory's Theme' is the easy highlight of them, a brilliant euphoric instrumental that would slot in nicely with Swedish House Mafia's singles, was great to see someone eventually sending it to BJSC and it doing so well. Their other instrumental 'Aber' comes second for me, another very infectious rhythm sadly a DNQ although it picked up a point from me in the Rejects just now. Their other DNQ of the year 'Time To Say Goodbye' is also among my faves from them of 2016 (also getting a bit of Rejects justice thankfully), a really nice chill dance track, not quite as good as 'Yours Truly' though. Between the two DNQs here is the deliciously retro and #longsongbloc offering 'Mirror Me'. Beyond the top four there are a few more decent tracks: Dan's dabbling into non-dance with 'Get Away', a solidly decent blogpop track although not one that stood out much in the bonkers BJSC 82, 'Make Your Move' which was a pretty good if inessential new version of that one Junior Jack song, 'Monody' which was their biggest hit but has never fully clicked with me, it's good but just sounds like a slightly inferior version of 'Windfall' with some pointless vocals (shoot me), and 'It's My Man' was pretty ok too. I've just listened to the full version of 'Dear Boy' for the first time in the hopes it might make it sound better but it's still not doing much for me, Avicii is very hit or miss for me and this was very much a miss despite MØ's involvement. And finally 'In My Head' was pretty much entirely forgettable. But overall a good year for them, I hope I'll be able to get behind more of their entries in a bigger way in 2017.

ULTRAVIOLENCELAND
Liv Dawson - Still [#93] > SKIES - Drone > Ana Mena - No Soy Como Tú Crees > Casi - Lion > Paulina Rubio - Mi Nuevo Vicio (feat. Morat) > NIMMO - Dilute This > FLETCHER - Over My Head > ARIA - Maze > Lauren Aquilina - How Would You Like It? > Lucy Hale - Lie A Little Better
It was lovely that Ultraviolenceland finally did the seemingly impossible and bagged themselves a top 10 at the end of the year as it would be pretty crummy to be stuck with a 2x #11 peak. Their three biggest hits, though, are all in the less good half of their 2016 entries for me - 'Dilute This' is a pretty good and catchy Years & Years clone (better than some of Y&Y's actual singles xx) and comes in 6th for me, 'Maze' is ok but just another unspectacular blogpop song and comes in 8th, and 'Lie A Little Better'... yeah I was never gonna be a fan obviously, easily their worst of the year. Also down there in 9th is 'How Would You Like It?', I actually thought her previous BJSC entries were very good for what they were but this one was a bit more just 'pleasant', and 'Over My Head' is 7th, an improvement on 'War Paint' and a pretty nice little song but still inessential. The top 5 here are all pretty good though. My soft spot for Spanish language songs kicked in for 'Mi Nuevo Vicio' and even moreso for 'No Soy Como Tú Crees' by the iconic Spanish Meghan Trainor, that one just missed out on points from me in its contest. In between those two is 'Lion', a solid pop song with a fab chorus, although a slightly creepy video. The top two are the major highlights though (and not coincidentally they're the two that sound the least like songs I'd expect Sam to like, no offence ), 'Drone' is a wonderful soaring indie pop moment which also just missed out on my points, but of course my fave from UVland this year - and ever - has to be 'Still', the only one I pointed, gotta love the silky smooth Shanks & Bigfoot / Jamala esque production and the cute lyrics. As if it got 0 points in TBO, you wot?

AELANDOR
Said The Sky - Nostalgia (feat. Missio) [#90] > Sœur - Pass Out [#102] > Bear's Den - Above The Clouds Of Pompeii > Five Iron Frenzy - Into Your Veins > Imperial Leisure - Man On The Street > Fireflight - Unbreakable > Relient K - Cat
I thought 'Pass Out' had become my favourite of Aelandor's entries to date as well as their most successful, and it does take a slot just outside the top 100, but after revisiting it again a couple of times recently I've reverted back to my favourite being their second entry 'Nostalgia', I can't help but fall for these huge building melodic dubstep entries in BJSC, but I seem to be alone in that because they ALWAYS bloody DNQ, see also Crywolf twice, 'Spirals', and another song I'll mention a little further down this post... just how could people not be taken by the glorious last minute of 'Nostalgia'? Even if it's a liiittle slow before that. Anyway, 'Pass Out' of course did qualify (at last! let's let Aelandor qualify more than once in 2017 maybe ~) as it galvanised the support of the rockbloc and got a couple of points from us too, lovely to hear some grunge in the contest, although for some reason I always get the song muddled up with Zhala's 'Holy Bubbles' in my head despite them sounding almost nothing alike (both good songs though). As for their other DNQs: 'Above The Cloud Of Pompeii' is a nice Mumfordy singalong track, I think Radio 1 kinda stanned it? sounds like something they would if not. 'Into Your Veins' was a good Offspring pastiche~, an intriguing if doomed debut entry. Then the next two songs I actually didn't rate much in their contests but after listening back they're a lot better than I remembered, especially 'Man On The Street' with its hint of Madness. 'Unbreakable' is nothing super special but it's hard to go too far wrong with that sound, it's about the same level of decent as... most Taahino entries. Which leaves me unexpectedly ranking 'Cat' as my least favourite Aelandor entry so far, it's a kinda fun song and CATS but it hasn't held up that well in my affections, was a bit of an odd choice to be their one Rejects qualifier. Solid first year anyway, if not yet surpassing Séyetana for me. x

VARAKË
De̊ǰa - Luststruck [#88]
FFS Varakë racists! All you had to do was just let them qualify ONE time and they might have stuck with us again. I pray we've not yet seen the very last of them in the contest because I have really liked almost all of their entries, and their sole offering for 2016 was no exception, returning to De̊ǰa who were also the first act they ever sent to the contest. 'Luststruck' is another wonderful song from them with a haunting and ethereal~ vibe to it, maybe not as good as 'Heart' but I think I actually prefer it to 'Still Falling'. Was a nice surprise Rejects qualifier anyway.

KYLIENIPS
Sevdaliza - That Other Girl [#87] > Juventa - Superhuman (Culture Code Remix) (feat. Kelly Sweet) > Cruel Youth - Hatefuck > Antony & Cleopatra - Love Is A Lonely Dancer > Veorra - Silk > Skott - Porcelain > Icon For Hire - Supposed To Be > Elohim - Xanax > Danrell - White Noise (feat. Ryder) > Adam Jensen - Drugs
Kylienips had lots of entries last year that seemed to have potential to be really good but just weren't entirely there - 'Silk', 'Porcelain' and 'Xanax' in particular all have some really good parts (especially the instrumental parts of 'Silk' and the chorus of 'Porcelain') but as a full package they didn't totally come together, and 'Supposed To Be' was probably one of the least good of the female voxed rock entries of the year, nothing wrong with it but it just lacked any real grabbing points, certainly much less interesting than 'Now You Know'. They did get it all right on one occasion though with 'That Other Girl' which combines some wonderfully sultry vox with an eargasm of a breakdown *.* and it had some cool visuals to boot. 'Superhuman' was also another pretty great dubstep entry (okay perhaps they don't always DNQ, but the best of them always seem to), 'Hatefuck' was a surprisingly classy offering reminding me a bit of Lana Del Rey (and managing to overcome my visceral hatred of Natalia Kills) and 'Love Is A Lonely Dancer' was a good retro dance jam. On the less good end of the spectrum, 'White Noise' is a bit of a racket, and 'Drugs' takes the biscuit as being one of fairly few songs to be quite literally LAUGHABLY bad, I genuinely laughed out loud at how weak the drop was the first time I heard it, it sounded like a parody. Maybe it shouldn't be ranked last here for its novelty value alone. But yeah, not a good song. x

BEAVERDONIA
The Eden Project - Chasing Ghosts [#86] > Bang La Decks - Aide [#113] > Alfons - Ganjaman [#149] > Shreya Ghoshal and Osman Mir - Nagada Sang Dhol [#151] > Mazoo And The Zoo - I Tígri > Gia Woods - Only A Girl > Daughter - Medicine > Embody - Dreamin' (feat. Camden Cox) > geO Louis - Him
Beaver(skank)donia got really good last year, why oh why is beaverism still a thing? Starting off with that other massive melodic dubstep DNQ I mentioned in my Aelandor write-up, I am so lost as to how 'Chasing Ghosts' managed to DNQ as well, I was adding up the results for this contest and kept hoping its other big fans were just around the corner but alas it fell a bit short. Boo. That's their only appearance in my top 100 but three more of their entries get positions. Their contest winner 'Aide' comes in as my 4th favourite winner of the year, a brilliant bit of genre-bending craziness which slays me in all kind of ways with all of its different drops. A real moment when it won, as it of course signalled the coming of the fabled BeaverJSC (#thealoeveracactusplantgrowslop-sided) *.* Also sneaking into the top 150 just about is the iconic 'Ganjaman' (don't do drugs kids), if only that had made its way into the UK charts. And juuuuust missing out on giving them a 4th top 150 appearance is 'Nagada Sang Dhol', I can never say no to a good Bollywood bop, so glad a few of them have qualified even if they never do well in the final. Moving on, the aforementioned coming of the BeaverJSC meant Mazoo And The Zoo finally achieved some justice for their moral winner 'I Kamíla' as they got their AQ slot with moral winner 'I Tígri', another track from them which I genuinely enjoy on some level (with a bit of irony for good measure), not quite as much of an earworm but with some additional Indian flavours of its own. I simply demand a Mazoo trilogy be completed in 2017!! And another song which got into my votes, 'Only A Girl' is a good Lorde-alike #tenniscourtanthem though I haven't gone back to it much since the contest. 'Medicine' is a very lovely song too. The Beav's only real missteps in 2016 were the last two, 'Dreamin'' is not BAD but just exceedingly basic really which isn't a good look on Beaverdonia, and 'Him' was, er, a thing. Which was very annoying and rightfully bombed out. Beaverism is only justified for that. Other than that... #barnstompers!!

REPUBLIC OF ADONIA
Lorn - Acid Rain [#82] > Dusky - Ingrid Is A Hybrid > Jane Zhang - Dust My Shoulders Off (feat. Timbaland) > Anna Of The North - The Dreamer > dumblonde - dreamsicle > Hayley Kiyoko - Gravel To Tempo > OH MY GIRL - Liar Liar
Cult favourite 'Acid Rain' is the clear highlight of the Republic's output for 2016, with its spooky and enchanting production and again the same kind of haunting and ethereal vibe as 'Luststruck', thankfully picking up a few more fans on this occasion and even becoming a surprise TBO semi-finalist. And... well, Republic of Adonia had another surprise TBO semi-finalist as well didn't they :') let's not go there again lest I trigger my PTSD (poor 'Scope'). 'Gravel To Tempo' actually isn't even a bad song but there is just nothing to it, far inferior to her previous entries IMO, and it's beaten to the punch for Adonia's worst entry of 2016 by the rather irritating 'Liar Liar'. Back to the good end, 'Ingrid Is A Hybrid' was another great slice of sample-filled electronica from Dusky (though not quite as great as 'Yoohoo'), I like to pretend it didn't get that deduction and was actually a top 10 hit as it'd be faaaar more deserved than the song that got in instead. 'Dust My Shoulders Off' was a much better Asian offering, can't really argue with Timbaland produx and a simple but catchy chorus, and of course that video *.* Their other two entries this year tend to slip my memory entirely, I was recently reminded of 'The Dreamer' by Rejects and it was better than I remembered it being although I've gone and totally forgotten how it goes again :') but yeah, a decent enough blogpop song I guess but no tears shed over its DNQ. 'dreamsicle' is okay too although also a bit nothingy, as far as post-Danity Kane projects go I think I'll stick with Dawn Richard. Hope to see a full slate of 10 entries from Adonia in 2017, they seem to be getting the hang of voting on time recently ;o

75-51 next time I get around to posting a section (might be on hold until after exams). We'll get there eventually.

Posted by: Jade Jan 7 2017, 11:59 PM

FEYNMAN and Tuna showing up here *.* So glad that FEYNMAN grew on you in the end, came worryingly close to the first finalist of mine that you hadn't voted for! I totally get why it was such a grower though when it has quite a few different components to it ~ takes a lil while for the whole package to gel into one.

I still cannae at Tuna flopping so hard but I'm glad that at least you appreciate how swag and bonkers it is. One day BJSC will like my weird foreign rap songs x

That Republic of Adonia ranking is almost spot on, would only swap Anna Of The North and dumblonde around maybe. Lorn, Dusky & Jane were so easily their highlights this year Correct Varakë fave () with strong South Danaelanda, Ultraviolenceland and Beaverdonia rankings on the whole also ~ #nsync

Posted by: Cody Lightwood Jan 8 2017, 12:08 AM

I'm guessing "This Girl" was one of the songs that you were debating to exclude because of its chart impact?

So it WAS Pixel Fix that ended up in the top 100! Probably my favorite out of my DNQ's although that might change if something I REALLY love just tanks. As for the others, yeah I think "Nostalgia" might be my fave Aelandor entry now, probably because I've gotten into another Said The Sky song Also really loving "Gregory's Theme" and "Youth"

Posted by: Bré Jan 8 2017, 12:11 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 08/01/2017

The Best of BJSC IX & The Best of BJSC - The Rejects IX summaries

To round off BJSC for 2016 as the first contest of the new year approaches, we shall dump all of our nominations and votes for The Best of BJSC IX and the accompanying Rejects contest in this post. The final results for the two contests were announced back to back a few nights ago, no representation for Persephonia in either unfortunately, but to quickly recap the big successes:

- In the Rejects final hosted by Aeroche, Daehun won with 'Hero' by Namie Amuro on 145 points, narrowly beating St. Burbia offering 'Can't Get Enough' by Basenji with 144 points. A cursory glance at our final rankings for this contest will sum up how we feel about this result. Beyond that, Ramrynia had a very good night - all 3 of their 2016 DNQs made it to the Rejects final, and two of them finished in the top 5: Just Kiddin's 'Fall For You' 3rd with 125 points and Michaela May's '1954' just behind with 120 points. Their DNQ that was actually quite good didn't do as well, The Japanese House's 'Face Like Thunder' floundering in 31st out of 43. The top 5 was completed by Hushkanukia's sole DNQ 'Caution Tape' by Starling Glow with 118 points. Let's never speak of this contest again.

- Then we went to République d'Ashton for the final of the main event (which actually attracted fewer voters than Rejects, hm), where we can happily report there were infinitely better results. As widely expected, Yehesi entry 'Bonbon' by Era Istrefi finished on top with 101 points, despite 'only' coming 3rd in its original contest. Ethanola seem to have gone MIA for the time being and did not submit votes, but luckily this didn't affect their TBO result as Hilight Tribe's 'Free Tibet' (Vini Vici Remix) still finished second despite a 15 point deduction, to finish on 74 points, being the highest placed of 2016's winners (of which only Crystal Waters' 'Relax' did not make it to the TBO final). 'Free Tibet' also came 2nd in Persephonia's votes - the song that beat it there is the song that completed the TBO top 3, FSR Rontvia entry 'Ilumbarada' by Ortiga (71 points), only 5th in its original contest but outperforming that here thanks to many of its key supporters actually showing up to support it again. Completing the top 5 were South Danaelanda with TheFatRat's 'Monody' (feat. Laura Brehm), 4th with 61 points, and Altyr Muunilinst with WILLA's 'Hey', 5th with 60 points. Notably both of those also didn't win their original contests. The next highest placed winner was Allie X's 'Sanctuary' which finished 7th for Deandria.

Full Persephonian rankings and nominations for The Best of BJSC - The Rejects IX

Final

Points awarded:
18 Trifoski // Anna Meredith - Nautilus
15 Quintessa // Crywolf - Akureyri
13 Deandria // Clément Bazin - With You

12 Desbuanda // Batuk - Daniel (feat. Nandi Ndlovu)
11 Tartford // Luce Drayton - To Be Loved (Disco Citizens Remix)
10 Varakë // De̊ǰa - Luststruck
9 Desbuanda // A R I Z O N A - Cross My Mind
8 Deandria // Vogel - Hologram
7 Tartford // Jody Wisternoff - The Bridge (Chicane Rework) (feat. Sian Evans)
6 Ethanola // Green Velvet - Bigger Than Prince (Hot Since 82 Remix)
5 Terra Avium // U.S. Girls - Woman's Work
4 Trifoski // Melt Yourself Down - Fix My Life
3 Harmonica // Megan McCauley - Die For You
2 Singerpurear // Kishi Bashi - Ode To My Next Life
1 South Danaelanda // Tobtok - Aber

16th-43rd:
Flynnonda // LKA - TURBULENCE
Kluminican Republic // Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World (Matstubs Remix)
Triangledonia // TAI and Son Of 8 - In & Out
Pupok // GIRLI - Girl I Met On The Internet
D'yermak'er // Terror Jr - Sugar
Land of DW // Indaqo - Boom Boom Boom
Brechtoria // Stadiumx - Mombasa
Jayrusalem // Keke Palmer - I Don't Belong To You
South Danaelanda // Mr FijiWiji, Direct and Aruna - Time To Say Goodbye
Flynnonda // Ruth Koleva - Oceans
Usfland // Sonny J - Can't Stop Moving
Dobago // Monoir and Osaka - The Violin Song (feat. Brianna)
Aelandor // Relient K - Cat
Aeroche // Bassnectar - Now (feat. Rye Rye)
Cor Lupus // Atlas Genius - Stockholm
Summericia // Hartebees - Justified (Sunrise Funk) (feat. Kaleena Zanders)
Ramrynia // The Japanese House - Face Like Thunder
Republic of Adonia // Anna Of The North - The Dreamer
Ultraviolenceland // FLETCHER - Over My Head
Hushkanukia // Starling Glow - Caution Tape
Florina // Echos - Gold
Ramrynia // Michaela May - 1954
Altyr Muunilinst // Jess Mills - For My Sins
Triangledonia // MaRLo - You And Me (feat. Chloe)
Ramrynia // Just Kiddin - Fall For You
Daehun // Namie Amuro - Hero
Daehun // Jain - Come
St. Burbia // Basenji - Can't Get Enough

~

Nominations

81
+5 Quintessa // Crywolf - Akureyri
+4 Fljótavík // Arthur Beatrice - Who Returned
+3 Terra Avium // U.S. Girls - Woman's Work
+2 Espen // Dahlia Sleeps - Hessian
+1 Tartford // Skinny - Failure

82
+5 Desbuanda // Batuk - Daniel (feat. Nandi Ndlovu)
+4 Cor Lupus // Pixel Fix - You Settle Me
+3 Espen // İrem Derici - Dantel
+2 Jukianië // LL - Lie
+1 Dalisska // KNOWER - Hanging On

83
+5 Suedeonia // Weather Report - Birdland
+4 Tartford // Jody Wisternoff - The Bridge (Chicane Rework) (feat. Sian Evans)
+3 Tinnmark // Rockettothesky - Grizzly Man
+2 Trifoski // Melt Yourself Down - Fix My Life
+1 Flynnonda // Wolfie - Obi Wan

84
+5 Skall // O'Flynn - Desmond's Empire
+4 Summericia // Dennis Sheperd and Sarah Lynn - Dive
+3 Kluminican Republic // Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World (Matstubs Remix)
+2 Deandria // Anna And The Barbies - Álmatlan
+1 Daehun // IU - Twenty-Three

85
+5 Aelandor // Said The Sky - Nostalgia (feat. Missio)
+4 Harmonica // Megan McCauley - Die For You
+3 Espen // Nneka - Soul Is Heavy
+2 Flynnonda // LKA - TURBULENCE
+1 Singerpurear // Ezra Furman - Restless Year

86
+5 Jadakissnia // Tuna - Seret Aravi
+4 Varakë // De̊ǰa - Luststruck
+3 Syndare // Calypso - Numbered
+2 Skall // Dave DK - Woolloomooloo
+1 Séyetana // 3-nen E-gumi Utatan - Jiriki Hongan Revolution

87
+5 Trifoski // Anna Meredith - Nautilus
+4 Terra Avium // Essaie Pas - Le Port Du Masque Est De Rigueur
+3 Ethanola // Green Velvet - Bigger Than Prince (Hot Since 82 Remix)
+2 Bubblelands // Ta-Ra - ORION (feat. ISSUE)
+1 Cumulonimbia // The Len Goodman Independent Artists For Online Kindness Collective - Theme For BuzzJack (BBC News Remix)

88
+5 Desbuanda // A R I Z O N A - Cross My Mind
+4 Deandria // Maya's Moving Castle - When You Wish Upon The Stars
+3 Kingdom of Horanius // The Opposites - Licht Uit
+2 Espen // Cosima - Had To Feel Something
+1 Ethanola // Attom - Afterglow (feat. Ciele)

89
+5 Deandria // Clément Bazin - With You
+4 Beaverdonia // The Eden Project - Chasing Ghosts
+3 Espen // Mashrou' Leila - Kalam (H4Z3 Private Mix)
+2 FKA FKA FKA π // Francis And The Lights - I Want You To Shake
+1 Ethanola // Noir and Olivier Giacomotto - Reste (Raxon Remix)

90
+5 Ethanola // V.O. - Mashisa (Dub Mix)
+4 Tartford // Luce Drayton - To Be Loved (Disco Citizens Remix)
+3 Thelonia // LeBrock - One Night
+2 Deandria // Vogel - Hologram
+1 Pagasa // Marineros - Torbellino

Full Persephonian rankings and nominations for The Best of BJSC IX

Final

Points awarded:
12 FSR Rontvia // Ortiga - Ilumbarada
10 Ethanola // Hilight Tribe - Free Tibet (Vini Vici Remix)
8 Aeroche // Fraunhofer Diffraction - Fate

7 Bøtanikkä // Sagi Abitbul and Guy Haliva - Stanga
6 FKA FKA FKA π // Mai Lan - Technique
5 Pupok // Vesala - Tequila
4 Jadakissnia // BLVCK CEILING - WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)
3 Yehesi // Era Istrefi - Bonbon
2 Dobago // Imany - Don't Be So Shy (Filatov & Karas Remix)
1 Pupok // Rich White Ladies - Wimbledon

11th-30th:
Bøtanikkä // Kungs vs. Cookin' On 3 Burners - This Girl
N DNTN // RAYE - Shhh
N DNTN // Nadia Tehran - Cash Flow
Bøtanikkä // LP - Lost On You (Live)
Beaverdonia // Bang La Decks - Aide
Yehesi // K3 - 10.000 Luchtballonnen
Cor Lupus // The Naked And Famous - Higher
FARC // Salt Ashes - Save It
New Lexico // Celtic Woman - Tír Na nÓg (feat. Oonagh)
Pupok // Aelyn - Give Love A Try
Aeroche // Polyna - Angel (Club Mix)
Yehesi // Rochelle - All Night Long
Vülkyria // Lushington - You Got Me Baby
Altyr Muunilinst // WILLA - Hey
Deandria // Allie X - Sanctuary
South Danaelanda // TheFatRat - Monody (feat. Laura Brehm)
Hendinia // That Poppy - Money
Medhelnia // Parade Of Lights - Feeling Electric
Cadelicia // Feed Me - What It Feels Like (feat. Nina Nesbitt)
Ramrynia // NEIKED - Sexual (feat. Dyo)

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
18 FSR Rontvia // Ortiga - Ilumbarada
15 Dobago // Albin Myers and Carli - The Legend^†
13 FKA FKA FKA π // Mai Lan - Technique

12 Jadakissnia // HÆLOS - Earth Not Above^†
11 Pupok // Vesala - Tequila
10 Harmonica // Sleigh Bells - A/B Machines^†
9 Séyetana // Arion - At The Break Of Dawn (feat. Elize Ryd)^†
8 Cumulonimbia // Dan Deacon - Change Your Life (You Can Do It)^†
7 Republic of Adonia // Lorn - Acid Rain^†
6 N DNTN // RAYE - Shhh
5 Bøtanikkä // Kungs vs. Cookin' On 3 Burners - This Girl
4 Beaverdonia // Bang La Decks - Aide
3 St. Burbia // Jorja Smith - Blue Lights^†
2 Singerpurear // Kadie Elder - First Time He Kissed A Boy^†
1 Yehesi // K3 - 10.000 Luchtballonnen

16th-39th:
FARC // Salt Ashes - Save It
Cadelicia // Mendoza - Love Druggie (Addict) (Jade Blue Remix)^†
Yehesi // Rochelle - All Night Long
Pupok // Aelyn - Give Love A Try
Aeroche // Polyna - Angel (Club Mix)
Vülkyria // Lushington - You Got Me Baby
Ultraviolenceland // Casi - Lion^†
Taahino // Beautiful Bodies - Capture & Release^†
FARC // MUNA - Winterbreak^†
Altyr Muunilinst // WILLA - Hey
Hendinia // That Poppy - Money
Lomaja // Kero Kero Bonito - Trampoline^†
FSR Rontvia // KOLAJ - The Touch^†
Bøtanikkä // ALMA - Karma^†
Ramrynia // Sabrina Carpenter - On Purpose^†
Hendinia // Against The Current - Outsiders^†
Unovia // Ricki-Lee - Mirage^†
Cadelicia // Feed Me - What It Feels Like (feat. Nina Nesbitt)
#00274E // Yuri and Seohyun - Secret^†
Harmonica // Lauren Alaina - Road Less Traveled^†
Unovia // Tal - Are We Awake^†
#00274E // Crystal Waters - Relax^†
Ultraviolenceland // Lucy Hale - Lie A Little Better^†
Taahino // Crystalyne - Punks Don't Dance<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
18 Ethanola // Hilight Tribe - Free Tibet (Vini Vici Remix)
15 Aeroche // Fraunhofer Diffraction - Fate
13 Desbuanda // SOFI TUKKER - Matadora^†

12 Bøtanikkä // Sagi Abitbul and Guy Haliva - Stanga
11 New Lexico // Sofi De La Torre - Colorblind Cruisin^†
10 Jadakissnia // BLVCK CEILING - WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)
9 Altyr Muunilinst // Atella and Frøder - Closer To Life^†
8 Yehesi // Era Istrefi - Bonbon
7 Dobago // Imany - Don't Be So Shy (Filatov & Karas Remix)
6 Bøtanikkä // Ratty - Sunrise (Here I Am)^†
5 Pupok // Rich White Ladies - Wimbledon
4 Cadelicia // Die Antwoord - Banana Brain^†
3 Aeroche // Little Big - Hateful Love^†
2 N DNTN // Nadia Tehran - Cash Flow
1 Bøtanikkä // LP - Lost On You (Live)

16th-40th:
Jadakissnia // OVERWERK - Toccata^†
What // KONTRUST - Sock 'N' Doll^†
Pupok // GIRLI - So You Think You Can Fuck With Me Do Ya^†
Cor Lupus // The Naked And Famous - Higher
Cor Lupus // CONTACT - Never Stop^†
New Lexico // Celtic Woman - Tír Na nÓg (feat. Oonagh)
Aeroche // Sophie Beem - Skyline^†
Deandria // Allie X - Sanctuary
South Danaelanda // TheFatRat - Monody (feat. Laura Brehm)
Hushkanukia // FRANKIE - Gold^†
FSR Rontvia // Olivia - I'm Not Your Lady^†
Unovia // Jackie Tech - You Can Have It All^†
Aeroche // Zonderling - Crazy For You (feat. BISHØP)^†
Medhelnia // Parade Of Lights - Feeling Electric
Unovia // FRENSHIP and Emily Warren - Capsize^†
Dobago // Mahmut Orhan - Feel (feat. Sena Şener)^†
République d'Ashton // Madison Beer - All For Love (feat. Jack & Jack)^†
Land of DW // Ward Thomas - Carry You Home^†
Ramrynia // NEIKED - Sexual (feat. Dyo)
Ramrynia // Cilia - Hardcore Heartbreak^†
Pupok // Haschak Sisters - Daddy Says No^†
Yehesi // TP4Y - Blush^†
Republic of Adonia // Hayley Kiyoko - Gravel To Tempo^†
Bhangra // Timeflies - Once In A While^†
Cadelicia // 4Minute - Hate<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Nominations

81
+5 Séyetana // Nao Hiiragi - Requiem (Stygia Bootleg)
+4 Desbuanda // SOFI TUKKER - Matadora
+3 Jadakissnia // Sonia & Selena - Yo Quiero Bailar
+2 Oslol // Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
+1 Ethanola // Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra - Too Much Information (Laolu Remix Edit)

82
+5 Fljótavík // Kenton Slash Demon - Harpe
+4 Cadelicia // Daler Mehndi - Tunak Tunak Tun...
+3 FKA FKA FKA π // Ital Tek - Cobra
+2 New Lexico // Sofi De La Torre - Colorblind Cruisin
+1 Jadakissnia // BLVCK CEILING - WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)

83
+5 #00274E // Paul Cronin - Now Bad Boy
+4 Skall // Teengirl Fantasy - Azz Klapz
+3 Syndare // DJDS - In The Flames
+2 Jadakissnia // VHS Glitch - Blood In Blood Out
+1 Séyetana // FAUN and Santiano - Tanz Mit Mir

84
+5 N DNTN // John The Baptiste - Socila
+4 Singerpurear // Yothu Yindi - Treaty (Filthy Lucre Remix)
+3 Harmonica // Sleigh Bells - A/B Machines
+2 Desbuanda // LSDXOXO - Angel Dust
+1 Trifoski // Javiera Mena - Otra Era

85
+5 Skall // Bicep - Just
+4 N DNTN // Plaitum - Jagwa
+3 Terra Avium // Delhi 2 Dublin - Apples
+2 FSR Rontvia // Real Lies - North Circular
+1 Tartford // Cigarettes After Sex - Keep On Loving You

86
+5 Dobago // Albin Myers and Carli - The Legend
+4 Quintessa // ANi GLASS - Y Ddawns
+3 Fljótavík // Hanna Järver - Anekdoter
+2 Ethanola // Konstantin Sibold - Mutter
+1 Usfland // Apollo 440 - Blackbeat

87
+5 FSR Rontvia // Ortiga - Ilumbarada
+4 Jadakissnia // FM-84 - Arcade Summer
+3 Syndare // Yoko Ono and Penguin Prison - She Gets Down On Her Knees
+2 FKA FKA FKA π // Mai Lan - Technique
+1 St. Burbia // Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia - Dum Dee Dum

88
+5 Tinnmark // Wardruna - Odal
+4 Skall // Stupeflip - Stupeflip Vite !!!
+3 Jadakissnia // MssingNo - Scope
+2 FKA FKA FKA π // Ariel Pink - Not Enough Violence
+1 Terra Avium // daydreamer - Travelling Light

89
+5 Medhelnia // Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance The Way I Feel
+4 Bøtanikkä // Sagi Abitbul and Guy Haliva - Stanga
+3 Land of DW // Marusha - Deep
+2 Séyetana // Christopher Tin - Temen Oblak (feat. Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares)
+1 Singerpurear // Princess Chelsea - The Cigarette Duet

90
+5 Terra Avium // Kitchen - Time (Inception)
+4 N-Lazone // John Rous and Alfie Rhodes - Oasis
+3 Skall // David Lyme - Bye, Bye Mi Amor
+2 Jadakissnia // HÆLOS - Earth Not Above
+1 Quintessa // Ghost - Square Hammer

Posted by: Bré Jan 8 2017, 12:23 AM

Haha, here's hoping we'll get through 2017 as well without me having to snub one of your entries. I'm so shocked at us matching on Varakë's best as well #nsync xx Poor brave Tuna will get his justice one day.



Correct! The other two are 'The Look' (totally coincidental those two are next to each other) and 'Dance The Way I Feel' which is obviously still to come. x And yup, remember I said Pixel Fix was my favourite Cor Lupus entry to date at the time! Still a bit of a baffling DNQ and can't believe it didn't make it to the Rejects final either :'( yass at another 'Nostalgia' fan. x

Posted by: Cameron Jan 8 2017, 12:35 AM

Fab to see Kosmos here *.*


NEVER FORGET.

Posted by: Chez Wombat Jan 8 2017, 01:19 AM

EOYs with paragraphs and rankings on each country need to become more of a thing, especially when I agree with most of them *.* I'll remember to check this thread in August to read mine x ( jk, you can do it!11)

Lots of big highlights so far (expected given we have like half of the same songs in our EOY lists~), especially good to see T2Kazuya in someone else's list Gah @ you still not coming round to Monody though

Posted by: Bré Jan 8 2017, 07:10 PM

Posted by: Mattias Jan 8 2017, 09:38 PM

coldplay teas

Posted by: Bré Jan 16 2017, 12:35 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/01/2017

xi for XCI

Persephonia's first BJSC entry of 2017 can now be revealed as the semi-finals of BJSC 91 have begun, held in the city of Quota, Aeroche. Representing us in our 70th main contest to date is Japanese producer Yusuke Ishiwata, better known as xi, with 'Happy End Of The World', the closing track from his 2013 second studio album 'Agartha' (on which it appears under its Japanese title 'ハッピーエンドオブザワールド' which made Googling for the album info a bit of a pain. x) Outside of that it's also apparently a popular soundtrack to the rhythm video game osu! (some very impressive gameplay videos for the song out there).

'Happy End Of The World' is our 9th instrumental main contest entry and also the second longest track we've ever sent to BJSC (also excluding spinoffs), clocking in at 6:27, just one second shorter than The Rapture's 'How Deep Is Your Love?' It's the second track we have sent by a Japanese artist, following WEDNESDAY CAMPANELLA's 'Shakushain'. The track is of a genre known as artcore, which is apparently mostly exclusive to a select few Japanese video game music producers, and is essentially heavily piano-based drum n bass / hardcore techno. This track is a little bit more laidback and less dancefloor-ready than a lot of xi's output, but contains a few twists and turns, flipping from from a simple lullaby-esque piano melody to dramatic and chaotic drum n bass sections and even parts that have a bit of a post-rock vibe to them, all making for a little ~journey~ of a song that we feel fits the title very well - it feels like a soundtrack to the apocalypse, but still somehow upbeat and optimistic. Reminding me a little bit of the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, hence the teaser. Or maybe that's all bullshit. It's a cool song anyway and we're hoping it will attract at least a small handful of other big fans. Have a listen to it below:



'Happy End Of The World' has been drawn in slot 24 out of 31 in semi-final 2. In the opposite semi-final, the latest Persephonia alumni to be recycled are Digitalism, who represent Beaverdonia in this contest with 'Open Waters', track 26 there.

(2016 EOY will still be continuing, gonna aim to get most of it done in my 2 weeks off after exams )

Posted by: Danuary Jan 16 2017, 10:21 AM

this is v good!!! Sounds like a cross between a virtuosic romantic piano concerto and epic pokémon battle music, which is quite amazing in itself.

Posted by: Bré Jan 16 2017, 01:28 PM

Yay, a fan already that does sound like a pretty good description of it as well!

Looking forward to hearing your entry too as it sounds pretty fab from the description (and I loved the previous Aly & Fila and Susana entries in BJSC), hopefully a good month for #SDNLphonia for the first time in a while ;o

Posted by: Bré Jan 23 2017, 12:54 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 23/01/2017

xi makes it to the final

2017 has started well for Persephonia as xi's 'Happy End Of The World' has made it to the final of BJSC 91 in Aeroche, becoming our 52nd finalist and 7th in a row in our current streak. FSR Rontvia's run of 12 finals in a row has sadly come to an end, so N DNTN have taken over as the country with the longest qualification streak, as they achieved an 11th finalist in a row. Persephonia's streak now ranks as the joint 3rd longest, also behind Unovia who are on 9 in a row, and tied with Medhelnia. xi appears in slot 20 of 41 in the final.

From Persephonia's votes in semi-final 2, 8/10 songs qualified, those missing out being a fellow instrumental entry from Dobago, Will Sparks' 'Flamenco' which picked up 6 points from us, and our 4 pointer from Singerpurear, the retro pick 'We Don't Play Guitars' by Chicks On Speed featuring Peaches. 7 of the top 10 of the Persephonian public's ranking of semi-final 1 also qualified, although sadly 2 of the top 4 dropped out: the aforementioned FSR Rontvia with 'Mary Keanes (sic) Introduction' by Daithí which we ranked 2nd but clearly didn't connect with enough people in its own semi-final, and Kylienips with Echos' 'Fiction' which we ranked 4th. 'Cinderella Ja Irarenai' by Babyraids JAPAN was the other song from our semi-final 1 top 10 to DNQ, coming 10th representing (of course) Séyetana.

Posted by: Jade Jan 23 2017, 01:01 AM

Congrats Bray! Really pleased that you've managed to start BJSC 2017 on a high with a Q from the word go *.* This really is such a stunning instrumental, the way it builds is so gripping as well. I hope it can do rly well for you in the final! Seems to have quite a few vocal big fans already~

Glad we were together in person during the semi reveal as that trolling was quite something x

Posted by: Bré Jan 28 2017, 10:27 PM

Let's fit one more of these in before tomorrow's results ~~

2016 EOY 75-51:

75 Land of DW 84 // RMB - Spring {11 points}
74 Dobago 81 // Imany - Don't Be So Shy (Filatov & Karas Remix) {4 points}
73 Yehesi 82 // Era Istrefi - Bonbon {ranked 17th}
72 Ingermanlandia 82 // Bomba Estéreo - Amanecer {7 points}
71 Yehesi 89 // Maan - Give You All I Got {6 points}
70 Cor Lupus 88 // Nhato - WAY OF LIFE (feat. Sasi) {11 points}
69 Desbuanda 82 // Batuk - Daniel (feat. Nandi Ndlovu) {ranked 6th in opposite semi-final}
68 Aeroche 85 // Kali Uchis - Ridin Round (oshi Redo) (feat. Tory Lanez) {10 points}
67 Séyetana 90 // Arion - At The Break Of Dawn (feat. Elize Ryd) {8 points}
66 Cumulonimbia 85 // KAYTRANADA - LITE SPOTS {11 points}
65 Espen 90 // Sacred Spirit - Yeha-Noha (Wishes Of Happiness & Prosperity) {10 points}
64 Ethanola 81 // Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra - Too Much Information (Laolu Remix Edit) {9 points}
63 Syndare 85 // Kwamie Liv - Higher {ranked 31st}
62 N DNTN 86 // Vendredi Sur Mer - La Femme À La Peau Bleue {8 points}
61 Cumulonimbia 89 // Dan Deacon - Change Your Life (You Can Do It) {8 points}
60 Suedeonia 86 // Where's The Beach - Tripping The Luv Fantastic {10 points}
59 Altyr Muunilinst 90 // Atella and Frøder - Closer To Life {4 points}
58 Jadakissnia 82 // BLVCK CEILING - WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix) {10 points}
57 FKA FKA FKA π 82 // Ital Tek - Cobra {13 points}
56 Usfland 86 // Apollo 440 - Blackbeat {12 points}
55 Terra Avium 88 // daydreamer - Travelling Light {12 points}
54 Ethanola 86 // Konstantin Sibold - Mutter {13 points}
53 Ethanola 85 // Billie Black - I Waited For You {9 points}
52 Tartford 85 // Cigarettes After Sex - Keep On Loving You {ranked 20th}
51 Séyetana 83 // FAUN and Santiano - Tanz Mit Mir {11 points}

We have seen the last of these nine countries here:

INGERMANLANDIA
Bomba Estéreo - Amanecer [#72] > Naadia - Omut > Jabberwocky - Photomaton (feat. Elodie Wildstars)
It was nice to see Ingermanlandia back with us briefly, even if they had pretty limited success, I hope we shall see another revival in the future. Their comeback entry 'Amanecer' was such a STATEMENT of their return, quite the banger (and Spanishy to boot which always helps ~), fitting in nicely among all the craziness of BJSC 82. Their other two entries were both substantially more subtle and grower-y (so not a surprise they both went out in the semi-finals), in fact on listening back to them they are both much better than I remember them being, 'Omut' in particular has pretty wonderful production, and I am appreciating the ~wobbliness~ of the produx on 'Photomaton' more now as well (I actually ranked that right at the bottom of its semi-final at the time which seems strange now!) Neither of them are really memorable at all but it's nice to hear them again anyway.

YEHESI
Maan - Give You All I Got [#71] > Era Istrefi - Bonbon [#73] > K3 - 10.000 Luchtballonnen > Nightcall - Dead V (feat. Dreamhour) > Shay - PMW > MariahLynn - Once Upon A Time > Rochelle - All Night Long > LYRA - Emerald > Nakita - Where Are You? > TP4Y - Blush
The first country I've posted about so far where I don't have a single clear favourite, Yehesi have 2 pretty much equally great songs falling just inside my top 75 of the year. The edge goes to 'Give You All I Got', kind of like a lesser-known Dutch sibling to the fluffy and joyous sound of songs like Jessie Ware's '110%' and Dua Lipa's 'Be The One', this is how BJSC pop should be done *.* right on its toes is their recent TBO 2016 winner 'Bonbon', a song I actually didn't vote for at all at the time (not that I wasn't a fan, it was just in the strongest final of the year and came 17th) but has continued to grow on me since the contest finished, perhaps in part due to it continuing to be an inescapable presence on BuzzJack. Seriously though, a catchy and swaggy Albanian bop that deserves all of its acclaim. Also, her coat is goals. Can we not at the English version tho. Two more Yehesi entries fell just a little short of a place in my EOY - I don't know what it is about '10.000 Luchtballonnen' because it sounds just like an ABBA song and I despise ABBA, but I can't help but love it and clearly the same was true for lots of people since it won its contest. It being in a foreign language probably helps. Pretty iconic anyway. Then just after that is... probably the entry of Yehesi's that seems most in line with my tastes actually, 'Dead V', which is a suitably epic bit of dubstep in the Crywolf mould, it was nice to see a song of this kind finally doing well in the contest, even if it wasn't my favourite of them. Their sole DNQ 'PMW' completes my top 5 of Yehesi 2016, some more foreign rap which I always approve of, this was not really dissimilar from a French 'Bonbon' so not sure why it did so badly. 'Once Upon A Time' was the Yehesi entry that got the most points from me in 2016, picking up as many as 7, and it's still a bit of a jam (especially that second verse, MariahLynn genuinely got bars, better than Iggy tbh xx) but the novelty wore off just a little bit over the months so I only rank it 6th here. 'All Night Long' was another bit of a bop. 'Emerald' had a killer chorus but was a little bit let down by the rest of the song (oops at my original prediction it could have been another winner), 'Where Are You?' was decent but a bit anonymous, and... we couldn't like all of their pop entries, 'Blush' was pretty horrendous.

COR LUPUS
Nhato - WAY OF LIFE (feat. Sasi) [#70] > Pixel Fix - You Settle Me [#96] > Rain Man - Bring Back The Summer (feat. Oly) [#112] > The Naked And Famous - Higher > CONTACT - Never Stop > The Birthday Massacre - In The Dark > Snow Tha Product - Nuestra Cancion > JR JR - Gone (Robert DeLong Remix) > Atlas Genius - Stockholm > MIIA - Dynasty (Elephante Remix)
Frantic Touhou Project production combined with airy foreign language trance vox make 'WAY OF LIFE' an easy pick for my favourite Cor Lupus entry (of 2016 and to date), thank god they managed to get this one as an AQ because I still can't believe how poorly it did in the final... if only the same was true of their other entry in my top 100, 'You Settle Me', which inexplicably DNQed as anyone will know if they pay attention to Cody's posts in this forum seriously though that was a great indie entry and at least seems to have a little following of fans (although still not enough to make it to the Rejects final, u wot). Their other indie DNQ that did make it to the Rejects final, 'Stockholm', I've never been near as keen on, it was okayyyy but nothing about it to make it really stand out for me, that comes in 2nd last here for me, ahead of the generic mess that was 'Dynasty'. Back to the good songs, Cor Lupus snatch a third top 150 entry with 'Bring Back The Summer' which is also pretty generic in its way but nonetheless still sounds pretty great to my ears, I think Rain Man just has a talent for this since he was also behind 'Alive', another song I inexplicably love. Their contest winner 'Higher' is another song that only just misses my top 150, still think it should have been vetoed tbh but a bit of an anthem. Then we have CHVRCHES pastiche/ripoff 'Never Stop' ranked 5th here, followed by the heavy Halloween-ready rock jam 'In The Dark', both songs that I liked a lot but fell a little short of points from me in their contest (and to this date I think Cor Lupus still hate us for these snubs), they're very competent examples of their respective genres but lacking something to make them properly amazing. One more DNQ, 'Nuestra Cancion' comes in 7th here, more foreign language rap which I as ever broadly approve of, and finally 'Gone' was one of those songs that was just kind of there and never made much impression on me but it did grow a little bit, not a patch on Robert DeLong's other BJSC entries though.

ESPEN
Sacred Spirit - Yeha-Noha (Wishes Of Happiness & Prosperity) [#65] > Mashrou' Leila - Kalam (H4Z3 Private Mix) [#91] > L.E.J - La Dalle [#125] > Dahlia Sleeps - Hessian [#147] > İrem Derici - Dantel > Sweet Coffee - My Moon > Cosima - Had To Feel Something > Nneka - Soul Is Heavy > CAPPA - Mad About U > Stalking Gia - Second Nature
4 entries in the top 150 for Espen, and the next 4 were all in my original list of ~250 entries to consider for a place in my EOY, pretty consistently great country who certainly didn't deserve to keep DNQing </3 I guess too many of their entries are just not super instant. Anyway, their final entry of 2016, 'Yeha-Noha (Wishes Of Happiness & Prosperity)' was a marvellous archival pick (it being an actual UK top 40 hit *.*), gorgeous Enigma-esque production, the vocals sounded a little bit odd and unexpected at first but quickly got used to them, I've loved the recent wave of world music entries and this is a good example of that. I wonder what the next culture to be appropriated into BJSC will be? (Klingons I guess lmao). Also making the top 100 is the chillout remix of Mashrou' Leila's Arabic indie track, Arabic can really be quite a beautiful language and it worked pretty well in this context. Another foreign language track comes in 3rd, 'La Dalle' just missed out on points from me in its contest but has grown loads since, great harmonies and instrumentation, benefits from being in French as the lyrics seem a little bit strange translated. x Also scraping the top 150 is 'Hessian' which is just the chillest song ever. Ethnobop 'Dantel' is 5th, a song I'm still convinced would have been a Turkish Eurovision entry had they not pulled out (this is a good thing). Another chilled beaut, 'My Moon' comes in 6th, kind of Massive Attack feat. Amy Winehouse vibes and another big grower. Two more undeserved DNQs follow that, 'Had To Feel Something' was a song I was hoping would grow on me through the final but it didn't even come close to making it there, again a bit too subtle I suppose. Then 'Soul Is Heavy' was a great and powerful protest song. The last two songs I'm not as big on, 'Mad About U' was a bit disappointing and generic after I liked CAPPA's other songs a lot more and 'Second Nature' falls on the wrong side of the subtle/boring boundary. But that top 8. <3 More success for Espen in 2017 hopefully (off to a good start so far ~)

CUMULONIMBIA
Dan Deacon - Change Your Life (You Can Do It) [#61] > KAYTRANADA - LITE SPOTS [#66] > NZCA LINES - Two Hearts [#116] > Sasha - Xpander [#144] > The Len Goodman Independent Artists For Online Kindness Collective - Theme For BuzzJack (BBC News Remix) > Soulé - Love No More > The Longcut - A Tried And Tested Method
Cumulonimbia also get 4 songs in the top 150, and like Yehesi they had 2 pretty equally great entries rather than a single standout best. Motivational anthem and relentless earworm 'Change Your Life (You Can Do It)' finishes on top for me, a few places ahead of the glitchy and addictive jazzy hip-hop beat 'LITE SPOTS' (although that has to be pretty high up the list of best music videos of BJSC 2016 with that cute dancing robot). Elsewhere in the top 150 are their other two 2016 qualifiers, some cool indie synthpop in 'Two Hearts' (which I still mainly remember for the part which sounds suspiciously similar to Disclosure's 'White Noise', not that that's a bad thing xx) and 90s trance classic 'Xpander', another song forced just outside of my votes in the top quality final of BJSC 82. It might have sneaked in if the full 11 and a half minute version was there instead, as I tend to like these kinds of songs more the longer they keep repeating the same sounds over and over (see 'Mutter') Not a single bad entry from Cumulonimbia in 2016, 'Theme For Buzzjack (BBC News Remix)' was actually genuinely quite enjoyable, who knew the BBC News theme lent itself so well to slightly spooky underground electronic music? 'Love No More' is a good bit of electronic R&B reminding me a little bit of Roses Gabor, and 'A Tried And Tested Method' is a really nice indie song with another great music video, although admittedly it wasn't surprising to see it floundering in the semi (if only Math had failed to vote it would have been the first ever 0 pointer ) Was a bit of a shame to not see Cumulonimbia back this month even with Aeroche hosting again, I hope we haven't seen the last of them as they're still pretty much always quality!

SUEDEONIA
Where's The Beach - Tripping The Luv Fantastic [#60] > Superwalkers - Lost (As I Am) [#89] > Weather Report - Birdland [#132] > Brian Eno - Here He Comes > In Hoodies - Healing > The Very Best - Makes A King (feat. Jutty Taylor) > DMA'S - Delete > The Death Of Pop - Gardens > The Tubes - Don't Touch Me There
Was a joy to see Suedehead finally joining the contest last year (and another country I hope will return in the near future (of course once you've recovered a bit more IRL Suedey!)), a bit of a new Singerpurear in that you never really know what you're going to get from them, although perhaps with a slightly more indie lean. Like with Cumulonimbia, their (sadly few) qualifiers were the best of their output, 'Tripping The Luv Fantastic' is right up my street from an era which produced many of the best dance songs of all time, this is a song that I would never have unearthed myself so I am in debt to Suedehead's knowledge of obscure old music for dragging this jam out of the archives! The more modern 'Lost (As I Am)' was also brill, reminding me a lot of Duke Dumont's best song 'Ocean Drive'. But then back to oldies for their third and final song in my top 150, 'Birdland' sounded gloriously bonkers and out of place in the contest and I was really hoping for that to be a first Suedeonia qualifier, sadly wasn't to be but nonetheless a really enjoyable jazz instrumental that should definitely have been the theme music to a sitcom. 'Here He Comes' was another great retro pick, a very relaxing song (not quite all of Suedeonia's oldies were good choices though - 'Don't Touch Me There' is definitely not a song that needed to be revived from obscurity, a little bit disturbing :')). 'Healing' was a good and suitably obscure debut entry, wouldn't sound out of place being spammed all day on Radio 1. 'Makes A King' was another nice track from The Very Best, not quite as good as their previous entries (I blame the fact it has English lyrics) but can always appreciate some African sounds, then 'Delete' and 'Gardens' are both pretty serviceable indie tracks if not major standouts. A commentary on DMA'S would not be complete without mentioning that they sound exactly like Oasis. This would not be one of the better Oasis tracks.

ALTYR MUUNILINST
Atella and Frøder - Closer To Life [#59] > WILLA - Hey > Youngr - Out Of My System > Nick Talos - Crush On You > SAARA - I Do > Redlight - Threshold (feat. Melisa Whiskey) > SHAED - Running Through The Fields > High Contrast and Clare Maguire - Who's Loving You Part One > Jess Mills - For My Sins > TRXD - Wherever You Go (feat. Hilde)
Altyr continued to mostly send songs I didn't really GET throughout most of 2016, but they finished the year on a massive high with 'Closer To Life', a song which took a couple of listens to click but grew on me rapidly after that, including after the contest (I only gave it 4 points but in retrospect it probably deserved closer to 10 points), a song with excellent infectious production and pretty gorgeous wispy and moody vocals, much love. Their next two best of the year were two songs pinched (unintentionally I assume) from the PopJustice Song Contest, both of which I believe I voted for there but they didn't quite cut it in the rather higher quality of BuzzJack's contest, they're both pretty good pop songs though. I decided to sneakily do the reverse and pinch one of Altyr's entries to send to PopJustice in the hopes of bagging a cheap hit, picking out 'I Do' (another solid-but-not-incredible pop song), which became my joint best performing entry there by coming 10th so thanks for that one John! As for the rest of the Altyr entries, 'Crush On You' was a bit underrated, it was quite good for what it was I thought, one of the better tropical entries in BJSC of late (the entire subgenre seems to have mostly gone to crap very soon after it broke through though). 'Threshold' and 'Running Through The Fields' were perfectly decent examples of their respective genres too. Really nothing on this list is actually that bad, they're just mostly a bit STANDARD, with 'Wherever You Go' in particular just blending into a mesh of about 3 or 4 other identical songs in that contest. I've started really enjoying Altyr in the last couple of contests anyway so I hope they can keep that up.

USFLAND
Apollo 440 - Blackbeat [#56] > The Brevet - Moving Mountains > AUTOBAHN - Society > Sonny J - Can't Stop Moving > Andrew Luce and graves - Up To You (feat. Chelsea Cutler) > Chromatics - White Light > LÉON - Treasure > Midnight To Monaco - One In A Million > Sondr - Surviving (feat. Joe Cleere)
Was nice to see Usfland actually getting a few qualifiers in 2016 after their rough time in the previous year. The overall quality of their entries was a bit up as well I think, the easy highlight being 'Blackbeat', another old electronic track unearthed in the same contest as Where's The Beach, this is so 'PS2 racing game soundtrack' in the best way possible, also sounds a bit like The Chemical Brothers. Quite the jam *.* 'Moving Mountains' qualifying was unexpected but pleasing, a really nice and kool Mumford-y/Kings Of Leon-y track which only just missed out on points from us in the final. While two of their qualifiers were their best of the year, their other two were my least favourites - it was nice to see 'Surviving' qualifying just to end their horrendous DNQ streak, but the actual song was a pretty bad Avicii clone, and 'One In A Million' has just always sounded a little bit jarring to me, the continuous noise in the background doesn't work well in the chorus I think. Onto their (still fairly plentiful) DNQs, 'Society' was the best of those, a very bold entry choice that got a seemingly good semi-final draw but I guess it was still a little bit too industrial/shouty for the contest. 'Can't Stop Moving' showing up in the contest and somehow not being vetoed was a bit *_*, it's a catchy song though. The other three songs all suffer from being rather forgettable but 'Up To You' and 'White Light' at least have some pretty nice vibes to them, so they're pleasant to listen to even if I can't remember anything about them afterwards.

TARTFORD
Cigarettes After Sex - Keep On Loving You [#52] > Luce Drayton - To Be Loved (Disco Citizens Remix) [#80] > Metronomy - The Look [#83] > Jody Wisternoff - The Bridge (Chicane Rework) (feat. Sian Evans) [#134] > Marsheaux - Safe Tonight [#146] > Alex Gaudino and Jerma - Reaction > Skinny - Failure > Sons Of Sonix - Numb (feat. Melanie C) > BLKMGK - You Don't Deserve Me (feat. Amina Mine and Jayy Starr) > Dominique - I Think I'm Fallin (Manotett Remix)
I didn't realise how much I was stanning Tartford throughout 2016 - they don't get any songs into my top 50, but a full 5 make the top 150 (the most of any country I've posted about so far) and the next 2 songs were also in contention for a spot! Coming a long way from appearing 3 times in my worst songs of 2015 list :') The top song from Tartford here is actually one I didn't vote for, I did quite like both of the Cigarettes After Sex songs in their original contests but something about them has just started to click with me so much more since then, they're just so chill and lush, I keep meaning to check out the rest of their EP/album. A completion of a trilogy of CAS entries woudn't go amiss, and I might actually support it this time if it happens. x 'To Be Loved' comes in as my second fave from Tartford 2016, a wonderful slice of moody retro trance, still cannot believe it DNQed :'( just behind that is a song I kind of struggled to rank, I've loved 'The Look' for absolutely ages so it wasn't at all a discovery from BJSC, probably deserves to be a lot higher than #83 but I tried to weigh up how much BJSC got me back into it if that makes sense (i.e. not as much as I got back into 'Dance The Way I Feel' which is a lot higher up). Anyway, an incredibly infectious little track that always lodges itself in my head for ages when I listen to it. Duuuu dududu du du dududu. Next is another song that has grown on me a lot since the contest, the other Nicholas Bracegirdle (Chicane / Disco Citizens) remix, 'The Bridge' didn't really do that much for me in the contest but it suddenly clicked with me after hearing it again a little bit after the contest, another very catchy melody and lovely minimal use of vocals. Was nice to see both this and 'To Be Loved' at least getting nods in the Rejects. The final appearance from Tartford in my top 150 is 'Safe Tonight', gahh at this being so close and yet so far from giving them a first top 10 hit, although at least it wasn't just me being crazy when I thought people were being silly predicting it to DNQ, a great 80s-y synthpop track. 'Reaction' just sounded like a big mid-00s dance hit (actually a bit surprising it wasn't one), obviously nothing groundbreaking but it was a bit of fun and enough to grab a point from me, really didn't deserve to flounder so far behind in last place and 'Failure' was also a good archival indie track. 'Numb' and 'You Don't Deserve Me' both had potential to be pretty good songs too but it's a little hard to get past the slightly... discordant production and chorus vocals respectively, the former proved to be a bit of a grower at least anyway and I did enjoy the verses of the latter. 'I Think I'm Fallin' is also not terrible, just very nothingy. Overall a great year for Tartford anyway.

We're 2/3 through the songs. Getting there. Next post will be 50-41.

You getting to witness me getting legit stressed about that though #lewwtrollingsupportgroup

Posted by: Jade Jan 28 2017, 10:47 PM

*virtual hug* #lewwtrollingsupportgroup

~

Brilliant to see 'WVFFLIFE (CHVRN Remix)' appearing in this EOY section *.* Easily my favourite of my own 2016 entries so I am glad you appreciated it enough for 10 points. The entry that started this witchy sound that I'm now most known for in the contest haha (well I guess 'Blood Blood Blood !!' was pretty spoopy too but not exactly witch house).

Snap Ingermanlandia (from that plethora of choices xx ), Suedeonia, Usfland and Altyr Muunilinst faves, woo. One of these days you'll appreciate the greatness of 'Stockholm' and 'One In A Million' x (though as for Cor Lupus, I'm so glad that you stan 'Way Of Life' as well <3 underrated entry!)

Posted by: Cucumberella Jan 28 2017, 10:48 PM

LMFAO were u together

that real life impakt

Posted by: Jade Jan 28 2017, 10:49 PM

YES Leww. The first time we have experienced a results show together (minus TBO) and u do that to us :'(

Posted by: Cucumberella Jan 28 2017, 10:49 PM

keeping up my reputation as buzzjack's premier mean girl xxx

Posted by: Cody Slayberry Jan 28 2017, 10:54 PM

at least you two got a room, i was standing in the rain reading the entire thread

Posted by: Bré Jan 29 2017, 06:23 PM

2016 EOY 50-41:

50 FKA FKA FKA π 88 // Ariel Pink - Not Enough Violence {10 points}
49 Skall 90 // David Lyme - Bye, Bye Mi Amor {12 points}
48 Terra Avium 87 // Essaie Pas - Le Port Du Masque Est De Rigueur {8 points in semi-final}
47 Jadakissnia 88 // MssingNo - Scope {13 points}
46 Skall 88 // Stupeflip - Stupeflip Vite !!! {15 points}
45 Deandria 89 // Clément Bazin - With You {10 points in semi-final}
44 Quintessa 81 // Crywolf - Akureyri {10 points in semi-final}
43 Trifoski 87 // Anna Meredith - Nautilus {ranked 3rd in opposite semi-final}
42 Fljótavík 86 // Hanna Järver - Anekdoter {11 points}
41 Trifoski 84 // Javiera Mena - Otra Era {10 points}

Only two more countries with their highest appearances here:

DEANDRIA
Clément Bazin - With You [#45] > Blackbriar - Until Eternity [#107] > Vogel - Hologram [#129] > Maya's Moving Castle - When You Wish Upon The Stars [#131] > Anna And The Barbies - Álmatlan > Ecca Vandal - Father Hu$$la > Poison Ivory - Alchemy > Allie X - Sanctuary > Tzlil - Oh My Love > NOËP - Move
Most of Deandria's best moments of 2016 were DNQs, primarily 'With You' which I really thought sounded like a safe hit so could hardly have been more shocked at it coming near last in its semi-final, what the hell BuzzJack. :'( Still a major jam anyway, not sure how anyone could deny those lovely steel drums and the infectious vocals. That's Deandria's only entry in my top 100 and still feels too low, I feel like I should really be supporting Deandria more - but still plenty of other great entries from them in 2016 including 3 more that make my top 150. The highest of those, not far off being a second top 100 entry, is their most recent qualifier 'Until Eternity', combining trademark Deandria-type vocals with awesome heavy Séyetana-like rock riffs, an absolutely massive chorus *.* should have been a top 10 x Two more DNQs come in nearly next to each other a little further down, third place goes to synthwave instrumental and Jadakissnia fave 'Hologram', always love a bit of synthwave in BJSC, I still can't at how many great songs were voted out in BJSC 90, especially in that semi-final. Just behind that is 'When You Wish Upon The Stars', another song with an absolutely killer chorus that sounds a little Florence + The Machine, still confused as to why Mattias near disowned this song during the contest Another couple of great DNQs next, 'Álmatlan' wasn't quite as good as the Hungarian track Deandria actually sent to Worldvision and was always pretty doomed in the contest but I'm still pleased it had the chance to be sent to the contest as well as it's still a really cool song, another one I've appreciated more since the contest than during it. Then 'Father Hu$$la' has more of Deandria's trademark madness, I hope to see a hip-hop Deandria entry qualify one of these days (if they ever send another one!), this one wasn't as good as 'Calm Down' but still pretty awesome. Their other two qualifiers were both pretty good too, 'Alchemy' also standing out a bit with some quirky vocals. Despite being their biggest hit of the year by a country mile 'Sanctuary' ranks lowly among my Deandria favourites as it's a pretty standard blog-pop song and felt rather uninspired by their high standards, also if we had to have an Allie X winner I'd have far preferred 'Tumor'. Then those last two DNQs are the only ones that I thought 'deserved' to DNQ, it was cool that Deandria managed to send an Estonian artist eventually but 'Move' has nothing to it at all, one of the year's most forgettable entries, and 'Oh My Love' is a little better but also pretty throwaway.

TRIFOSKI
Javiera Mena - Otra Era [#41] > Anna Meredith - Nautilus [#43] > Great Good Fine Ok - Take It Or Leave It [#78] > La Femme - Sphynx [#118] > Pillow Person - Go Ahead [#126] > Lemon Demon - Touch-Tone Telephone > Melt Yourself Down - Fix My Life > Dive In - Eighteen > The Go! Team - Buy Nothing Day > Oliver - Electrify (feat. Scott Mellis)
Definitely feels wrong to see Trifoski out of the running this early as well, I really liked every single one of these entries! Two songs come within touching distance of the top 40 but juuuust missing out, their highest being their old PJSC winner 'Otra Era' that they finally brought to this site as well, such an enchanting little song, Spanish vocals are always the way to my heart of course and combined with some fab synths this was always going to be a fave of mine <3 Only just behind that is a song with pretty much the exact opposite vibes to it, 'Nautilus' is a bit of a challenging listen and was obviously going to be a bit divisive, I had hopes that it would qualify when it had unexpected love from people like imaduck but sadly it wasn't to be. Still, a pretty awesome onslaught of random noises which picked up my top marks in the Rejects final (although it was very close between my top 3, as my EOY #43-45 were all in it!) One more appearance in the top 100 from Trifoski, the chart-ready catchiness of 'Take It Or Leave It', I will always picture that dance routine from the video whenever I hear this *.* Some more enchanting foreign language vox (this time French) on 'Sphynx' accompanied by a cool video and having that slightly ~mysterious~ vibe to it much like Trifoski themselves, was very pleased to see this showing up in the contest after it was one of two brilliant French potentials from N DNTN, I still think Vendredi Sur Mer was the superior of the two but both deserved to have a spot in the contest at some point. Their final appearance in the top 150 is the poor underrated 'Go Ahead', I mean I guess not all Hot Chip-adjacent tracks can be as brilliant as 'Bear Hug', but this one still deserved a lot better than it got, a pretty awesome bit of electropop. Missing out on my EOY but still great tracks are 'Touch-Tone Telephone' (I have long been a fan of Neil Cicierega's Internet comedy but I didn't know he had it in him to make serious (albeit pretty eccentric) music that sounded this great *.*) and their other DNQ 'Fix My Life', responsible for many a seizure with its video but another awesome cacophony of sounds. The last three songs are the only ones that didn't make my votes (or would-be votes), I've come to appreciate 'Eighteen' and 'Buy Nothing Day' more since their original contests though, both pretty great indie songs ~ and then as much of a moment as it was when Trifoski had their grand return to the top 10 with 'Electrify' that's actually ended up being pretty solidly my least favourite of their 2016 entries, if anything I've gone off it a bit since the contest although it is still v good, reminiscent of 'Dangerous' by David Guetta. Trifoski remain among my favourite countries and I always look forward to what they have to offer, long may the quality continue ~ (as it very much has done with the first contest of 2017 which has already booked them a much higher EOY position than #41 for this year #spoilers)

Posted by: Jade Jan 29 2017, 06:35 PM

Yay for 'Scope' appearing in this section That song shall be forever special to me as my first ever top 3 result. Bronze medal in the contest matching up with a bronze medal from you points-wise *.*

Deandria and Trifoski are two of my favourite countries so it was wonderful to read your write-ups of them

Posted by: Bré Feb 1 2017, 08:46 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 01/02/2017

BJSC 91 summary

- The final results of the year's first contest took place in Quota, Aeroche on Sunday night. Persephonia have not got off to as good a start as last year, finishing in a slightly disappointing 31st out of the 41 songs in the final with xi's 'Happy End Of The World' after we initially had hopes of another top 20 finish. The position matches that of our last instrumental entry 'Thelema' by Øfdream three contests earlier, although it did get a few more points than that did, a total of 146 points from 18 countries including one apiece of the medal positions (the full 18 from Terra Avium for a third time in 5 contests, a best-to-date 15 points from Cor Lupus and 13 points from ever faithful Jadakissnia). Putting the result in a bit of perspective though, the reveal of the semi-final results showed us on the brink of a much more disastrous start to 2017, as it turned out we scraped through semi-final 2 in 20th place with just 47 points, 3 clear of DNQing. This is only the second time we've ever scraped through a semi-final in its last qualification slot (after Frankie & The Heartstrings' 'Hunger' was the lowest of 14 qualifiers in BJSC 25 semi-final 2) and the second lowest number of points we've qualified with, one more than Deaf Club's 'Moving Still' in BJSC 49. With that in mind, the final result was a fair bit better than the projected 39th place. Silver linings! Thank you to those who voted for this entry which has become one of our favourites

- After the last two contests had very small winning margins, we returned to a landslide victory in BJSC 91. Having topped pretty much all of the odds and predictions save for a few late contrarians like that dastardly PersepBet, Ultraviolenceland lived up to the hype and notched up their first main contest win with EASYFUN's 'Monopoly' (feat. Noonie Bao) storming to the win with 373 points (they'd previously won the UK Chart Near Misses spinoff with Ellie Goulding's 'Lights'). The crowning moment comes very soon after their long wait for a first top 10 hit was ended in the previous contest as they came 10th with ARIA's 'Maze'. Its lead over its closest rival was 113 points, the third largest margin ever (Sigala's 'Easy Love' won by 118 and Salt Ashes' 'Save It' by 133), and also ranking within the top 3 biggest win margins ever in percentage terms. All in all doing just a bit better than PC Music alumnus EASYFUN's previous BJSC entry 'Laplander' which unceremoniously dropped out in 28th place in the semi-finals of BJSC 73 for Cadelicia. 'Monopoly' was the winner of semi-final 1 as well, also marking Ultraviolenceland's first semi-final win. Ultraviolenceland have since announced they will be hosting BJSC 92 with some assistance from Taahino, both hosting for the first time.

- The winner was never in doubt, but there was a very close race for 2nd, with only 15 points separating the silver medal from 8th place. Ultimately 2nd place went to Ramrynia with Sirusho's 'PreGomesh' on 260 points, marking the 4th time Ramrynia have finished as runners-up (after Elen Levon's 'Dancing To The Same Song' in BJSC 48, Alida's 'Some Of Us' in BJSC 58 and Listenbee's 'Save Me' (feat. Naz Tokio) in BJSC 71) while they still await their own first win. With another 2 3rd placers on top of that, they now individually have the records for most 2nd places and most top 3 finishes without ever winning, after previously jointly holding those records with United States of Jack. One day. 3rd place with 255 points went to Mulgracia with Grouplove's 'Good Morning', adding to their 2 wins and 1 second place, and also greatly and somewhat unexpectedly surpassing the success of the artist's previous BJSC entry ('Tongue Tied', which came 23rd for Bøtanikkä in BJSC 47). The winner of semi-final 2, and the projected winner (123 points in its semi-final to Ultraviolenceland's 122), was Bishop Briggs' 'River', representing Pupok (giving them a second semi-final win). That song came 4th in the final with 254 points, meaning Pupok have come top 10 with 7 of their last 10 entries. This was also a much bigger hit than the previous entry by the same artist (St. Burbia came 32nd with Briggs' 'Wild Horses' in the first contest of last year). The final slot in the top 5 was determined on a tiebreak with two songs both scoring 253 points. The winner of that battle was New Lexico with 'Taped Up Heart' by KREAM featuring Clara Mae. It's the country's 6th top 5 hit, the last 4 of which have all come 5th - the last time they went higher was in BJSC 39 (when they were still known as Allecian) with Ask Embla's 'Einn' which came 4th, while their only medal position remains from the horrendously cheap early BJSCs with a suitably horrendously cheap entry, The Saturdays' 'Up' which came 3rd in BJSC 10.

- The rest of the top 10 had a very fresh feel to it with 3 countries in the 6-10 region getting their first top 10 hits and another getting their second. St. Burbia lost the tiebreak and came 6th with Alice Merton's 'No Roots', eclipsing their previous peak of 13th which they'd achieved twice, first with Dirtcaps' 'Fools Paradise' (feat. Rochelle) in their second ever contest BJSC 80, then again with Bearson's 'Want You' (feat. Cal) in BJSC 84. 7th place went to Beaverdonia, returning from a one-month ban with Digitalism's 'Open Waters', becoming their second biggest hit after their only previous top 10, BJSC 85 winner 'Aide' by Bang La Decks. It would be their third top 10 if they had voted in the final of BJSC 77, where FLETCHER's 'War Paint' ended up 25th due to a deduction. 'Open Waters' easily outperformed our Digitalism entry, 'Blitz' which came 19th in BJSC 82 - we're not too bitter though, as we actually prefer 'Open Waters', and are always delighted to see former Persephonia artists getting belated hits x The country formerly known as Lomaja have decided to rebrand already in only their 4th contest and are now known as Aesthetica. The name change has brought them a first top 10 hit, coming 8th with Wonder Girls' 'I Feel You' which also tied the record for biggest improvement from projected finish based on the semi-final results (it had been projected 36th, and that 28 place improvement matched that of Aquafina's BJSC 74 entry 'Insomnia' by Audien featuring Parson James which improved 33-5). One can only speculate the midweek improvement may have been subtly influenced by the coincidental timing of Wonder Girls announcing their split after a 10 year career. Aesthetica FKA Lomaja's first 3 entries all qualified and came top 30, their previous peak being 23rd with second entry 'Trampoline' by Kero Kero Bonito. Summericia were the last country to get a first top 10, coming 9th with CRIM3S' 'still goin', the latest witch house track to smash the top 10, earning the country a new peak for the second time in a row (beating the 24th place of last entry 'Alga' by IGNEA) and a third time in 4 contests. The only country other than Ultraviolenceland to have back-to-back top 10s was Cor Lupus who followed their 4th place finish last time by coming 10th with LIONE's 'Leave This Place'. Aeroche followed their win with a 13th place with auto-qualifier 'Ambience' by Melé.

- As well as the 5 countries setting new peaks or matching their previous peaks within the top 10, there were 2 more countries setting new national bests, both of which were making the final for the first time. After an opening run of 3 DNQs including a somewhat infamous last place in the semi-final with just 4 points two contests ago with Royce Lovett's 'I Wanna Love You', Niceland came within touching distance of getting a top 10 with their first qualifier. They settled for 11th with Captain Cuts' 'Love Like We Used To' (feat. Nateur), though its score included top scores of 18 from 4 other countries, more than every other track in the final bar 'Monopoly' which got 6 18s. Zanmatony opened with 2 DNQs but similarly smashed the top 20 with their first qualifier, finishing 16th with 'Love & War' by Yellow Claw featuring Yade Lauren. There was also one country making its debut in this contest: Azure, who made it to the final with their first entry, although were very lucky to do so. Their entry, 'Celebrity Status' by Marianas Trench, came 20th in semi-final 1 after winning a tiebreak, and even then was only a qualifier because Ajanaeda entry 'Fighter' by TYNI had a 33% deduction for non-voting. 'Celebrity Status' went on to get the wooden spoon for Azure, coming 41st out of 41 in the final with 78 points. The track hit a very small niche market, having qualified off the back of just 5 voters in the semi-final and only attracting points from 7 countries in the final, the lowest number for a song in the final that was not an auto-qualifier since BJSC 61 where Ingermanlandia got only 5 votes with Flight Facilities' 'Stand Still' (feat. Micky Green). Still, a debut qualifier is better than a lot of countries manage and we're sure greater success is in Azure's future. x

- Aside from Beaverdonia, 5 other countries made returns in this contest. The most long-awaited returnee was Palmyra who made a surprise and silent return after missing the last 25 contests. Their entry 'A Short Love Story' by Somewhere Anywhere featuring Claude Eman received some... negative feedback and wasn't expected to qualify, but similarly silent fans came through for it as it did make the final, and it actually picked up quite a few points from early final voters leading to it initially being top 10 during the final results reveal. The points flow dried up for it however and it ended up in a more lowly 37th. Hendinia came back after missing 2 contests and also made it to the final with ODESZA's 'All We Need' (feat. Shy Girls) which came 22nd. The other returnees had less luck: Bhangra made another return and lost out on the tiebreak with Azure in semi-final 1 (we hope this won't result in them taking another contest out as they did after 2 other recent DNQs!) Occasional competitors Frandoot were back for a 4th attempt and floundered in last place in the semi-final again as they did in their last appearance in BJSC 87 (poor hens). They're yet to ever enter 2 consecutive contests and this won't be an exception as they didn't vote in the final and are thus banned from BJSC 92, as are Ajanaeda and Ojnoj. Finally, Buzzjack Mountain remembered to enter this time and delivered the 'treat' they had promised for the last contest, a second originally-produced entry in collaboration with a handful of other BuzzJack members. This one was only marginally more successful than their last attempt at this. Persephonian News Bulletin does not condone these entries and hopes we shall never have to speak of them again.

- Other somewhat noteworthy results: perennial participants and contest dictators moderators République d'Ashton's hunt for another (24th) top 10 hit continues as they still haven't seen the top tier since BJSC 57, but their latest entry 'Not Too Young' by Sabina Ddumba came 14th to give them their best result in 19 contests. Thelonia scored their first top 20 hit since their debut entry (14th placed 'Got It' by Marian Hill in BJSC 73), coming 19th with IV Rox's 'I Heard Love'. Altyr Muunilinst provided the latest extremely long song to make it to the final, with their entry 'Light Of The Seven' by Ramin Djawadi clocking in at 9:49, but securing enough big fans (including us) to come 27th, winning the battle of lengthy piano-based instrumentals against our own entry. A worthy opponent at least. Finally, the only country other than Azure to not pass 100 points was Aelandor who came 40th with Copeland's 'No One Really Wins' on 95 points, at least giving them a second qualifier out of their 8 entries to date but still not providing them their major breakthrough.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 91

Final

Points awarded:
18 Trifoski // Amnesia Scanner - AS Crust
15 Summericia // CRIM3S - still goin
13 Altyr Muunilinst // Ramin Djawadi - Light Of The Seven

12 Aeroche // Melé - Ambience
11 Beaverdonia // Digitalism - Open Waters
10 Jadakissnia // TEARIST - Headless
9 Ramrynia // Sirusho - PreGomesh
8 Yehesi // IAMX - I Come With Knives
7 Desbuanda // Sylvan Esso - Radio
6 Bøtanikkä // Noga Erez - Dance While You Shoot
5 Fljótavík // Agoria - Up All Night
4 Aelandor // Copeland - No One Really Wins
3 South Danaelanda // Aly & Fila, Roger Shah and Susana - Unbreakable
2 Aesthetica // Wonder Girls - I Feel You
1 Harmonica // Tall Heights - Spirit Cold

16th-40th:
Pupok // Bishop Briggs - River
Land of DW // Austra - Future Politics
#00274E // Pogo - Data & Picard
Espen // TAMER - Beautiful Crime
Taahino // Greywind - Circle
N DNTN // Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Harajuku Iyahoi
Mulgracia // Grouplove - Good Morning
Cadelicia // The Clarstone - Fandango (feat. Lola Torres)
Cor Lupus // LIONE - Leave This Place
Hendinia // ODESZA - All We Need (feat. Shy Girls)
Medhelnia // Elsa & Emilie - Run
Thelonia // IV Rox - I Heard Love
Ultraviolenceland // EASYFUN - Monopoly (feat. Noonie Bao)
Azure // Marianas Trench - Celebrity Status
Republic of Adonia // Anna Straker - Serious
Palmyra // Somewhere Anywhere - A Short Love Story (feat. Claude Eman)
Tinnmark // Mikhael Paskalev - Witness
République d'Ashton // Sabina Ddumba - Not Too Young
D'yermak'er // Nightly - XO
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Nemo Schiffman - I Don't Mind
St. Burbia // Alice Merton - No Roots
Niceland // Captain Cuts - Love Like We Used To (feat. Nateur)
New Lexico // KREAM - Taped Up Heart (feat. Clara Mae)
Zanmatony // Yellow Claw - Love & War (feat. Yade Lauren)
Unovia // SLUMBERJACK - Fracture (feat. Vera Blue)

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 Trifoski // Amnesia Scanner - AS Crust
10 Summericia // CRIM3S - still goin
8 Desbuanda // Sylvan Esso - Radio

7 Fljótavík // Agoria - Up All Night
6 Dobago // Will Sparks - Flamenco^†
5 South Danaelanda // Aly & Fila, Roger Shah and Susana - Unbreakable
4 Singerpurear // Chicks On Speed - We Don't Play Guitars (feat. Peaches)^†
3 Yehesi // IAMX - I Come With Knives
2 Aesthetica // Wonder Girls - I Feel You
1 Pupok // Bishop Briggs - River

11th-30th:
Mulgracia // Grouplove - Good Morning
Terra Avium // Alev Lenz - Fall Into Me^†
Cadelicia // The Clarstone - Fandango (feat. Lola Torres)
Hendinia // ODESZA - All We Need (feat. Shy Girls)
Palmyra // Somewhere Anywhere - A Short Love Story (feat. Claude Eman)
Deandria // Holy Two - Undercover Girls^†
Tartford // Le Youth - If You're Leaving (feat. Sydnie)^†
Espen // TAMER - Beautiful Crime
St. Burbia // Alice Merton - No Roots
Hushkanukia // Gayle Nerva - Echoes^†
#00274E // Pogo - Data & Picard
Skall // Japandroids - Near To The Wild Heart Of Life^†
Flynnonda // King No-One - Alcatraz^†
Quintessa // White Lung - Below^†
Greenfroze // Kidswaste - More Colors (feat. Chelsea Cutler)^†
République d'Ashton // Sabina Ddumba - Not Too Young
Florina // Ten Fé - Twist Your Arm^†
Tinnmark // Mikhael Paskalev - Witness
Republic of Adonia // Anna Straker - Serious
Unovia // SLUMBERJACK - Fracture (feat. Vera Blue)

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 1 DNQs

2nd FSR Rontvia // Daithí - Mary Keanes Introduction
4th Kylienips // Echos - Fiction
10th Séyetana // Babyraids JAPAN - Cinderella Ja Irarenai
13th Bhangra // Fred V & Grafix and Metrik - Tension (feat. Kate Westall)
14th Ojnoj // TINY-G - MINIMANIMO
20th Frandoot // Otilia - Wine My Body
22nd Bignia-Zaragovina // Handsome Poets - Sky On Fire
26th Syndare // Skott - Lack Of Emotion
29th Daehun // MAMAMOO - Décalcomanie
30th Ajanaeda // TYNI - Fighter
31st Buzzjack Mountain // Future Bass Fishermen In A Tropical House - EDM Progressive Spin Cycle (With You Tonight) (feat. Princess Lotita and Bento Leão)

Posted by: Mattias Feb 1 2017, 10:16 PM

Really interesting write-up about Deandria there, Bré Fascinating to see other points of view from the outside. I'm not sure I ever really realised that Deandria had a "trademark vocal style" but I guess it's true, with 'Until Eternity', 'Alchemy', 'Undercover Girls', 'Father Hu$$la' and a few others having pretty quirky vocals. Unintentional, but there you go. I had a weird "relationship" with 'When You Wish Upon the Stars' during the contest - it was probably the quickest I have confirmed an entry after discovering it, and I went off it a bit for a short time, partly because I didn't like the video In the end I was happy with the entry though, it grew on me again so yay!

and yea, would've been lovely to win with a more 'inspired' entry when those are the ones I usually long for - but a win is a win

ty

Posted by: Bré Feb 1 2017, 10:53 PM

Haha yes, I didn't know if it was intentional or not but I guess you just happen to get drawn to songs with those kind of vocals. I thought the vocals on 'Headless' sounded a bit like that as well so it didn't surprise me at all that it was a past potential of yours in that context Glad to hear that Maya's Moving Castle grew back on you again anyway, deserved so much better as did most of your other DNQs.

Posted by: Bré Feb 5 2017, 11:10 PM

Posted by: Bré Feb 13 2017, 01:11 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 13/02/2017

Persephonia joins the rock bloc for BJSC 92 with End Of The Dream

Continuing our mini apocalyptic theme for the start of 2017, the (happy) end of the world is followed up by End Of The Dream, who provide our 71st main contest entry by representing us in BJSC 92 with their song 'Colder'. The band come from 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands and are currently recording their second studio album. 'Colder' is taken from their debut album 'All I Am', which was released in the UK in September 2015. End Of The Dream are the second (technically third) Dutch act we've sent to the contest following San Holo with 'Hiding' in BJSC 71, which featured fellow Dutch act The Nicholas. At the time this song was recorded the band also had one member from Belgium, who has since left.

'Colder' marks a rare foray into the rock bloc for Persephonia, our first entry from the rock/indie spectrum since Deaf Club's 'Moving Still' in BJSC 49 and by far the heaviest of the few we have sent, falling into the subgenre of symphonic metal. The band cite fellow Dutch symphonic metal bands Within Temptation, Epica and After Forever as influences as well as the likes of Dream Theater and Muse. There's also some clear similarities to Evanescence, especially in the vocals of Micky Huijsmans, with the band in fact sharing its name with an Evanescence song (may or may not be intentional). 'Colder' instantly hooks the listener with a short piano intro followed by a powerful onslaught of guitar which continues throughout most of the song accompanied by some suitably apocalyptic lyrics sung beautifully by Huijsmans. Here's the track, we hope you like it:



We can be found in semi-final 1 (hosted by Frozenland, Ultraviolenceland while semi-final 2 is being handled by Polis, Taahino), in slot 15 of 32.

(P.S. to put http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=186016&view=findpost&p=5617832 in context, for this month's ~teaser image~ we originally Googled 'frozen guitar' and the image in that post was one of the first results not the vibe we were going for, although somewhat appropriate for an Ultraviolenceland contest )

Posted by: Bré Feb 20 2017, 12:14 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 20/02/2017

The dream hasn't come to an end yet in Ultraviolenceland!

It has been announced tonight that End Of The Dream's 'Colder' has qualified for us, and will thus be appearing in the final in 1989VideoCoast, Ultraviolenceland, our 53rd final appearance and 8th in a row, a total which now puts us in 2nd place for countries with the longest active qualification streak: due in no small part to suffering a 33% deduction with their current entry, N DNTN failed to qualify bringing an end to their run of 11 finals. The new champions are Unovia, who qualified to a 10th straight final, or 11th ignoring a one-month break in BJSC 82. Medhelnia also DNQed meaning we hold 2nd place all by ourselves on the list. 'Colder' has been drawn as song 12 of 41 in the final, thanks to those who voted us through as we were starting to lose confidence! Our aim now is to at least outperform our previous entry.

The aforementioned N DNTN were the only country we voted for in semi-final 1 who failed to make it through, as they got our 2 points with Empress Of's 'Water Water', following Empress Of previously being a potential Persephonia entrant with her song 'How Do You Do It'. The results in semi-final 2 were less friendly to the Persephonian public's favourites, with half of our top 10 failing to progress, most heartbreakingly Skall entry 'Blackbird' by Martyn Bennett (ranked 2nd), but also all of the songs ranked from 5th to 8th, respectively SOLDOUT's 'Do It Again' (feat. GOOSE) (a surprise DNQ for Jadakissnia), Black Motion's 'Imali' (feat. Nokwazi) (FSR Rontvia), Donatachi's Del Mar Mix of HI LIFE's 'When I Get To The Club' (Cadelicia) and Prince Rama's 'Fantasy' (Summericia). </3

Posted by: Jade Feb 20 2017, 12:19 AM

Congrats on the qualifier! especially as you were feeling more uncertain about it as the days went by. At least one of us can represent #Jadaphonia in the final *.* I initially didn't quite know what to think of this and its heaviness (until like half way when it started to hit me) but it's already quickly growing as a whole package. Feeling the Evanescence vibes~

Posted by: Bré Feb 20 2017, 12:20 AM

It definitely feels wrong that I qualified and you didn't when I was feeling the opposite was gonna happen tbh.

Posted by: Bré Feb 26 2017, 07:02 PM

2016 EOY 40-31 (we're still getting there eventually everyone dw xx):

40 Singerpurear 89 // Princess Chelsea - The Cigarette Duet {11 points}
39 FSR Rontvia 85 // Real Lies - North Circular {12 points}
38 Desbuanda 84 // LSDXOXO - Angel Dust {13 points}
37 Harmonica 84 // Sleigh Bells - A/B Machines {12 points}
36 Quintessa 86 // ANi GLASS - Y Ddawns {15 points}
35 Singerpurear 84 // Yothu Yindi - Treaty (Filthy Lucre Remix) {18 points}
34 Pupok 82 // Vesala - Tequila {ranked 26th}
33 Cadelicia 82 // Daler Mehndi - Tunak Tunak Tun... {12 points}
32 Jadakissnia 83 // VHS Glitch - Blood In Blood Out {12 points}
31 Quintessa 90 // Ghost - Square Hammer {9 points}

These countries have their highest appearances in this section:

HARMONICA
Sleigh Bells - A/B Machines [#37] > Megan McCauley - Die For You > PARRI$ - NASTY > Doop - Tequila > Sizzy Rocket - Need Somebody > MEG MAC - Never Be > Joseph - White Flag > Lauren Alaina - Road Less Traveled > Lipstick Gypsy - The Cure
Harmonica are typically a bit of a hit and miss country for me, it has been nice to see them finding a bit of a groove with qualifiers recently though after their rough first couple of years! Some of their DNQs in 2016 were still among their best entries, particularly the moody and powerful Anastacia clone 'Die For You' (one I was sure would qualify), and of course 'Tequila' was quite a bop and it was just amusing to learn that Doop are still making music, it's a bit of a shame Harmonica did miss out that one contest when they potentially had the near-as-iconic Baha Men lined up as an entry Then 'Need Somebody' was a perfectly decent pop song, much better than the earlier Harmonica Sizzy Rocket entry. The only real dud among them was the rather damp 'The Cure'. Harmonica's best of the year by miles though, and the only one that makes my top 150, is 'A/B Machines' from Sleigh Bells' first and best era, I remember hearing quite a few of their songs on nighttime Radio 1 at the time and I think this was one of them but I certainly didn't hold it in as high regard as the likes of 'Infinity Guitars' and 'Rill Rill' so I still count this as a (re-)discovery from the contest. Heavy distortion making for an abrasive yet brilliant listening experience, and of course the repetitive vocal line is one to get stuck in your head for hours. 'NASTY' was pretty great too and was a big grower within its contest only just missing my points, Harmonica's occasional dips into ~urban~ music tend to be quite good. That leaves their trio of top 20 hits, including their two top 10 hits they waited so long for, none of them are really that much my thing, 'Never Be' and 'White Flag' are DECENT songs though and I didn't dislike 'Road Less Traveled' as much as I thought I would. If their first 2 entries of 2017 are anything to go by I think it should be a better year for them in my affections.

SINGERPUREAR
Yothu Yindi - Treaty (Filthy Lucre Remix) [#35] > Princess Chelsea - The Cigarette Duet [#40] > Kadie Elder - First Time He Kissed A Boy [#128] > Kishi Bashi - Ode To My Next Life > Ezra Furman - Restless Year > Fitz And The Tantrums - HandClap > Inga Humpe - Riding Into Blue (Cowboy Song) > Chris Lee - Real Love > Timothy Bloom - 'Til The End Of Time (feat. V. Bozeman) > Firebeatz and DubVision - Invincible (feat. Ruby Prophet)
Singerpurear have continued their reputation as one of the most eclectic and unpredictable countries in the contest which is a great thing, I always look forward to what they have up their sleeves next. They weren't as consistently great as they were in 2015 for me but there are still plentiful fab songs on the list including 3 in my EOY. I adore tracks with world music vocals so it was no surprise that I loved 'Treaty', some classic Singerpurear originality picking a track from the early 90s combining banging dance beats with hypnotic Aboriginal chanting (I appreciate that this remix of the song used more of those vocals and less of the English lyrics), this was the first time I gave Singerpurear my top points, hooray! Though unfortunately it is the lowest ranked of my 18 pointers in 2016 (having been overtaken by another song from its contest), and I'd probably only rank it as their 3rd best entry overall after 'I Am The Antichrist To You' and 'Love Mera Hit Hit' from the previous year. Very close behind and scraping them a second place in my top 40 is the much more chilled affair that is 'The Cigarette Duet', a song that just oozes class, the 2 voices really work well together especially when they start singing over each other (and big appreciation for the way she says the word 'chance' in particular x) then they have a third top 150 entry with 'First Time He Kissed A Boy', recycling one of my previous artists (I don't like the song as much as the one I sent but that was a tough ask as I still absolutely adore 'Simple Guy' despite it bombing so hard in BJSC 54, was pleasing to see Kadie Elder get some much belated success) and with production quite reminiscent of another of my previous entries (Truls' 'Out Of Yourself'), Kadie Elder are pretty good at the mildly indie flavoured Scandipop thing they do. Kishi Bashi's second entry for Singerpurear, 'Ode To My Next Life' was a fab synthy number, it didn't have quite the same 'oomph' as its predecessor although it definitely should have qualified and I'm still shocked it didn't. 'Restless Year' and 'HandClap' were both pretty good catchy mainstream indie type songs and 'Riding Into Blue (Cowboy Song)' was another enjoyable archival pick if not a huge standout, I think my mum would be a big fan though. I really liked 'Real Love' to begin with but it hasn't held up to repeated listens, good production as usual from A. G. Cook but not really much more to it. The last two songs are well behind though, ''Til The End Of Time' was quite the dirge and 'Invincible' is pretty much the epitome of terrible dance music which I could kind of tell by the artist names and song title alone but it somehow sounded even worse than that. The problem with a mixed bag country like Singerpurear is they can be properly awful as well as properly great. But they are the latter more often than not. Yay!

PUPOK
Vesala - Tequila [#34] > Rich White Ladies - Wimbledon [#81] > Claudia Kane - Einstein [#141] > Ängie - Smoke Weed Eat Pussy > GIRLI - So You Think You Can Fuck With Me Do Ya > GIRLI - Girl I Met On The Internet > Aelyn - Give Love A Try > Haschak Sisters - Daddy Says No > Sasha Pieterse - R.P.M. > Emily Vaughn - Better Off
I voted for Pupok 3 times in 2016, but in the end their highest appearance on here by a fair amount is one that I not only didn't vote for, but didn't even come particularly close to voting for at the time - one of the ultimate examples of a song from BJSC just suddenly hitting me really hard right after the contest. I don't know what I was thinking ranking 'Tequila' as low as 26th (!) even in the strongest final of the year, if I were voting in that contest again today it'd easily get double figure points. Sorry for that one Lotti, not that it needed my support really as it was a deserved big hit and kicked off a period of Pupok domination in the contest. To this day I still quite often find myself with that chorus stuck in my head, beautiful song, especially love how the percussion properly kicks in during the final chorus Not so beautiful but still an undeniable (yes Jade, UNDENIABLE xx) jam, #tenniscourtanthem 'Wimbledon' provides a second Pupok entry in my top 100, perhaps one of the greatest concepts for a hip-hop song of all time *.* would definitely be autoplaying it in this post if that feature hadn't apparently been turned off :'( Another of Pupok's classier entries, 'Einstein' sneaks in as a third appearance for them in my EOY, really sounding like a lost Lana Del Rey song. 'So You Think You Can Fuck With Me Do Ya' got 8 points from me but the novelty of it has faded a little bit and it ends up outside my EOY, with the other GIRLI track only just behind it, was nice to hear a slightly more 'serious' song from her (though still maintaining the same sort of aesthetic), she's a bit like a trashy version of Hannah Diamond. Both of them are actually beaten by 'Smoke Weed Eat Pussy' which I've just listened back to and it's better than I remember it being, I loveee the production and the voice pitch shift *.* I guess the one thing that prevents it being a proper favourite is the slightly gratuitous profanity but still, quite a jam in retrospect. I never quite got into 'Give Love A Try' as much as I perhaps should have since I'm normally a big fan of trance entries but it's still a pretty good entry. 'Daddy Says No' was a bit of an ironic bop when I first heard it but the novelty wore off that as well to a much greater extent than with GIRLI. 'R.P.M.' was a bit of a strange choice of an auto-qualifier but it wasn't too bad. My least favourite from Pupok 2016 is the one song they had from the start of the year before they became one of the contest's biggest nations, 'Better Off' is just a really standard and eh~ pop song, I like that Pupok's entries since then have pretty much always at least been DISTINCTIVE.

CADELICIA
Daler Mehndi - Tunak Tunak Tun... [#33] > Die Antwoord - Banana Brain [#105] > WEKEED - Wild Child > Mendoza - Love Druggie (Addict) (Jade Blue Remix) > Kinetic - Living The Illusion > Jess Kent - Get Down > Feed Me - What It Feels Like (feat. Nina Nesbitt) > Paris & Simo - Reunite (Galloway Remix) (feat. Patrick Moreno and Aloma Steele) > Jane XØ and Dannic - Undone > 4Minute - Hate
Cadelicia trended a little more generic than they used to in 2016 - that's not always a bad thing though as I did really like a couple of their more generic dance entries (I still think 'Wild Child' was very underrated and it was a little gutting to see that underperform so badly, and 'Love Druggie (Addict)' is a tune too, I voted for both of those - hooray for the latter bringing belated big success to another of my past BJSC artists as well!) but it does feel like our music tastes have diverged a bit. My 2 favourites from Cadelicia 2016 were their two most out-of-the-ordinary entries, topped by the rather incredible retro bhangra / Internet meme track 'Tunak Tunak Tun...', I was actually really surprised when I found out how old this song was, I thought the video was just very low budget (still a great video tho tbh). It sounds like the sort of thing that could still be put out today by bhangra artists anyway. Shoulda won TBO. Their other appearance in my EOY is 'Banana Brain', had been a fan of Die Antwoord (RIP :'() for a while and this was another great addition to their discography, the kind of crazy rap-rave song that could only be by them really... or perhaps their tribute act Little Big and another brilliant video as ever from them too, shame it wasn't actually out until after the contest. Beyond those 4 songs which I voted for there isn't much I care for here, 'Living The Illusion' was a pretty solid drum n bass track but far from the best to be in the contest, 'Get Down' was also decent, but then 'What It Feels Like' and 'Reunite' do nothing for me at all, 'Undone' is pretty irritating and 'Hate' is just an absolutely atrocious headache much like 4Minute's previous entry. I live in hope of Perselicia becoming strong again (I did really like their most recent entry, shame it DNQed )

QUINTESSA
Ghost - Square Hammer [#31] > ANi GLASS - Y Ddawns [#36] > Crywolf - Akureyri [#44] > Gina Kushka - Bring It Down [#121] > Hannah Peel - All That Matters > Vanessa Elisha - Out Of Time > Satchmode - Further Away > Annabel Jones - Happy > Lali - Soy > Elektra - I Don't Do Boys
A slightly hit and miss year for Quintessa but I liked more than I didn't, and they had a trio of really brilliant entries which all make my EOY top 50. One of the best rock entries of the year came from them in the form of the epic 'Square Hammer', I actually thought Ghost were a proper screamy heavy metal band so this track was a little more subdued than I expected, but still not exactly a standard BJSC sound so it was great to see a few people taking so well to some Satanic-themed classic rock <3 That song 'only' got 9 points from me in the final contest of the year (though I'd now bump it up to 11 if I was voting in it today), but finishes a little bit ahead of the Quintessa entry I gave 15 points, 'Y Ddawns' - this was a track Leonardo PMed to me in the late stages of PMing potentials still being allowed, I urged him to send it and am very glad it did appear in the contest, a wonderful bit of synthpop and of course a very unique language which I can always appreciate in BJSC, may still be the only song I've ever listened to which is sung in Welsh, it's great that there's an artist out there making such brilliant music for such a small niche The third of Quintessa's trio of top 50 entries is 'Akureyri' (named after a location in Iceland *.*) which is another atmospheric melodic dubstep beauty from Crywolf after 'The Home We Made Pt II' came 2nd in my 2015 EOY, and just like that song it scandalously DNQed, FFS BuzzJack :'( though did at least go on to qualify for Rejects as well, meaning Crywolf got high points from me in the Rejects 2 years in a row (although not quite my 18 this time). 'Bring It Down' provides Quintessa a fourth entry in my full EOY, yet another song that makes it in here despite missing out on points in BJSC 82, it's another one that's clicked with me much more since the end of the contest, sounding a little bit like Ellie Goulding going urban (if only her last album sounded like this x). A couple of other good entries, 'All That Matters' was another lovely synthy track and 'Out Of Time' another good R&B track, both definitely deserved to qualify (the R&B racism in the semi-final the latter was in :')). 'Further Away' was pleasant but ultimately forgettable, and similarly with 'Happy'. The last two tracks were both rather disappointing, 'Soy' was one of the few Spanish language BJSC tracks I don't care for at all and as much as it PAINS me to rank an Icelandic artist as my least favourite of a country's entries... I'll just say 'I Don't Do Boys' is really not a highlight of the country's musical output :')

Posted by: Jade Feb 26 2017, 07:32 PM

Hooray for 'Blood In Blood Out' appearing in your top 40 that has got to be one of my most underrated entries. Thank goodness that you at least got its synthwavey awesomeness <3 especially as you provided its only points in TBO oop x

No. Sorry but 'Wimbledon' is undeniable TRASH xx Izzles come and back me up here please. Glad that it wasn't quite your fave Pupok entry as they did actually send quite a few good tunes last year. 'Tequila' is a fine favourite, I feel you on it being SUCH a grower after the contest. I can't believe at one point that I thought it was only just 'okay' what a beauty.

Snap Harmonica fave *.* got my a machines on the table got my b machines in the drawer~ and for Cadelicia, Singerpurear AND Quintessa, your 2nd fave of theirs is my fave close enough eh x

Posted by: Cody Slayberry Feb 26 2017, 07:44 PM

I agree with Jade, Wimbledon was pretty bad

We can NOT be more different with the Cadelicia taste most of Oliver's best entries IMO are on the bottom of your list

Posted by: princess lotita Feb 26 2017, 07:46 PM

WIMBLEON HYPE

that write up bre

Posted by: Bré Feb 26 2017, 07:51 PM

I'm feelin' they jealous
Like I'm Monica Seles
But there's nothin' to tell us
We stink of coin and they smell us

Posted by: Cucumberella Feb 26 2017, 07:55 PM

XXX ANGEL DUST XXX is one im so glad was entered cos its one that i did rly like before it was sent but afterwards it just got so much attention from me absolutely bonkers and gives me entry envy

Posted by: Iz~ Feb 26 2017, 09:13 PM

Wimbledon is pretty trash xx

Square Hammer is still a massive beauty <3

Posted by: Bré Mar 5 2017, 09:53 PM

My usual wordy writeups for BJSC 92 and the Masquerade I spinoff/Re:LOADED IX are coming soon (but yay for 2 decent midtable finishes) ~~ in the mean time a new contest has started...

Posted by: Melobrama Mar 8 2017, 06:58 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 08/03/2017

BJSC 92 summary

- Persephonia achieved a decent result in BJSC 92, with 'Colder' by End Of The Dream finishing 22nd in the final, held in 1989VideoCoast, Ultraviolenceland. It raked in a total of 160 points from 20 different countries. Among those were 3 countries - Buzzjack Mountain, Cadelicia and Séyetana - who awarded us their full 18 points, marking the first time we've got more than 2 18s since DANCE WITH THE DEAD's 'Waves' also received 3 18s in BJSC 79! 'Colder' also ranked in the medal positions for Aelandor who awarded it 15 points. The song came 9th in semi-final 1 with 72 points, our first top 10 finish in a semi-final since BJSC 87 (though our wait for another final top 10 goes on, with us last making it that high in BJSC 81). That put it at a projected 21st place, pretty much in line with the actual result. ~

- There was a closer race for the win and far more songs tipped as contenders than in the previous contest. Eventually emerging as the victor was South Danaelanda, following Ultraviolenceland to a long-awaited first BJSC win, though it was even more of a long time coming this time: including their longer history as a united nation simply called Danaelanda, they have been in the contest since BJSC 35 (pulling out for contests 37-40 but participating continuously since then). Their tally of 53 failed attempts before finally managing a victory is the 2nd largest of any country, only behind Kylienips' epic slog of 74 non-wins in a row from the very first contest until they finally won in BJSC 75. They steal 2nd place on that list from yours truly, as we won for the first time after 45 non-wins. (South) Danaelanda's first win comes after they bookended 2016 with their only two previous top 3 finishes; they came 3rd in both BJSC 81 and BJSC 90 with TheFatRat's 'Monody' (feat. Laura Brehm) and Basto's 'Gregory's Theme' respectively. The winner in question is epic trance anthem 'Saving Light' by Gareth Emery and Standerwick featuring HALIENE, which topped the contest with a total of 369 points, including 7 full scores of 18, the most in the contest. 'Saving Light' also won semi-final 1, giving the country their second semi-final win following 'Monody'. And on an unrelated note, in the time it's taken us to write up this post, South Danaelanda have also notched up a first spinoff win (but more on that in our next rambling bulletin). BJSC 93 is now underway, with South Danaelanda hosting as reigning champions for the first time, though they previously hosted BJSC 82 (as the united Danaelanda) due to Deandria passing on their hosting rights.

- 'Saving Light' was among the songs tipped as winners, but the song topping most odds and predictions was MUNA's 'I Know A Place', which ultimately came 2nd for Yehesi with 344 points, 25 away from the leader and thus not quite managing Yehesi's second win but still their 5th medal position (and 6th top 5) in the last 11 contests. It had been the projected winner, as the runaway champion of semi-final 2 - like S DNLD, their second semi-final win, though actually the first time they received the most points in a semi-final (TP4Y's 'Blush' was technically the winner of BJSC 86 semi-final 2 but only because Altyr Muunilinst suffered a 15% deduction for late voting). 3rd place went to Hendinia, scoring 321 points with Troll's 'Jimmy Dean', a spectacular showing for a song from as long ago as 1989. The retro Scandi-cheese-bop managed to appeal well beyond its target audience (any song that gets 18 from both us and Sandebörg must be wide appealing!!) and cemented its status as the latest Hendinia song to do very well but not quite win. 22 top 10s and counting since they last won in BJSC 41 (this is their 5th bronze medal since then, in addition to one silver medal). Pupok finished 4th for a second contest in a row (after an earlier run of 5-5-6-6, that consistency), earning 287 points with the wild and wacky 'Mutant Brain' by Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums featuring Assassin. The top 5 was completed by the more subdued but also brilliant 'Toi Et Moi' by Paradis on 256 points, which gave Trifoski their first top 5 hit since The Magician's 'Sunlight' (feat. Years & Years) came 4th back in BJSC 67, and their second top 10 in 3 contests after a dry spell of 18.

- Host nation Ultraviolenceland continued their newfound success, with auto-qualifier 'Ahora Lloras Tú' by Ana Mena featuring CNCO coming 6th to be their 2nd biggest hit and 3rd consecutive top 10 after never previously getting above 11th. Ana Mena was also behind one of the country's 7 top 20 hits prior to that breakthrough, 'No Soy Como Tú Crees' which came 20th in BJSC 85. Terra Avium celebrated their 50th entry in this contest, not using the opportunity to send something super cheap but rather going for a sound that has come to define them to some extent, the 6 and a half minute classical instrumental 'Africa' by Marcus Warner. Such entries are always at risk of not connecting but it pleasingly paid off for them, as it came 7th, their third highest BJSC finish to date and highest since BJSC 80 when they set their peak of 3rd with Owsey, Jernalism and Resotone's 'I've Been Secretly Falling Apart' (they've come 10th twice in the mean time). Another song strongly tipped for the win was Tone Damli's 'Pinnacle' (subject to... a little bit of cheap-shaming but not quite the shitstorm that happened the last time she was in the contest), which was gunning for being the first winner for an absolute age for République d'Ashton. Alas, it didn't quite live up to the hype, although its 8th place finish still ended the moderating nation's torturous wait for another top 10 hit (as mentioned in our last contest summary, their 23rd and most recent top 10 until now was Little Nikki's 'Little Nikki Says' in BJSC 57). Ashton, under numerous stylisations of their country name, have sent Tone Damli three times in the past and the past three entries all came top 5 ('Butterflies' 4th in BJSC 20, 'Look Back' 2nd in BJSC 41 and 'Smash' 3rd in BJSC 52). Completing the top 10, Cor Lupus got a third top 10 on the trot, coming 9th with HALEM's 'Unstoppable', and Ramrynia also clocked consecutive top 10 hits as they followed their silver medal in BJSC 91 with a 10th place, Finland Eurovision reject 'Circle Of Light' by Emma.

- South Danaelanda were the only country to set a new national best in this contest. There were also no debuting nations. Shortest paragraph in one of these rambles ever.

- 8 countries made returns to the contest, with 5 of those returning nations making it to the final. The most successful returnee was the country with the continuing saga of name changes, the one that used to be called Elëdan. They decided to sit out for 2 consecutive contests for the first time ever in BJSCs 90-91, but luckily have made another return (and apparently might actually be sticking around for good now!!), with of course another country name change to accompany their return. Now competing as -π, they fell just short of a top 10, coming 11th with the short but sweet 'Die' by Fla.mingo. Also returning to a top 20 hit after a month out were Oslol, coming 17th with K.I.D's 'Taker'. Sandebörg were out for the previous 2 contests as well, and came 29th with comeback 'New Dawns' by Gaia. A more long-awaited return, Joedonia took 8 contests out, and returned with FOURS' 'Fade To Love' which finished 35th (one place higher than their last appearance). Finally, Avalonia made a comeback sooner than expected - we feared they were gone for good but after just a month out they returned to come 37th with Anna Känzig's 'Lion's Heart'. Comebacks after a month out for Kluminican Republic and Usfland were less successful, falling well short of qualifying, while Jayrusalem were persuaded to come back after an absence of 10 contests for likely their final ever contest (:'() as part of the celebrations of The Actual Republic of Bellamia's 50th entry. This comeback... didn't go well, as they came last in the semi-final with only 9 points. Poor hens. TARO Bellamia's celebratory entry - also not a cheap anniversary choice, impressed tbh x - was Chase Atlantic's 'Right Here', which came 36th in the final after scraping through the semi-final courtesy of a 33% deduction given to N DNTN for not voting. N DNTN sadly also weren't able to vote in the final and are thus going to be missing out on BJSC 93, the first time they've missed a contest since their debut (#justice4ndntn). Syndare and Thelonia were also given one month bans for not voting in the final (meaning Syndare's continuous participation since debut is also ending, although this was apparently going to happen anyway as they have sadly pulled out for at least the next few months ), as were the eternal silly people Republic of Adonia. Their latest failure to vote cost them 33% in the final, so their entry 'Travva' by JUTRØ feat. Linda which would have been top 15 settled for 31st. Also such a waste of a run of 7 qualifiers in a row. Oops. x

- The wooden spoon this month went to Kylienips, finishing 41st and last with Ali Barter's 'Girlie Bits' which received 84 points. 2 other songs fell short of 100 points: Flynnonda achieved another qualifier with Lucy Mason's 'Hunger', but like their last one it only scraped through in 20th in the semi-final (in fact they've not come higher than 20th in a semi-final since BJSC 82), but at least wasn't another last placer for them as it came 39th with 91 points. CLC's 'Hobgoblin' came 40th with 89 points, managing to continue Aesthetica's 100% qualification run into a 5th contest but being by far their worst performing entry. In more positive news for the Asian bloc though, Daehun finished as high as 14th with REOL's 'Give Me A Break Stop Now', outdoing their last two top 20 hits and thus becoming their highest finish since they came 4th in BJSC 75 with Karin Park's 'Stick To The Lie'. In other semi-notable news, Niceland got a second top 20 hit in a row, coming 16th with NINA's 'Beyond Memory' (putting them in the YTD top 10, in stark contrast to their terrible start in 2016) and Bhangra qualified for the second time since they emerged from their near-6-year hiatus, coming 25th with Fenech-Soler's 'Kaleidoscope'.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 92

Final

Points awarded:
18 Hendinia // Troll - Jimmy Dean
15 -π // Fla.mingo - Die
13 Pupok // Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums - Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin)

12 Republic of Adonia // JUTRØ - Travva (feat. Linda)
11 Taahino // Sevdaliza - Human
10 Beaverdonia // Dominique Young Unique - Throw It Down
9 Bøtanikkä // Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Jam & Spoon Watch Out For Stella Mix)
8 Trifoski // Paradis - Toi Et Moi
7 Terra Avium // Marcus Warner - Africa
6 Harmonica // KANEHOLLER - Paper Games
5 South Danaelanda // Gareth Emery and Standerwick - Saving Light (feat. HALIENE)
4 République d'Ashton // Tone Damli - Pinnacle
3 Mulgracia // Borussia - Kinda Love
2 D'yermak'er // Strae - Lioness
1 The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Chase Atlantic - Right Here

16th-40th:
Ultraviolenceland // Ana Mena - Ahora Lloras Tú (feat. CNCO)
Bhangra // Fenech-Soler - Kaleidoscope
Greenfroze // CoCo And The Butterfields - Battlegrounds
Oslol // K.I.D - Taker
Daehun // REOL - Give Me A Break Stop Now
Hushkanukia // Hands Like Houses - Degrees Of Separation
#00274E // Nussy - Hard As Diamonds
Altyr Muunilinst // Hannah Diamond - Make Believe
Kylienips // Ali Barter - Girlie Bits
Yehesi // MUNA - I Know A Place
Unovia // Molly Kate Kestner - Prom Queen
Ramrynia // Emma - Circle Of Light
Niceland // NINA - Beyond Memory
Aeroche // Dana - Head (Kane Vale Remix)
Avalonia // Anna Känzig - Lion's Heart
Sandebörg // Gaia - New Dawns
Flynnonda // Lucy Mason - Hunger
Cor Lupus // HALEM - Unstoppable
Zanmatony // Louis The Child - Fire (feat. Evalyn)
Dobago // Dave Ramone - Love On Repeat (Filatov & Karas Radio Edit) (feat. Minelli)
Joedonia // FOURS - Fade To Love
Quintessa // Diana Wang - HOME
Espen // Léa Castel and Slimane - Abîmée
St. Burbia // Eugénie - Puis Danse
Aesthetica // CLC - Hobgoblin

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Hendinia // Troll - Jimmy Dean
10 Pupok // Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums - Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin)
8 -π // Fla.mingo - Die

7 Taahino // Sevdaliza - Human
6 Bøtanikkä // Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Jam & Spoon Watch Out For Stella Mix)
5 Terra Avium // Marcus Warner - Africa
4 South Danaelanda // Gareth Emery and Standerwick - Saving Light (feat. HALIENE)
3 République d'Ashton // Tone Damli - Pinnacle
2 N DNTN // Empress Of - Water Water^†
1 The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Chase Atlantic - Right Here

11th-31st:
Usfland // Tristen Beer - Promises^†
Azure // Kids In Glass Houses - Give Me What I Want^†
Hushkanukia // Hands Like Houses - Degrees Of Separation
Buzzjack Mountain // Slam Dunk'd - No Price (feat. Chromeo and Al-P)^†
Séyetana // Girls Dead Monster - Ichiban No Takaramono (Yui Final Version)^†
New Lexico // ERIA - Ochi^†
Kylienips // Ali Barter - Girlie Bits
Fljótavík // MAY - BALLERINO^†
Niceland // NINA - Beyond Memory
Altyr Muunilinst // Hannah Diamond - Make Believe
Aeroche // Dana - Head (Kane Vale Remix)
Ramrynia // Emma - Circle Of Light
Kluminican Republic // What So Not - High You Are (Branchez Remix)^†
Aelandor // HONNE - Loves The Jobs You Hate^†
Medhelnia // Grandtheft and Delaney Jane - Easy Go^†
Sandebörg // Gaia - New Dawns
Syndare // Avante Black - Drug Money^†
Dobago // Dave Ramone - Love On Repeat (Filatov & Karas Radio Edit) (feat. Minelli)
Jayrusalem // Coracle - Running On Empty (Chris Howland Remix) (feat. Michael Bird)^†
Quintessa // Diana Wang - HOME
St. Burbia // Eugénie - Puis Danse

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

2nd Skall // Martyn Bennett - Blackbird
5th Jadakissnia // SOLDOUT - Do It Again (feat. GOOSE)
6th FSR Rontvia // Black Motion - Imali (feat. Nokwazi)
7th Cadelicia // HI LIFE - When I Get To The Club (Donatachi's Del Mar Mix)
8th Summericia // Prince Rama - Fantasy
12th Land of DW // Toktok vs. Soffy O - Missy Queen's Gonna Die
19th Singerpurear // The Dead South - In Hell I'll Be In Good Company
24th Thelonia // Sälen - Diseasey
27th Tinnmark // Emilie Nicolas - Sky
29th Tartford // Razz - Overthinking (feat. Aviella)
30th Desbuanda // Charlotte OC - Medicine Man
31st Bignia-Zaragovina // My First Band - Paradise

Margaret Berger wins again in Re:LOADED IX

A few days before the final results covered above, a smaller BJSC event also took place in Ultraviolenceland, the final of the 9th edition of BJSC Re:LOADED. For the first time in the occasional series, the original contest winner won again, as Margaret Berger's 'Will You Remember Me Tomorrow?', representing Kingdom of Shadow was re-voted as the best song of the 9th BJSC. It picked up 70 points in this rerun. The song that originally came 2nd also repeated that performance, the controversially-cheap-even-at-the-time 'So What' by P!nk representing Simondly, coming 2nd in Re:LOADED with 51 points. Also receiving 51 points and coming 3rd on a tiebreak was Elëdan/-π's entry 'Angels (Love Is The Answer)' by Morandi, a well-deserved improvement over its original finish of 17th. The top 5 was completed by Jester's Kingdom/PRoJ with Alizée's 'Moi... Lolita', 4th with 50 points (originally coming 10th) and M.K.L. with The Veronicas' 'This Love', 5th with 49 points (originally coming 6th).

6 songs qualified for the final of Re:LOADED IX after DNQing in the original run of the contest. In order of their Re:LOADED finish, these were: LeAnn Rimes' 'Nothin' Better To Do' (Allecian/New Lexico, 10th), Sandra's 'Hiroshima' (Kylienips, 14th), The Killers' 'On Top' (Tapatilandia, 15th), Monrose's 'Hot Summer' (Tasha Island, 24th), Namie Amuro's 'CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK' (Bokia, 25th) and Marit Larsen's 'Under The Surface' (Tinnmark, 26th) - the latter track, Tinnmark's debut entry, receiving 0 points in the Re:LOADED final despite being voted through a semi-final round. Whoops. At least it adds to a very short list of songs that have got 0 in a BJSC contest (all of them in Re:LOADED, unless you count nomination rounds in TBO/TBO Rejects).

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC Re:LOADED IX

Final

Points awarded:
12 -π // Morandi - Angels (Love Is The Answer)
10 Utopia // John Legend - Green Light (feat. André 3000)
8 Kylienips // Sandra - Hiroshima

7 Tapatilandia // The Killers - On Top
6 B.a.N.G // Björk - Jóga
5 Land of Jack // Star Pilots - In The Heat Of The Night
4 Fervorosia // Bertine Zetlitz - Fake Your Beauty
3 PRoJ // Alizée - Moi... Lolita
2 Simondly // P!nk - So What
1 Quotosibb // Santigold - You'll Find A Way

11th-26th:
Hitanya // Jem - 24
Kingdom of Shadow // Margaret Berger - Will You Remember Me Tomorrow?
Nonsuch // Cyndi Lauper - Into The Nightlife
Torchwood // Sneaky Sound System - Pictures
Herzebania // Helena Paparizou - Teardrops
Bokia // Namie Amuro - CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK
Bhangra // Velvet - Fix Me
United States of Jack // Danity Kane - Bad Girl (feat. Missy Elliott)
République d'Ashton // Amy Macdonald - Barrowland Ballroom
M.K.L. // The Veronicas - This Love
Tasha Island // Monrose - Hot Summer
Faztickle // Lucie Silvas - The Game Is Won
FSR Rontvia // Sanna Nielsen - Nobody Without You
Tinnmark // Marit Larsen - Under The Surface
Ojnoj // TWiiNS - I Don't Know
New Lexico // LeAnn Rimes - Nothin' Better To Do

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Tapatilandia // The Killers - On Top
10 Land of Jack // Star Pilots - In The Heat Of The Night
8 B.a.N.G // Björk - Jóga

7 Quotosibb // Santigold - You'll Find A Way
6 Kingdom of Shadow // Margaret Berger - Will You Remember Me Tomorrow?
5 Cascadia // Jupiter Rising - Electropop^†
4 Camtoro // Thomas Godoj - Love Is You^†
3 Hitanya // Jem - 24
2 Farahtyn // Holly Valance - State Of Mind^†
1 Bokia // Namie Amuro - CAN'T SLEEP, CAN'T EAT, I'M SICK

11th-21st:
République d'Ashton // Amy Macdonald - Barrowland Ballroom
Dalisska // Marié Digby - Say It Again^†
FNT Nickodonia // Billy Ray Cyrus - Ready, Set, Don't Go (feat. Miley Cyrus)^†
M.K.L. // The Veronicas - This Love
Faztickle // Lucie Silvas - The Game Is Won
Triodopolis // Nicole Dash Jones - How Does It Feel Now^†
FSR Rontvia // Sanna Nielsen - Nobody Without You
Priceville // Mariah Carey - Migrate (feat. T-Pain)^†
Sangria // Marie Picasso - Winning Streak^†
Qärenfanghoney // Ashlee Simpson - Little Miss Obsessive^†
New Lexico // LeAnn Rimes - Nothin' Better To Do

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 -π // Morandi - Angels (Love Is The Answer)
10 Utopia // John Legend - Green Light (feat. André 3000)
8 Simondly // P!nk - So What

7 Kylienips // Sandra - Hiroshima
6 Fervorosia // Bertine Zetlitz - Fake Your Beauty
5 PRoJ // Alizée - Moi... Lolita
4 Torchwood // Sneaky Sound System - Pictures
3 Norwegia // Canned Heat - Going Up The Country^†
2 Juranabaijan // The Script - Fall For Anything^†
1 Herzebania // Helena Paparizou - Teardrops

11th-21st:
Angelicland // Jennifer Lopez - Forever^†
Bhangra // Velvet - Fix Me
Tasha Island // Monrose - Hot Summer
Rossland // fe-m@il - Flee Fly Flo^†
Lorikeet // Chris Brown - Superhuman (feat. Keri Hilson)^†
Mdiče // Shakira - Pure Intuition^†
Leonville // Guy Sebastian - Angels Brought Me Here^†
Xanaga // Tarkan - Start The Fire^†
Tinnmark // Marit Larsen - Under The Surface
Ojnoj // TWiiNS - I Don't Know
Järkangel // Michelle Williams - Unexpected<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

Posted by: Melobrama Mar 13 2017, 08:28 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 13/03/2017

Achillea represent Persephonia in BJSC 93

Persephonia's 72nd main contest entry, as revealed last night in the BJSC 93 showcase in South Danaelanda, is 'Ragnarok - Twilight Of The Gods' by Achillea, continuing (and probaby concluding) our run of apocalypse-themed entries with a title referring to the end time event from Norse mythology. Achillea is a project by German producer Jens Gad, best known for being a former member of Enigma (he contributed to their 1994 UK #3 hit 'Return To Innocence', but was not involved with their earlier #1 'Sadeness Part I'), making this our second entry by a (predominantly) German act after Digitalism's 'Blitz' which incidentally was our entry to the last contest hosted by Danaelanda, BJSC 82. 'Ragnarok - Twilight Of The Gods' is taken from Achillea's 2005 debut album 'The Nine Worlds', on which Gad is joined by Indian-born Danish operatic vocalist Helene Hørlyck, who has more recently and slightly inexplicably worked as a vocal coach for One Direction. A follow-up album 'Amadas Estrellas' released in 2007 replaced Hørlyck with Spanish singer Luisa Fernandez. The song is the oldest one we've ever sent to a main contest as we're yet to have a proper digging in the archives entry (BJSC bucket list tbh).

Clocking in at 5:58, 'Ragnarok - Twilight Of The Gods' is the longest song in the current contest, although just short of being our second 6+ minute entry of the year (expect a couple more of those in the near future based on our current potential list #longsongbloc). It is not a big departure from the sound of Enigma's hit singles, retaining the chilled and meditative new-age / downtempo electronic vibes and ~mystic~ vocals, ranging from quiet whispers to proper operatic high notes and delivered in... some ancient language, the album notes say it's in a mixture of 'ancient Swedish' and Latin (presumably this track is Swedish based on its title), the lyrics don't seem to be available online. In any case it's our 9th entry fully in a foreign language, the first of 2017, and again expect several more in the coming months (#waronenglish). The song doesn't have an official video but we have submitted to the contest some rather nice visuals put together to accompany the song by the YouTube channel ADA D which hosts loads of great and obscure ambient / chillout tracks, we particularly like the visuals accompanying the Enigma-tastic 'drop' starting around 2:17 *.* here it is:



The song is in slot 12 of 30 in semi-final 2, any and all support is appreciated x Elsewhere in semi-final 2, Persephonian protégé Truls has shown up in the contest again in slot 2, this time representing Yehesi with 'The Next' (Masquerade resulting in Yehesi recycling us twice, flattered x) - Truls provided our first top 3 hit ('Out Of Yourself', 3rd in BJSC 53) and has already been recycled and gone one place better for Kluminican Republic with 'Circles' in BJSC 79, will we see the trend continuing with Truls earning a much belated win? Time will tell. This is clearly much more entertaining than the speculation about Tone Damli.

(Late) BJSC Masquerade I summary: Persephonia pose unconvincingly as Terra Avium

The first BJSC spinoff of 2017 was held in Zaratigone, Séyetana and went by the name BJSC Masquerade (I), in which the participating countries were tasked with sending a track by an artist from the back catalogue of entries by a random other participating country. Persephonia normally abstains from artist recycling but in this case our hand was forced, and we settled for just recycling an artist whose original entry failed to qualify for the final.

As the contest was anonymous PNB were unable to reveal our assigned country or our entry earlier (although it was pretty much the worst-kept secret in the whole contest oops), but now the contest has concluded we can say that we were given Terra Avium, a bit of a handout for us given they are in our top 3 most voted for countries of all time (not even including numerous DNQs that would have received high points from us in a final). The Persephonian BJSC Committee was thus saved too much effort in finding a suitable entry, as it gave us an excuse to finally send a former main contest potential entry that was only retired from our potential list when the band was entered by Terra Avium.

The band in question is Icelandic/Faroese electronic music quartet Bloodgroup, who previously appeared in BJSC 63 for Terra Avium (actually Terra Dinosaur at the time lol) with the Girl Unit remix of 'Cut Out Your Tongue', which got 6 points from us in its semi-final but sadly fell a couple of points short of qualifying for the final. Our choice for BJSC Masquerade I was 'Fall', the lead single from their third and most recent studio album 'Tracing Echoes' which was released in March 2013 (and also included the original version of 'Cut Out Your Tongue'). One of the members of Bloodgroup, Janus Rasmussen, has in fact already represented Persephonia before as a member of Fura, our BJSC 70 entrant with the song 'Demons'. Here's the video for 'Fall', featuring a kid getting way too excited about finding a bottle of ketchup:



The first half of 'Fall' is fairly low-key and ~pleasant~ but the song (relatively) explodes into life a minute and a half in with 2 blasts of its infectious chorus, separated by a quirky synthy instrumental section. Overall it's a bit of an acquired taste of a song (no wonder their other entry DNQed really, as much of a banger as it was) so we didn't have high expectations for the spinoff. 'Fall' was drawn in slot 26 of 43 in the running order.

Ultimately the song did pretty okay considering how leftfield a choice it was, finishing 19th with a total of 94 points from 11 different countries (and a bit of help from being boosted ahead of 4 songs that received late/non-voting deductions). For a 4th spinoff in a row we didn't get any top scores, but we ranked in the top 3 for two countries, receiving 15 points from Land of DW and 13 points from Espen. Other double figure points came from Aeroche (12 points) and Jadakissnia (10 points), while we managed not to let down our assigned country with our choice of masquerade as Terra Avium awarded us 9 points. Thanks to all those and the others who voted for us (who we'll name as well as there weren't many of them and we weren't around to obnoxiously thank everyone live in the thread like we normally do: 9 points from Fljótavík, 8 points each from Flynnonda and Skall, 5 points from Deandria, 4 points from Niceland and 1 point from Cadelicia).

The country that was given Persephonia for the spinoff turned out to be Yehesi, who sent 'Kids On The Moon' by Kadie Elder, who represented Persephonia back in BJSC 54 with 'Simple Guy' which came second last in its semi-final (though more recently Kadie Elder had a #7 hit in BJSC 88 with 'First Time He Kissed A Boy', representing Singerpurear). Here's the song, and not the instrumental version which was accidentally the one linked in the thread for most of the voting period



Yehesi were among the countries that didn't vote in the spinoff, so 'Kids On The Moon' suffered a 33% points deduction from 70 points to 47, finishing a lowly 40th (it would have been around the high 30s otherwise). It was a pretty decent pop song but didn't quite make our own votes, finishing 22nd in our ranking, so we missed out on giving points to "Persephonia", aww.

As mentioned in the previous bulletin, South Danaelanda were the winners of BJSC Masquerade I, meaning they picked up their first wins in both main contests and spinoffs within days of each other after years of never winning anything. They were posing as Jadakissnia, and made the wise choice of recycling the artist behind Jadakissnia's best entry, FM-84. The original FM-84 entry 'Arcade Summer' came 9th in BJSC 87, but South Danaelanda's choice 'Running In The Night' (feat. Ollie Wride) achieved even wider appeal (maybe helped out by having vocals) and topped the table with 239 points. Hot on its heels was a very similar retro 80s-style synthy track, 'Jason' by The Midnight featuring Nikki Flores. That song was sent by Harmonica, posing as -π, and finished just 2 points behind on 237, becoming by far Harmonica's best performance in a spinoff (their first time making a top 10), and matched the 2nd place achieved in the original contest by The Midnight's 'The Years (Prologue)' in BJSC 69. Mulgracia (as Fljótavík) came 3rd with Dagny's 'Fool's Gold' (feat. BØRNS) on 214 points, followed by Ramrynia (as République d'Ashton) with Nina Nesbitt's 'Chewing Gum' 4th on 210 points and Aeroche (as Deandria) who chose the 'obvious' artist Allie X, but plumped for a little known remix of 'Hello' by PVLM BEACH, and came 5th with 203 points.

Completing the top 10, Skall posed as Kluminican Republic and took quirky three-time BJSC entrant Pogo into the top 10 for the first time, coming 6th with Harry Potter plunderphonics remix 'Alohomora' (following previous Pogo entries remixing Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz and Star Trek), Terra Avium themselves were given Altyr Muunilinst and duly chose the artist most unlike Altyr's usual sound (this is a good thing for us oops), Ramin Djawadi with his orchestral instrumental cover of 'Paint It Black' by The Rolling Stones and came 7th to match their most recent main contest finish, Jadakissnia did pretty well themselves as well as their impostor winning as they came 8th posing as Flynnonda with Tame Impala's 'Let It Happen' (which ensured Persephonia and Jadakissnia traded high points despite the anonymity #noblocvoting), Kluminican Republic were given St. Burbia and came 9th with Cadenza's 'People' (feat. Jorja Smith and Dre Island) - Jorja being the recycled artist here - and Quintessa posed as Medhelnia with FMLYBND's 'Letting Go' which finished 10th.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC Masquerade I
(note: the countries in curly brackets are the ones who actually sent the entries, those in quotation marks are the countries they were masquerading as)

Points awarded:
18 "FSR Rontvia" {Desbuanda} // Tensnake - Desire
15 "Skall" {Fljótavík} // Gang Gang Dance - MindKilla
13 "Altyr Muunilinst" {Terra Avium} // Ramin Djawadi - Paint It Black

12 "Flynnonda" {Jadakissnia} // Tame Impala - Let It Happen
11 "Kluminican Republic" {Skall} // Pogo - Alohomora
10 "Jadakissnia" {South Danaelanda} // FM-84 - Running In The Night (feat. Ollie Wride)
9 "-π" {Harmonica} // The Midnight - Jason (feat. Nikki Flores)
8 "Syndare" {Land of DW} // Alice And The Glass Lake - Paracosm
7 "Cadelicia" {Taahino} // twenty one pilots - Doubt
6 "Medhelnia" {Quintessa} // FMLYBND - Letting Go
5 "St. Burbia" {Kluminican Republic} // Cadenza - People (feat. Jorja Smith and Dre Island)
4 "Harmonica" {Deandria} // Sizzy Rocket - Spell On Me
3 "Espen" {Sandebörg} // Antique - Moro Mou
2 "Ojnoj" {Florina} // Kristinia DeBarge - Fadeout (feat. Iamsu!)
1 "Aelandor" {Pupok} // Missio - Middle Fingers

16th-42nd:
"République d'Ashton" {Ramrynia} // Nina Nesbitt - Chewing Gum
"Bøtanikkä" {Espen} // Wynter Gordon - Bad Thing
"Aeroche" {Medhelnia} // Toyboy & Robin - Can't Love Me (feat. Finnli)
"Unovia" {Niceland} // Haloo Helsinki! - Hulluuden Highway
"Quintessa" {Cor Lupus} // Panic! At The Disco - Emperor's New Clothes
"Hushkanukia" {Flynnonda} // Sumera - Animal
"Persephonia" {Yehesi} // Kadie Elder - Kids On The Moon
"Ultraviolenceland" {-π} // Noonie Bao - Reminds Me
"Deandria" {Aeroche} // Allie X - Hello (PVLM BEACH Remix)
"Pupok" {Altyr Muunilinst} // Aelyn - Not Me
"Cor Lupus" {Aelandor} // Atlas Genius - Molecules
"Beaverdonia" {Hushkanukia} // Gia Woods - Straight Up
"Séyetana" {Ajanaeda} // Tei Shi - Nevermind The End
"Yehesi" {Syndare} // Fox Stevenson and Mesto - Chatterbox
"Trifoski" {Ultraviolenceland} // Moxiie - Better Than Money
"Taahino" {République d'Ashton} // Crystalyne - Let's Do Something Crazy
"Desbuanda" {FSR Rontvia} // Heathers - Call Home
"Bignia-Zaragovina" {Ojnoj} // BoA and Beenzino - No Matter What
"Land of DW" {Beaverdonia} // BIGBANG - WE LIKE 2 PARTY
"Fljótavík" {Mulgracia} // Dagny - Fool's Gold (feat. BØRNS)
"Florina" {Cadelicia} // Vanic - Samurai (feat. Katy Tiz)
"Sandebörg" {Unovia} // Glasperlenspiel - Für Immer
"Mulgracia" {Bøtanikkä} // Chairlift - Ch-Ching
"South Danaelanda" {Bignia-Zaragovina} // Elena - Body Song
"Ramrynia" {Trifoski} // Smith & Thell - Statue (The Pills Song)
"Ajanaeda" {St. Burbia} // Marlon Roudette - Everybody Feeling Something (feat. KStewart)
"Niceland" {Séyetana} // AJR - Let The Games Begin

The next spinoff is already underway and appropriately following the very 80s feel to the top 2 of Masquerade I (plus an actual song from the 80s coming top 3 in BJSC 92), it's an 80s spinoff, held in first-time host nation Quintessa. Here's a nice and refreshing teaser for our upcoming entry.

Posted by: alt-Jade ∆ Mar 13 2017, 09:00 PM

Yay lots of words *.*

I am pleased that 'Colder' grew on me enough by the final for it to receive 2 points! I can breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't the evil one to quash our BJSC final point-swapping. Yay for us trading high points under the cloak of anonymity also in Masquerade! 'Fall' was such a lush discovery also feels good to be back in your write-up of the top 10 finishers in the spinoff.

The instrumentation of your 93 entry sounded pretty lovely from the plug snippet! Enigma are great so a project from one of their members is something I definitely look forward to hearing in full! Yassssss at us both flying the #longsongbloc flag *.*

Posted by: Mattias Mar 14 2017, 09:33 AM

Enigma is fantastic and so is this! Impressed with how it brings something quite different and magical to the contest.

chilled and meditative new-age / downtempo electronic vibes and ~mystic~ vocals bloc tbh Yay for someone bringing (at least) one of those in each semi aha. That's if my entry can be described as such, close enough eh

Posted by: Melobrama Mar 16 2017, 11:39 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/03/2017

Tangerine Dream represent Persephonia in BJSC 80s

The 80s spinoff of BJSC has kicked off tonight in Copperelli, Quintessa (after a slight entry clash hiccup which was thankfully quickly resolved ) so we can now announce our latest spinoff entry comes courtesy of German krautrock / electronic music collective Tangerine Dream, a highly prolific group whose only constant member was Edgar Froese who sadly passed away in 2015. The Persephonian BJSC Committee sought an artist similar to Kraftwerk for the contest and quickly discovered Tangerine Dream, with their vast back catalogue of mostly instrumental tunes, with more than 100 albums released by the project between its 1967 formation and the present day including plenty in the 80s leaving us spoilt for choice.

We ultimately settled on '21st Century Common Man (Part I)', a track from their 1987 album 'Tyger' - this album included some of their few dabblings into songs with vocals (which has made it controversial among their fanbase) but the song we have selected is an instrumental. 'Tyger' was the last of 16 albums by Tangerine Dream to make the UK top 100, peaking at #88; 8 of those charted albums made the top 40 with their one top 10 being 'Rubycon' which sneaked #10 in 1975, while they have also had two (barely) top 100 singles, peaking at #96 and #95. Here's our entry:



Tangerine Dream are mentioned on the Wikipedia article for synthwave as an act that inspired the genre, and you can tell this by this song, which sounds very 80s but also very much like something that could have been released in the past couple of years by a synthwave artist such as Persephonian alumni DANCE WITH THE DEAD. We hope people enjoy. '21st Century Common Man (Part I)' is the penultimate track in the running order, in slot 37 of 38.

Posted by: Melobrama Mar 16 2017, 11:42 PM

*.* x Haha yessss, though this just leaves it to probably end up being me that breaks the streak like I already did in the spinoffs Glad you were a big fan of 'Fall' as well ofc.



Hoorayyy for you being a fan, and definitely mutual appreciation in the #newagebloc this month

Posted by: Cucumberella Mar 18 2017, 03:20 AM

tangerine dream are one of my mum's favourite artists!!! i don't know if i'm familiar with this but u should deffo deffo deffo check out their hyperborea / force majeure albums

Posted by: Gabbe Mar 19 2017, 09:05 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 19/03/2017

Twilight of the Q streak :'(

Persephonia's hopes to get back to the top of the qualification streak list are gone again for now as we have sadly failed to make it to the final of BJSC 93, with Achillea's 'Ragnarok - Twilight Of The Gods' finishing only 28th out of 30 in semi-final 2 with 30 points to end our run of 8 qualifiers in a row. 30 points is not disastrous for a bottom 3 position but it's still the lowest points we've got in a semi-final since Kadie Elder's 'Simple Guy' got only 21 points to come second-last in its semi-final in BJSC 54, and it's the lowest position we've ever finished in, 'beating' 27th in the semi-final which we got with Yung Lean's 'Kyoto' in BJSC 80. At least we crashed out in some style Unovia qualified again to remain atop the list of longest qualification streaks, now at 11 in a row, with 2nd place now a four-way tie with Aeroche, Bøtanikkä, Cor Lupus and Harmonica all on 7 in a row.

The Persephonian BJSC Committee has vowed not to disown this entry (which it will continue to hold in high regard and simply sideeye tasteless heathens chalk its failure down to a risk not paying off) or seek to follow it up with a 'safe' choice out of the fear of consecutive DNQs, a fate which has not befallen our nation since the run of three non-qualifiers that started with 'Simple Guy' in BJSCs 54-56. Thanks go to the six countries that did send some points our way this month: we still managed to finish in the medal positions for two countries, with Espen and Terra Avium providing 2/3 of our points as both awarded us their 10, while we also received 6 points from Suedeonia, 2 from Quintessa and 1 each from Desbuanda and Séyetana.

8 of the songs Persephonia voted for in semi-final 2 qualified, though the two that dropped out alongside us were both in our top 4: we awarded 8 points to Séyetana's screamy electronicore jam 'Let Me Hear' by Fear, And Loathing In Las Vegas and 7 points to Tartford's 90s dance track 'High' by Hyper Go-Go, neither of which were surprising DNQs but nonetheless disappointing. From Persephonian voters' top 10 picks in semi-final 1, a further 3 failed to qualify: Musta Barbaari's 'Salil Eka Salil Vika' (Skall's entry) actually topped the Persephonian rankings for the semi-final (and the contest overall) but was never a likely qualifier and sadly came dead last with only 14 points from 2 voters. Also well short of progressing were -π with CVL† SH‡†'s 'ßƟD¥ ßΔGƵ' and D'yermak'er with Balvir Boparai's 'De De Gerra', ranked 5th and 7th respectively by Persephonia.

Can't remember if I came across any songs from those albums while searching but I shall check some of them out for sure! x

Posted by: Jade Mar 19 2017, 09:18 PM

What kind of tomfoolery from the semi 2 voters I would've predicted this through so to see it do as badly as 28th is really disappointing thank you for the discovery anyway! It was definitely far more instant and up my street than your entry last month. Aw at having to fly the Jadaphonia flag alone x

Hyped for your spinoff entry from: "Tangerine Dream are mentioned on the Wikipedia article for synthwave as an act that inspired the genre" *.*

Posted by: Cody Slayberry Mar 19 2017, 09:20 PM

Kinda weird that both world music and witch house both failed to make it when they've had stellar records before, looks like it's the new PC music

Posted by: Iz~ Mar 19 2017, 09:35 PM

We go down together x

(really should have done way better than that, could tell it was a grower though, that may have worked against it)

Posted by: Bré Mar 28 2017, 07:35 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 28/03/2017

BJSC 93 summary

- Ultraviolenceland's wait for a second BJSC win was not quite as long as their wait for the first - just two contests after their first victory with EASYFUN's 'Monopoly' (feat. Noonie Bao), they were announced on Sunday night to have been the winners again in BJSC 93 in South Danaelanda. 'In The Morning' by Jaded secured the win for them with a total of 362 points, also becoming their fourth consecutive top 10 hit after previously being unable to ever reach the top tier, and pushing them to a gigantic lead in the year to date list three contests into the year. The song also effortlessly won semi-final 1, becoming Ultraviolenceland's second semi-final winner following 'Monopoly'. It now looks like the contest may be heading back to 1989VideoCoast again sooner than we expected (though this is not yet confirmed).

- 'In The Morning' had tougher competition to win the contest than 'Monopoly' did - while that song won with a three-figure gap to 2nd place, this one had one close competitor throughout the reveal. The race for the win was between the two songs given the best odds but it seemed like it could go either way. The unlucky runner up in the end was Espen with Offer Nissim's 'Miracle Part A' (feat. Maya Simantov) which finished 20 points adrift. This marked the veteran nation's 3rd finish in a medal position, all of them being silver medals, meaning their wait for a first win continues (they are the country with the second most appearances without ever winning, with 79, second to Tinnmark's 85). They previously finished as runner up in BJSC 36 with Frida Gold's 'Wovon Sollen Wir Träumen' and more recently in BJSC 75 with Etienne De Crécy and Madeline Follin's 'You'. 'Miracle Part A' was, however, the other semi-final winner this month, providing Espen with their third semi-final win (after 'Wovon Sollen Wir Träumen' and BJSC 59 entry 'Tsunami' by DVBBS and Borgeous). It also received more 18s (6) than any other song this month and scored a bittersweet win in the http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=197485&view=findpost&p=5658606 using the Eurovision-style 12 point voting system rather than the current 18 point system. One day Espen. One day.

- As well as the top 2 matching their previous peaks, the top 5 also featured two countries reaching brand new peaks. The bronze medal went to Oslol with Miss Li's 'Aqualung', a way behind the leaders on 283 points. This marked Oslol's first ever medal position, beating their long-held #4 peak achieved in BJSC 66 with Dami Im's 'Super Love'. 'Aqualung' is Oslol's 5th top 10 hit, but the first for quite some time; the previous 4 were achieved in a 7-contest span between BJSCs 63 and 69 with the last being Jennifer Davies' 'Lapse Of Time' (James Njie Remix). In that same BJSC 69, Land of DW made their debut appearance (coming last in the semi-final, which they have done a further three times since). They've entered every contest since then and hit a previous high of 11th in BJSC 77 with Sam Bruno's 'Search Party', but now on their 25th attempt they've smashed that and got not only their first top 10 but their first top 5, coming 5th with Eivør's Faroese-language epic 'Í Tokuni' on 251 points (Tartford and N-Lazone were, and remain, the only countries with more entries to have never made the top 10, having 36 and 41 appearances to date respectively). Between Oslol and Land of DW, 4th place went to FARC who have made another comeback to the contest after sitting out the last 4 contests. Their return entry was 'Last Dance' by Rhys which received 271 points. This is their first top 10 hit since their massive win in BJSC 84 with Salt Ashes' 'Save It' and their 10th top 10 hit in all.

- One more country earned their first ever top 10 hit in this contest, though with a much shorter wait than Land of DW: Azure finished 7th with French Horn Rebellion's 'Dancing Out' (feat. Jody Watley and Young Empires), a massive improvement on their peak of 41st set with their debut entry (Marianas Trench's 'Celebrity Status') two months ago, seeing them start their BJSC run with a similar trajectory to Medhelnia, finding major success with their third entry after two flops. Kluminican Republic have had a rough run in the contest since they last saw the top 10 (BLEITCH's 'Speaking Of Moments', 10th in BJSC 81), with their last 4 entries failing to qualify, plus one other DNQ and three bottom 4 finishes in finals in the mean time. However they have found success again in BJSC 93, coming 6th with Studio Killers' 'Jenny' (outperforming Studio Killers' previous entry 'Ode To The Bouncer' which was a hit in several European countries, and came 7th for Batidas in BJSC 41). Host nation South Danaelanda came 8th with their auto-qualifying entry, retro trance instrumental 'Eurodancer' by DJ Mangoo; following their win in BJSC 92, this marked the country's first ever pair of back-to-back top 10 hits and gave them their 7th top 10 hit to date. Completing the top 10, Cadelicia came 9th with Julie Bergan's 'Arigato', a return to big success after a string of entries which underperformed compared to hype (why couldn't this be the one that underperformed tbh), and St. Burbia achieved their second top 10 finish two contests after the first, coming 10th with the Diztortion remix of Gyptian's 'All On Me' (feat. Lady Leshurr).

- Two further countries set new national bests in addition to the 3 in the top 10: Buzzjack Mountain, like Azure, had only one previous qualifier which came last in the final (Water Juice's 'In Love' (feat. Audrey Graham), 41st in BJSC 89). They qualified again this month with JX's 'Restless' (a 2004 UK #22 hit) and did a bit better in the final this time, setting a new peak of 29th. Meanwhile, Aelandor made it through to the final for a 3rd time (out of 10 entries to date) with Breanne Düren's 'Dear Adelaide'. Their previous peak was also in BJSC 89, 37th place with Sœur's 'Pass Out', and this time they managed to just barely beat that, coming 36th. Still, 2 out of 3 qualifiers in 2017 so far is better going than 1 out of 7 in 2016. Flynnonda didn't quite manage to get a new peak but did revisit their best finish of 15th with VUKOVI's 'La Di Da' (they previously came 15th in BJSC 78 with XYconstant's 'Silverlined'). 'La Di Da' also marked the first time Flynnonda have ever qualified for 2 finals in a row, having been constant participants since debuting in BJSC 74.

- As well as FARC, 2 other countries made returns in this contest and both of them also qualified. Deandria sat out BJSC 92 but were back with a vengeance this month and achieved one of their best results to date, coming 11th with Fakear's 'Ankara'. Their only top ten hits remain their 4th-place debut way back in BJSC 11 with Ladytron's 'Destroy Everything You Touch' and their winner 'Sanctuary' by Allie X (BJSC 81), but this is a big success for Deandria who were on a run of 5 DNQs in a row before their disappearance last month. The other returnees were Suedeonia who missed the last 3 contests largely due to ~real world~ health issues which thankfully seem to be resolved for now. Their comeback entry 'Alone Again Or' by Love dates all the way back to 1968 and has featured in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time, but was never a hit in the UK. Until now of course, as it came 34th in the all-important BJSC (a marked improvement on scraping through in 20th place in the incredibly tight semi-final 2). BJSC 93 was a rare contest with 100% voting turnout, so no one is banned for next month, hooray. #00274E however did submit votes slightly late and were thus subject to a 15% deduction with the iconic CupcakKe's 'LGBT' - that had to settle for 18th place. It would have finished 11th (losing a tiebreak for the top 10) without the deduction.

- This month's wooden spoon was awarded to Avalonia, coming 41st and last with SVRCINA's 'Burning Heart' which received 78 points. The last three entries from Avalonia have all qualified but finished bottom 5 in the final. Incidentally, we were very nearly in a situation where there would only be 38 songs in the final (the final size falls to 37/38 instead of 41/42 if there are fewer than 61 entries in total) - at the close of confirmations there were only 60 entries, however an exception was made to allow a late entry from Usfland to scrape the 61 entry threshold again. That Usfland entry, Lido's 'So Cold' (Minnesota Remix) qualified for the final but nearly got the wooden spoon itself, coming 40th. Without that Usfland entry, we may not have seen the aforementioned Suedeonia entry in the final, or the entries by Taahino and Desbuanda who also scraped through in the last couple of qualification slots in their semi-finals. Despite this, both of those songs actually did moderately well in the final: Desbuanda were as high as 23rd with Paper Route's 'Chariots' and Taahino came 27th with K.Flay's 'High Enough'. On the flipside, Yehesi entry 'The Next' by Truls would have been an auto-qualifier had the Usfland entry not been allowed, but in the end actually didn't qualify at all. Oops.

- Other noteworthy results: Aeroche celebrated their 50th entry anniversary, sending 'Snow Globe' by Dux Content (a duo on the PC Music label consisting of label founder/Aeroche BJSC winner A. G. Cook and two-time BJSC top 5 artist Danny L Harle), but the celebrations were a little dampened by a 17th place finish, fairly low by Aeroche standards. Sad! (That said, we'd happily take a 17th place finish ourselves the way this year is going for us so far. x) République d'Ashton were a late voter in the semi-final but qualified despite the resulting 15% deduction; they came 31st in the final with Bec Sandridge's 'You're A Fucking Joke', a not-so-subtle reference to certain events in the previous contest (although actually quite a good song - who said we were anti-Ashton?) Finally, fellow moderator nation Bignia-Zaragovina came 35th with Shane Harper's 'Like I Did' to match the highest position they achieved in 2016. Since their last top 20 hit (Astrid S' '2AM', 12th in BJSC 74), Bignia-Zaragovina have suffered 12 DNQs, two last-place finishes in the final and a 37th place as well as their previous 35th place (White Night Ghosts' 'Hope' in BJSC 82). Why oh why do we do this to our moderators... (or if we must could we at least make it Ramrynia?)

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 93

Final

Points awarded:
18 FSR Rontvia // Tina Guo - Super Mario Bros.
15 Land of DW // Eivør - Í Tokuni
13 Jadakissnia // aYia - Ruins

12 Deandria // Fakear - Ankara
11 South Danaelanda // DJ Mangoo - Eurodancer
10 Summericia // Carpenter Brut - Turbo Killer
9 Fljótavík // Fang Island - Daisy
8 St. Burbia // Gyptian - All On Me (Diztortion Remix) (feat. Lady Leshurr)
7 Flynnonda // VUKOVI - La Di Da
6 Bøtanikkä // Tsar B - Escalate
5 Beaverdonia // The Drapers - Yakety Yak
4 Desbuanda // Paper Route - Chariots
3 Kluminican Republic // Studio Killers - Jenny
2 Buzzjack Mountain // JX - Restless
1 #00274E // CupcakKe - LGBT

16th-41st:
Avalonia // SVRCINA - Burning Heart
Usfland // Lido - So Cold (Minnesota Remix)
Trifoski // Pepe Deluxé - A Night And A Day
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // The Beach - Bite My Tongue
Suedeonia // Love - Alone Again Or
Azure // French Horn Rebellion - Dancing Out (feat. Jody Watley and Young Empires)
Ultraviolenceland // Jaded - In The Morning
Aelandor // Breanne Düren - Dear Adelaide
Altyr Muunilinst // Man Without Country - Laws Of Motion (feat. White Sea)
République d'Ashton // Bec Sandridge - You're A Fucking Joke
Dobago // Tash Sultana - Jungle
Aeroche // Dux Content - Snow Globe
Cor Lupus // Gromee - Spirit (feat. Mahan Moin)
Unovia // Isabell Otrebus - Voiceless
Taahino // K.Flay - High Enough
Hushkanukia // Ryder - Nirvana
Harmonica // ARY - Higher
Bignia-Zaragovina // Shane Harper - Like I Did
Sandebörg // Liis Lemsalu - Keep Running
Espen // Offer Nissim - Miracle Part A (feat. Maya Simantov)
FARC // Rhys - Last Dance
New Lexico // Call Me Loop - As If
Tinnmark // Rytmeklubben - Like That
Oslol // Miss Li - Aqualung
Ramrynia // Greta Zazza - Like I Love You
Cadelicia // Julie Bergan - Arigato

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 Land of DW // Eivør - Í Tokuni
10 Fljótavík // Fang Island - Daisy
8 Séyetana // Fear, And Loathing In Las Vegas - Let Me Hear^†

7 Tartford // Hyper Go-Go - High^†
6 St. Burbia // Gyptian - All On Me (Diztortion Remix) (feat. Lady Leshurr)
5 Beaverdonia // The Drapers - Yakety Yak
4 Buzzjack Mountain // JX - Restless
3 #00274E // CupcakKe - LGBT
2 Kluminican Republic // Studio Killers - Jenny
1 Desbuanda // Paper Route - Chariots

11th-29th:
Avalonia // SVRCINA - Burning Heart
Yehesi // Truls - The Next^†
Altyr Muunilinst // Man Without Country - Laws Of Motion (feat. White Sea)
Suedeonia // Love - Alone Again Or
Azure // French Horn Rebellion - Dancing Out (feat. Jody Watley and Young Empires)
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // The Beach - Bite My Tongue
Quintessa // Woolf And The Wondershow - Cages^†
Terra Avium // Conner Youngblood - The Warpath^†
Pupok // Bip Ling - Curry^†
Unovia // Isabell Otrebus - Voiceless
Niceland // OHEY - Remember (feat. Emily Jean)^†
Harmonica // ARY - Higher
Hushkanukia // Ryder - Nirvana
Espen // Offer Nissim - Miracle Part A (feat. Maya Simantov)
FARC // Rhys - Last Dance
Hendinia // XYLØ - I Still Wait For You^†
Medhelnia // Ella Vos - White Noise (R3hab Remix)^†
Ramrynia // Greta Zazza - Like I Love You
Cadelicia // Julie Bergan - Arigato

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 1 DNQs

1st Skall // Musta Barbaari - Salil Eka Salil Vika
5th -π // CVL† SH‡† - ßƟD¥ ßΔGƵ
7th D'yermak'er // Balvir Boparai - De De Gerra
12th Kylienips // Methyl Ethel - Ubu
13th Aesthetica // Poppy - I'm Poppy
14th Singerpurear // Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst)
21st Zanmatony // Schwarz - Home
22nd Bhangra // Hedia - Your Mind (feat. Kristen Marie)
24th Mulgracia // Benjamin Zane and Chris Cage - Winter Night (Chris Cage Hardstyle Mix)
25th Daehun // SUNMI - 24 Hours

Posted by: danG Mar 28 2017, 07:58 PM

Unless I'm remembering wrong, BJSC 82 was also one of these rare contests. I'd like to think that both were S DNLD contests was not a coincidence

Posted by: Вuzzjack Mar 28 2017, 08:03 PM

Tangerine Dream I would say with the progressiveness of that 21st Century Common Man song and the fast synths on top of the longer emotive synths were a major influence on later trance too as well as synthwave.

Posted by: Bré Mar 28 2017, 08:14 PM

Ikr xx At least you kinda slayed for Jadaphonia. x If only I had you and Mattias in my semi glad you were a bigger fan this time.



#séyephoniasolidarity (I might be about to join you in embracing sending a couple of songs that have no hope of qualifying but that I really love anyway, pray for me etc.)



That is correct! Your two contests are the only ones in the last couple of years, the other ones before that were BJSCs 1, 4, 19, 25, 50, 54, 56, 68 (one I hosted yass) and 74.

Posted by: Bré 🐱 Apr 2 2017, 01:26 AM

Posted by: Bré 🐱 Apr 14 2017, 12:18 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 14/04/2017

BJSC 80s summary

Persephonia finished 24th out of 38 in the BJSC 80s spinoff in Quintessa with Tangerine Dream's '21st Century Common Man (Part I)', receiving 75 points from 13 countries. We're still yet to receive anyone's top points in a spinoff since Worldvision II but Tangerine Dream did nab 15 points from Terra Avium, the only country to rank it in their top 3. We also attracted points from several countries that haven't entered many other recent spinoffs (a couple of which have also been absent from BJSC entirely for a while) but were attracted in by this one's theme, with the countries that voted for Tangerine Dream including Land of Jack, PRoJ, Summericia, Tartford and Usfland, as well as the brand new nation Lotunia who made their debut here while they still await becoming eligible to join the main contest. Yay fresh blood. x 24th place isn't our best spinoff position but we were pleased to find ourselves next to our allies Jadakissnia in the final scoreboard - they joined us in sending an instrumental, one of the only other two in the contest, with Ryo Kawasaki's 'Hawaiian Caravan' which finished just ahead of us in 23rd. #jadaphonia

The winner of the spinoff (by a comfortable 40 point margin) was Aeroche with the extended version of Sandra's 'In The Heat Of The Night', scoring 247 points. This followed up Sandra having a surprise smash in the main contest with '(I'll Never Be) Maria Magdalena' back in BJSC 77, coming 6th to provide Singerpurear their first top 10 hit, so possibly an early inspiration for this spinoff happening in the first place, making her a fitting winner. Somewhat surprisingly this is the first time that 7-time main contest winners Aeroche have won a spinoff - they came 2nd three times before, in both the 90s and 00s editions of Dance Anthems (with Grace's 'Not Over Yet' and Rui Da Silva's 'Touch Me' (feat. Cass Fox) respectively) and in Foreign Language II with Kraftwerk's 'Tour De France Étape 2'. Back to the 80s, the aforementioned PRoJ made a rare return to the contest having been in hibernation for over a year, and they made a big impact with their return, coming 2nd in the spinoff with The Smiths' classic 'How Soon Is Now?' on 207 points. Aelandor completed the top 3, receiving 200 points with Berlin's 'Like Flames', giving them their best spinoff finish to date after coming 10th twice before (and of course continuing to get much better results in spinoffs in general than the main contest). Hushkanukia came 4th with Shannon's 'Let The Music Play' on 189 points, while Usfland (or should we now say East Rukahavian x) came 5th with Yes' 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' on 187 points, both songs having been sampled in UK hits in more recent years. Usfland have only entered 3 spinoffs to date, the last being Xmas Special II in 2015 (where they also came top 5, beating their peak of 7th place in main contests).

Completing the top 10, Mulgracia were 6th with Pat Benatar's 'Love Is A Battlefield', the stars of BJSC 2017 so far Ultraviolenceland managed 7th place with A Flock Of Seagulls' 'I Ran', Bøtanikkä came 8th with 'La Luna' by Belinda Carlisle, Avalonia came 9th with Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love A Bad Name' Ankie Bagger's 'Where Were You Last Night' and South Danaelanda sneaked in 10th again with another all-time classic, Frankie Knuckles' 'Your Love' (RIP Frankie Knuckles) following their win in the previous spinoff. 6 of their 8 spinoff top 10 finishes to date have been either 9th or 10th.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 80s

Points awarded:
18 PRoJ // The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?
15 Trifoski // Clan Of Xymox - A Day
13 South Danaelanda // Frankie Knuckles - Your Love

12 Aeroche // Sandra - In The Heat Of The Night (Extended Version)
11 Jadakissnia // Ryo Kawasaki - Hawaiian Caravan
10 Suedeonia // Youssou N'Dour - The Lion / Gaïende
9 Terra Avium // Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
8 Ultraviolenceland // A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran
7 Cor Lupus // Mark Safan - Win In The End
6 Espen // Eddy Huntington - USSR
5 Flynnonda // Fancy - Lady Of Ice
4 Unovia // Kate Bush - Suspended In Gaffa
3 Aelandor // Berlin - Like Flames
2 Land of Jack // Mysterious Art - Das Omen - Teil 1
1 Taahino // Siouxsie And The Banshees - The Passenger

16th-37th:
Summericia // Barbi And The Kens - Just A Gigolo
Pupok // Mel Brooks - To Be Or Not To Be (The Hitler Rap)
Séyetana // Yellow Magic Orchestra - You've Got To Help Yourself
Aesthetica // Hitomi Tohyama - Tuxedo Connection
Avalonia // Ankie Bagger - Where Were You Last Night
Usfland // Yes - Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Fljótavík // Stu Phillips - Knight Rider Main Title
Lotunia // Radka Toneff and Steve Dobrogosz - The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
Altyr Muunilinst // Olivia Newton-John - Twist Of Fate
Ramrynia // ABBA - The Visitors
Tartford // Scarlet Fantastic - No Memory
Hushkanukkia // Shannon - Let The Music Play
République d'Ashton // Joan Jett And The Blackhearts - I Hate Myself For Loving You
Harmonica // Scandal - The Warrior
Beaverdonia // Pimpinela - Olvidame Y Pega La Vuelta
Niceland // The Kane Gang - Don't Look Any Further
Cadelicia // Cyndi Lauper - The Goonies 'R' Good Enough
Mulgracia // Pat Benatar - Love Is A Battlefield
Bøtanikkä // Belinda Carlisle - La Luna
Quintessa // Patti LaBelle - New Attitude
FSR Rontvia // Style - Dover-Calais
St. Burbia // Letitia Dean and Paul Medford - Something Outa Nothing

Once again it has taken us a while to post this summary oop~ and as such we have already confirmed for the next spinoff. The theme this time is Japan vs. South Korea, with Cadelicia serving as the hosts. Persephonia have confirmed a track we've had in our potential list for some time and now have a good excuse to send...



Persephonia hoping for a trip to success in BJSC 94 with KNARS

editor's note: KNARS were known by the name Knarsetand during the original contest, I've edited the posts in this thread and other stats-related threads to refer to the new name instead x

BJSC 94 has kicked off, with last month's winners Ultraviolenceland due to host the final again, while leaving semi-final hosting duties in the capable hands of their co-hosts Hushkanukia (semi-final 1) and Unovia (semi-final 2). Persephonia are hoping to return to the BJSC final after our misfire last month, with our 73rd main contest entry 'Bad Trip' by KNARS, a 7-strong group from the Netherlands. In contrast to our archival choice last month, 'Bad Trip' is a brand new release, coming out just days before confirmations opened for this contest (and thus forcing the Persephonian BJSC Committee into a late change of entry). It is presumably the lead single from an upcoming 2nd album from KNARS, following up their 2014 debut 'My Escape' and a 2015 EP 'Fantasy'. This entry is our second of the year by a Dutch act, two months after End Of The Dream's 'Colder', and our third in all.

KNARS' music is a mish-mash of many genres from breakbeat/drum n bass to reggae/ska to garage punk to hip-hop. 'Bad Trip' is a ska and rap-influenced big beat track very much in the vein of The Prodigy (listed as an influence on their Facebook page alongside the likes of Pendulum, Chase And Status and Rage Against The Machine), a sound that Persephonia has wanted to send for a while but failed to come across inspired examples of until now. As if sounding like The Prodigy wasn't selling it to the Persephonian BJSC Committee enough already, it's also equipped with a brutal and brilliant music video which is clearly heavily inspired by that of The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up', featuring a first-person view of a man making his way through an 'insane setting' to try and find his lost daughter, along the way getting involved in a fist fight and taking part in a round of Russian roulette (viewer discretion is advised: someone loses x). Watch the video below, and remember, don't do drugs kids x



Sadly the music video is only for a slightly shorter version of the song, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGy-KPRH6jU for the official audio of the full version, it's worth the extra minute and a bit. 'Bad Trip' has been drawn in slot 10 of 33 in semi-final 2, any and all support is appreciated!

Posted by: Jade 🐱 Apr 14 2017, 12:27 AM

'Bad Trip' is SO good. My favourite entry of yours in 2017! 'Happy End Of The World' is of course amazing too but I think that had less strong competition. I just cannot resist those The Prodigy vibes, slay me with your high octane banger The plug reception for it was brilliant, I know you should take it with a pinch of salt but lots of strong favourable opinions were shown so I hope this can translate into success. I am sure you'll breeze through to the final and I hope to see you back in the top 10 for the first time in a while!!

definitely the highlight of the spinoff tbh x

Really pleased that you took to 'Hawaiian Caravan' so much and your entry was a real highlight of the spinoff too. #instrumentalbloc ftw x

Posted by: Bré 🐱 Apr 15 2017, 10:31 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 15/04/2017

KNARS return us to the final!

Persephonia have avoided starting a DNQ streak again as KNARS' 'Bad Trip' has qualified for the final of BJSC 94 in 1989VideoCoast, Ultraviolenceland, our 54th finalist! This puts us back on the list of active qualification streaks (right at the bottom again of course but huzzah for getting back on it promptly after last month's failure). Unovia, an early favourite to win this contest, of course had no issues making it through, continuing to lead the list with their 12th qualifier in a row. Bøtanikkä and Harmonica both lost their streaks, leaving two runners-up to Unovia, with both Aeroche and Cor Lupus qualifying for the 8th time in a row. 'Bad Trip' is up early in the final running order, appearing as song 2 of 41!

Unfortunately for the second month in a row we lost both our 8 pointer and our 7 pointer in our semi-final: sporadic entrants Pagasa made another return this month but sadly fell short again with 80s gem 'The Downtown Lights' by The Blue Nile, our bronze medallist. Our 7 points went to Terra Avium who fell heartbreakingly short of the final (losing out on a tiebreak) with their latest spooky instrumental, Varien's 'Lilith'. Aside from these two we also lost our 2 pointer, Apocalyptica's 'Faraway Vol. 2' (feat. Linda Sundblad and Dave Lombardo) representing Land of DW. Over in semi-final 1, Persephonian voters also have to sadly wave goodbye to 3 of their top 10: another returning nation Ajanaeda were ranked 5th for us with Hundred Waters' 'Xtalk', while Skall had another Nordic hip-hop DNQ with Kjartan Lauritzen's 'Fredag', ranked 7th by us (the song had a 33% deduction for Skall not voting on time but would have DNQed regardless) and Avalonia's soundtrack instrumental entry 'The Winter Soldier' by Henry Jackman finished in last place in the semi-final with just 9 points, after being ranked 8th by the Persephonian public.

Persephonia go orchestral for Japan vs. South Korea

Tonight has also seen the unveiling of the entries in the BJSC Japan vs. South Korea spinoff in Cadelicia. We have chosen to go with a Japanese act (as did most people, as only 8 of the 26 entries are Korean!) but perhaps a slightly ~unorthodox~ one. Taking some inspiration from FSR Rontvia's recent BJSC entry 'Super Mario Bros.', the Persephonian BJSC Committee chose to revive a piece of music they'd considered sending to BJSC before, the theme music to the Gusty Garden Galaxy from the 2007 Nintendo Wii title Super Mario Galaxy. The music is taken from the game's official soundtrack, released as a Japanese Club Nintendo (RIP) exclusive in 2008 and credited to Mario Galaxy Orchestra (composed by Mahito Yokota).

Like the rest of the game's soundtrack, it is a full orchestral production, and it's a second consecutive instrumental spinoff entry from Persephonia. Galaxy has plenty of great music in it but this theme in particular has always stood out to us as a proper beauty, we hope that some people will enjoy it even without the context of the game it comes from. Have a listen below:



'Gusty Garden Galaxy' appears as song 24 in the spinoff.

edit: video link replaced as the old one got taken down x

~

Oh I wish @ it being a top 10, I have fingers crossed it might be my first top 20 of the year though! V glad you're such a fan again anyway x

Posted by: IrnJacobru Apr 16 2017, 03:19 AM

Bad Trip is actually a fairly good trip. x

It's weird but fantastic.

Posted by: Brer Apr 30 2017, 01:20 AM

Posted by: Brer May 10 2017, 04:39 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 10/05/2017
coursework-delayed catchup edition [1/2]

BJSC 94 summary

- In the final of BJSC 94 in 1989VideoCoast, Ultraviolenceland, KNARS' 'Bad Trip' earned us our biggest hit of the year so far, finishing 19th out of 41, our first top 20 hit of 2017 and with year to date highs of 197 points and 23 voters. 'Bad Trip' was our first finalist for a while (since Digitalism's 'Blitz' in BJSC 82) to not earn any country's top points, but it did rank in the medal positions for 5 countries, receiving 15 points each from Bøtanikkä, East Rukahavian and Thelonia and 13 each from Buzzjack Mountain and Jadakissnia. Our last entry to get more than 4 votes in the medal positions was Color Guard's 'In Your Bones' in BJSC 85 with 7 such votes. 'Bad Trip' was revealed to have come 11th out of 33 in semi-final 2 with 74 points (two more than End Of The Dream's 'Colder' but finishing in a lower position), which gave it a projected final position of 23rd.

- Back in BJSC 59, The Kite String Tangle's 'Given The Chance' became Trifoski's 2nd winner, narrowly beating D'yermak'er's entry 'Embrace' by Goldroom. Neither country had been seen in the top 3 since then but now, over three years later, BJSC 94 turned out to be a rematch. In the end history repeated and Trifoski prevailed again, earning their third win with Drones Club's 'Hurricane' on a total of 327 points, ending a much longer win drought than their last one (they only had to wait three months after they first won with Ghost Loft's 'So High' in BJSC 56), meaning BJSC 95 is currently taking place in Trifoskian capital Mrkyvka. This marked Trifoski's 3rd top 10 hit out of their last 5 entries and their 12th top 10 hit in total to date. D'yermak'er settled for the silver medal again with Oh Wonder's 'Ultralife' which received 315 points; they are yet to win a main contest, this being their 13th top 10 hit and their third medallist following 'Embrace' and SZA's 'Julia' which came third one contest before that.

- Like both of the top 2, the country that came 3rd also earnt its 3rd medal position, but have done it considerably quicker, having debuted in BJSC 74 and first coming top 3 only as recently as BJSC 88. It is of course Jadakissnia, who received 290 points to finish in the bronze medal slot with BÖ's 'Waqqaberry', lifting their tally of top 10 hits to nine and following none other than us in landing an Arabic-language track in the BJSC top 3 *.* though not quite going all the way to #1 like we did with A-WA's 'Habib Galbi'. Ojnoj - a returning country this month after two months out - have been absent from the BJSC top 10 almost as long as Trifoski and D'yermak'er from the top 3, last finishing in the top tier in BJSC 60 with Christian Burns, Paul Oakenfold and JES' 'As We Collide' (9th). It's been even longer since their last top 5, fourth-placed 'Like Home' by Nicky Romero and NERVO in BJSC 52. They matched that position this time around with SAARA's 'Superpowers' on a total of 284 points, their 11th top 10 hit. Completing the top 5 was a third country matching their highest finish to date, Singerpurear with Vitalic's 'Waiting For The Stars' (feat. David Shaw And The Beat) on 270 points, an emphatic return to the final after they had started building up a DNQ streak again (failing to make the final with their previous 4 entries), giving them their fourth top 10 hit and matching Kishi Bashi's 'I Am The Antichrist To You' which also came 5th in BJSC 78. It's worth noting though that that only came top 5 following Aquafina's disqualification that month, so 'Waiting For The Stars' is arguably their first real top 5 finish. It received 18 points from 5 countries, more than any other song in this contest.

- The last 4 BJSC winners had all also been semi-final winners, and the first six semi-final winners of 2017 all came at least 4th in the final. Not so this time around: semi-final 1 winner 'Kings & Queens' by Brooke Fraser, representing Unovia, was heavily tipped to win the contest but ultimately came 'only' 6th (Unovia's 13th top 10 hit) while the winner of semi-final 2, and projected winner of the contest based on points scored in the semi-finals, was FARC's entry 'Bad Things' by Noella Nix which settled for 7th place (nonetheless making FARC the only country from BJSC 93's top 10 to come top 10 again in BJSC 94, and becoming FARC's 11th top 10 hit in total). The actual winner had the opposite trajectory: 'Hurricane' finished only 6th in its semi-final. BJSC 74 was the last contest whose top 5 contained neither semi-final winner (in fact that time both semi-final winners somehow ended up outside the final top 15). In recent years, Hendinia DNQing has usually been accompanied by them not voting in the final and subsequently sitting out the following contest, but this wasn't the case following their BJSC 93 DNQ and they've instead followed it with a top 10 hit, coming 8th with Dolly Style's 'Bye Bye Bby Boo', their second top 10 of the year and 36th in total. Dobago earnt their 6th top 10 hit to date with Sagi Abitbul's 'Mariko' coming 9th (only five contests after Abitbul came 4th for Bøtanikkä with Guy Haliva collaboration 'Stanga', and clearly he spied a winning formula with that track as 'Mariko' has near identical structure even down to the Bulgarian folk vocal sample!) and the top 10 was completed by kings of top 10 scraping Hushkanukia with another foreign language track, Oonagh's 'Aulë Und Yavanna', also their 6th top 10 hit with the last five all coming either 9th or 10th. 'Aulë Und Yavanna' was the most successful of 4 German language entries in this contest, just about beating Espen entry 'Instance Of Time' by Mark Dekoda (11th place), while Pupok came 21st with Jennifer Rostock's 'Schlaflos', a decent performance for a near six minute foreign language rock song but underwhelming compared to some early predictions, and New Lexico were a slightly surprising DNQ with Glasperlenspiel's 'Geiles Leben'.

- Two countries set new national bests in BJSC 94. Alteria were one of four countries who made their debut in BJSC 51, alongside D'yermak'er, Singerpurear and Trifoski. So in the month that all three of those revisited their own national bests, it was only appropriate that sporadic participants Alteria were back again and also at their peak, as they managed to make it to the final for the first time ever (it was fourth time lucky for them after previous attempts in BJSCs 51, 67 and 87 fell short of the final). Confidence Man's 'Bubblegum' finished 28th in Alteria's maiden final. Unfortunately getting a qualifier still hasn't been enough to convince them to stick around for more than a month at a time but there is hope for the near future (and they did show up in last month's spinoff as well, although ended up coming last there - maybe this is why they've been scared off again??) The other country officially registering a new peak was Aelandor, coming 34th with Port Blue's 'Up Ship!', two places higher than their last new peak set one month earlier with Breanne Düren's 'Dear Adelaide'. However, it later became clear that even though 'Up Ship!' outperformed all of Aelandor's previous legitimate qualifiers, it actually shouldn't have been in the final at all, making it through by way of a ~clerical error~ (over rightful qualifier 'Lilith' by Varien, Terra Avium's entry). Oops. Let's just appreciate that even though it shouldn't have been there, 'Up Ship!' was a wonderful finalist and a much deserved new peak, much as we weep for 'Lilith'. And let's also not mention the other Aelandor-related clerical error that also occurred in BJSC 94. There was also one country making its debut appearance in BJSC 94 - Rolloland took the bold choice of starting their BJSC career with a 9 minute progressive rock track, 'Routine' by Steven Wilson. Perhaps aided by a beautiful and hard-hitting music video, the gamble paid off as they finished a very solid 12th place in their first contest (and also immediately earned the coveted honour of receiving 18s from both Persephonia and Jadakissnia <3).

- With no countries banned for this contest and only two (Beaverdonia and Deandria) bowing out of their own accord, participation numbers grew to their highest of the year with 67 entries. As well as Rolloland's debut and the previously mentioned returns of Ojnoj and Alteria, there were 5 other returning nations, though the only one to qualify for the final was Republic of Adonia who were back from serving another one-month non-voting ban and came 39th with Sabrina Carpenter's 'Smoke And Fire'. Thelonia came back from a ban as well but fell miles short of the final this time. We were treated to another (brilliant) entry from Pagasa although like with their last attempted comeback in BJSC 90 they DNQed and subsequently didn't vote in the final, so now face another one month ban. Also returning only to DNQ and then get themselves banned again for not voting in the final was Ajanaeda. A third country, Mulgracia, also didn't vote in the final and were thus banned from BJSC 95 but it seems for the time being that we may have seen the last of them (bearing in mind this happened once before and they ended up returning fairly swiftly). Finally, we also had another comeback after a long absence from Mezidinia - they sat out the last 21 contests, and their last entry was itself a return after sitting out 13 contests. Their latest comeback, like the last, failed to qualify, and indeed they have still only qualified once ever (with M.O's 'Ain't Got Time', 14th in BJSC 53), while DNQing now 11 times. They are sticking around for at least one more contest this time though so there is hope for a second Mezidinia qualifier in the near future. The country previously known as Usfland rebranded to East Rukahavian in this contest; their first entry under the new moniker also fell well short of the final, as the country is no stranger to doing.

- The wooden spoon in BJSC 94, finishing 41st out of 41, was Yehesi's entry 'Walk Away' by Ella On The Run. 'Walk Away' actually qualified in 18th place in its semi-final with 50 points but only barely improved on that total in the final despite having twice the number of potential voters and the 18 point system instead of the 12 point system, its final points total being 58. That's a new low for a non-deducted song since the current contest format (using the 12 point system in the semi-finals and the 18 point system in the final) was introduced in BJSC 74, the previous low water mark being the 59 points received by Tartford entry 'Reaction' by Alex Gaudino and Jerma in BJSC 84. (Medhelnia came last in BJSC 90 with Blitz//Berlin's 'Surfboard Fire' on just 45 points, but notably this was an auto-qualifier, and was also subject to a 30% deduction, having originally scored 64 points). The only other country to fall short of 100 points was Kylienips, 40th place on 94 points with Phil Good's 'Growing Up'.

- Other noteworthy results: Taahino notched up their first top 20 hit of the year, coming 20th with SAINTE's 'With Or Without Me', bringing their tally of top 20 hits up to 9 while they are still yet to finish higher than 14th; FSR Rontvia came 26th with Huntza's 'Aldapan Gora' which is not statistically interesting but worth a mention just because it is a BJSC entry in the Basque language *.*; Bignia-Zaragovina improved further on their previous finish and came 29th with Sabina Ddumba's 'Did It For The Fame', their first top 30 hit since BJSC 74; Ultraviolenceland's run of four top 10s in a row came to a halt with their auto-qualifying entry 'Shotgun' by Rebecca & Fiona finishing a mediocre 31st, after three previous BJSC entries by Rebecca & Fiona finished between 21st and 27th.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 94

Final

Points awarded:
18 Rolloland // Steven Wilson - Routine
15 Aelandor // Port Blue - Up Ship!
13 Singerpurear // Vitalic - Waiting For The Stars (feat. David Shaw And The Beat)

12 Jadakissnia // BÖ - Waqqaberry
11 Quintessa // Driftmoon - Genesis (feat. DSharp)
10 Espen // Mark Dekoda - Instance Of Time
9 Séyetana // Epica - Beyond The Matrix
8 Hushkanukia // Oonagh - Aulë Und Yavanna
7 #00274E // X0809 - HO
6 Alteria // Confidence Man - Bubblegum
5 Aeroche // Merely - Backdraft
4 Trifoski // Drones Club - Hurricane
3 Oslol // Moment - Indigo
2 Azure // GNUČČI - Finders Keepers
1 FSR Rontvia // Huntza - Aldapan Gora

16th-40th:
Pupok // Jennifer Rostock - Schlaflos
Aesthetica // Lil Debbie - Push (feat. Moksi)
Dobago // Sagi Abitbul - Mariko
Kluminican Republic // SOFI TUKKER - Awoo (feat. Betta Lemme)
Ultraviolenceland // Rebecca & Fiona - Shotgun
Taahino // SAINTE - With Or Without Me
Unovia // Brooke Fraser - Kings & Queens
Fljótavík // Off Bloom - Falcon Eye
Kylienips // Phil Good - Growing Up
Yehesi // Ella On The Run - Walk Away
FARC // Noella Nix - Bad Things
Cor Lupus // Mirror Talk - Some Boys
D'yermak'er // Oh Wonder - Ultralife
Summericia // Ericka Jane - Bad Like You
Ramrynia // Thomas Rhett - Craving You (feat. Maren Morris)
Hendinia // Dolly Style - Bye Bye Bby Boo
Ojnoj // SAARA - Superpowers
Altyr Muunilinst // John De Sohn - Standing When It All Falls Down (feat. Roshi)
Bignia-Zaragovina // Sabina Ddumba - Did It For The Fame
Republic of Adonia // Sabrina Carpenter - Smoke And Fire
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Tom Jay Williams - Closure
Daehun // K.A.R.D - Oh NaNa (feat. Hur Young Ji)
South Danaelanda // Oliver Moldan - High & Low (feat. Jasmine Ash)
Cadelicia // BLACKPINK - PLAYING WITH FIRE
Tinnmark // Christopher - Naked

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 Aelandor // Port Blue - Up Ship!
10 Singerpurear // Vitalic - Waiting For The Stars (feat. David Shaw And The Beat)
8 Pagasa // The Blue Nile - The Downtown Lights^†

7 Terra Avium // Varien - Lilith^†
6 Séyetana // Epica - Beyond The Matrix
5 Hushkanukia // Oonagh - Aulë Und Yavanna
4 #00274E // X0809 - HO
3 Aeroche // Merely - Backdraft
2 Land of DW // Apocalyptica - Faraway Vol. 2 (feat. Linda Sundblad and Dave Lombardo)^†
1 Azure // GNUČČI - Finders Keepers

11th-32nd:
Aesthetica // Lil Debbie - Push (feat. Moksi)
Pupok // Jennifer Rostock - Schlaflos
Harmonica // Northeast Party House - For You^†
New Lexico // Glasperlenspiel - Geiles Leben^†
Kluminican Republic // SOFI TUKKER - Awoo (feat. Betta Lemme)
Mezidinia // Ramsey - Black And Blue^†
Desbuanda // Rudie Edwards - Lover Like You^†
Mulgracia // VanLadyLove - Mars^†
Cor Lupus // Mirror Talk - Some Boys
Yehesi // Ella On The Run - Walk Away
-π // Jacques Greene - True (feat. How To Dress Well)^†
FARC // Noella Nix - Bad Things
Fljótavík // Off Bloom - Falcon Eye
Kylienips // Phil Good - Growing Up
République d'Ashton // Tessa Violet - Sorry I'm Not Sorry^†
Tartford // Cruel Youth - I Don't Love You^†
Hendinia // Dolly Style - Bye Bye Bby Boo
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Tom Jay Williams - Closure
Tinnmark // Christopher - Naked
South Danaelanda // Oliver Moldan - High & Low (feat. Jasmine Ash)
East Rukahavian // Ben DJ - Thinkin' Bout You (Vijay & Sofia Remix)^†
Sandebörg // Quest Pistols Show and Open Kids - Kruche Vsekh<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 1 DNQs

5th Ajanaeda // Hundred Waters - Xtalk
7th Skall // Kjartan Lauritzen - Fredag
8th Avalonia // Henry Jackman - The Winter Soldier
12th St. Burbia // Serayah - Look But Don't Touch
14th Buzzjack Mountain // Luca Debonaire - I Need Ya Now
15th Thelonia // Georgia - Feel It
17th Bøtanikkä // I Am Aisha - Yeke (feat. Jayh)
18th Niceland // Project Jenny, Project Jan - Train Track
21st Flynnonda // Mulàn - Night
22nd Suedeonia // Sparks - Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me)
23rd Bhangra // Mileo - Worry (feat. Adelén)
32nd Medhelnia // Showtek and Brooks - On Our Own (feat. Natalie Major)
33rd Zanmatony // The Kenneth Bager Experience - Fragment One (...And I Kept Hearing) (feat. Gisli)

BJSC Japan vs. South Korea summary

The Japan vs. South Korea spinoff in Cadelicia was a success for Persephonia, as we came 6th with Mario Galaxy Orchestra's 'Gusty Garden Galaxy', our first top 10 in any BJSC event since we came 5th in our own Instrumentals spinoff last year, and our 7th top 10 in BJSC spinoffs (excluding BJFestivalen). The field was smaller than usual, with only 26 entries this time (one less than even the Country spinoff), it notably being the first ever BJSC event to not feature an entry from FSR Rontvia. But we'll take that success nonetheless. 'Gusty Garden Galaxy' picked up 77 points (with the 12 point voting system in place due to the low turnout) from 14 voters. It received a full 12 points from Lotunia, ending a long dry spell for us in spinoffs, having previously not got top points from anyone since Worldvision II. We also received 10 points from Quintessa and 8 points each from Aelandor and Ojnoj (the latter being a nice surprise from a country that very rarely votes for us). Much appreciated all of y'all <3 x

For the third time in spinoffs (following Halloween I and Movies), Persephonian voters' favourite track ended up being the winner. Land of DW only occasionally enter the spinoffs and have only come top 20 in them once (and only barely, coming 20th in Your Best of BJSC - The Rejects with Dimitri Vangelis & Wyman's 'ID2'), but their instrumental trance delight 'sui-ren' by kagura did the job in Japan vs. South Korea and won with a total of 95 points, shortly following Land of DW's breakthrough top 5 hit in the main contest. It fended off a strong challenge by the host nation Cadelicia, who came 2nd on 91 points with 'CIDER CIDER' by TEMPURA KIDZ, and a similarly could-only-be-Japan slice of kawaii electronic weirdness from Jadakissnia who took the bronze medal, as in the main contest, with BPM15Q's 'Hakutyumu' (or 'Daydream' as it was billed in the contest). That scored 87 points, taking third place on a tiebreak with Deandria's entry 'lost sanctuary' by Ferri, giving them another strong spinoff result (their fifth top 10 and third top 5). Ojnoj came 5th with TWICE's 'Knock Knock' on 81 points, the only Korean track to make the top 5 (in fact only 8 of the 26 entries in the contest represented the South Korean side) and the highest ranked typical K/J-pop track.

Terra Avium came 7th with films' 'sympathizer', repeating a top 10 they achieved with the same artist in an edition of Unknown Pleasures, like they did with Lights & Motion in the Instrumentals spinoff. The top 10 was completed by a trio of more standard pop entries: Avalonia finished 8th with BoA's 'Hurricane Venus', Asian entry extraordinaires Daehun didn't embarrass themselves too much, coming 9th with Afterschool's 'Shampoo' (in their first appearance in a spinoff since the 10th anniversary contest, or the Halloween I spinoff if you don't count that), and Unovia came 10th with Namie Amuro's 'Hands On Me' (Amuro is permanently barred from appearing again in the main contest having been entered 7 times, but the rule does not extend to spinoffs). Another non-pop entry, 'Katachi' by Shugo Tokumaru, would have been top 10 in the latter's place but Altyr Muunilinst did not submit votes on time and suffered a 15% deduction, ending up 11th.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC Japan vs. South Korea

Points awarded:
12 Land of DW // kagura - sui-ren
10 Deandria // Ferri - lost sanctuary
8 Cadelicia // TEMPURA KIDZ - CIDER CIDER

7 Terra Avium // films - sympathizer
6 Aelandor // ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION - Re:Re:
5 Altyr Muunilinst // Shugo Tokumaru - Katachi
4 Jadakissnia // BPM15Q - Hakutyumu
3 Quintessa // Goose house - Hikaru Nara
2 Ramrynia // WORLD ORDER - WORLD ORDER (Welcome To TOKYO Remix)
1 Republic of Adonia // Dreamcatcher - Good Night

11th-25th:
Lotunia // Yasuharu Takanashi - Shitsui
Aeroche // Perfume - GLITTER
Ojnoj // TWICE - Knock Knock
Avalonia // BoA - Hurricane Venus
Alteria // nano.RIPE - Kotae Awase
Daehun // Afterschool - Shampoo
Flynnonda // ONE OK ROCK - American Girls
Cor Lupus // Dalshabet - Someone Like U
Trifoski // Fei - Fantasy
Aesthetica // Jyongri - Possession
Séyetana // Eir Aoi - MEMORIA
République d'Ashton // f(x) - Rum Pum Pum Pum
Niceland // NU'EST - FACE
Unovia // Namie Amuro - Hands On Me
Hushkanukia // lol - boyfriend

Posted by: Brer May 10 2017, 04:39 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 10/05/2017
coursework-delayed catchup edition [2/2]

David Starfire lights up BJSC 95 for Persephonia

BJSC 95 is now underway in Mrkyvka, Trifoski. Persephonia's 74th main contest entry is 'Big Chillum' by Los Angeles producer and multi-instrumentalist David Starfire, taken from his 2013 second studio album 'Ascend'. Starfire is the first American act to represent us in the contest since Color Guard in BJSC 85.

'Big Chillum' - the title refers to a traditional pipe smoked by Hindu monks, I promise Persephonia is not endorsing drug usage with our last two entries xx - is a typical example of Starfire's fusion of world music elements with hip-hop/electronic beats, being essentially a trap song with bhangra-esque instrumentation. It marks our milestone tenth instrumental entry to the BuzzJack Song Contest (and our second instrumental of the year after xi's 'Happy End Of The World' four contests ago), and the Persephonian BJSC Committee has hopes for it to at least do similarly to our last two instrumental entries which both came 31st. Check out the official video below, featuring a pretty awesome graphic design timelapse (the outro of the video features a clip of another track from 'Ascend', 'Shiva Lives', which we'd also recommend to anyone who likes this track):



Persephonia are the opening act in semi-final 2, drawn in slot 1 of 33.

Update: we didn't realise at the time but there was a Persephonian alumnus of sorts in this contest as well: Toddla T is a member of Machines Don't Care, who represented us back in BJSC 48 with 'Beat Dun Drop' (feat. Meleka). He showed up in BJSC 95 representing Thelonia with 'Beast' (feat. Andrea Martin and Stefflon Don), drawn in slot 8 of semi-final 2.

Posted by: Brer May 15 2017, 12:47 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 15/05/2017

David Starfire qualifies

David Starfire's 'Big Chillum' has made it through to the final of BJSC 95, bringing Persephonia's qualification streak back up to 2, and providing our 55th final appearance to date and 4th out of 5 this year so far. Reigning qualification streak champions Unovia still haven't faltered, marching onto their 13th consecutive final, with all their closest challengers also protecting their runs, Aeroche and Cor Lupus remaining in second place on the list with 9 qualifications in a row. David Starfire appears in slot 14 of 41 in the grand final.

It was a more successful month for Persephonian voters' favourites in our semi-final compared to the last two, with eight of our ten votes making it through, though we still sadly lost our 4 pointer Niceland with Torul's 'Monday' (which had been the first points we've given to Niceland to date) and our 1 pointer Cadelicia with Emrah Karaduman's 'Cevapsız Çınlama' (feat. Aleyna Tilki). Over in semi-final 1 it was a more bleak story. Persephonian voters' top 3 all made it through but the rest of the top 8 were not so lucky: 4th favourites -π (The Blaze's 'Territory'), 5th Bignia-Zaragovina (Hkeem and Temur's 'Fy Faen'), 6th Dobago (Grace Mitchell's 'Now' - which had in fact been expected to climb even further up Persephonia's rankings had it qualified but sadly it was not to be!), 7th Rolloland (Guillemots' 'We're Here') and 8th Beaverdonia (Skit Box's 'ACTIVEWEAR') were given the snub from the final. 9th and 10th on our ranking did qualify.

Posted by: Brer May 21 2017, 06:30 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 21/05/2017

BJSC 95 summary

- Persephonia had an underwhelming night for the final results of BJSC 95 in Mrkyvka, Trifoski as our entrant David Starfire finished a lowly 38th out of 41 with 'Big Chillum', receiving 125 points from 19 votes. This is our lowest position and points in a final under the current format (BJSC 74 onwards), with our only equal and lower positions being during the One Big Final era (Dennis Ferrer's 'Hey Hey' also came 38th in BJSC 27, and Young Money's 'Steady Mobbin'' (feat. Gucci Mane) came 39th one contest later). Nonetheless, it's a better result than a DNQ so we can't moan too much. For a second month in a row we didn't receive any 18s, with our only medal position this time coming from Land of DW who gave us 15 points (for the 5th time to date, while we're still yet to quite top the Land of DW vote), and our next biggest fans being Bøtanikkä and Jadakissnia (12 points each) and Pupok (11 points). 'Big Chillum' was however a fairly safe qualifier, having come 13th out of 33 in semi-final 2 with 64 points, giving it a projected final position of 29th which it of course undershot a bit, oop ~

- The winners of the night were Suedeonia who took home their first victory with Bleachers' 'Don't Take The Money' with a total of 339 points, including a full 18 from 6 countries (the joint most of the month). Since they joined at the start of last year, Suedeonia have DNQed more often than not with only 3 qualifications out of 11 previous attempts, the highest finishing of which was Where's The Beach's 'Tripping The Luv Fantastic' which came 27th in BJSC 86. However, they've hit a home run with their first big hit, coming off the back of their previous entry which floundered in the bottom 5 of its semi-final. 'Don't Take The Money' is somewhat unusual for a Suedeonia entry in how... not unusual it is, but it of course gives Suedeonia the chance to have a free pass to the final with whatever wacky turn they choose to take in the next contest, which will be the first time the country has ever been in two consecutive finals (and may or may not be held in Suedeonia itself). Its win comes after a previous Bleachers entry, 'Like A River Runs', DNQed back in BJSC 72, since which the one man (Jack Antonoff from fun.) 'band' has had his profile raised, including working with the queen and saviour of music Lorde on her upcoming second album 'Melodrama' (pre-order on iTunes now). Lorde even has uncredited vocals on 'Don't Take The Money', making it sorta kinda a BJSC winner at last for her, after her smash hit 'Royals' was rudely rejected by the BJSC masses, coming 29th (second to last) back in BJSC 53, many months before it became a hit single. Persephonia forever has to answer for why we only gave 'Royals' 1 point in its contest. Oops. x

- For much of the results, and right down to the final scoreboard, the top 3 were separated by a very small (sometimes single-digits) amount. FARC and Aeroche both had long periods of leading the results table. In the end, FARC settled for the silver medal with Stockholm Noir's 'Hopeless Dreams' on 331 points, while Aeroche came 3rd with Me & My's lost 90s dance classic 'Dub-I-Dub' on 326 points. 'Hopeless Dreams' is FARC's third consecutive top 10 hit since they came back to the contest in BJSC 93 after a few months out, and also provided them with a second consecutive semi-final winner (topping SF1) which was, like Noella Nix's 'Bad Things' last month, the projected winner of the contest. FARC now have 4 semi-final wins, with earlier ones coming from Mahan Moin's 'Azizami' in BJSC 82 and the all-conquering 'Save It' by Salt Ashes in BJSC 84. 'Dub-I-Dub' marks Aeroche's first top 10 hit of the year, and it's a bit of a shock it took this long, in fact BJSCs 91-94 marked the first time in Aeroche's history that they missed the top 10 4 times in a row, since their debut in BJSC 44. Normality resumed. They also climb to 5th place in the year to date rankings, still out for blood and a 5th straight year as year end #1 (Ultraviolenceland currently still lead the rankings for 2017). Aeroche now stand at 29 top 10 hits in total to date, with 18 of those coming top 3 (7 wins, 5 second places and 6 third places - only FSR Rontvia have more medals, with 19 including 8 wins, 5 2nds and 6 3rds). Rounding out the top 5 of BJSC 95, Medhelnia bounced back from 3 straight DNQs to come 4th with 302 points with MisterWives' 'Machine', their fourth top 10 hit, all of which have come top 4, and #00274E scored a surprise smash with Pale Waves' 'There's A Honey' which had been predicted for little more than low top 20 but ultimately came 5th with 280 points, #00274E's 12th top 5 and 15th top 10 hit. Pale Waves also won semi-final 2, becoming #00274E's 5th semi-final winner (previously doing so wth their top 3 hits 'Bomb' by Isa (BJSC 46), 'Look Up' by Carli (BJSC 53), 'Special' (Danny L Harle Remix) by Billon feat. Maxine Ashley (BJSC 70) and 'Secret' by Yuri and Seohyun (BJSC 88)). 'Don't Take The Money' finished only 5th in semi-final 1.

- Hendinia scored a second top 10 in a row, third of the year and 37th to date with the god-awful 'Batman & Robin' by Cazzi Opeia and Jin X Jin which finished 6th. 7th place went to Altyr Muunilinst, who like Aeroche have taken surprisingly long to get their first top 10 of the year but managed it this time with 'Classic' by The Knocks feat. POWERS, a song they originally confirmed to a contest that we hosted a while back but then reconfirmed but apparently kept 'Classic' dormant all this time. It's their 21st top 10 hit to date. St. Burbia came 8th with Billie Eilish's 'bellyache', their third top 10 hit to date, all of which have been this year (in each of the odd numbered contests). 'Gatekeeper' by Jessie Reyez was tipped as a possible winner but ultimately finished 9th for Ojnoj, nonetheless providing them a second top 10 in a row, the first time they have ever managed this since their debut way back in BJSC 7 (and we thought it took ages for us to do this when we did it for the first and to date only time in BJSCs 78-79). It's their 12th top 10 hit to date in total. Completing the top 10, also with a second consecutive top 10 hit, was Unovia with the new Ray Of Hope mix of Utada Hikaru's 'Simple And Clean', a song that seems to exist in about 500 completely different versions, one of which was Quintessa's entry to the BJSC Instrumentals spinoff. Unovia's journey to the top 10 was a hard fought one as they languished at the bottom of the table for some time before rallying all the way to the top 5 then dropping back down to its final position of 10th, giving Unovia their 14th top 10 to date. Incidentally the only thing stopping Unovia from also winning a second straight semi-final was that they were in the same semi as FARC, with 'Simple And Clean' coming 2nd in semi-final 1.

- Suedeonia were the only country this month to beat or equal their national best, apart from the one debuting nation Lotunia, who had a bit of a surprise qualification with Ágy's 'Arvedávgi' but ultimately came a solid 17th, meaning a debuting country came top 20 two months in a row. 'Arvedávgi' was quite rightly a surprise qualifier though as it only scraped through the semi-final in 20th, ahead of Fljótavík's entry which was given a 33% deduction for non-voting and would otherwise have qualified (though FLJ's votes may / probably would have saved Lotunia anyway to be fair). The country scraping through the other semi-final did even better: Cor Lupus were 20th in semi-final 1 with BGRZ' 'Agolo' (Remix) (feat. Angélique Kidjo) but came as high as 13th in the final.

- 4 countries made returns after breaks from the contest. Of those, the only one to qualify was N DNTN, who returned after two months out (the only contests they've missed since their debut) to come 23rd with Fishbach's 'Un Autre Que Moi'. Two of the other returnees sent novelty tracks which DNQed: Beaverdonia, back after a month out to recalibrate their sound, have of course publicised their discontent at their DNQ, but spare a thought also for Greenfroze who made a silent return after missing the last 2 contests and came second last in their semi-final. All they wanted to do was educate us about the clitoris! The final returnee was Herzebania who made a surprise comeback after sitting out for many years, last being seen in BJSC 46 (the only longer absence that a country has returned from was the 57-contest Bhangra drought), only to also be unceremoniously dumped in the semi-finals.

- The wooden spoon this month went to Thelonia, who finished 41st of 41 with Toddla T's 'Beast' (feat. Andrea Martin and Stefflon Don). It wasn't the lowest scoring song of the month, but Thelonia failed to submit votes and were thus subject to a 33% deduction and a ban from the next contest (Buzzjack Mountain will also suffer this ban), finishing on 76 points. The only song that received less than 100 points, and barely beating Thelonia after their deduction, was the P3 Remix of Karpe Diem's 'Attitudeproblem' which replaced the original Karpe Diem vox with ostensibly more BJSC-friendly verses by a laundry list of Norwegian female rappers / singers who had a go at rapping: Izabell, Bendik, Stella Mwangi, Silvana Imam, Julie Bergan and Christine. This remix was République d'Ashton's entry and finished 40th with 77 points. PNB wonders why this did so badly when Julie Bergan previously did better with two massively inferior other songs.

- Other noteworthy results: Espen came 11th for the second time in a row with ATB's 'Ecstasy' (MYSTXRIVL x SOKOS FLIP); Yehesi managed to make it to the final despite a 15% deduction for late votes, and finished 15th with 'Into The Fire' by VINAI feat. Anjulie; another surprise qualifier, Vigiland's 'Friday Night', turned out not to be a shoo-in for the bottom 5 as most predicted and instead actually came as high as 16th, becoming one of Tinnmark's bigger hits of recent years; hosts Trifoski selected PWR BTTM's 'Answer My Text' to be their auto-qualifier in more innocent times before the band was effectively exiled from the music industry as a result of certain unpleasant allegations against their lead singer, however this, along with the fact it's just a really bad song, clearly didn't put off too many people from voting for it as it came a respectable 27th; Aelandor suffered yet another undeserved underperformance with Nu:Tone's 'Tides' (feat. Lea Lea) which finished just 37th, but earnt its own questionable place in BJSC history as that marked a 29 place underperformance from its projected finish of 8th, a new record for a song that did not have a deduction in the final.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 95

Final

Points awarded:
18 Espen // ATB - Ecstasy (MYSTXRIVL x SOKOS FLIP)
15 Terra Avium // felicita - a new family
13 Aeroche // Me & My - Dub-I-Dub

12 Jadakissnia // Hugar - Waves (feat. Arnór Dan)
11 Aelandor // Nu:Tone - Tides (feat. Lea Lea)
10 Pupok // Spinee - Hell Hound
9 Séyetana // nanobii - Chipland
8 Azure // Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
7 Kluminican Republic // Two Steps From Hell - Archangel
6 South Danaelanda // Leon Else - The City Don't Care (feat. Oliver)
5 #00274E // Pale Waves - There's A Honey
4 FARC // Stockholm Noir - Hopeless Dreams
3 Skall // Jens Lekman - What's That Perfume That You Wear?
2 Suedeonia // Bleachers - Don't Take The Money
1 Cor Lupus // BGRZ - Agolo (Remix) (feat. Angélique Kidjo)

16th-40th:
Lotunia // Ágy - Arvedávgi
Bhangra // Audrey Gallagher and Kaimo K - Lullaby
Ojnoj // Jessie Reyez - Gatekeeper
St. Burbia // Billie Eilish - bellyache
République d'Ashton // Izabell, Bendik, Stella Mwangi, Silvana Imam, Julie Bergan and Christine - Attitudeproblem (P3 Remix)
Thelonia // Toddla T - Beast (feat. Andrea Martin and Stefflon Don)
Oslol // Terror Jr - Come First
Unovia // Utada Hikaru - Simple And Clean (Ray Of Hope Mix)
New Lexico // K.I.D - Boy (feat. CupcakKe)
FSR Rontvia // Emma Bale - Worth It
D'yermak'er // George Maple - Kryptonite
Medhelnia // MisterWives - Machine
N DNTN // Fishbach - Un Autre Que Moi
Bøtanikkä // Vök - Before (Neelix Well Done Remix)
Tinnmark // Vigiland - Friday Night
Ramrynia // Ulrikke - Places
Desbuanda // Lucy Camp - The Heart Dies
Taahino // GJan - Wasn't Easy
Quintessa // Leah - Met Jou Klere Aan
Altyr Muunilinst // The Knocks - Classic (feat. POWERS)
Ultraviolenceland // Fanny Andersen - Kids
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // We The Kings - Sad Song (RJ Remix) (feat. Olivia Holt)
Yehesi // VINAI - Into The Fire (feat. Anjulie)
Hendinia // Cazzi Opeia and Jin X Jin - Batman & Robin
Trifoski // PWR BTTM - Answer My Text

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 Jadakissnia // Hugar - Waves (feat. Arnór Dan)
10 Aelandor // Nu:Tone - Tides (feat. Lea Lea)
8 Séyetana // nanobii - Chipland

7 Pupok // Spinee - Hell Hound
6 Azure // Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
5 Kluminican Republic // Two Steps From Hell - Archangel
4 Niceland // Torul - Monday^†
3 South Danaelanda // Leon Else - The City Don't Care (feat. Oliver)
2 Skall // Jens Lekman - What's That Perfume That You Wear?
1 Cadelicia // Emrah Karaduman - Cevapsız Çınlama (feat. Aleyna Tilki)^†

11th-32nd:
Summericia // VNV Nation - Illusion^†
#00274E // Pale Waves - There's A Honey
Fljótavík // Azekel - New Romance^†
Zanmatony // M4SONIC and YDG - About It^†
D'yermak'er // George Maple - Kryptonite
Avalonia // Jenni Vartiainen - Suru On Kunniavieras^†
New Lexico // K.I.D - Boy (feat. CupcakKe)
Aesthetica // Alice Vicious - Coupdburst^†
Lotunia // Ágy - Arvedávgi
Bøtanikkä // Vök - Before (Neelix Well Done Remix)
N DNTN // Fishbach - Un Autre Que Moi
Thelonia // Toddla T - Beast (feat. Andrea Martin and Stefflon Don)
Medhelnia // MisterWives - Machine
Herzebania // Veronica Malka - Flawless^†
Harmonica // Jillian Jacqueline - Reasons^†
Flynnonda // H.E.R. - Losing^†
Quintessa // Leah - Met Jou Klere Aan
Altyr Muunilinst // The Knocks - Classic (feat. POWERS)
Singerpurear // Bird - Crazy^†
Desbuanda // Lucy Camp - The Heart Dies
East Rukahavian // Wild Culture - Know Love (feat. Chu)^†
Kylienips // Digital Daggers - Heaven Or Hell<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 1 DNQs

4th -π // The Blaze - Territory
5th Bignia-Zaragovina // Hkeem and Temur - Fy Faen
6th Dobago // Grace Mitchell - Now
7th Rolloland // Guillemots - We're Here
8th Beaverdonia // Skit Box - ACTIVEWEAR
13th Land of DW // Digital Nottich - Gaidastep
15th Republic of Adonia // Club cheval - Young Rich And Radical
20th Greenfroze // Dorian Electra - Clitopia
21st Mezidinia // Leah McFall - Bottle It
25th Daehun // IU - Jam Jam
27th Tartford // Sweet California - Tears On My Pillow
29th Buzzjack Mountain // GEROX and LOBO - Dance With Me (feat. Nala)
32nd Hushkanukia // Laura Tesoro - Higher

In other news, the next BJSC spinoff is taking place in République d'Ashton, and it's dubbed 'Schlagerfest'. Our entry isn't schlager. But it is a pop song of Scandinavian origin which is what the contest is about. Here's hoping we don't get vetoed. x

Posted by: Jade May 21 2017, 10:59 AM

THIS shall be one of the more memorable things about BJSC 95 for me! Hooray at finally sealing a Persephonia semi 12 after all those near-miss 10s we were stacking up. *.* I had you in mind as one of the people who would probably appreciate 'Waves' the most so the semi and final support was pleasing.

A shame that 'Big Chillum' didn't do a bit better in the final had to settle for 3/5 of my top 5 in the bottom 10, u wot. Ofc I was gonna love your sang anyway when it was a recommended video from 'Waqqaberry' *.* think it slots in as my 3rd favourite of your 2017 entries now.

Posted by: Brer Jun 1 2017, 04:46 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 01/06/2017

Young Karin represent Persephonia and Iceland in BJSC Schlagerfest

Persephonia's entry for the Schlagerfest spinoff in République d'Ashton, celebrating pop music from across Scandinavia, is Icelandic duo Young Karin with their 2014 track 'Hearts'. Young Karin consists of the titular Karin Sveinsdóttir on vocals and producer Logi Pedro Stefánsson, who is also a member of Retro Stefson (a band who previously appeared in BJSC 50 representing Caerfyrddia). 'Hearts' - originally released when the duo went by the name Highlands, as can still be seen in the video - served as their debut single and the lead track from their first EP 'n°1', and was like many of our recent spinoff entries a potential Persephonia entry for the main contest a few years back which we now have a good excuse to revive. We have turned out to be the only one of the 24 participants to choose a song by an Icelandic act. All five eligible nationalities turned up but the overwhelming majority of entries were Swedish, as should probably have been expected.

'Hearts' doesn't quite fit the bill of 'schlager' but is at its heart a pop song, albeit with some electronic/trap influences in the production. It's very good anyway. x Check out the video below:



We've been drawn in slot 11 in the contest. Elsewhere, a Persephonian alumnus (sort of) has shown up here too, on track 6 - Séyetana's entry 'Stories From A Purple Soul' by Pearl Fiction feat. Malin and Stefan Storm. Stefan Storm is best known as a member of The Sound Of Arrows but is also a member of Kids Of The Apocalypse, our silver medallists from BJSC 61 with 'EMPIRE'.

The main contest is on its annual mid-year month out, and after we had something different last year with BuzzJack's 10th anniversary celebrations, we're back to normality this year with a fifth edition of the more lo-fi BJFestivalen ongoing. Persephonia are set to emphatically fail their quest to capture hearts and minds with some light novelty a second time in a row.

Posted by: Melobrama Jun 26 2017, 11:49 PM

Posted by: Bré Jul 6 2017, 05:01 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 06/07/2017

BROCKHAMPTON go for 'GOLD' in Medhelnia

PNB is still behind on our coverage of the last couple of spinoffs oops (soon!!) but let us not get too out of date with news from the main contest ~ We're celebrating our 75th main contest entry this month for BJSC 96. The final of this contest will be taking place in Suedeonia after their win in the last contest but the semi-finals are being handled by Medhelnia in the cities of Offset and Takeoff. Appropriately for cities named after members of Migos, Persephonia are going ~urban~ this time around with the track 'GOLD' by BROCKHAMPTON, which was the third of four singles that previewed the release last month of their second full length project 'SATURATION' (every track of which is stylised in all caps, totally setting apart this entry from the 6 previous BJSC entries named 'Gold' lol). This track was one of two by the group that we'd considered for this contest, if you're a fan we'd also recommend the followup single https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMZZUyos1kI (although a warning that there's a long beeping sound followed by a snippet of an entirely different song at the end of that video - this is most of the reason we chose 'GOLD' in the end xx)

BROCKHAMPTON are a hip-hop collective consisting of approximately 12 people, mostly originally from Texas but now all living together in Los Angeles (making this a second American act in a row from us), though they market themselves as a 'boyband'. 'GOLD' showcases most of the members of the group, with its most prominent member Kevin Abstract - who was previously a potential Persephonian BJSC artist in his own right with his https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-FC9l8dJaM - delivering the simple and infectious chorus line in between varied and all excellent (if I do say so myself x) verses by Matt Champion, Ameer Vann, Merlyn Wood and Dom McLennon, before an outro sung by JOBA (with additional vocals by Jabari Manwa, who co-produced the track alongside another group member Kiko Merley). Incidentally one of the few members who was not involved in this track is Bear//Face who previously appeared in BJSC back in BJSC 70 with Mothica collaboration 'Molt', representing Espen. Check out the music video for 'GOLD' below. Matt Champion clearly setting fashion trends with that cardboard box look. x



'GOLD' appears as track 13 of 33 in semi-final 1, hosted in Offset. It's a long road to Suedeonia and we don't really expect to make it but PROVE US WRONG and throw some points our way if you like the track. x

Elsewhere in semi-final 1 there are two other Persephonian alumni making returns to the contest, both of which already had top 5 hits in the past when they were already recycled from us, but god dammit they were ours originally. First up in slot 4, Aeroche have sent deadmau5' classic 2009 instrumental 'Strobe' (originally over ten minutes long but sent in a bitesized radio edit version), recycling from our very first BJSC entry 'Ghosts 'N' Stuff' (feat. Rob Swire) which criminally DNQed in BJSC 19 and more recently deadmau5' featured appearance on 'Stay' by Colleen D'Agostino which came 4th in BJSC 74 for (South) Danaelanda. Then in slot 17, hosts Medhelnia have pinched from both us and our close allies Jadakissnia with TĀLĀ and MssingNo's 'Tell Me' (feat. WA$$UP). TĀLĀ previously came 15th for us in BJSC 64 with 'Serbia' and later 3rd in BJSC 69 with 'Alchemy' representing Bøtanikkä, while MssingNo's 'Scope' was a #3 hit for Jadakissnia in BJSC 88. Best of luck to both of these fresh recycles as they both do our alumni proud. x

Posted by: Jade Jul 7 2017, 03:33 AM

Stanning the fact that there is a Jadaphonia recycle this contest *.* the next one of those to be a 2 Bears/Chip Skylark collab xo

'Gold' is way more interesting than its title would suggest (at least it's not 'Home' or 'Ghost' tbf ) ~ v swag, v Persephonia x That chorus is very catchy and I can see it growing on me further with more listens perhaps like fellow swag entry 'Kyoto' which I now love. Mystic Harry to be have better predicting powers than spelling powers this time so all Jadaphonia related tracks are in the final plz x

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 1 2017, 03:53 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 01/08/2017
ultra-late catchup edition [1/3]

BJSC Schlagerfest summary

In the most recent spinoff, the Schlagerfest held in République d'Ashton, Persephonia managed a 15th place finish out of 24 with Young Karin's 'Hearts', with a total of 43 points from 9 voters. Our only medal position was from Jadakissnia, but this was still cause for great celebration as we received their full 12 points, while also giving our own 12 points to their entry, marking only the second time our nations have traded top points following our iconic 18 swap in Jadakissnia's BJSC 74 debut. Jadakissnia aside, our next biggest supporters were Flynnonda (7 points) and Terra Avium (6 points). Among our other handful of voters was an unexpected 2 points from Bignia-Zaragovina whose points have proven very elusive for us in the last few years (this is the first spinoff points we've received from them (excluding BJFestivalen IV, which was the last time they voted for us in any BJSC event, the last before that being BJSC 67)).

This was another very closely contested spinoff at the top end, with the top two songs ultimately finishing just one point apart. The eventual winner with 112 points was Death Team's 'Messed Up', representing St. Burbia, who claimed their first win in a BJSC event with their only previous spinoff top 10 being 8th place in Instrumentals with Sleeping At Last's 'Hearing'. The runner-up with 111 points was Quintessa's entry 'Kamikaze' by Susanne Sundfør, the second time Quintessa have been silver medallists in spinoffs (after Xmas Special II entry 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' by Darlene Love) and third time they've come top 3 without a win to their name yet. In a contest with few major standouts Persephonia were happy enough that the top 2 were both songs in the top 3 of our votes. Both Death Team and Susanne Sundfør have since already appeared in other contests with mixed results as detailed later in this edition of PNB Third place in Schlagerfest went to Sandebörg with Timoteij's 'Het' on 94 points, host nation République d'Ashton managed a 4th place finish with Måns Zelmerlöw's 'Glorious' on 85 points and Aeroche came 5th with 80 points for Tove Styrke's 'Ego'.

Completing the top 10: Pupok finished 6th with Nelli Matula's 'Lemmikki', Aesthetica 7th with Ängie's 'Housewife Spliffin'', FSR Rontvia 8th with Elin Lanto's 'Funeral', the aforementioned Jadakissnia entry 'Gå Der Vinden Blåser' by VIAN achieved a solid 9th place finish, and perhaps truly embodying the spirit of the name of the contest moreso than anyone else with a PROPER not very good schlager entry, Altyr Muunilinst rounded out the top 10 with the legendary Charlotte Perrelli's 'Where Were You?', credited in the contest to Charlotte "Harlot" Perrelli. Persephonian alumnus Stefan Storm (of Kids Of The Apocalypse), featuring alongside Malin on Pearl Fiction's 'Stories From A Purple Soul', sadly floundered in the contest, finishing second to last for Séyetana.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC Schlagerfest

Points awarded:
12 Jadakissnia // VIAN - Gå Der Vinden Blåser
10 Quintessa // Susanne Sundfør - Kamikaze
8 St. Burbia // Death Team - Messed Up

7 Aesthetica // Ängie - Housewife Spliffin'
6 Medhelnia // Amanda Fondell - Count On You
5 Lotunia // Ina Wroldsen and Broiler - Lay It On Me
4 FSR Rontvia // Elin Lanto - Funeral
3 République d'Ashton // Måns Zelmerlöw - Glorious
2 Oslol // ALMA - Dye My Hair
1 Séyetana // Pearl Fiction - Stories From A Purple Soul (feat. Malin and Stefan Storm)

11th-23rd:
Ojnoj // Darin - Nobody Knows
Terra Avium // I Am Karate - Bitter
Flynnonda // Amanda Winberg - Clouds
Beaverdonia // Dinah Nah - Taste Your Love
Pupok // Nelli Matula - Lemmikki
Aeroche // Tove Styrke - Ego
Unovia // Beldina - Here We Go
Cadelicia // Diandra - Nadaa
Sandebörg // Timoteij - Het
Altyr Muunilinst // Charlotte Perrelli - Where Were You?
Hushkanukia // Hanna & Andrea - Always On My Mind
Bignia-Zaragovina // Anton Hagman - Somebody To Love
Ramrynia // Alphabeat - Heat Wave

El Chombo Cracker Jack and Jr. Crack have a crack at BJFestivalen V

For the month of June (oops this thread has got rather behind xx), the regular BJSC took its annual month out, with the five moderator nations instead hosting BJFestivalen V, the fifth edition of the alternative contest based on the format of Melodifestivalen with all entries capped at just 3 minutes long.

In the last edition of BJFestivalen Persephonia went down the novelty route and got a silver medal out of it with Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers' 'Believe In Yourself' (aka the Arthur theme). We repeated the novelty schtick this time by entering the iconic 'El Gato Volador', a song that features on 'Cuentos De La Cripta 3', a 1999 album credited to the iconic Panamanian-American reggaeton artist Rodney Clark aka El Chombo, who is best known for the equally iconic nonsense track 'Chacarron' which reached #20 in the UK Singles Chart in 2006 following a campaign by BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills. Some wires got crossed and Persephonia originally submitted 'El Gato Volador' as being itself an El Chombo song, but on closer inspection we discovered he was merely the producer and the artists on the song are his fellow Panamanian rappers Cracker Jack and Jr. Crack. Unsurprisingly they are the first Panamanian artists to represent Persephonia, but more importantly it was our first ever Spanish language entry, and what a song to be the first *.*

'El Gato Volador' is a very silly song about a flying cat. The story goes, according to an old Billboard article we found on Google, that Cracker and Jr. were desperate to be featured on the album but failed to impress the mighty Chombo with their attempts at making a serious song. So, El Chombo gave them one last chance to put a song together in just two hours, and the only inspiration they could find at the time was Cartoon Network. And so, a stupid song (which even pokes fun at its own stupidity in its lyrics) about a flying cat was born, and it was just ridiculous enough that it made it onto the album and even became a hit single across Latin America. Inspirational. Here's the official video for the song:



'El Gato Volador' appeared as song 8 of 11 in Heat 1, hosted in Ramrynia (while the other three heats were handled by Daehun, Aeroche and République d'Ashton, with Bignia-Zaragovina hosting the Andra Chansen round and République d'Ashton hosting the final).

BJFestivalen V summary

Sadly it wasn't to be for Persephonia to make it to another BJFestivalen final through the power of novelty, however 'El Gato Volador' did fail less miserably than we expected, coming 9th out of 11 in Heat 1 with 32 points. That's an improvement on us coming last in our heat in BJFestivalen III with James Blake's 'Lindisfarne II' at least (I mean, er... we didn't enter that one!!!), and arguably a less painful exit than our first participation in BJFestivalen II where another Blake song, 'Unluck', was strung along to Andra Chansen only to be nearly unanimously rejected for a place in the final. Still bitter. Thanks to those few countries who humoured us with some points this time around (editor's note: we'd name them but unfortunately the image of the spreadsheet has already been lost to time with the death of Photobucket third party hosting, will edit this if Ryan can give me the information still xx)
EDIT: That'd be 10 points each from Oslol and Quintessa, 8 from Land of DW and 4 from Yehesi. Much love. x

In the last BJFestivalen, the entire top 3 all came from our heat, and it was déjà vu this time as the exact same thing happened, with 3 tracks from Heat 1 taking up all the medals. Having Persephonia in your heat is clearly a good omen. Oslol claimed the victory, and it was with Susanne Sundfør again, who thus claimed top 2 finishes in two BJSC events within a single month. Her song here was 'Delirious', which was rather bending the rules of the contest as it's a nearly 5 minute long song, just entered in a homemade edited version to meet the 3 minute maximum. Cheeky. Nonetheless, it took the win with a solid total of 142 points, becoming the first Oslol entry to win any BJSC event. The silver medal on 134 points went to Taahino with Zella Day's 'Hypnotic', finally making its way into a BJSC after being vetoed numerous times both in its normal version and a remix by Vanic. ('Delirious' was also a former veto in the main contest, make of that what you will). Hushkanukia rounded out the top 3 with 130 points for LIZ's 'When I Rule The World', a song that had to qualify through Andra Chansen due to each heat having only 2 direct qualification slots (in fact the top 3 in the final were also the top 3 in Heat 1, all receiving the same number of points, LIZ simply being unlucky enough to lose the tiebreak). Two other songs broke the 100 point barrier: Trifoski were 4th with 118 points with Fickle Friends' 'Hello Hello', and Fljótavík 5th on 102 points with Tim Legend's 'soda city funk', another Andra Chansen qualifier.

The rest of the redux 11 song final: Ramrynia came 6th with the Jonas Blue remix (cheeeeeeap!) of Jasmine Thompson's 'Old Friends', Cor Lupus 7th with Felon's 'Bittersweet' (feat. Hayley May), the final Andra Chansen qualifier and our top pointer 'Fireman Sam (It's Pontypandemonium)' by Pound Shop Boys came 8th for FSR Rontvia (who were in a BJFestivalen final for the first time after four previous failed attempts), New Lexico came 9th with Trixie Mattel's 'I Know You All Over Again' and the final top 10 slot was decided by a tiebreak, ultimately going to Beaverdonia's novelty entry 'The Wheels On The Bus' by Mad Donna (an actual UK top 20 hit, and yes it's a Madonna impersonator singing the children's song), forcing Séyetana into last place with 'Safe' by Nightcore Reality (aka Danika).

Only two novelty songs made it to the final but the 3 minute cap and the general lesser degree of ~seriousness~ in BJFestivalen compared to the main contest made it ripe for a whole host of other doomed novelty entries, including our own. Honourable mentions go to two other novelty tracks which fell in the Andra Chansen stage: Jadakissnia's Fairly OddParents classic 'My Shiny Teeth And Me' by Chip Skylark and Pupok's zany choice of J. Geco's 'Chicken Song' (Geco Remix), a dance remix of a chicken clucking, because yes. And a dishonourable mention to Flynnonda's choice of Rachel Bloom, Vella Lovell and Gabrielle Ruiz's 'Friendtopia', which has become the first BJSC entry ever to never get a single point from anyone, bottoming out with a much deserved nul points in Heat 4. Nul points has previously only occurred in the end of year TBO / Rejects contests and a couple of times in BJSC Re:LOADED, all of which were of course songs appearing again after previously appearing in standard contests where they did receive points. Well done Flynnonda on finally doing what no one could do for a decade. *.*

Full Persephonian rankings for BJFestivalen V

Final

Points awarded:
12 FSR Rontvia // Pound Shop Boys - Fireman Sam (It's Pontypandemonium)
10 Fljótavík // Tim Legend - soda city funk
8 Hushkanukia // LIZ - When I Rule The World

6 Oslol // Susanne Sundfør - Delirious
4 Beaverdonia // Mad Donna - The Wheels On The Bus
2 Taahino // Zella Day - Hypnotic

7th-11th:
New Lexico // Trixie Mattel - I Know You All Over Again
Trifoski // Fickle Friends - Hello Hello
Ramrynia // Jasmine Thompson - Old Friends (Jonas Blue Remix)
Cor Lupus // Felon - Bittersweet (feat. Hayley May)
Séyetana // Nightcore Reality - Safe

~

Andra Chansen

1st Jadakissnia // Chip Skylark - My Shiny Teeth And Me^†
2nd Niceland // Albanian Popular Music Ensemble Of Tirana - Myrtle Flower^†
3rd FSR Rontvia // Pound Shop Boys - Fireman Sam (It's Pontypandemonium)
4th Pupok // J. Geco - Chicken Song (Geco Remix)^†
5th Hushkanukia // LIZ - When I Rule The World
6th Fljótavík // Tim Legend - soda city funk
7th Daehun // CL - Hello Bitches^†
8th Lotunia // Lizzo - Good As Hell^†
9th Land of DW // Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still^†
10th Sandebörg // Aura Dione - Love Somebody^†
11th Aesthetica // Sky Ferreira - C'est La Mort^†
12th Bignia-Zaragovina // Marcus & Martinus - Like It Like It (feat. Silentó)<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Heat 1

Points awarded:
12 Pupok // J. Geco - Chicken Song (Geco Remix)
10 Kluminican Republic // Charlie And Lola - The Bestest In The Barn^†
8 Hushkanukia // LIZ - When I Rule The World

6 Aeroche // Charli XCX - ILY2 (Danny L Harle Euphoria Edit)^†
4 Oslol // Susanne Sundfør - Delirious
2 Quintessa // Patti LaBelle - Gospel Alphabet^†

7th-10th:
Taahino // Zella Day - Hypnotic
Land of DW // Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still
Altyr Muunilinst // Sirena - Love Is Not^†
Yehesi // Nina Sky - Champion Lover (Lady Bee Remix)<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Heat 2 DNQs

1st Harmonica // Baha Men - Accident
4th St. Burbia // Sälen - Copper Kiss
5th Zanmatony // Junior Senior - Shake Your Coconuts
6th Aelandor // Relient K - Sadie Hawkins Dance
10th Tinnmark // LILA and Rat City - Tell You
11th Dobago // Mike Candys and Evelyn - One Night In Ibiza (feat. Patrick Miller)

Heat 3 DNQs

1st South Danaelanda // Meowski666 - Meow Machine
2nd Terra Avium // Edvard Grieg - In The Hall Of The Mountain King
5th The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Keisha White - Someday
6th Ultraviolenceland // Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone - City Of Stars
8th Medhelnia // The Griswolds - If You Wanna Stay
10th République d'Ashton // KIOL - Broken Up Again

Heat 4 DNQs

1st Rolloland // Electric Light Orchestra - Endless Lies
2nd Ojnoj // Maria Ale - Dunga
3rd Bøtanikkä // GURBAX - Boom Shankar
4th Republic of Adonia // Brooke Candy - Opulence
10th Flynnonda // Rachel Bloom, Vella Lovell and Gabrielle Ruiz - Friendtopia
11th Cadelicia // ILY - REMEDY

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 1 2017, 03:53 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 01/08/2017
ultra-late catchup edition [2/3]

BROCKHAMPTON valiantly fail in the semi-finals

Unfortunately as expected we failed to make it to the final of BJSC 96, with BROCKHAMPTON's 'GOLD' bringing an end to our qualification streak of 2 again, giving us our second DNQ of the year. They weren't too far off however, coming 22nd of 33 in semi-final 1 with a total of 36 points, 7 points behind 20th place, a satisfying enough result. The Persephonian BJSC Committee was especially pleased that the song ranked in the top 3 of 3 countries, receiving 10 points from D'yermak'er and 8 points each from Land of DW and St. Burbia. It had 4 other voters, giving it 1, 2, 3 and 4 points (Jadakissnia, Espen, Harmonica and Kluminican Republic respectively). Love and appreciation to these countries and anyone else who got a good discovery from our failed risk. x The crown of longest qualification streak remained with Unovia once more as they progressed to a 14th straight final, with their closest rivals remaining Aeroche and Cor Lupus both on 10 in a row.

As in the previous contest, 2 songs in our semi-final and 5 in the opposite semi-final from Persephonia's top 10s of each also DNQed. In semi-final 1, our 4 pointer 'Words' by HËXĖ missed out for D'yermak'er as did our 1 pointer, N DNTN entry 'KICKDRUM KICKDRUM!' by Frankie Animal. Neither were very near qualifying, with the latter finishing in last place even before receiving a 33% deduction for N DNTN failing to submit votes. Sadly 2 of our top 3 in semi-final 2 fell short, including our absolute favourite, Envio's 11 minute beauty 'Touched By The Sun' (Rusch & Elusive's Chill-Out Mix) which was just a couple of points short for Zanmatony. Other songs from Persephonia's top 10 of semi-final 2 to miss the final were 3rd placed East Rukahavian (The Orielles' 'Sugar Tastes Like Salt', another very long song at around 8 minutes), 6th Desbuanda (Rone's 'Bye Bye Macadam'), 7th Quintessa (Alisha Chinai's 'Zooby Zooby') and 9th Séyetana (Konomi Suzuki's 'Redo', continuing to face racism against Japanese Séyetan entries).

BJSC 96 summary

- The winner of BJSC 96, whose final took place in Brettstown, Suedeonia, wasn't clear until very near the end of the results reveal. Daehun's entry, the English version of 'Haide' by Helena Paparizou, had been briefly in the lead early on in the results but had seemed to take a backseat to favourites to win Cor Lupus and Altyr Muunilinst as the night went on. However, in the last handful of votes, 'Haide' made a big comeback and ended up seizing the win with a total of 318 points, becoming Daehun's third winner following Indila's 'Dernière Danse' in BJSC 61 and SNBRN's 'Raindrops' (feat. Kerli) in BJSC 73, and their 18th top 10 hit. Its win was actually pretty solid by recent standards, 32 points ahead of its closest competition, the largest margin since EASYFUN's landslide in BJSC 91. This marked a big comeback for Daehun, who were last seen in the top 10 in BJSC 75 when they came 4th with Karin Park's 'Stick To The Lie', which had been the last of a run of six straight top 10s. It may not be a coincidence that only one of that run of 6 was within Daehun's usual Asian pop sound while nearly all of their less successful entries since then have been, until now. Hmmm. xx 'Haide' was also the winner by some distance of semi-final 2 and the projected winner of the contest, giving Daehun a third semi-final winner after the aforementioned Indila and Karin Park songs. Helena Paparizou, as well as winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, had two top 10 hits in the early editions of BJSC ('Gigolo' 10th for then-named Kopečka in BJSC 5 and 'Teardrops' 8th for Herzebania 4 contests later). Daehun will now host the final of BJSC 97, which is now underway with semi-finals hosted by cohost du choix The Actual Republic of Bellamia. It was better when we cohosted with Daehun tbh. x

- Cor Lupus had been with some a very heavy favourite to claim a second winner, and they did lead for a good portion of the results, but they ultimately settled for 2nd place with LINES' 'Weekends' on 286 points, their second top 3 finish after BJSC 87 winner 'Higher' by The Naked And Famous and their 8th top 10 hit (3rd of 2017). 'Weekends' is claimed as the first single by LINES but is in fact just the first single from a complete reboot of the band's career after they decided for some nebulous reason to remove their entire previous back catalogue from most of the internet, which included a previous BJSC winner 'People' (feat. Adele Kosman), a landslide victory for Altyr Muunilinst in BJSC 71. History didn't quite repeat. Speaking of Altyr Muunilinst, they were also floated as a winner contender this month and ended up in 3rd with Kamferdrops' Scandi hit 'Jag Trodde Änglarna Fanns' on 281 points, a second top 10 in a row and 22nd to date, evening out their medal record at 2 wins, 2 runner ups and 2 third places. Ojnoj continued their spectacular recent run of form coming 4th again with Leon Else's 'What I Won't Do', a third top 10 in a row and 13th to date just two months after their last 4th placer 'Superpowers' by SAARA. 'What I Won't Do' also got 281 points, so only a tiebreak stopped it being Ojnoj's third top 3 hit. It was still a big improvement on the finish of Leon Else's last entry 'The City Don't Care' (feat. Oliver), sent just one contest earlier and finishing 20th for South Danaelanda, and it did top semi-final 1 to provide Ojnoj's 2nd semi-final winner after the ill-fated 'Overload' by Life Of Dillon in BJSC 74. Completing the top 5, Aelandor finally managed to break out of their run of DNQs and bottom 10 finishes in style to claim a first major hit on their 13th attempt, coming 5th with 274 points with 'Giants' by Lights. This smashed their previous peak of 34th achieved by ill-gotten qualifier 'Up Ship!' by Port Blue 2 contests previously, and also outdid all of Lights' 3 previous BJSC appearances, the most successful prior being 'Ice' (6th for Kingdom of Shadow in BJSC 13).

- 6th place went to Ramrynia with Paramore Birdflipper's 'Come On!', and we are confirmed to now live in a bizarro universe as this was the only song in the entire top 8 to receive points (well, 1 point) from Persephonia. We aren't supposed to support Ramrynia!! It's their 22nd top 10 hit and third of the year. They have come top 20 with all 6 of their 2017 entries so far, putting them in a strong position to challenge Ultraviolenceland's YTD throne (especially as Ultraviolenceland had another big underperformance this contest, coming 39th with Naïka's 'Ride', a song which only qualified at all due to #00274E receiving a 33% deduction for not voting in the semi-final, eep). République d'Ashton had a very long wait between their 23rd and 24th top 10 hits, but a much shorter wait to the 25th, Dagny's 'Wearing Nothing' which finished 7th, a place higher than the hyped winner contender 'Pinnacle' by Tone Damli 4 contests back. Dobago continued their enviably quick racking up of top 10 hits, coming 8th with Lindsey Stirling's 'Love's Just A Feeling' (feat. Rooty, aka RuthAnne from Professor Green's 'Remedy'), their 7th top 10 hit in 18 entries. Lindsey Stirling is clearly a safe name in BJSC, with two previous entries from her also finishing in the top 10, most successfully the 2nd placing Jamvale (aka Mulgracia) entry 'Shatter Me' (feat. Lzzy Hale) from BJSC 66. Rounding out the top 10, FSR Rontvia extended their record for most top 10 hits claiming a 47th (although their first of the year) with Turkish jam 'Şahane Bir Şey Yaşamak' by Yaşar Gaga feat. Sezen Aksu (try saying that 5 times fast) coming 9th, and Kluminican Republic scored a pleasing 10th place with Burial's 2007 dubstep/UK garage classic 'Archangel', their second top 10 of the year and 11th to date, and also outperforming their BJSC 95 entry which was not coincidentally also named 'Archangel' (by Two Steps From Hell).

- Aside from Aelandor, one other country set a new national best. Alteria made another return after their shortest break between entries yet of just one contest. Their first three attempts all DNQed but latest entry 'Sick Kids' by Fjokra emulated Confidence Man's 'Bubblegum' from BJSC 94 in making the final, and finished 23rd, 5 places higher than 'Bubblegum' managed. Alteria have once again elected to not enter the current contest however. It seems they will forever only be a rare delight in the contest. There was also one debuting nation, Jupiterdonia, who failed to reach the final with Empire Of The Sun album track 'I'll Be Around'. Incidentally this is now the third time that Empire Of The Sun have been entered and both previous appearances were also DNQs for debuting nations ('Walking On A Dream' for the controversial Mykanovia in BJSC 15 and 'Swordfish Hotkiss Night' for the footnote in BJSC history Johnopia in BJSC 20) making them even more of a cursed artist than twenty one pilots, who similarly have been entered twice, both times being DNQs for debuting nations ('Trees' for Cadelicia in BJSC 52 and 'Fake You Out' for another BJSC footnote and permabanned nation Jacksland in BJSC 71).

- Alteria aside, three other returning nations made the final, with two finishing very close to the top 10. Varakë haven't been a regular presence in the contest for a few years, having been the victim of too much racism with lots of great entries not making the final (17 DNQs among their 24 previous entries). They only entered one of the last 15 contests, that being a DNQ in BJSC 86. They have found greater success with their latest comeback, Irina Rimes' 'Visele' (Dj Dark & MD.Dj Remix), finishing 12th to become their third biggest hit to date, and their biggest since their sole top 10 hit, Pyramid's 'Wolf' which came 7th in BJSC 60. Their last entry to qualify was Pr0files' 'Luxury', 34th in BJSC 76, with four further DNQs between then and now. Sandebörg came back after a month out with ZOË's 'Dangerous Affair', coming 14th, their biggest hit since their third and most recent top 10 hit 'Nightclub Nirvana' by Lo-Fi-Fnk, 10th in BJSC 75. Deandria also made another return after 2 months out and like Alteria have had 2 qualifiers with their last 2 comebacks, this time coming 26th with 'Les Enfants Du Paradis' by world's end girlfriend, an instrumental and the longest entry in the final at over 7 minutes. There were also comebacks for Ajanaeda and Kingdom of Horanius, the former returning from a one-month ban and the latter making only their second ever appearance following their debut in BJSC 88. However, both DNQed and subsequently didn't vote in the final, meaning Ajanaeda were straight back onto the banlist as well as Kingdom of Horanius. Without going into too many specifics due to the touchy matter of #bangate, six other countries also received bans, namely Aesthetica, FARC, Medhelnia, Mezidinia, N DNTN and Skall. We hope to see many if not all of these back for BJSC 98.

- The wooden spoon for BJSC 96 went to a very unexpected track, Medhelnia's entry 'Tell Me' by TĀLĀ and MssingNo featuring WA$$UP, coming 42nd out of 42 with 56 points. In fairness, that was after a 33% deduction due to Medhelnia not voting on time (hence their ban), but it was still 2nd from last before any deductions which was far far below most predictions (and also what it deserved, poor brave Jadaphonia alumni - at least we no longer have the least successful TĀLĀ entry). This is Medhelnia's 3rd wooden spoon in the final in addition to one in a semi-final. A couple of other songs were also subject to varying levels of deductions - Yehesi voted late and suffered a 15% deduction to come 30th with MY's 'W.I.L.D', while, again avoiding specifics, FARC were hit with a 53.1% deduction with their auto-qualifier 'Don't You Forget About Me' by Robinson, turning what was a safe top 20 hit before deductions into a 40th placer. The song spared last place due to Medhelnia's deduction was the other auto-qualifier, hosts Suedeonia's retro pick 'Geneve' by John Otway, a song clearly not geared towards major BJSC success but nonetheless earning 63 points to come 41st. As Medhelnia were the co-hosts of the contest, both hosts finished in the bottom 2 of the final, and both are not competing in the current contest, with Medhelnia banned and Suedeonia taking an intentional month out. Whoops.

- Other noteworthy results: Bhangra finished 16th with Margaret's 'What You Do', one place higher than their grand BJSC 86 comeback entry 'Once In A While' by Timeflies and thus a new peak in the new era of Bhangra (they last came higher than this in BJSC 19 with 4th placed 'My Man' by Jade Ewen); Death Team's main contest debut a month after their win in the Schlagerfest spinoff was less successful, as they came 21st with 'Jump' representing Cadelicia; the other Persephonian alumnus in the contest, deadmau5, came 28th with 'Strobe' representing Aeroche.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 96

Final

Points awarded:
18 Kluminican Republic // Burial - Archangel
15 Deandria // world's end girlfriend - Les Enfants Du Paradis
13 St. Burbia // Tasha Tah - Malang (feat. RaOol)

12 Land of DW // Paddy And The Rats - Join The Riot
11 Fljótavík // UNKLE - Looking For The Rain (feat. Mark Lanegan and ESKA)
10 Varakë // Irina Rimes - Visele (Dj Dark & MD.Dj Remix)
9 Jadakissnia // King Plague - Ave Plague
8 FSR Rontvia // Yaşar Gaga - Şahane Bir Şey Yaşamak (feat. Sezen Aksu)
7 Aeroche // deadmau5 - Strobe
6 Alteria // Fjokra - Sick Kids
5 Medhelnia // TĀLĀ and MssingNo - Tell Me (feat. WA$$UP)
4 Espen // SXTN - Die Fotzen Sind Wieder Da
3 Bignia-Zaragovina // Cezinando - Håper Du Har Plass
2 Trifoski // Battles - Atlas
1 Ramrynia // Birdflipper - Come On!

16th-42nd:
Terra Avium // Stellar Dreams - Infinity
Cadelicia // Death Team - Jump
Altyr Muunilinst // Kamferdrops - Jag Trodde Änglarna Fanns
Cor Lupus // LINES - Weekends
Suedeonia // John Otway - Geneve
Sandebörg // ZOË - Dangerous Affair
FARC // Robinson - Don't You Forget About Me
Ojnoj // Leon Else - What I Won't Do
Unovia // PON CHO - Frozen (feat. Paige IV)
Lotunia // Lola Marsh - Wishing Girl
Daehun // Helena Paparizou - Haide (English Version)
Azure // Patent Pending - Hey Mario
Beaverdonia // Ina Wroldsen - Aliens (Her Er Jeg)
Oslol // Blonde Electra - Let's Touch (feat. THE HIGHESTER)
Yehesi // MY - W.I.L.D
Bøtanikkä // BEATZ - Ain't Your Girl
Aelandor // Lights - Giants
République d'Ashton // Dagny - Wearing Nothing
Hushkanukia // Sushy - Nerdy Boy (feat. Roachie)
South Danaelanda // Lucas & Steve - Up Till Dawn (On The Move)
Ultraviolenceland // Naïka - Ride
Tinnmark // The Uniøn - No Good For You (feat. Lovespeake)
Dobago // Lindsey Stirling - Love's Just A Feeling (feat. Rooty)
Bhangra // Margaret - What You Do
Flynnonda // Donny Montell - Move Your Body
Niceland // ARIA - Astrolove
Hendinia // Violet Chachki - Bettie

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Kluminican Republic // Burial - Archangel
10 Land of DW // Paddy And The Rats - Join The Riot
8 St. Burbia // Tasha Tah - Malang (feat. RaOol)

7 Jadakissnia // King Plague - Ave Plague
6 Medhelnia // TĀLĀ and MssingNo - Tell Me (feat. WA$$UP)
5 Aeroche // deadmau5 - Strobe
4 D'yermak'er // HËXĖ - Words^†
3 Espen // SXTN - Die Fotzen Sind Wieder Da
2 Alteria // Fjokra - Sick Kids
1 N DNTN // Frankie Animal - KICKDRUM KICKDRUM!^†

11th-32nd:
Rolloland // White Soxx - Versailles^†
Terra Avium // Stellar Dreams - Infinity
#00274E // ONUKA - Other (Live) (feat. NAONI Orchestra)^†
Sandebörg // ZOË - Dangerous Affair
Taahino // VUKOVI - Weirdo^†
Unovia // PON CHO - Frozen (feat. Paige IV)
Ojnoj // Leon Else - What I Won't Do
Harmonica // Moment - All This Time^†
Tartford // Lisa - Rocket To Your Heart^†
Oslol // Blonde Electra - Let's Touch (feat. THE HIGHESTER)
Yehesi // MY - W.I.L.D
Jupiterdonia // Empire Of The Sun - I'll Be Around^†
République d'Ashton // Dagny - Wearing Nothing
Ajanaeda // ABIR - Playground^†
Herzebania // Carina Dahl - You On Me^†
Pupok // Parisa - Pop Pop Kudu (feat. Sabrina, T-Nola and El Rey)^†
Hushkanukia // Sushy - Nerdy Boy (feat. Roachie)
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Marija - Dance Like Nobody's Watching^†
Ultraviolenceland // Naïka - Ride
Dobago // Lindsey Stirling - Love's Just A Feeling (feat. Rooty)
Niceland // ARIA - Astrolove
Hendinia // Violet Chachki - Bettie

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

1st Zanmatony // Envio - Touched By The Sun (Rusch & Elusive's Chill-Out Mix)
3rd East Rukahavian // The Orielles - Sugar Tastes Like Salt
6th Desbuanda // Rone - Bye Bye Macadam
7th Quintessa // Alisha Chinai - Zooby Zooby
9th Séyetana // Konomi Suzuki - Redo
18th Singerpurear // Grace Slick - Dreams
23rd Mezidinia // ABRA - U KNO
24th Skall // Ana Moura - Desfado
25th Avalonia // Natasha Blume - Black Sea
26th Kingdom of Horanius // isis - I Am
27th New Lexico // Release The Woolves - Shotgun (feat. Maribelle)
32nd Kylienips // Aldous Harding - Imagining My Man
33rd Aesthetica // Nadia Oh - Shade

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 1 2017, 03:53 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 01/08/2017
ultra-late catchup edition [3/3]

We didn't get around to posting a teaser for our BJSC 97 entry so let's do one now, pretend y'all don't already know what it is

Persephonia bring atmospheric black metal to TARO Bellamia for BJSC 97

Following our DNQ in the last contest we're boldly going forward with another highly risky entry and staring in the face of our first consecutive DNQs for 4 years. BJSC 97 is taking place in the noted pop hoe nations of Daehun (for the final) and The Actual Republic of Bellamia (for the semi-finals), and quite a few of the more 'alt bloc' countries are either currently banned or not in this contest for other reasons, so what better time to send a black metal song? Our 76th main contest entry is 'Hearth' by Saor, which came out in October 2016 a month before their third studio album 'Guardians'. Saor (originally known as Àrsaidh before changing their name to be easier to spell, although just as hard to pronounce, taking their new name from the Scottish independence motto 'Saor Alba' ('free Scotland')) are a band from Glasgow, with Andy Marshall as their only permanent member. This entry marks the first time in nearly 3 years that we have sent an act from the UK to the main contest (our last being BJSC 68 entry 'Glass Heart' by Eagles For Hands feat. Holly Partridge), and our 23rd entry by a lead UK artist.

'Hearth', like nearly all songs by Saor, is rather long, clocking in at 11 minutes and 28 seconds making it by far the longest Persephonia entry to date, exactly 5 minutes longer than previous record holder 'How Deep Is Your Love?' by The Rapture. The album 'Guardians' contains only five songs, all of which are over 10 minutes #longsongbloc. The genre of 'Hearth' is variously described as atmospheric black metal, folk metal or Celtic metal (any way you cut it, it's Persephonia's second dabbling into metal this year). The first two minutes of the track show the most clear folk influences, gradually building up until an explosion into a minute of aggressive guitars and, yes, DEATH GROWLS. We considered sending a 'sanitised' edit of the song that skips the growling part (it's only one minute of the song) but ultimately that didn't work out so y'all are getting the song in its full glory. After that minute, there's about another 4 minutes of gradually progressing atmospheric instrumentation with some more sparse and actually pleasant vocals, singing about the beauty of the Scottish highlands, before the song hits the reset button, going silent for a second and slowly coming back in for the beautiful fully instrumental remainder of the song which evokes the same kind of emotions and vibes as Terra Avium's BJSC 90 entry 'Time (Inception)' by Kitchen, albeit with slightly heavier guitars. It obviously won't be everyone's cup of tea (soz plug.dj) but we hope the song can find a few more fans and at least avoid coming last in the semi-final. x Here is the song:



'Hearth' has been drawn as track 27 of 31 in semi-final 1.

Posted by: Leonardo Aug 1 2017, 04:02 AM

That's a lot of updatin'

Also, I'm kinda digging your marathon entry this month, I think it'll do well in your semi anyway

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 1 2017, 04:11 AM

Never letting myself get 4 contests out of date in this thread again x

(I hope you're right *.* it is a very lucky draw, would have been beyond dead in the other semi but maybe it has a shadow of a hope in this one x)

Posted by: Dobbo Aug 1 2017, 09:40 PM

This is an absolutely epic listen. Would have to say my fave entry of yours since I joined, fingers crossed it qualifies!

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 1 2017, 10:30 PM

Oh wow! You definitely weren't one of the people I had on my radar as a likely fan so this is encouraging news Glad you like it so much

Posted by: Riser Aug 2 2017, 03:40 AM

So LINES and IIIII are/were the same artist? I never would've guessed that but it makes sense now Oddly enough I love 'Weekends' but couldn't stand 'People' at the time, might have to re-listen now. This doesn't belong in your thread really but it's a bit late to bump a thread from the last contest

Oh, might as well add that 'Gold' was very very good and I was disappointed (albeit not surprised) that it didn't qualify!

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 2 2017, 04:15 AM

Yup, they are one and the same! (I did do some Google-fu to make 100% sure of that ) I wasn't a big fan of 'People' either, 'Weekends' is definitely the better of the two. (and by all means feel free to post anything in my thread, I like when I'm not talking to myself )

I'm glad you did like 'GOLD' anyway, it feels all too rare for my songs to make it into your votes! I'm curious to know if Noahspike is / would be a fan of it as well. x

also super late but I missed replying to this while I was doing the big update

This needs to be a thing xxx

Posted by: Riser Aug 2 2017, 05:11 AM

Hmm, I clearly recall hyping it (or at least mentioning how urban it was) in person during the pancake-eating portion of our meetup but do not know if he ever gave it a listen ;o

Posted by: Houdini's Whore Aug 2 2017, 09:43 PM

'Hearth' is absolutely breathtaking I was a bit worried when you mentioned that it had a growling portion because I'm not the biggest fan of growling in songs but it's really not that bad at all here, the weakest part but I'm definitely able to overlook such a short element of it. It really is quite reminiscent of 'Time (Inception)' towards the end which I absolutely adored so yeah, a huge thumbs up from me!

The plug reaction was an amazing payoff for such a risky choice, I really hope all this support can translate into a qualifier. It's amazing how we both weren't feeling our chances that much at the start of the week but things are slowly looking up with the Q predictions and this plug reaction... c'mon BJSC peeps let's get both of Jadaphonia in the final!!

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 3 2017, 12:14 AM

Just need to quote this for posterity



I'm really glad that the growling section has turned out not to be as offputting as I thought it might have been based on that plug reaction me worrying about it so much already feels silly in retrospect. Jadaphonia UP xx

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 6 2017, 10:33 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 06/08/2017

This is my home, my heart, my soul, my hearth... in the BJSC 97 final!

Against all of the Persephonian BJSC Committee's original expectations, Saor's 'Hearth' was announced (nice and early) tonight as qualifying through to the final of BJSC 97, which is taking place in Golee, Daehun. It's thus our 5th qualification out of 7 entries this year and our 56th finalist to date in all, while keeping up our statistic of avoiding failing to qualify in consecutive contests since our run of three DNQs in a row from BJSCs 54 to 56. We are very grateful to everyone who helped us to make the final, and a citation may be needed on this factoid but this may be the longest entry to ever qualify through a semi-final We're thus back on the qualification streak list at the bottom, while there is a changeover at the top of the list as Unovia proved themselves not to be bulletproof and DNQed this time, meaning Aeroche are once again the country with the longest streak sitting at 11 in a row, joint leaders alongside Cor Lupus. Their closest competitors are now South Danaelanda and Trifoski, both on national record runs of 10 finals in a row. Saor have been drawn in slot 28 of 41 in the grand final.

Persephonia came very close to having all of our votes in semi-final 1 qualify alongside ourselves, but sadly the one other missing out was a big favourite, Cumulonimbia's entry 'Cascades' by Indian Wells which had been our 12 in midweek voting stats but ultimately ended up getting our 10... and subsequently missing out on the final by just 1 point. Cry. Over in semi-final 2, Persephonian voters also lost their second favourite song, sadly we wave goodbye to Cadelicia's best entry in some time, 'Distante' by Meg. Three other songs from our would-be votes also fell short in semi-final 2: Buzzjack Mountain only just missed out with Lee Mills' 'From My Lerv' (5th in our ranking), while we also lose Thelonia (7th for us with Bonzai's 'I Feel Alright') and Deandria (9th for us with A_GIM's 'Rajka' (feat. Klark)).

Posted by: Jade Aug 6 2017, 10:39 PM

The curse of you DNQing while we watch results together in person officially over! floored at both of us making it, well done *.*

Posted by: awardinary Aug 6 2017, 10:42 PM

Love for Brade from the people of Zanmatony.

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 7 2017, 03:22 AM

Haha yes indeed *.* literally the 3 previous times this year that we were together for results I DNQed twice and came 20th the other time lol. x Yass for us both making it after initial doubts <3



Very much returned this month x

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 15 2017, 10:24 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 15/08/2017

BJSC 97 summary

- The final results of BJSC 97 took place last night, with the reveal taking place in Flynt, Aeroche due to last minute extenuating circumstances requiring a change of host. Persephonia had a fairly good night, finishing bang on midtable, 21st out of 41 with Saor's 'Hearth'. It received a total of 179 points from 19 voters - the latter number meaning that it ended up losing a three-way tiebreak for 19th, so it was rather unlucky to miss out on a place in the top 20. However, it is still our second biggest hit of the year in both position and points (behind KNARS' 'Bad Trip', 19th with 197 points in BJSC 94), a satisfying result for a very risky entry which has nonetheless gone down as the best received Persephonian entry of the year so far domestically. It also marks the first time Persephonia have come 21st in the final, leaving only 7th-11th and 18th as positions we haven't yet claimed within the top 25. Pleasingly 'Hearth' also received 18 points from Terra Avium, the first time we've got top points from anyone in either the final or the semi-final for 5 contests (and the 9th time we have received Terra Avium's top score). Furthermore 'Hearth' ranked in the top 3 for another 6 countries, receiving 15 points each from Cumulonimbia, Jadakissnia, Land of DW and Rolloland and 13 points each from Deandria and Tinnmark; 7 medal positions is our most for over a year, since Color Guard's 'In Your Bones' also had 7 in BJSC 85. Thanks to all of those, plus the other 12 countries who threw us some points (including further double digit points from Aelandor, Espen and Séyetana) It was also revealed that 'Hearth' finished 6th out of 31 in semi-final 1 with 84 points, our second semi-final top 10 of 2017 to date, our highest position in a semi-final since DANCE WITH THE DEAD's 'Waves' won its semi in BJSC 79 and our highest semi-final points since TWRR's 'Water Frozen' which got 85 points to come 8th in its BJSC 87 semi-final. That result put it in a projected 13th place (a result it would have achieved in the non-canonical http://www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=197485&view=findpost&p=5789629, boo x)

- The major contenders for the win this month were all gunning for their first victory, with the entire top 3 in the end being countries without a win to their name prior to this contest. At points during the reveal it seemed like it was a very close race between the three. However, in the end it was Quintessa who pulled ahead and secured a pretty landslide win, with 379 points for 'Gypsy (Catch Me If You Can)' by Norda and Mike De Ville feat. Joanna Jones, the highest scoring winner of 2017 so far and 56 points ahead of its closest competition. This song followed in the footsteps of a previous electroswing BJSC smash, Caravan Palace's 'Lone Digger', which fell a little short of the win, coming 2nd in BJSC 80 for Kluminican Republic. 'Gypsy (Catch Me If You Can)' also dominated in top scores, picking up 7 18s while only one other song had more than 3, and had been a comfortable projected winner as it easily won semi-final 2, becoming the country's second semi-final winner after Mirror Talk's '1/M/T' which was also in BJSC 80. Quintessa's road to their debut BJSC win has been a long and rocky one, finally achieving it on their 41st attempt. They somewhat infamously held the record for 'most entries without ever qualifying' for some time, first entering in BJSC 33 and submitting 6 consecutive entries that failed to qualify before taking a long hiatus from the contest, returning in BJSC 63 to be immediately faced with a 7th DNQ (a run of opening bad luck only beaten by Singerpurear). They've had some better results since then but still, of their first 40 entries, just 15 of them made the final, and their only previous top 10 hits were a sudden spurt of success in BJSCs 79 and 80 where they scored back to back top 5 hits with Avec Sans' 4th-placed 'Resonate' and the aforementioned '1/M/T' which came 5th. They've also had a handful of strong results in spinoffs, including two runner-up positions. Anyways, it's a well deserved first win for them, and they can now look forward to a guaranteed slot in the final next month (it's not yet clear if they will be hosting or not).

- Finishing a pretty distant 2nd in the end were Terra Avium, who nonetheless scored their biggest hit to date (and their 7th top 10 hit in all) with Steven Wilson's gorgeous 'Pariah' (feat. Ninet Tayeb) earning 323 points. That betters their only previous podium finish, 'I've Been Secretly Falling Apart' by Owsey, Jernalism and Resotone which came 3rd in, once again, BJSC 80 (these parallels). It's also a better result for Steven Wilson after he came 12th with 'Routine' (which also had uncredited vocals by Ninet Tayeb) representing Rolloland on their debut entry 3 contests back, perhaps helped this time by having a much shorter song. Third place on 305 points went to Ramrynia with Tigertown's 'Warriors', giving Ramrynia a third bronze medal to go with their 4 silver medals, among a total of 23 top 10 hits, while they still await a first win (they extend their lead as the country with the most medals without a win, while also taking a strong lead in the year to date rankings having scored 7 out of 7 top 20 hits this year including an earlier 2nd place in BJSC 91 with Sirusho's 'PreGomesh'). Like Steven Wilson, Tigertown had previously provided a country's debut entry, in this case Brechtoria's 29th-placed BJSC 85 debut 'Lonely Cities'.

- That is Ramrynia's 2nd straight top 10 hit, also achieved by FSR Rontvia who came 4th with Kosmonova's 'Danse Avec Moi!' on 273 points, the most successful of a crop of over-a-decade-old entries this month (most of which are also eurodance). This is FSR Rontvia's 29th top 5 hit and 48th top 10. Their last top 5 hit before this was in BJSC 87 with 5th-placed 'Ilumbarada' by Ortiga (which was also a retro choice, in fact both that and 'Danse Avec Moi!' were German hit singles in 2000), and the first time the BJSC god nation has come this high since BJSC 71 where they came 3rd with Ulf Nilsson's 'Little By Little' (George Whyman & Lulleaux Remix). One must go back another 7 contests to BJSC 64 for their most recent and still record 8th winner 'RAMelia (Tribute To Amelia)' by RAM and Susana. 'Danse Avec Moi!' did however secure FSR Rontvia a win in semi-final 1, the first time they've won a semi-final in nearly 4 years and the 7th time to date (previously: Sanna Nielsen's 'Nobody Without You' (BJSC 9), Pixie Lott's 'Boys And Girls' (BJSC 11), Beautiful Small Machines' 'Robots In Love' (BJSC 17, their only entry to win both the semi-final and the final), Delta Goodrem's 'Hunters And The Wolves' (BJSC 50), Rivaz' 'Colors' (BJSC 54) and RL Grime's 'Because Of U' (BJSC 60)). Speaking of RL Grime, we go back to the present where he completed the BJSC 97 top 5, coming 5th for Aeroche with 'Reims' on 245 points, providing Aeroche's 24th top 5 and 30th top 10. All 23 of Aeroche's previous top 5 hits were 4th or higher, so this finally completes their collection of top 5 peaks. Unusually for them however, this one actually didn't do too well in the semi-final, where it came just 13th.

- Losing a tiebreak for 5th place, Trifoski settled for 6th with Lido's 'Not Enough' (feat. THEY.) which had been an early favourite to win the contest, falling a bit short of that but still another good result for the country, their 13th top 10 hit and the fourth of their last 8 entries to come 6th or higher. Also continuing a recent revival in their fortunes in the contest, République d'Ashton came 7th for a second month in a row with Dragonette's 'Darth Vader', the last time we'll ever see former contest winners Dragonette in the contest as they are now permabanned for appearing in the contest 7 times. It's Ashton's 26th top 10 hit and their third in the space of 6 contests following an epic dry spell. South Danaelanda, another brief early favourite for the win, came 8th with DJ Licious' 'I Hear You Calling' for their 8th top 10 hit and third of the year. Daehun's auto-qualifier 'You Better Know' by Red Velvet netted them a second top 10 in a row and 19th in total, coming 9th (once again after a long period with no top 10 hits) and proving they can still have hits with Asian pop entries if they find the right one; this was their third attempt with Red Velvet songs alone, following a DNQ and a 26th place with their earlier singles 'Dumb Dumb' (BJSC 79) and 'Russian Roulette' (BJSC 89) respectively. Completing the top 10, Summericia sat out the contest last month for the first time since their debut, but made a swift and well-received comeback this time to net their second top 10 hit with Caramell's 'Caramelldancing', an English-language version of retro meme 'Caramelldansen' dating from 2002. It didn't quite match the 9th place success of their BJSC 91 entry 'still goin' by CRIM3S.

- Besides the top 2, two other countries also set national bests this month. Zanmatony bounced back from four DNQs on the trot to just narrowly miss out on their first top 10 hit with another of this contest's retro eurodance entries, Paradisio's 'Bailando' (from 1996), finishing 11th to beat their previous 16th place peak (with Yellow Claw's 'Love & War' (feat. Yade Lauren) in BJSC 91). Meanwhile, last month's debutants Jupiterdonia found their feet this time around, getting their first qualifier on second attempt and finishing a solid 27th with Smallpools' 'Million Bucks'. Smallpools have also previously provided the first qualifier for another nation - Varakë came 11th with their previous track 'Dreaming' in BJSC 55 following two DNQs. There were no countries making debut appearances in BJSC 97.

- There were 8 countries making comebacks this month, nicely replacing the 8 countries facing one-month bans, though 5 further withdrawing countries still meant this was a smaller contest than the last. Unfortunately, only two of those made the final. One was Summericia as previously mentioned. The other was the latest country to re-emerge in the contest after a long hiatus: Scherzland sat out the previous 43 contests, having last been seen in BJSC 53 with DNQ 'One Night' by Matthew Koma. Their grand comeback entry 'Never Did This Before' by Black Saint finished 30th this time around. Two of the DNQing comeback nations were also making their first appearances in 2017. Cumulonimbia had been absent for 7 contests and just narrowly missed out on the final this time with a great entry. Triangledonia were gone for 6 contests and were nowhere near qualifying this time, with a not so great entry. Buzzjack Mountain and Thelonia both returned after serving one-month bans, and also both narrowly missed out on the final, while Greenfroze returned again after another month in the wilderness and DNQed again, and finally Republic of Adonia made a rather pointless comeback in which they DNQed, didn't vote in either the semi-final or the final and will now be banned again next month. Never change. Beaverdonia will be joining them in the banned corner, giving them an opportunity to recalibrate their sound in time for BJSC 99 after coming last in the semi-final with 5 points for their real blues music summer Cornetto and Pimm's anthem.

- Varakë managed to surprise most punters by qualifying through a second semi-final in a row for the first time ever, but it seemed hard to imagine their entry being much higher than the bottom few positions in the final, as decent a song as it was. Indeed, 'Dialeto' by Diogo Piçarra ended up giving the country their first wooden spoon, coming 41st of 41 with 69 (teehee) points. Only two other songs fell short of the 100 point mark, and both were pretty close. 40th place went to one of the other big surprise qualifiers, Rolloland's entry 'Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand' by Primitive Radio Gods (another 1996 track), which at least gets the consolation prize of being the longest song title to ever appear in BJSC, and was Rolloland's 2nd qualifier out of 4 entries to date. That scored 94 points, losing a tiebreak for 39th place to St. Burbia's entry 'On My Mind' by Moxie Raia feat. Pusha T.

- Other noteworthy results: Bhangra improved on their performance from last month to come 14th with Tarkan's 'Yolla', supplanting their previous entry as their biggest hit since their comeback; Taahino came 19th with Lao Ra's 'Body Bounce' (feat. Konshens), their tenth top 20 hit to date while still going no higher than #14; Aelandor made it two top 20 hits in a row after never reaching the tier before, scraping 20th place with Billy Lockett's 'Old Man'; Tartford finally qualified again with Crystal Castles' 'Concrete' after a run of 8 DNQs in a row (the third longest run ever, after runs of 13 in a row by Singerpurear and 10 in a row by East Rukahavian FKA Usfland, and just ahead of a previous run of 7 in a row also by Tartford), finishing 23rd; Jadakissnia's entry 'Mango Bay' by MONOMOTION came 24th which isn't particularly noteworthy in itself but we'll mention it anyway because BIAS and the fact it was our first time giving them 18 points since their debut; and to complete the list of retro entries this month, Bøtanikkä finished 31st with Rednex's 'The Spirit Of The Hawk', another old eurodance track dating from 2000.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 97

Final

Points awarded:
18 Jadakissnia // MONOMOTION - Mango Bay
15 Terra Avium // Steven Wilson - Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb)
13 Zanmatony // Paradisio - Bailando

12 Bøtanikkä // Rednex - The Spirit Of The Hawk
11 Tartford // Crystal Castles - Concrete
10 FSR Rontvia // Kosmonova - Danse Avec Moi!
9 Séyetana // Hiroyuki Sawano and Cyua - Vogel Im Käfig
8 Quintessa // Norda and Mike De Ville - Gypsy (Catch Me If You Can) (feat. Joanna Jones)
7 Summericia // Caramell - Caramelldancing
6 Trifoski // Lido - Not Enough (feat. THEY.)
5 Bhangra // Tarkan - Yolla
4 New Lexico // Le Grind - Bricks
3 Scherzland // Black Saint - Never Did This Before
2 Pupok // Julia Wieniawa and Zeppy Zep - Na Zawsze
1 Rolloland // Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand

16th-40th:
Aelandor // Billy Lockett - Old Man
Lotunia // Gery-Nikol - I'm The Queen
Aeroche // RL Grime - Reims
Dobago // Q-Benjamin - BUT (You Got Something) (Jay Montero Radio Edit)
Varakë // Diogo Piçarra - Dialeto
Flynnonda // Charlotte - Pars
South Danaelanda // DJ Licious - I Hear You Calling
Daehun // Red Velvet - You Better Know
Taahino // Lao Ra - Body Bounce (feat. Konshens)
Avalonia // Britt Nicole - Through Your Eyes
Ojnoj // TOPIA - Statement Song
D'yermak'er // Arrhult - Just Fiction
République d'Ashton // Dragonette - Darth Vader
Hushkanukia // Vera Blue - Private
Jupiterdonia // Smallpools - Million Bucks
Ramrynia // Tigertown - Warriors
Yehesi // Jaira Burns - Ugly
Kluminican Republic // Montaigne - Because I Love You
St. Burbia // Moxie Raia - On My Mind (feat. Pusha T)
Hendinia // Sigrid Bernson - This Summer
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // RIVRS - Playing With Fire
Cor Lupus // Taryn Manning - GLTCHLFE
Kylienips // Betty Who - Human Touch
Sandebörg // We The Kids - Billion
Altyr Muunilinst // KATÉA - Louder

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Terra Avium // Steven Wilson - Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb)
10 Cumulonimbia // Indian Wells - Cascades^†
8 Bøtanikkä // Rednex - The Spirit Of The Hawk

7 Tartford // Crystal Castles - Concrete
6 FSR Rontvia // Kosmonova - Danse Avec Moi!
5 Séyetana // Hiroyuki Sawano and Cyua - Vogel Im Käfig
4 Summericia // Caramell - Caramelldancing
3 Trifoski // Lido - Not Enough (feat. THEY.)
2 Pupok // Julia Wieniawa and Zeppy Zep - Na Zawsze
1 Scherzland // Black Saint - Never Did This Before

11th-30th:
Espen // josh pan - give it to ya (feat. ABRA)^†
Rolloland // Primitive Radio Gods - Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand
Aelandor // Billy Lockett - Old Man
Singerpurear // Spoon - Can I Sit Next To You^†
East Rukahavian // Beach Slang - Spin The Dial^†
Dobago // Q-Benjamin - BUT (You Got Something) (Jay Montero Radio Edit)
Taahino // Lao Ra - Body Bounce (feat. Konshens)
Desbuanda // Autoheart - Moscow^†
Ojnoj // TOPIA - Statement Song
République d'Ashton // Dragonette - Darth Vader
Jupiterdonia // Smallpools - Million Bucks
Unovia // Manelyk - Odiosa^†
Ultraviolenceland // Georgia Denton - Prisoner In Motion^†
Greenfroze // Runaway Zoo - Lights R Out^†
Republic of Adonia // BoA - CAMO^†
St. Burbia // Moxie Raia - On My Mind (feat. Pusha T)
Harmonica // Kari Kimmel - Can You Feel It^†
Kylienips // Betty Who - Human Touch
Altyr Muunilinst // KATÉA - Louder
Oslol // Chris Salvatore - Breathe Me (feat. ALIUS)<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

2nd Cadelicia // Meg - Distante
5th Buzzjack Mountain // Lee Mills - From My Lerv
7th Thelonia // Bonzai - I Feel Alright
9th Deandria // A_GIM - Rajka (feat. Klark)
15th Land of DW // Ann My Guard - Callisto
21st Beaverdonia // Nikola Rachelle - Sirens
24th Niceland // The Isles - Eve Of The Battle
25th Azure // The Band CAMINO - Who Says We're Through
27th Tinnmark // EIRIK - Sacrifice
28th Triangledonia // Lynz Munich - We Are Balloons
31st Bignia-Zaragovina // Frankie Grande - Queen

Posted by: Jade Aug 15 2017, 10:51 PM

My 24th place getting a mention in your write-up *.* true alliance goals x I would have been thrilled if I'd been told pre-contest that I ended up 24th, but when I peaked in the top 5 at one point it was quite gutting to be knocked back down so low. I felt like a pop hoe sending a country song or something.

WD on beating me and netting a very respectable finish for a song that was pretty risky. Shall treasure that 18 for moi after the 2 year wait for another

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 15 2017, 10:55 PM

Oh yeah, 'Hearth' also peaked early which seems a little unusual for such an anti-pop song oops x

I apparently can only finish higher than you with metal entries this year

Posted by: Meatball Cody Aug 16 2017, 04:21 AM

http://mamadavonne.tumblr.com/post/164241053557/also-this-new-brockhampton-got-me-like

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 16 2017, 05:45 PM

Impakt

(I'm just waiting for them to actually become big, they're growing hype on the Internet all the time but yet to cross over to the mainstream in any way)

Posted by: Floater Aug 21 2017, 04:32 AM

Just happened upon this https://radioinsight.com/headlines/119309/jay-dabhi-rises-92-3-amp-radio-music-director/ which highlights Jay Dabhi's recent career accomplishments ;o

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 22 2017, 07:32 PM

"He is credited with breaking Clean Bandit’s Rockabye in the U.S." *.* you're welcome USA x

~

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 28 2017, 11:27 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 29/08/2017

Will our chances be Dead or Healthy this month?? Only time will tell...

With a record-matching 72 confirmed nations, BJSC 98 has got off to an explosive start tonight in first time (main contest) host nation Quintessa, in the city of Vanna Rosa, so we can now reveal our tightly kept secret entry for the month. Persephonia's 77th main contest entry - will that bring us good luck? - comes from Dead Husband, a duo from Boston, Massachusetts, who thus put the USA back in the lead as the nationality we've sent most often (24 times). Dead Husband released their debut four-track EP 'Renaissance' earlier this month. Our chosen track, 'Healthy Boy', is the closing track on the EP and is also the song they have used to promote their EP by releasing a rather trippy music video for it exclusively to Vimeo (the Persephonian BJSC Committee will be sneakily commissioning a private upload to YouTube courtesy of Jadakissnia () to allow the video - and the song for that matter, only otherwise available on Bandcamp - to be played in the plug.dj session this week and included in our entries playlist). This is Persephonia's most obscure entry to the contest to date, clocking up fewer than 1,000 views to date and with the band only having 500 likes on Facebook and 750 followers on SoundCloud.

'Healthy Boy' marks a return to the more familiar territory of electronic music for us after our dabbles into hip-hop and metal in the last two contests. However, the song and artist seem to be tagged under about 10 different genres so we can cherrypick and claim it is a brand new genre for us, namely darkwave (it's also tagged, among others, as industrial dance, synthwave, 'coldwave', techno and synthpop). Whatever you label it as, it's a gloriously dark and deliciously synthy track, with some faint and largely unintelligible female vocals throughout but mostly relying on its constant barrage of synths which hit the listener hard from the very first second in a manner not dissimilar to our previous death-themed late-year synthwave entry 'Waves' by DANCE WITH THE DEAD. Aiming high, to be disappointed when we inevitably finish around the mid 30s at best. We're very excited for this entry anyway, check it out below and be mesmerised by the colours and patterns and synths ~



'Healthy Boy' has been drawn as track 14 of a bumper 35 in semi-final 1.

Over in semi-final 2, a Persephonian alumnus makes a swift return to the contest - Kevin Abstract, who provided the hook on our DNQ 'GOLD' two months back as a member of his boyband BROCKHAMPTON, is making a solo foray into the contest representing Cumulonimbia with 'Miserable America', appearing in slot 28. We wish him better luck on his own. Also, track 34 in semi-final 1 is Marmozets' 'Play', a song which had been under consideration to be a Persephonia entry, but has turned up instead under the unexpected flag of Ultraviolenceland, while semi-final 2 features three songs by artists who had been Persephonian potentials in the past, namely Kacy Hill, Made In Heights and Slow Magic (all of which have been in the contest before but not ultimately for us).

Posted by: Leonardo Aug 28 2017, 11:52 PM

Ooh, excited to hear this after that description, I haven't listened to any of the entries somfar, as to keep impartial, also it's Vanna Rosa.

I take it that my entry wasn't the old potential of yours then?

Posted by: Capybréra Aug 29 2017, 12:01 AM

Oops, what an embarrassing oversight, someone at PNB will be fired for that blunder. (fixed ) I might be in danger of overhyping my entry so like that's my fault if you're underwhemed by it now lmao but I love it a lot ~

And oh no it wasn't haha. The song I was talking about was 'It's You' by Neon Bunny. It's more synthpop than indie pop really so I should have known it wouldn't be that. Excited to hear your entry nonetheless.

(aside: Firefox is being glitchy with that Vimeo embed and it flickers in and out of appearance on my screen when I scroll it still plays fine though xx)

Posted by: Leonardo Aug 29 2017, 12:07 AM

Oh, will look up that one, I have another Korean potential but it wasn't Neon Bunny either, it's somewhat more R&B with a rap break, maybe next contest....

Posted by: Jade Aug 29 2017, 09:57 PM

Stop making it so easy for me to stan you! honestly another crazy good offering from u Really up my street with the seedy club at 3am vibes/synths/'Waves' vibes. <3

Posted by: ⓐⓦⓐⓡ^ Aug 29 2017, 10:16 PM

Looking forward to pointing this wonderful nation at long last! *.*

Posted by: Capybréra Sep 5 2017, 12:06 AM

Defo need to send a proper screamo entry one day xx (yayyy tho )



I endorse this *. x

~

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 05/09/2017

Dead Husband make the BJSC 98 final!

The Persephonian BJSC Committee had been unusually confident (by 2017 standards) in a place in the final this month and we weren't disappointed as the semi-final results took place tonight in Quintessa, there were plenty of twists and turns and shocks of all flavours but our result wasn't one, as Dead Husband's 'Healthy Boy' has eased through to the final of BJSC 98. This gives us our 6th qualification out of a possible 8 this year, our 57th finalist in total and puts us back on a qualification streak, slowly moving back up that list with now 2 in a row (we hope to make it to 3 in a row again unlike the last time we got to 2). The two leaders in the qualification streak list, Aeroche and Cor Lupus, have held their crowns with both qualifying through to a 12th straight final, while Trifoski stay their closest rivals as they advanced to their 11th straight final, although South Danaelanda failed to do the same, leaving Trifoski on their own in third place. Dead Husband will be performing in slot 35 of 42 in the grand final.

The saddest loss from Persephonian voters' favourites in semi-final 1 was Ultraviolenceland's entry 'Play' by Marmozets, briefly a potential Persephonia entry, which got our 8 points in the semi-final but fell frustratingly short of qualifying, coming 21st (the second time in a row the country has been one place away from qualifying). There were also 2 other casualties from our semi-final votes, both songs we expected to be safe - 5 pointer 'Tu Conmigo' by Vitalic feat. La Bien Querida representing the aforementioned South Danaelanda, and Aesthetica's comeback entry 'Anck Su Namum' by Yezi which got 2 points from us - while some of our other votes that we expected to struggle made it through with us. Never take anything for granted!! Over in semi-final 2, there were three more DNQs that ranked among Persephonian voters' top 10, harsh losses for Rolloland (5th in our ranking with the Thin White Duke Mix of 'Silver Screen Shower Scene' by Felix Da Housecat feat. Miss Kittin), Tartford (6th for us with Marsheaux's 'Get The Balance Right') and another rather surprising loss, Thelonia (10th for us with Antony & Cleopatra's 'Dust').

Posted by: Addy K!ng Sep 5 2017, 12:44 AM

The best Persephonia entry of 2017

Posted by: Rob S Sep 5 2017, 03:58 PM

This is sooo good, a huge highlight from my listenthrough, I think this one is the one of yours to grab me in a huge way this year so hopefully that can translate into a top 10 ;O (I said this last month about the 'long track' I know but think this sounds it has a really good shot more confident in it's chances than 'Hearth')

Posted by: dandy* Sep 5 2017, 06:43 PM

Could this be a winner?

I definitely think it will have a wide appeal.

Posted by: Capybréra Sep 5 2017, 11:38 PM

Thank you for the hype guys and Roba giving me another top 10 prediction to attempt to live up to, has happened with basically all of my entries this year other than the DNQs one day ~

@ Dandy I wish! Like I said when I confirmed it I do think it sounds like something that might have been a winner back in 2012/13 but I don't know if the ~market~ is still there for it as much in 2017. Feeling good about my chances of having my biggest hit of the year though.

Posted by: 28 Brays Later Oct 8 2017, 04:12 PM

Getting a lil behind in here again oops, double results summary ramble coming shortly after the BJSC 99 results but before they kick off lemme quickly get up to date with the current contest ~

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 08/10/2017

Persephonia aims for the moon in BJSC 99 with LUNA

BJSC 99 is underway in Medhelnia and Persephonia's contribution, our 78th main contest entry, this month comes from a Ukrainian singer named Kristina Bardash who performs under the name LUNA (ЛУНА in her native Cyrillic script), the Russian word for 'moon', not to be confused with the other LUNA whose song 'Free Somebody' represented Daehun in BJSC 85 (that one is a member of f(x), as if we'd be that cheap xx). The song, 'Butylochka' ('Бутылочка', translating to 'Bottles') was released in April 2016 just ahead of the release of her debut album 'Mag-ni-ty' ('Маг-ни-ты', translating to 'Magnets'). This is our first entry by a Ukrainian artist (marking at last the first time this year we've sent a new nationality) and is a little less obscure than our previous entry, being LUNA's most viewed video on YouTube with a little over 2.4 million views at the time of writing this. We think she's only semi well known in Ukraine though.

Although she is from Ukraine, she sings in the Russian language, making this our second foreign language entry of the year and our 10th fully foreign language entry to date (in nine different languages - to keep count, that's 2 in Arabic and one apiece in Chinese, French, Icelandic, Japanese, Persian, Russian, Slovak and (ancient) Swedish). 'Butylochka' is a dark and fairly low-key electropop song, which we'd describe best as a kind of mixture of ONUKA and Lana Del Rey. The lyrics don't seem to translate well into English but from what we can make out it's something about men being evil and encouraging women to not be brought down by them. Who said we're not a feminist nation? The music video is appropriately dark and gloomy to fit the sound of the song - check it out below (strobe warning x probably should have mentioned that before the contest started oops xx)



'Butylochka' appeared as song 24 of 34 in semi-final 1. But did it make it to the final...?

...yes it did!

LUNA made it through to the final for us improving our qualification streak back to 3 (beating our last qualification streak), giving us our 7th qualifier out of a possible 9 in 2017 and our 58th finalist in total. The longest qualification streaks continue to be held by Aeroche and Cor Lupus, now both on national records as they made it to their 13th straight finals, with Trifoski still their closest rivals having made it through 12 times in a row. 'Butylochka' was drawn in slot 23 of 41 in the grand final.

Only two of our votes from semi-final 1 failed to qualify but that sadly included our very favourite in not only the semi-final but the contest in its entirety - Thelonia continued their run of undeserved poor results, with their entry 'Dance Floor' by MC BOING ending up a deeply frustrating 21st place just one point off qualifying. At least we did all we could to help by awarding the song our full 12 points </3 The other semi-final 1 favourite we lost was Bøtanikkä who sent another 90s dance entry, 'I Love You...Stop!' by Red 5, but this time couldn't make it through. They got our 6 points. There were a further two losses from the Persephonian public's top 10 of semi-final 2 - another major but sadly not unexpected loss was Tinnmark's entry 'Hologram' by Unge Ferrari (ranked 2nd in the semi-final by us), while we also had to say goodbye to Lotunia who finished 9th in our ranking with LOBODA's 'Tvoi Glaza' (a fellow Russian language entry whose title incidentally appears several times in the lyrics of our own entry).

Posted by: Jade-o-Lantern🎃 Oct 9 2017, 12:15 PM

I cannot believe I passed over this when potential hunting it is another Delta Heavy situation where I felt like I didn't love the song enough but it has hit me loads more in the contest. It captivates me more with each further listen *.* really happy that you smashed with it, congrats!!

Posted by: Rob Zombie Oct 9 2017, 06:13 PM

Well done on receiving your first top 10 in ages

Posted by: T H I N G Oct 9 2017, 06:24 PM

THRILLED!

Posted by: 28 Brays Later Oct 9 2017, 06:35 PM

Haha, I thought all along it sounded like something you'd enter so I guess I'm surprised you passed over her before as well! (slay at this happening again less than a year after Baby Blood).



Thanks!! Hooray for me finally living up to a top 10 prediction after so many letdowns throughout the year (in fact actually doing a tiny bit better than you predicted, and you were the only person who predicted it to be top 10! psychic Roba this month)



<3 x

~

belated BJSC 98 summary ramble coming tonight for those who like words xx

Posted by: T H I N G Oct 9 2017, 09:15 PM

cannot WAIT for ur 100. literally going to win if it's what i think it is

Posted by: HobDoblin Oct 9 2017, 09:24 PM

I hope you are still planning on finishing last year's EOY at some point I'm still eagerly awaiting Dobago's paragraph!

Posted by: 28 Brays Later Oct 9 2017, 09:25 PM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 09/10/2017

BJSC 98 summary

- Persephonian citizens are currently celebrating our top 5 finish in the contest after this one but let us cast our minds back a month to BJSC 98 in Quintessa, where Persephonia also had a pretty good result. Dead Husband's 'Healthy Boy' landed in 13th out of 42 in the final with a tally of 233 points from 24 voters, beating our year to date records for position, points and voters (all previously held by KNARS' 'Bad Trip', our only previous top 20 hit in 2017), notably becoming our first 2017 entry to top 200 points, and matching the final position of BJSC 90 entry 'Figurine' by Baby Blood leaving Aron Can's 'Með Mér' (12th in BJSC 86) as our last entry to finish higher. The only major stat in which it wasn't our biggest hit of the year so far was in its number of top scores - it picked up just the one 18, from Buzzjack Mountain, leaving BJSC 92 entry End Of The Dream's 'Colder' still standing as our only 2017 entry to get more than one 18 (with 3 of them, one of which was also Buzzjack Mountain). On top of that, it also received medal positions from Bøtanikkä, Tartford (both 15 points), Quintessa and Summericia (both 13 points). The Persephonian BJSC Committee was thrilled to see such success for such an obscure entry, though were a little bummed out watching the song be in the top 10 for a large part of the results reveal before dropping sharply in the final few votes. Thankfully our lengthy wait for another top 10 hit did not last much longer! 'Healthy Boy' was at least another semi-final top 10 (our 3rd of the year), coming 8th out of 35 in semi-final 1 with 78 points, putting it on course for a projected 16th place in the final, which it ended up outperforming by three places.

- There were only a couple of songs pegged as winner contenders for BJSC 98 and it came to pass that one of them swept to an enormous landslide victory to assert its status as the biggest BJSC hit of the year and one of the biggest of all time. That song was the Mulholland Edition of 'Elizabeth Taylor' by Clare Maguire, which provided a first win for Medhelnia (following two previous runner up finishes, with Parade Of Lights' 'Feeling Electric' in BJSC 85 and Ou Est Le Swimming Pool's 'Dance The Way I Feel' in BJSC 89) on their return to the contest following a one month ban. The song came close to several BJSC records - it received 454 points (the 3rd most ever after Sigala's 'Easy Love' (477) and Salt Ashes' 'Save It' (465)), 40 votes (the joint 7th most ever) and 9 top scores of 18 (the joint 4th most ever, behind three songs that got 10 top scores; the aforementioned 'Easy Love' plus Courtney Barnett's 'Pedestrian At Best' and Indila's 'Dernière Danse'). Its lead over 2nd place of 123 points was also the second largest ever ('Save It' won by 133 points), a win margin of 37.16% which is the 6th largest ever. In summary, it did quite well, and it's not too hard to see why - it didn't quite pick up any points from Persephonia but was appealing well across the board elsewhere. Unsurprisingly it was also crowned as the landslide winner of semi-final 1 with a total of 162 points (the 6th largest total ever in a semi-final), Medhelnia's third semi-final winner following 'Feeling Electric' and 'Dance The Way I Feel'. Incidentally, these are also the only Medhelnia entries to even be in the top 5 of their semi-final, even though they have two further top 5 hits in finals.

- Winning the scrap for second place was Pupok, who landed in the silver medal slot with a total of 331 points with Mason's 'Fashion Killa (Papapapa)' (feat. Stefflon Don), the shortest song in the final at under 2 and a half minutes. This returned the country to the top 10 again - and indeed the top 20 - after missing out 5 contests in a row, giving them their 9th top 10 hit to date and second podium finish following their BJSC 86 win with Aelyn's 'Give Love A Try'. It also topped semi-final 2 giving Pupok a third semi-final win after 'Give Love A Try' and BJSC 91 entry 'River' by Bishop Briggs. In third place was a country that is no stranger to the bronze medal slot - Hendinia finished there for the 2nd time this year alone and the 8th time in their history, taking home 319 points with Elohim's 'Eclipse'. FSR Rontvia's 8 wins is the only other '8-peat' of a position in BJSC finals. Despite their massive haul of 3rd places, 2nd place is much more elusive for Hendinia - they've only finished runner up once (with Max Elto FKA Taped Rai's 'Shadow Of The Sun' in BJSC 54), while of course they continue to find that fourth win elusive as well, but the top 10s keep rolling in, this was their fourth of the year and 38th in total.

- Aeroche finished 4th with the Halogen Remix of Disco Fries' 'Born Ready' (feat. Hope Murphy) with a total of 306 points, a second top 10 (and top 5) in a row and their 31st top 10 (25th top 5) to date. We're running out of ways to describe how successful Aeroche are. Good thing we have to do it again in the next results summary post!! They climbed to 2nd place in the year to date rankings with this result, it remains to be seen if they will get their annual win and end of year #1 position though Completing the top 5, in stark contrast to Pupok, was the longest song in the final - at 9 minutes and 39 seconds, RÜFÜS DU SOL's gorgeous 'Innerbloom' was more than four times the length of 'Fashion Killa (Papapapa)'. It finished 5th with 301 points representing Kluminican Republic, who are having a good run of consistent success of late, this being a sixth top 20 hit in a row, and their third top 10 hit of the year and 12th in total. It's their first time in the top 5 since Caravan Palace's 'Lone Digger' came 2nd in BJSC 80. It's finally a good result for RÜFÜS DU SOL after two previous entries by the group DNQed (including 'Sundream' which was the final entry from Batidas (RIP)).

- Jupiterdonia followed their first qualification in BJSC 97 with a first top 10 hit (on their third entry in total) in BJSC 98, coming in 6th with INNA's 'Yalla'. Despite that, it actually turned out the song was very close to DNQing - it came just 19th in semi-final 2 and was projected to come just 39th, that 33 place improvement smashed the previous record (jointly held by Audien's 'Insomnia' (feat. Parson James) (Aquafina 74) and Wonder Girls' 'I Feel You' (Aesthetica 91) which both made 28 place improvements). Hushkanukia's 7th place finish with Skott's 'Mermaid' wasn't a national record, but it is their second highest finish to date - their first ever qualifier (after an opening run of 5 DNQs), PVRIS' 'St. Patrick', went all the way to the top in BJSC 72, but since then they had previously gone no higher than 9th. 'Mermaid' is their 7th top 10 hit to date (including 3 9th places and 2 10th places). The other song that got major hype as a winner contender alongside Medhelnia was fellow returning nation Fljótavík's entry 'Feria Festival' by Wealstarr, which ended up slightly underperforming in coming 8th, but that still marked their first top 10 hit of the year (22nd to date) and their highest finish since Kenton Slash Demon's 'Harpe' also came 8th in BJSC 82. St. Burbia finished in 9th place with Eva Simons' 'Guaya', giving them a 4th top 10 to date (all this year), and marking the first time Eva Simons has been successfully recycled in the contest (she has one of the contest's biggest ever winners with BJSC 19 winner 'Silly Boy', but 2 further entries by or featuring her both DNQed since then). Completing the top 10 in 10th was a surprisingly big hit from Cumulonimbia with Kevin Abstract's 'Miserable America', a rare BJSC hit for a male hip-hop act, and doing us proud after Abstract DNQed for us 2 contests earlier as part of BROCKHAMPTON. This was recent returnees Cumulonimbia's third top 10 hit and first since BJSC 80 when they had their biggest hit to date with Special Request's 'Amnesia' (4th).

- As well as Medhelnia and Jupiterdonia, Buzzjack Mountain set a new national best, coming in 16th with CENTVRIES' 'Tension' to claim their first top 20 hit (beating the 29th place achieved by JX's 'Restless' 5 contests earlier). Zanmatony fell frustratingly short of also beating their national best, as they came 11th for a second month in a row with Gryffin's 'Love In Ruins' (feat. Sinead Harnett), leaving them still in search of a first top 10 hit. They were only one point off it in this case. There was one debuting nation in BJSC 98, namely Cowtermont, who fell just a little bit short of qualifying on their first attempt with debut entry 'Space' by Prince Fox feat. Quinn XCII.

- Only two countries were facing bans in this contest and only one other dropped out, so a large crop of 11 returning nations helped BJSC 98 to match the record for the most entries in a contest ever (72, the same as in BJSC 77). Medhelnia and Fljótavík were already mentioned, but only two of the other nine returnees made it to the final this time. FARC were back after serving a one month ban and came 29th with 'My Yute' by Blessed. The most mysterious and intriguing returning nation was Helgon - the country confirmed under this name without making the identity of it public, leading to great speculation as to who it might be. It was eventually revealed during the final results that it was a rebrand of Syndare, who were returning after sitting out the previous 5 contests. Comeback entry 'Next To Me' by MARLENE came 28th. Aesthetica, Mezidinia and Skall were returning after serving a one month ban and all DNQed. Aesthetica and Mezidinia unfortunately forgot to vote in the final this time again, so had to serve another one month ban in BJSC 99. #00274E and Suedeonia were not banned in the previous contest but both sat it out anyway and returned again to DNQ in BJSC 98 (with #00274E joining the naughty chair countries in not voting in the final and thus also serving a ban for BJSC 99). That leaves 2 other countries who returned from considerably longer breaks - Sandénia made a comeback after 19 contests in the wilderness, and the country formerly known as Sãó Ricó rebranded to the easier to type Enty and returned after 24 contests out. Both were welcomed back with DNQs. Enty have entered 3 times to date and are yet to qualify for a final - and were ineligible to break that in BJSC 99 as they too failed to vote in the final. Completing the list of naughty countries banned for BJSC 99, Scherzland also failed to submit votes, one month after their own return from a long break.

- BJSC 98's wooden spoon went for the first time to Harmonica with Blondage's 'Dive' in 42nd of 42, which proved to be an absolutely archetypal winner of trickle points. Its final total of 60 points is among the lowest recorded under the current points system, but it actually had a pretty healthy 18 voters - the secret was that just two of those voters ranked the song in their top 10, so if the 12 point system were still in use 'Dive' would have received just 10 points, a joint record low for a song that qualified through a semi-final (matching the infamous 'Roo' by Shadeux - Terra Avium will never be forgiven). Amazingly, this result for 'Dive' came despite the fact it did as well as 14th place in its semi-final. The only other song that failed to crack 100 points was hosts Quintessa's auto-qualifier 'Heaven' by Ashmute, finishing a very undeservedly low 41st with 95 points. As there were an even number of entries, Terra Avium also auto-qualified and they took the opportunity to send something absolutely batshit insane that would SURELY come last in the final. Gjallarhorn's 'Konungen Och Trollkvinnan' actually finished as the higher AQ, as high as 37th. Not bad.

- Other noteworthy results: Ramrynia came 14th with Alida's 'Feathers' to maintain a 100% top 20 record in 2017, 8 for 8; Desbuanda came 20th with DJDS' 'Trees On Fire' (feat. Amber Mark and Marco McKinnis), their best result since SOFI TUKKER's 'Matadora' also came 20th in BJSC 81, and in fact since they had their crowning moment of coming 2nd with Eves The Behavior's 'TV' in BJSC 72, they've recorded only 3 more top 20 hits which were all exactly 20th (though they have gone on to do better than this in BJSC 99 as we'll mention in our next ramble); East Rukahavian finally qualified for the first time under their current name after 4 straight DNQs since their last qualifier when they were called Usfland, this time coming 38th with YONAKA's 'Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya'.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 98

Final

Points awarded:
18 Espen // Mounika. - Long Silent
15 Cumulonimbia // Kevin Abstract - Miserable America
13 Fljótavík // Wealstarr - Feria Festival

12 Kluminican Republic // RÜFÜS DU SOL - Innerbloom
11 Land of DW // N.O.H.A. - Di Nero
10 Quintessa // Ashmute - Heaven
9 Aelandor // C2C - Down The Road
8 Jadakissnia // Moth Equals - Jiv
7 Trifoski // Guerilla Toss - Skull Pop
6 Avalonia // Johannes Ringen - Neverafter (feat. Merethe Soltvedt)
5 Taahino // Tigress - Alive
4 Cadelicia // Tourist - Run
3 Buzzjack Mountain // CENTVRIES - Tension
2 FARC // Blessed - My Yute
1 Hendinia // Elohim - Eclipse

16th-41st:
Séyetana // SIAMÉS - The Wolf
Unovia // Jenn Morel - Pónteme
Terra Avium // Gjallarhorn - Konungen Och Trollkvinnan
Bøtanikkä // Wrabel - The Village
St. Burbia // Eva Simons - Guaya
Jupiterdonia // INNA - Yalla
Pupok // Mason - Fashion Killa (Papapapa) (feat. Stefflon Don)
Desbuanda // DJDS - Trees On Fire (feat. Amber Mark and Marco McKinnis)
Niceland // BANNERS - Someone To You
Deandria // AaRON - Blouson Noir
East Rukahavian // YONAKA - Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya
Azure // Ghost Beach - Miracle
Medhelnia // Clare Maguire - Elizabeth Taylor (Mulholland Edition)
Zanmatony // Gryffin - Love In Ruins (feat. Sinead Harnett)
Helgon // MARLENE - Next To Me
Cor Lupus // Kacy Hill - Hard To Love
New Lexico // YOMBE - SDIMS
Yehesi // Sophia Ayana - If I Had Your Love
D'yermak'er // Slow Magic - Mind (feat. Kate Boy)
Aeroche // Disco Fries - Born Ready (Halogen Remix) (feat. Hope Murphy)
Hushkanukia // Skott - Mermaid
Ramrynia // Alida - Feathers
Harmonica // Blondage - Dive
Greenfroze // Nova Miller - Anything For U
Daehun // SEREBRO - Mi Mi Mi
Tinnmark // Sophie Elise - All Your Friends

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Espen // Mounika. - Long Silent
10 Fljótavík // Wealstarr - Feria Festival
8 Ultraviolenceland // Marmozets - Play^†

7 Land of DW // N.O.H.A. - Di Nero
6 Jadakissnia // Moth Equals - Jiv
5 South Danaelanda // Vitalic - Tu Conmigo (feat. La Bien Querida)^†
4 Taahino // Tigress - Alive
3 Buzzjack Mountain // CENTVRIES - Tension
2 Aesthetica // Yezi - Anck Su Namum^†
1 Séyetana // SIAMÉS - The Wolf

11th-34th:
Bøtanikkä // Wrabel - The Village
Niceland // BANNERS - Someone To You
Azure // Ghost Beach - Miracle
St. Burbia // Eva Simons - Guaya
FSR Rontvia // Dacia - Muistot^†
Kylienips // Zolita - Fight Like A Girl^†
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // KStewart - Hands (feat. Yungen)^†
Zanmatony // Gryffin - Love In Ruins (feat. Sinead Harnett)
Pupok // Mason - Fashion Killa (Papapapa) (feat. Stefflon Don)
New Lexico // YOMBE - SDIMS
Triangledonia // LEVV - Collateral Damage (Tritonal Remix)^†
Suedeonia // Alec Benjamin - I Built A Friend^†
Lotunia // Crywolf - The Hunger In Your Haunt^†
Flynnonda // Erith - Weak^†
Deandria // AaRON - Blouson Noir
Helgon // MARLENE - Next To Me
Scherzland // Madison Beer - Dead^†
Varakë // Evangeline - My Kingdom (William Black Remix)^†
Bhangra // Amelia Lily - The Hills^†
République d'Ashton // Molly Sandén - Rygg Mot Rygg^†
Ramrynia // Alida - Feathers
Greenfroze // Nova Miller - Anything For U
Sandebörg // Benjamin Ingrosso - One More Time^†
Tinnmark // Sophie Elise - All Your Friends

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

5th Rolloland // Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix) (feat. Miss Kittin)
6th Tartford // Marsheaux - Get The Balance Right
10th Thelonia // Antony & Cleopatra - Dust
13th Dobago // Yakir Ganon and Mor Ben Yair - J'amila
16th Summericia // Dorothy - Dark Nights
19th Mezidinia // Made In Heights - Slow Burn
21st Enty // Max Barskih - Teryayu Tebya
22nd Skall // Small Black - Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
23rd Ojnoj // JNS - Aun Sin Ti
24th Singerpurear // Sheena Easton - 101
26th Altyr Muunilinst // MOODY - Karma
29th #00274E // Alexiane - A Million On My Soul
32nd Cowtermont // Prince Fox - Space (feat. Quinn XCII)
33rd Bignia-Zaragovina // Skylar Stecker - How Did We
34th Sandénia // SIIGHTS - Nobody Like U

Posted by: 28 Brays Later Oct 9 2017, 09:30 PM

Haha sorry I'm so shit with these, I'm definitely not doing something that ambitious again with my 2017 EOY however I promise it is still in the pipeline (hence why I still haven't removed it from my subtitle), just keeps going on the backburner! It shouldn't actually take me long to do the next post



Oh you definitely know what it is, it's not really even a secret haha (though I'm not gonna spoil it yet for the few people who don't already know it xx) - yass start my hype now x

Posted by: HowtoCookMattias Oct 27 2017, 11:28 AM

bump lol

So I know you're not particularly the biggest fan of my AaRON entry ( x) but I thought it works fairly well with your Dance with the Dead one, despite the slight synth overload lmao. https://rave.dj/wxViNRG_aK99VA

(yes it seems rave.dj is making its way into the BJSC forum now)

Posted by: Cucumberella Nov 2 2017, 02:06 AM

have ALL of my hype this month

Posted by: Jade Nov 2 2017, 02:21 AM

Hype hype hype from me too!

Seriously thinking that 'IDL' is going to place in the top 5 if not contend for the win.

Posted by: Brébino Nov 18 2017, 01:38 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin apologises for building up another little backlog of publications in here (coming soon x) but the gist of it is that we finished off the year with back to back top 10 hits for only the second time in our history (LUNA's 'Butylochka' coming 5th in BJSC 99 and Life Sim's 'IDL' 10th in BJSC 100) x Now is the time for us to plan which song we'll spectacularly lose our top 10 streak with in BJSC 101. x

We will also dump the top 30 of our 2016 EOY list in here soon with the remaining rankings of countries' entries (probably not gonna get around to writing the rest of the paragraphs I'm afraid) before embarking on a much less ambitious 2017 EOY that we can actually finish in a timely manner. Hype.

[/late]

Parts of this do work pretty well! (Although the 'Waves' instrumental is way too loud and overpowering when it first comes in lol). Slay x

Posted by: D0bz Nov 18 2017, 11:14 AM

Well done on top 10 with this! Now I ask... what does IDL actually stand for?

Posted by: Brébino Nov 18 2017, 01:25 PM

I don't think it stands for anything (or if it does it's known only to Life Sim) I found one article theorising that it stands for 'I Don't Like' but that's just a guess as far as I can tell. x

Posted by: Bré Jan 16 2018, 12:20 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/01/2018
"yes this still exists" super mega catchup edition [1/4]

BJSC 99 summary

- BJSC 99 in Medhelnia blew away the year to date bests in position, points and voters we achieved in the previous contest, as Persephonia finished 5th out of 41 with LUNA's 'Butylochka', taking home 273 points from 31 voters (winning a tiebreak between 5th and 6th). That gave us our first top 10 of the year, our first top 5 since DANCE WITH THE DEAD's 'Waves' came 3rd 20 contests earlier and our 10th top 5 and 12th top 10 hit to date in total. It also matched our 2017 record for most top scores as it received 3 18s, from Aeroche, Desbuanda and Lotunia, matching the number we got with End Of The Dream's 'Colder' in BJSC 92, while also getting medal positions from Deandria, D'yermak'er, Skall and St. Burbia (13 points from each of them). Key to LUNA's success was partially that she received points from several countries that very rarely vote for Persephonia, most notably ending our longest standing points drought from an active nation, as we got 2 points from Sandebörg marking our first points from them since BJSC 65. Thanks to all those who voted for us, and feel free to do it more often xx Additionally 'Butylochka' was our first semi-final top 5 finisher of the year, coming 5th of 34 in semi-final 1, and our first song of the year to crack 100 points in a semi-final (105). It was projected for 8th in the final.

- Pegged by many as a big hit but not necessarily a winner, it was Unovia who ended up on top of the pile in BJSC 99 to win the right to host the landmark 100th contest (the first time they would host a contest solo after previously being a co-host in BJSCs 76, 85 and 94). Francesca Michielin's 'Vulcano' was the song to finally give them a win making them the latest country to get a first win after years of entering with no luck - (South) Danaelanda and Quintessa had previously joined this list in 2017, getting their first wins after 53 and 40 failures respectively, but Unovia bested both of those as their win came after 64 previous appearances with a peak of 3rd place (achieved in BJSC 40 with The Charlies' 'Monster (Eat Me)' and again in BJSC 74 with Courtney Barnett's 'Pedestrian At Best'). Only Kylienips' famous first win after 74 failures beats Unovia's stats here. 'Vulcano' won BJSC 99 with 321 points, a comfortable 27 ahead of its closest challenger, becoming Unovia's 15th top 10 hit in all. It also became the first Italian language song to win BJSC, and the sixth entirely foreign language song to win.

- One of the songs more tipped as a winner was Ultraviolenceland's entry 'Raincheck' by Hannah Jane Lewis, going for the country's third winner of 2017. It ultimately fell short, but still finished 2nd with 294 points, giving them their third medalist and 5th top 10 hit all in the space of 10 contests. The bronze medal went to Aeroche who continued their late year invincible form, with retro dance entry 'Rockin' For Myself' by Motiv 8 featuring Angie Brown coming 3rd with 285 points to give them their third straight top 5 hit (their 26th to date and their 32nd top 10 hit in all, out of 56 entries). But it still wasn't quite the winner for them, and didn't quite get them to the year-to-date #1 spot yet... flop! (We all know what happens next). 'Rockin' For Myself' was the winner of semi-final 2, meaning Aeroche extended their record as the nation with the most semi-final wins with a stunning 10 (count em: Kate Boy's 'Northern Lights' in BJSC 51, Toyboy & Robin's 'Jaded' in BJSC 62, Orbital's 'Wonky' (feat. Lady Leshurr) in BJSC 63, A. G. Cook's 'Beautiful' in BJSC 66, Sidewalks And Skeletons' 'EXHUME' in BJSC 73, Kove's 'Hurts' (feat. Moko) in BJSC 76, Ponibbi's 'HEARTSKIP' in BJSC 77, Polyna's 'Angel' (Club Mix) in BJSC 84 and Fraunhofer Diffraction's 'Fate' in BJSC 90 were the previous nine). Probably the only thing holding them back more is that they keep getting pesky auto-qualifiers. Just beating us into fourth place in BJSC 99, New Lexico got 274 points with Confidence Man's earworm 'Better Sit Down Boy', the highest they've finished since they were still known as Allecian (their last 4th place finish was with Ask Embla's 'Einn' in BJSC 39, and the only other time they've come this high - and still their only medal position finish - was in the ultra cheap early days of BJSC, when they came 3rd with The Saturdays' 'Up' in BJSC 10). It was New Lexico's 11th top 10 to date and their 7th top 5 (with them coming 5th four times between 'Einn' and 'Better Sit Down Boy').

- The country we edged into 6th by receiving 2 more votes was FSR Rontvia, who settled for just a record-extending 49th top 10 hit and not quite that 30th top 5 with Tom Fall's instrumental 'Kaamos'. Cadelicia got their second top 10 of the year and 9th to date with RABBII's ~provocative~ 'All Men Must Die' finishing in 7th place. FARC finished in 8th with Ida Da Silva's 'Throw Your Love', their 13th top 10 hit, but did manage to win the race for most 18s in the final picking up 5 maximums. Hendinia managed to qualify to the final despite facing a 15% points deduction in the semi-final for late votes, a good omen for success for them, and indeed they finished a solid 9th with Burak Yeter and Ryan Riback's 'GO 2.0' giving them a 39th top 10 hit to date (and a second in a row). Finally, Altyr Muunilinst completed the top 10 in the anchor position with NONONO's 'Masterpiece', their 23rd top 10 hit.

- Aside from Unovia, the only country setting a new national best was Cowtermont who made the final for the first time on their second attempt, finishing a solid 18th place with the Icarus Edit of ARLE's 'Close To You'. No countries made their debut appearance in BJSC 99.

- There were 5 countries making returns to the contest, of which two made the final: Beaverdonia were back after a one month ban and came 32nd with Touch Sensitive's 'Pizza Guy' (actually not a novelty song despite what you'd expect from the title) and N DNTN returned from a two-contest absence to a (criminally low) 34th place finish with Yaeji's 'Last Breath'. Another comeback for Ajanaeda was as unsuccessful as the last few with them falling short of the final for the fourth time in 2017 and once again failing to submit votes in the final. Jukianië made a return after 10 contests' absence, and promptly finished last in the semi-final yet again (for the fourth time in their history). And then there was the country that is increasingly difficult to list the name change history of, best known as Elëdan but once again rebranding for their return in BJSC 99 which they entered as The Jasmine Masters Kingdom and also fell short of the final, where they too did not submit votes. As it happens, there was no ban for non-voting enforced in BJSC 100 due to it being a milestone contest, so Ajanaeda and The Jasmine Masters Kingdom (as well as other non-voters Avalonia and Helgon) had the chance to enter again the next month anyway. That's not to say no one was banned for BJSC 100. But that's a rabbit hole we won't discuss here in PNB. R.I.P. Zanmatony.

- Triangledonia took the wooden spoon for BJSC 99 (their first), finishing 41st of 41 with Rob & Chris' 'Zeitmaschine' (90s Mix). They received 92 points to earn the honour. The only other entry to fail to crack the 100 point barrier was Niceland's entry 'Hamadzayn Em' by Sofi Mkheyan which fell just one point short.

- Other noteworthy results: Deandria finished 11th with Solarstone and Giuseppe Ottaviani's 'Falcons', the second time in 2017 that they came 11th as they continue to only have two top 10 hits to their name; Kluminican Republic and Ramrynia continued enviable top 20 streaks of 7 and 9 in a row, coming 12th with Glass Animals and Joey Bada$$' 'Lose Control' and 14th with Catherine McGrath's horrendous 'Talk Of This Town' respectively; Desbuanda finally managed another entry to come higher than 20th, finishing 16th with Zola Jesus' 'Exhumed', now on its own their biggest hit since silver medalist 'TV' by Eves The Behavior in BJSC 72; hosts Medhelnia came 17th with their auto-qualifier 'delirium' by CHVRN; Taahino's 26th place finish with VERIDIA's 'Still Breathing' was not anything special for them but notable for managing to finish that low somehow after actually WINNING semi-final 1, becoming Taahino's first semi-final winner and less glamorously the lowest finishing semi-final winner in BJSC history (beating the 21st place finish of Life Of Dillon's 'Overload' for Ojnoj in BJSC 74); Sandénia had their first appearance in a final for 22 contests a month after their comeback, finishing 27th with Jaira Burns' 'Burn Slow'.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 99

Final

Points awarded:
18 N DNTN // Yaeji - Last Breath
15 Kluminican Republic // Glass Animals and Joey Bada$$ - Lose Control
13 Cor Lupus // Aesthetic Perfection - LAX (Mr.Kitty Remix)

12 Skall // Mike Mareen - Love Spy
11 Beaverdonia // Touch Sensitive - Pizza Guy
10 Rolloland // Archive - Bullets
9 Desbuanda // Zola Jesus - Exhumed
8 Medhelnia // CHVRN - delirium
7 Summericia // ERA - Ameno (Remix)
6 Deandria // Solarstone and Giuseppe Ottaviani - Falcons
5 New Lexico // Confidence Man - Better Sit Down Boy
4 Dobago // Lydia Singer - Push Bang Bang (K. Warren's Ukg Mix)
3 Cumulonimbia // Roosevelt - Elliot
2 Terra Avium // Ravel Nightstar - The Drums And Bass Of Flower Bless
1 Jadakissnia // Zhanar Dugalova - Izin Korem

16th-40th:
Cowtermont // ARLE - Close To You (Icarus Edit)
Pupok // Mags Duval - Pink Cadillac
Triangledonia // Rob & Chris - Zeitmaschine (90s Mix)
Yehesi // Veronika Vesper - Suffocate
Unovia // Francesca Michielin - Vulcano
Aeroche // Motiv 8 - Rockin' For Myself (feat. Angie Brown)
South Danaelanda // Dutch Force - Deadline (Full Vocal Mix)
Azure // Thomas Stenström - Så Så Så Säg
Zanmatony // Les Rythmes Digitales - (Hey You) What's That Sound?
Niceland // Sofi Mkheyan - Hamadzayn Em
FSR Rontvia // Tom Fall - Kaamos
Taahino // VERIDIA - Still Breathing
Trifoski // Superorganism - Something For Your M.I.N.D.
Cadelicia // RABBII - All Men Must Die
Ojnoj // Jessica Jarrell - 100 Percentin
Hendinia // Burak Yeter and Ryan Riback - GO 2.0
D'yermak'er // Butter - Lifted
Fljótavík // Alex Cameron - Runnin' Outta Luck
Sandénia // Jaira Burns - Burn Slow
Harmonica // Hollyn - Alone
Altyr Muunilinst // NONONO - Masterpiece
Ultraviolenceland // Hannah Jane Lewis - Raincheck
Hushkanukia // Marlisa - Stand By You
FARC // Ida Da Silva - Throw Your Love
Ramrynia // Catherine McGrath - Talk Of This Town

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Thelonia // MC BOING - Dance Floor^†
10 N DNTN // Yaeji - Last Breath
8 Summericia // ERA - Ameno (Remix)

7 Beaverdonia // Touch Sensitive - Pizza Guy
6 Bøtanikkä // Red 5 - I Love You...Stop!^†
5 Desbuanda // Zola Jesus - Exhumed
4 Rolloland // Archive - Bullets
3 New Lexico // Confidence Man - Better Sit Down Boy
2 Terra Avium // Ravel Nightstar - The Drums And Bass Of Flower Bless
1 Pupok // Mags Duval - Pink Cadillac

11th-33rd:
Cowtermont // ARLE - Close To You (Icarus Edit)
Singerpurear // Jean-Michel Jarre and Cyndi Lauper - Swipe To The Right^†
Unovia // Francesca Michielin - Vulcano
République d'Ashton // Gabrielle - Nattergal^†
Yehesi // Veronika Vesper - Suffocate
Trifoski // Superorganism - Something For Your M.I.N.D.
Daehun // SUNMI - Gashina^†
St. Burbia // V. Bozeman - Race Jones^†
Taahino // VERIDIA - Still Breathing
Flynnonda // Tyne - Crawl^†
Cadelicia // RABBII - All Men Must Die
Land of DW // Dover - Let Me Out^†
Jukianië // Toto - 99^†
Suedeonia // The RPMs - I Think It's Stupid, But I Think It's Love^†
Avalonia // Andrew Belle - Down^†
Sandebörg // Kalomira - Shoot 'Em Down^†
Sandénia // Jaira Burns - Burn Slow
D'yermak'er // Butter - Lifted
Fljótavík // Alex Cameron - Runnin' Outta Luck
Jupiterdonia // Syn Cole - Sway (feat. Nevve)^†
Hushkanukia // Marlisa - Stand By You
FARC // Ida Da Silva - Throw Your Love
Quintessa // Laura Närhi - Joo Joo Äiti<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

2nd Tinnmark // Unge Ferrari - Hologram
9th Lotunia // LOBODA - Tvoi Glaza
11th Buzzjack Mountain // Rose Windross and Kele Le Roc - Givin U (What You Want)
12th Bignia-Zaragovina // In Real Life - Eyes Closed
14th Tartford // Girly - Working Girl (One Way Love Affair)
17th The Jasmine Masters Kingdom // Kaleida - 99 Luftballons
19th Bhangra // Darin - Tvillingen
22nd Séyetana // EGOIST - Eiyū Unmei No Uta
24th Ajanaeda // Healyum - Fools Eyes
25th Aelandor // Sœur - Slow Days
26th The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Frans Walfridsson - Tonight
28th Espen // Vitaa - A Fleur De Toi
30th Helgon // Eden Prince - Obvious (feat. Cassie)
33rd Kylienips // BETSY - You Won't Love Me

Posted by: Bré Jan 16 2018, 12:20 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/01/2018
"yes this still exists" super mega catchup edition [2/4]

Life Sim revived from the Persephonia archives to represent us for milestone BJSC 100

For our entry to the landmark 100th BuzzJack Song Contest in Unovia (our 79th main contest entry), Persephonia decided to bring back a track we originally confirmed back in BJSC 80 before ultimately switching our entry (first to the ill-fated 'Oh My Darling Don't Cry' by Run The Jewels then, after that got vetoed, to the eventual DNQ 'Kyoto' by Yung Lean). We blame the two year delay on licensing issues. x Finally the dispute was settled with the PC Music label and we could at last send 'IDL' by Life Sim, which was just the 2nd official commercial single release by the label back in September 2015 and later included as the tenth and final track on the label's 'PC Music Volume 2' compilation in November 2016, also home to the BJSC 91 winner 'Monopoly' by EASYFUN feat. Noonie Bao and two other BJSC finalists, Danny L Harle's 'Broken Flowers' and felicita's 'a new family'. Persephonia would normally consider a PC Music entry to be a little too uninspired due to the label's past success in the contest, part of the reason we backed out of sending 'IDL' the first time, but we let it slide due to it being a SPECIAL contest and the song seeming suitably epic.

Life Sim is a mysterious act whose exact identity has never been confirmed, the only information available being its location listed as 'NYC/LDN' on SoundCloud. However, Internet sleuths have determined that it's probably a pseudonym of PC Music manager Finn Diesel. The act has only put out a few DJ mixes and a small handful of songs, one of which ('Lightning Lipgloss Life') would go on to be repurposed as the instrumental to Charli XCX's song 'Lipgloss' (feat. CupcakKe) and is thus probably his/their most well-known song. 'IDL' was the first song released by Life Sim and it is also essentially an instrumental - it does feature a female voice repeating the letters in the title a few times, but those vocals are sparse enough that we consider it an instrumental entry, our third of the year and 11th to date. The whole song is essentially built around a short and simple sequence of bleeps and bloops which repeat for a little under 6 minutes, gradually increasing in speed and intensity (with a couple of pauses for ~drama~) until culminating in an awesome and epic finish. It has a bit of a cinematic feel to it, which is matched perfectly by the music video, linked below, which mashes up short clips from dozens of Hollywood movies.



'IDL' appeared as song 34 of 43 in semi-final 1 (with the semi-finals ballooning to unprecedented sizes as a record-smashing 87 countries participated, with several returns from long-inactive nations temporarily back for the occasion, necessitating for the first time the use of the expanded 18 point voting system in semi-finals as well as the final).

Persephonia living the Life in the BJSC 100 final

'IDL' eased through the semi-finals as we hoped (was nice to be confident for once x) giving us our 4th straight qualifier and 59th appearance in a BJSC final. That meant we finished out 2017 with 8 out of a possible 10 qualifiers, the same as we managed in 2015 and one less than in 2016. Aeroche and Cor Lupus continued to be the kings of the qualification streak with both extending their own national records as they reached a 14th final in a row each, with Trifoski still chasing them on a 13th final appearance in a row. 'IDL' was very close to being the closing track of the BJSC 100 final, drawn in slot 46 of 47 (a larger final than usual as the number of qualifiers per semi-final was increased from 20 to 23 in reaction to the larger number of entries). Would have been a fitting closer, damn. x

Sadly it wasn't a great month for our favourites in the semi-finals as despite the expanded number of qualifiers, we had more of our semi-final 1 votes DNQ than qualify. Among the casualties were three of our top four - luckily our 18 pointer made it, but our 15 (Terra Avium with Cusco's 'Orpheus And Eurydice'), 13 (Deandria with Alvia Islandia's 'Sugar Complex') and 12 (Ambienta with their debut entry 'Ptolemy' by Aphex Twin) missed out, the latter finishing a frustrating one place short. The losses continued with our 9 pointer (Summericia with Dark Sarah's 'Dance With The Dragon' (feat. JP Leppäluoto)), 7 pointer (Desbuanda with Mina's 'Make Money' (feat. Bryte)), 4 pointer (Bøtanikkä with LP's 'When We're High', a surprise loss), 2 pointer (poor brave Aesthetica with FEMM's 'Samishii Nettaigyo') and 1 pointer (returnees Numayania with Carino Cat's 'Speed Undercover') also not getting to join the final party. We also lost 7 of our top 15 from semi-final 2, including 2 that we ranked in our top 5 (2nd placed Flynnonda with Mondo Grosso's 'Labyrinth' and 4th placed Cadelicia with TEMPURA KIDZ' 'I Like It') as well as entries from Helgon (6th with Sophia Somajo's 'The Last Summer' (feat. Seinabo Sey), which would have qualified if not for a 33% deduction for non-voting), embattled Varakë (8th with Fhin's 'Quand On Arrive En Ville', which came second last in the semi-final), another returnee PRoJ (9th with Röyksopp's 'Electric Counterpoint III. Fast' (RYXP's Milde Salve)), Séyetana (14th with Yuki Hayashi's 'You Say Run') and the perpetually underrated Thelonia (15th with Lupa's 'Circus Game', a fourth straight undeserved DNQ). Think about what you did BJSC voters!!

BJSC 100 summary

- Persephonia's 2017 concluded with us getting back-to-back top 10 hits for only the second time in our history after our double 3rd place finish in BJSCs 78 and 79 with tiny deaths' 'ocean' and DANCE WITH THE DEAD's 'Waves': following the 5th place finish of LUNA's 'Butylochka' the previous contest, Life Sim's 'IDL' snuck in a 10th place finish out of 47 in BJSC 100 with an identical total of 273 points (of course a higher bar was necessary for top 5 this time) from 30 different countries, becoming our 13th top 10 hit to date in all. That made it our joint highest scoring entry of 2017 and our 2nd highest position and number of voters. This was actually a slight underperformance compared to most predictions but hey, we can't complain at another top 10 in the widest field of songs the BuzzJack Song Contest has ever seen x 'IDL' got a full 18 points from Aeroche and Cadelicia (our second maximum in a row from the former) and also ranked in the medal positions of six other countries, with 15 points from Bøtanikkä and South Danaelanda and 13 points from Flynnonda, Kluminican Republic, Terra Avium and amazingly enough the hosts Unovia (a country who rarely vote for us and even more rarely give us more than a couple of points, this being only our 3rd ever set of more than 3 points from them). 'Waves' was our last entry to be in as many as 8 countries' top 3 slots. 'IDL' came 7th out of 43 in semi-final 1 with a bloated total of 166 points, nominally our highest ever total in a semi-final well ahead of the 147 points amassed by Kids Of The Apocalypse's 'EMPIRE' in BJSC 61 but of course only because of the one-off expansion of the semi-final voting system (adjusting to the usual system would put 'IDL' at a more sensible 82 points and 9th in the semi-final). Its projected final position was 16th, thank the lord it didn't finish that low x Thanks to all countries who voted for 'IDL' and indeed for any of our entries in 2017, on our way to an 18th place finish in the end of year rankings <3

- And they did it again!! Proving that some things just never change in the BJSC, the contest's MVP nation Aeroche were crowned the winners of the 100th contest and simultaneously took over leadership of the end of year rankings right when it counts, the list having been led for half the year by Ultraviolenceland before Ramrynia supplanted them and held the title right up until this last contest of the year. If this seems familiar it's because it is an exact repeat of 2016 where Aeroche also waited until the last contest of the year to get their contractually obligated annual win and EOY #1. Indeed they continued their run of having at least one win every calendar year since their debut (they had three consecutive wins shortly after their debut in 2012 and one further win every year since then) and topped the EOY for an unbelievable 5th year in a row. We take off our collective hats to the unmatchable dominance. The latest Aeroche winner then was TR/ST's 'Capitol', which won with 395 points, in a photo finish just 9 points ahead of its closest challenger. This wasn't TR/ST's first rodeo as he was also behind Aeroche's BJSC 47 winner 'Sulk', and was just returning for the occasion with little expectation of being a repeat winner. Excluding spinoffs the only other act to win BJSC more than once was Sheelah who provided 2 winners both for FSR Rontvia, with 'Psycho' in BJSC 26 and 'The Last Time' in BJSC 31. Speaking of Aeroche matching FSR Rontvia's records, this 8th win for them also matches the record held by Rontvia - and since both countries have 5 2nd places while Aeroche have 7 3rd places to FSR Rontvia's puny 6, this means that the old superpower nation is officially replaced by the new one at the top of the BJSC medal table after they'd been the clear leaders ever since their 7th win in BJSC 35. Not losing sight of the fact Aeroche are also on a great run of success right now as well as just constantly since they joined, 'Capitol' was Aeroche's 5th top 5 hit in the space of 6 contests (4th in a row), their 27th top 5 hit to date and 33rd top 10. This paragraph is rambly enough already and I probably forgot some stuff. It surely won't be too long until we get to recap Aeroche's monstrous success here again anyway x

- Having a narrative of their own in the contest, it was arguably a bit of a downer ending for D'yermak'er who had been hoping to go out of the contest with a bang in their 50th and likely final appearance. They were one of 5 countries taking advantage of the anniversary entry rules, although you wouldn't necessarily know it as while the other 4 opted to go with massive superstar names (ok Delta Goodrem is pushing it as a massive superstar x), D'yermak'er were represented by Highasakite whose biggest claim to fame is having a top 5 hit in a previous BJSC. 'Golden Ticket' was a song D'yermak'er had attempted to send in the past but ran into the veto due to blog presence, so they held onto it for another couple of years before finally being freely allowed to send it, and while it didn't give them the fairytale ending of a first BJSC win, it did come 2nd with 386 points, the third time the country finished as runners-up (following their results with Goldroom's 'Embrace' in 59 and Oh Wonder's 'Ultralife' as recently as BJSC 94) and their 14th top 10 hit in all, as well as getting votes from 45 countries, the most in BJSC history, beating the 44 voters attracted by Salt Ashes' 'Save It' and The Naked And Famous' 'Higher', the winners of BJSC 84 and 87 for FARC and Cor Lupus respectively. Rest in pepperoni and bhangra D'yermak'er, we will miss you x

- The narratives don't stop there as, speaking of Bhangra, the country of that name finished 4th on 306 points with RÜFÜS DU SOL's 'You Were Right' providing some epic bookends as the very same country also came 4th in the very first BuzzJack Song Contest with Mike Oldfield's 'Moonlight Shadow' (it was a different time then). This marked the first time Bhangra finished in the top 10 since their comeback in BJSC 86 after an absence of 57 straight contests (a record that remains unbroken, as several countries returned from long breaks to compete in BJSC 100 but none from that long), with their last top 10 appearance being another 4th placer, Jade Ewen's 'My Man' all the way back in BJSC 19 and their last higher finish being their sole winner 'Not Ready To Make Nice' by Dixie Chicks in BJSC 3 (not a typo). That original run for Bhangra gave them 6 top 10 hits so they can now finally improve that tally to 7, with 6 of those also being top 5 hits. It was of course a much shorter gap since the last time RÜFÜS DU SOL came top 5 in a BJSC, as they came 5th just two contests earlier with 'Innerbloom' representing Kluminican Republic.

- The other 2 positions in the top 5 of BJSC 100 were taken up by N DNTN and #00274E which only feels appropriate given they were the other 2 major contemporaries of Aeroche who made their debuts during the 'hipster smoothie invasion' of 2012. N DNTN grabbed the bronze medal with Charlotte Gainsbourg's 'Deadly Valentine' on a total of 335 points, a stunning result predicted by practically no one (the song had even been predicted to not make the final at all by some). It was their 10th top 5 hit and 17th top 10 in all, but their first top 10 hit in what had been a previously relatively unsuccessful year for them. 5th place went to #00274E with Orelsan's 'Basique' on 303 points, a 13th top 5 and 16th top 10 hit to date for them, and actually a comeback entry for them as they had sat out BJSC 99 (if I recall correctly they were allowed to enter it despite not voting in the final of BJSC 98 due to extenuating circumstances, but they chose not to enter anyway).

- It wasn't only us getting bloated 'records' for semi-final points of course, as the one-off use of the 18 point voting system in semi-finals produced 11 songs that nominally beat the all-time record of 186 points set by The Naked And Famous' aforementioned 'Higher'. That includes all of the songs that made the top 5 in the final, but the two semi-final winners both finished outside the final top 5. Ultraviolenceland were the winners of semi-final 1 with a massive 244 points but ended up coming 6th in the final with Olivia Holt's 'Generous' - still a great finish to the year for them, their 6th top 10 hit to date (2nd in a row), all of which came since BJSC 90, and their third semi-final win after also winning the semi-finals with both of their final winners (EASYFUN's 'Monopoly' (feat. Noonie Bao) in BJSC 91 and Jaded's 'In The Morning' two contests later). Those 244 points were enough to make it the second highest scoring song in a semi-final ever... but even that was dwarfed by the 278 points that took Altyr Muunilinst to the win in semi-final 2 with Rhys' 'Too Good To Be True', which nonetheless ended up coming just 8th in the final - also a 2nd top 10 hit in a row, and their 24th to date. It moved them a step closer to regaining their old record for most semi-final wins, this being their 9th following *gasp* Florrie's To The End (BJSC 45), Miriam Bryant's 'Push Play' (BJSC 51), Kat Graham's 'Power' (BJSC 56), Arlissa's 'You're Not Alone' (BJSC 58), Galantis' 'You' (BJSC 63), Rae Morris' 'Cold' (feat. Fryars) (BJSC 65), LINES' 'People' (feat. Adele Kosman) (BJSC 71) and Gareth Emery and Alastor's 'Hands' (feat. London Thor) (BJSC 78). WILLA's 'Hey' would have been their 9th semi-final win in BJSC 86 if it hadn't had a 15% deduction, which would have made 'Too Good To Be True' a record-re-matching 10th semi win. Congrats to Rhys on having that nominal record for likely eternity. What a bizarrely ordinary song to have it. x

- We're still not done rambling about the top 10 as the other 2 songs there also have plenty of interesting narrative (this must be the most eventful BJSC top 10 of all time). Of all the returning fossil nations in BJSC 100, few of them had much success to write home about but the biggest success came from United States of Jack who finished 7th with Bree Runway's 'What Do I Tell My Friends?' on their first appearance since BJSC 62. That entry was itself their first since BJSC 37, and was essentially a joke entry ('Tourette Ruthie' by Ruth Ojadi, which crashed out in last place in the semi with 4 points while USoJ did not submit votes for either the semi-final or the final), so this was their first serious entry for over six years. It provided their 11th top 10 hit in total, a tally which includes 3 silver medals and 2 bronzes but no wins (which was for a while the most a country had come top 3 without winning, before Ramrynia overtook them). And to wrap up the top 10 summary, 9th place went to another country celebrating an anniversary and sadly, like D'yermak'er, also marking supposedly their last ever contest. That country is Kylienips, one of only three countries who entered every single one of the first 100 contests. Their final hurrah had to of course come from their idol Kylie Minogue, featuring on NERVO's 'The Other Boys' (also featuring Jake Shears and Nile Rodgers), which finished in 9th place to give Kylienips a 13th top 10 hit, their first since their iconic win in BJSC 75 with Meg Myers' 'Sorry'. Rest in sausages and song contest flops Kylienips, we will miss you too x

- Here's a shorter paragraph: there were a grand total of zero countries setting national best finishes in BJSC 100, only Aeroche and D'yermak'er matching their peaks and the one debuting country Ambienta who, as mentioned earlier in this post, fell just short of getting a debut qualifier.

- There were 21 countries returning from breaks of varying length for the 100th contest, but the majority of them fell short of the final (only 7 qualified). Aside from United States of Jack, there were 2 other big old names that made unexpected comebacks and did make the final. Caerfyrddia had been slumbering for one month longer than USoJ, last entering in BJSC 61, making them the country ending the longest disappearance to enter this contest. Their comeback 'Into Deep' [sic] by Jennie Abrahamson finished 22nd. Then there was Vülkyria, back again after their latest disappearance of 14 contests (not the first time they've seemingly vanished for good only to return), returning with Sylvia Erla's 'Ægisíða' which ended up... getting the wooden spoon in the final, coming 47th out of 47 (although with a solid enough 106 points, the second highest total ever for a last place finish, and the 4th time every song in the final has got at least 100 points). Well, it's better than DNQing, maybe. And unlike all the other old-timers returning, Vülkyria are actually sticking around in 2018 to hopefully see better results, hooray!

- The other returning nations to make the final were Joedonia, making another sporadic appearance to come 26th with Kim Petras' 'Hills' (feat. Baby E), Scherzland, back after a one month ban to come 33rd with Tayá's 'When Ur Sober' (feat. Yxng Bane) and finally Greenfroze who came 44th with Alaska Thunderfuck's 'Your Makeup Is Terrible' (why not) after a month in the wilderness. There'd have been one more joining those if Umiiruka had actually voted in the semi-final, but alas they didn't and the deduction cost them on their one-off return for the first time since BJSC 68. They actually did vote in the final as it happens - not the case for Helgon who for a second month in a row didn't vote in either the semi-final or the final, which also cost them a place in the final (and an actual ban for BJSC 101). Joining them in the ban corner for BJSC 101 were Ajanaeda (again), Frandoot, Mezidinia, Sandénia and What who also didn't vote in the final. Frandoot, Mezidinia and What had also been among the bumper list of returning nations who DNQed in BJSC 100, back after disappearances of 8, 1 and 18 contests respectively. In What's 'defence', they were literally only there to bump up the numbers and they never intended to vote. They were rewarded with last place in the semi-final even before the deduction. Poor brave Mezidinia were the other country getting a semi-final wooden spoon, the 5th time they'd come last in a semi-final and continuing their reputation as BJSC's most cursed nation (with only one qualifier out of 16 entries to date, we don't blame them for giving up a bit).

- To quickly shout out the other returning nations who fell short of the final, starting with another few who had been gone for well over a year: Farahtyn, another historically doomed nation (with the record for most wooden spoons in both finals (4) and semi-finals (7)), came back for another bite of the apple after a gap of 17 contests, their longest absence ever since joining in BJSC 2, and were also super close to qualifying, only missing out on a tiebreak; the seemingly loooong gone Numayania came back after 24 contests away and sadly were a way off qualifying, the former BJSC giants having majorly lost their way since BJSC 51 with just one of their 13 entries since then qualifying; PRoJ were also briefly back after 17 contests away and fell just a little short. Then there were also unsuccessful returns after shorter gaps for Aesthetica (back from a one month ban), East Rukahavian (after missing the deadline for BJSC 99), Jayrusalem (gone for 7 contests before this one, and maybe gone for good now? ), Kingdom of Horanius (having a third attempt at getting a first qualifier after 3 contests away), Palmyra (back again after 8 contests away following their earlier brief and surprisingly successful return of 2017), Republic of Adonia (returning after 2 months away and actually avoiding getting banned this time!!) and Varakë (back after a month out). Hope we didn't miss anyone out.

- Other noteworthy results (still a bunch, there were 87 songs after all): Kluminican Republic made it to 8 consecutive top 20 hits, coming 13th with SMiLE.dk's 'Butterfly' (which also got the joint most 18s in the contest with a surprisingly low 5); FSR Rontvia revisited their national icon Delta Goodrem again for their 100th contest anniversary entry, coming 17th with her B-Side 'Take Me Home' (basically also a nice bookend as Delta represented FSR in the very first contest with 'Believe Again' and came 'joint 17th', actually 18th by our count but still), after also sending her to the 50th contest with 'Hunters And The Wolves' which they got away with before the anniversary entry even existed as an option; the ongoing struggles of Taahino to get a top 10 hit continued with an 18th place finish for Tonight Alive's 'Temple', their 11th top 20 hit while maintaining a best position of 14th; hosts and auto-qualifiers Unovia came 20th with Ricki-Lee's 'All We Need Is Love'; Rolloland finish 23rd with the epic 'Untouchable (Parts 1 & 2)' by Anathema, nearly 12 minutes long, and matching SMiLE.dk with 5 18s; Ramrynia's top 20 streak came to an end as they couldn't last all year, finishing 24th with Mirela's 'Contigo'; Rolloland wasn't even the longest song in the final, that title going to Fljótavík who sent a near-20 minute self-curated megamix of 5 tracks from Kölsch's '1989' album entitled 'þema fyrir fljótavík' which amazingly came as high as 28th (this and Anathema push our own entry 'Hearth' by Saor down to only the third longest entry of the year, but we still morally win because both of these are technically more than one song x); République d'Ashton were the third and final country celebrating their 100th entry, and naturally sent some variant of Sugababes, namely Mutya Keisha Siobhan with leaked album track 'I'm Alright' which came 36th (similar to FSR Rontvia, Ashton also sent Sugababes to the very first contest and to the 50th contest which they got through the veto without anniversary rules at the time); it was third time lucky for Triangledonia with LarsM's 'Harvalien' which qualified after the national icon producer previously DNQed for them twice, though this song still fared poorly finishing 45th; Jukianië upset the odds to get a rare qualifier for the milestone contest but ended up 46th with Keiynan Lonsdale's 'Good Life'; finally, nods to Trifoski and Singerpurear who were also celebrating their 50th entry, the former not actually using the anniversary rules but nonetheless coming 19th with Chromeo's 'Jealous (I Ain't With It)' while the latter had the only official anniversary entry to DNQ with Pet Shop Boys' 'The Truck-Driver And His Mate'.

Full Persephonian rankings for BJSC 100

Final

Points awarded:
18 Rolloland // Anathema - Untouchable (Parts 1 & 2)
15 Jadakissnia // Francis And The Lights - See Her Out (That's Just Life)
13 #00274E // Orelsan - Basique

12 Espen // Prequell - Part XIV (feat. Rae Morris)
11 Skall // Kate Bush - Jig Of Life
10 Aeroche // TR/ST - Capitol
9 N DNTN // Charlotte Gainsbourg - Deadly Valentine
8 Taahino // Tonight Alive - Temple
7 Suedeonia // Baxter Dury - Miami (Parrot And Cocker Too Remix)
6 Caerfyrddia // Jennie Abrahamson - Into Deep
5 Fljótavík // Kölsch - þema fyrir fljótavík
4 Trifoski // Chromeo - Jealous (I Ain't With It)
3 Bhangra // RÜFÜS DU SOL - You Were Right
2 Jupiterdonia // Brooke Candy - Rubber Band Stacks
1 St. Burbia // Jarina De Marco - STFU

16th-46th:
Hendinia // Vanbot - Hold This Moment
Cor Lupus // Written By Wolves - Timebombs & Hurricanes
Joedonia // Kim Petras - Hills (feat. Baby E)
Sandebörg // Army Of Lovers - Carry My Urn To Ukraine
Kluminican Republic // SMiLE.dk - Butterfly
D'yermak'er // Highasakite - Golden Ticket
Scherzland // Tayá - When Ur Sober (feat. Yxng Bane)
Beaverdonia // BETSY - Waiting
Pupok // Cherryade - Theresa May (Bullshit)
Medhelnia // YONAKA - Bubblegum
Hushkanukia // Haschak Sisters - Pretty Girl
FARC // Frøder - Dopamine
FSR Rontvia // Delta Goodrem - Take Me Home
United States of Jack // Bree Runway - What Do I Tell My Friends?
Ojnoj // Blessed - Howlin
République d'Ashton // Mutya Keisha Siobhan - I'm Alright
Unovia // Ricki-Lee - All We Need Is Love
Vülkyria // Sylvia Erla - Ægisíða
New Lexico // RALPH - Tease
Ramrynia // Mirela - Contigo
Niceland // culpriit - Driveway
South Danaelanda // TheFatRat - The Calling (feat. Laura Brehm)
Triangledonia // LarsM - Harvalien
Kylienips // NERVO - The Other Boys (feat. Kylie Minogue, Jake Shears and Nile Rodgers)
Altyr Muunilinst // Rhys - Too Good To Be True
Dobago // LIA ROX - HOUND (Bimbo Jones Vocal Club Mix)
Ultraviolenceland // Olivia Holt - Generous
Greenfroze // Alaska Thunderfuck - Your Makeup Is Terrible
Jukianië // Keiynan Lonsdale - Good Life
Tinnmark // Tungevaag & Raaban - Coming Up (feat. Victor Crone)
Cowtermont // R3hab - Icarus

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
18 Rolloland // Anathema - Untouchable (Parts 1 & 2)
15 Terra Avium // Cusco - Orpheus And Eurydice^†
13 Deandria // Alvia Islandia - Sugar Complex^†

12 Ambienta // Aphex Twin - Ptolemy^†
11 Espen // Prequell - Part XIV (feat. Rae Morris)
10 Caerfyrddia // Jennie Abrahamson - Into Deep
9 Summericia // Dark Sarah - Dance With The Dragon (feat. JP Leppäluoto)^†
8 Fljótavík // Kölsch - þema fyrir fljótavík
7 Desbuanda // Mina - Make Money (feat. Bryte)^†
6 N DNTN // Charlotte Gainsbourg - Deadly Valentine
5 Trifoski // Chromeo - Jealous (I Ain't With It)
4 Bøtanikkä // LP - When We're High^†
3 Bhangra // RÜFÜS DU SOL - You Were Right
2 Aesthetica // FEMM - Samishii Nettaigyo^†
1 Numayania // Carino Cat - Speed Undercover^†

16th-42nd:
Cor Lupus // Written By Wolves - Timebombs & Hurricanes
Quintessa // A Flock Of Seagulls - Space Age Love Song^†
Buzzjack Mountain // The Alan Parsons Project - You Don't Believe^†
Joedonia // Kim Petras - Hills (feat. Baby E)
Beaverdonia // BETSY - Waiting
Umiiruka // Pixx - Waterslides^†
Jupiterdonia // Brooke Candy - Rubber Band Stacks
D'yermak'er // Highasakite - Golden Ticket
Hushkanukia // Haschak Sisters - Pretty Girl
FSR Rontvia // Delta Goodrem - Take Me Home
Pupok // Cherryade - Theresa May (Bullshit)
Niceland // culpriit - Driveway
What // Haken - The Endless Knot^†
Singerpurear // Pet Shop Boys - The Truck-Driver And His Mate^†
Palmyra // Phlake - IKEA episodes^†
United States of Jack // Bree Runway - What Do I Tell My Friends?
Jayrusalem // Call Me Loop - Maybe I'm A Liar^†
Aelandor // Meadowlark - Headlights^†
Yehesi // OG3NE - But I Do^†
Kingdom of Horanius // Only The Young - Bad Influences^†
The Actual Republic of Bellamia // Citizen Four - My Name (Say It)^†
Dobago // LIA ROX - HOUND (Bimbo Jones Vocal Club Mix)
Bignia-Zaragovina // Marcus & Martinus - Make You Believe In Love^†
Triangledonia // LarsM - Harvalien
Ultraviolenceland // Olivia Holt - Generous
Jukianië // Keiynan Lonsdale - Good Life
Cowtermont // R3hab - Icarus

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2 DNQs

2nd Flynnonda // Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth
4th Cadelicia // TEMPURA KIDZ - I Like It
6th Helgon // Sophia Somajo - The Last Summer (feat. Seinabo Sey)
8th Varakë // Fhin - Quand On Arrive En Ville
9th PRoJ // Röyksopp - Electric Counterpoint III. Fast (RYXP's Milde Salve)
14th Séyetana // Yuki Hayashi - You Say Run
15th Thelonia // Lupa - Circus Game
16th Cumulonimbia // Lisa Lougheed - Run With Us
19th Harmonica // Daniella Mason - Cover The Earth
21st Lotunia // Eva Weel Skram - Berre La Meg Vær (Live)
23rd Land of DW // Robortom - Paganini Rocks (feat. Au Revoir Simone)
30th Mezidinia // Gaby Henshaw - High Grade
33rd East Rukahavian // Ancalima - Sunshine
34th Farahtyn // Philip Mikal - Waiting 4 (Vigilancer Remix) (feat. Ola)
35th Azure // The Summer Set - Someone Like You
37th Frandoot // Kristinia DeBarge - Pink Love
39th Ajanaeda // Jane XØ and LöKii - Let Me Down Easy
40th Republic of Adonia // f(x) - Airplane
42nd Sandénia // Emily Middlemas - Lost & Found
43rd Daehun // T-ARA - No.9

Posted by: Bré Jan 16 2018, 12:20 AM

Persephonian News Bulletin ~ 16/01/2018
"yes this still exists" super mega catchup edition [3/4]

The Best of BJSC X & The Best of BJSC - The Rejects X summaries

The tenth editions of the annual retrospective contests The Best of BJSC and The Best of BJSC - The Rejects took place over December and January, giving another chance for success for every entry from BJSCs 91 to 100. TBO happened first, and it was pretty good news for Persephonia with the results of the nominations stage as not only did we continue our streak of reaching the TBO semi-finals with every one of our BJSC top 10 hits with both LUNA's 'Butylochka' (BJSC 99) and Life Sim's 'IDL' (BJSC 100) progressing, we even got a surprise third semi-finalist as the right niche of people voted in the opening stage to send through Saor's 'Hearth' (BJSC 97) as well. The full results of the nominations have not materialised as of yet so we don't know how close our other five eligible songs (xi's 'Happy End Of The World' from BJSC 91, End Of The Dream's 'Colder' from BJSC 92, KNARS' 'Bad Trip' from BJSC 94, David Starfire's 'Big Chillum' from BJSC 95 and Dead Husband's 'Healthy Boy' from BJSC 98) were to qualifying.





Unfortunately it wasn't so great news in the semi-final results as all three songs failed to progress, meaning Persephonia were without representation in the TBO final for a second year in a row. Sad. They all did roughly similarly, with 'IDL' coming 26th out of 40 in semi-final 1 with 89 points, 'Hearth' coming 29th out of 40 in semi-final 1 with 84 points and 'Butylochka' coming 27th out of 40 in semi-final 2 with 83 points. Thanks to all who voted for us anyway, that's a good haul of TBO points even if nothing made the final. We'll get back to the TBO final in 2018. x

South Danaelanda were crowned the champions of the contest, as their BJSC 92 winner 'Saving Light' by Gareth Emery and Standerwick feat. HALIENE repeated its win with a total of 151 points. The demographics of TBO voters clearly don't match the original contests that well beyond that as no other winners made the final top 5 (and the biggest winner of the year, Clare Maguire's 'Elizabeth Taylor' (Mulholland Edition) didn't even make the final, although in fairness it wasn't helped by Medhelnia failing to vote in the semi-finals), while plenty of other minor hits as well as our own 'Hearth' made it to the semi-finals and a good few of them even to the final. Pupok were the runners-up on 132 points with Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums' 'Mutant Brain' (feat. Assassin), originally 4th also in BJSC 92. Terra Avium took the bronze medal with 123 points with Steven Wilson's 'Pariah' (feat. Ninet Tayeb), which was the runner-up in BJSC 97. Altyr Muunilinst failed to submit votes and were subject to a 15 point deduction, which took them down to 120 points and 4th place with Kamferdrops' 'Jag Trodde Änglarna Fanns' which would have come 2nd otherwise; it originally came 3rd in BJSC 96. The top 5 was completed by St. Burbia who have never come top 5 in a main contest to date, but managed 5th here with Alice Merton's 'No Roots', which gave them their national peak of 6th in BJSC 91.

~

As for the Rejects competition, Persephonia had 2 songs in contention in the nominations stage, and we did manage to get one of them through so we returned to having representation in the semi-finals after our only eligible entry in 2016 missed out. Achillea's 'Ragnarok - Twilight Of The Gods' (BJSC 93) was the one that made it in, while BROCKHAMPTON's 'GOLD' (BJSC 96) missed out. The latter song picked up 9 points (including a full 7 from Harmonica, merci merci) which was actually very nearly enough to qualify as well in a nominations stage with relatively low turnout and vast swathes of deductions.



But it was a repeat of the main TBO as we again went out in the semi-finals, although to be fair we definitely saw that coming and were actually pleasantly surprised at how high 'Ragnarok - Twilight Of The Gods' finished (again with a big helping hand from deductions). It came 18th out of 32 in semi-final 2 with 19 points.

Speaking of deductions, a simple 15 point deduction barely put a dent in the ultimate winner of the contest, Ultraviolenceland's entry 'Play' by Marmozets which narrowly missed out on the final of BJSC 98 and cruised to an easy victory in the Rejects with 106 points. It could even have survived double that deduction. 2nd place went to Dobago with Grace Mitchell's 'Now' from BJSC 95 with 87 points. FSR Rontvia had a pair of great results as Daithí's 'Mary Keanes Introduction' from BJSC 91 came 3rd for them with 74 points while they also came 6th with their BJSC 92 entry 'Imali' by Black Motion feat. Nokwazi (both songs getting points from us). Beaverdonia's novelty entry extraordinaire 'ACTIVEWEAR' by Skit Box came 4th with 73 points, and Jadakissnia completed the top 5 with their only DNQ of 2017, SOLDOUT's 'Do It Again' (feat. GOOSE) from BJSC 92, coming 5th with 65 points. Shoutouts as well to the TRUE BEST DNQ OF THE YEAR, 'Dance Floor' by MC BOING which would have come 3rd for Thelonia but alas a 15 point deduction did more to harm them, pushing them down to 9th.

Full Persephonian rankings and nominations for The Best of BJSC X

Final

Points awarded:
18 Kluminican Republic // Burial - Archangel
15 Rolloland // Anathema - Untouchable (Parts 1 & 2)
13 Terra Avium // Steven Wilson - Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb)

12 Summericia // CRIM3S - still goin
11 Hendinia // Troll - Jimmy Dean
10 Pupok // Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums - Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin)
9 Kluminican Republic // RÜFÜS DU SOL - Innerbloom
8 Aeroche // Me & My - Dub-I-Dub
7 Aeroche // TR/ST - Capitol
6 Taahino // Tonight Alive - Temple
5 Trifoski // Paradis - Toi Et Moi
4 Quintessa // Norda and Mike De Ville - Gypsy (Catch Me If You Can) (feat. Joanna Jones)
3 Kluminican Republic // Studio Killers - Jenny
2 #00274E // CupcakKe - LGBT
1 Trifoski // Lido - Not Enough (feat. THEY.)

16th-40th:
Trifoski // Drones Club - Hurricane
South Danaelanda // Gareth Emery and Standerwick - Saving Light (feat. HALIENE)
Ramrynia // Birdflipper - Come On!
FARC // Stockholm Noir - Hopeless Dreams
République d'Ashton // Tone Damli - Pinnacle
Altyr Muunilinst // Kamferdrops - Jag Trodde Änglarna Fanns
St. Burbia // Eva Simons - Guaya
Ultraviolenceland // Ana Mena - Ahora Lloras Tú (feat. CNCO)
Pupok // Mason - Fashion Killa (Papapapa) (feat. Stefflon Don)
Dobago // Sagi Abitbul - Mariko
Daehun // Helena Paparizou - Haide (English Version)
Cor Lupus // LINES - Weekends
FSR Rontvia // Tom Fall - Kaamos
Yehesi // MUNA - I Know A Place
Ultraviolenceland // Jaded - In The Morning
Ojnoj // Leon Else - What I Won't Do
Ultraviolenceland // EASYFUN - Monopoly (feat. Noonie Bao)
Espen // Offer Nissim - Miracle Part A (feat. Maya Simantov)
St. Burbia // Alice Merton - No Roots
République d'Ashton // Sabina Ddumba - Not Too Young
Ultraviolenceland // Hannah Jane Lewis - Raincheck
FARC // Rhys - Last Dance
Hushkanukia // Ryder - Nirvana
Hendinia // Violet Chachki - Bettie
Cadelicia // Julie Bergan - Arigato

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
18 Kluminican Republic // Burial - Archangel
15 Rolloland // Anathema - Untouchable (Parts 1 & 2)
13 Jadakissnia // MONOMOTION - Mango Bay^†

12 Summericia // CRIM3S - still goin
11 Hendinia // Troll - Jimmy Dean
10 Kluminican Republic // Glass Animals and Joey Bada$$ - Lose Control^†
9 Singerpurear // Vitalic - Waiting For The Stars (feat. David Shaw And The Beat)^†
8 #00274E // Pale Waves - There's A Honey^†
7 Quintessa // Driftmoon - Genesis (feat. DSharp)^†
6 Taahino // Tonight Alive - Temple
5 Trifoski // Paradis - Toi Et Moi
4 Quintessa // Norda and Mike De Ville - Gypsy (Catch Me If You Can) (feat. Joanna Jones)
3 New Lexico // Confidence Man - Better Sit Down Boy^†
2 Summericia // Caramell - Caramelldancing^†
1 Trifoski // Lido - Not Enough (feat. THEY.)

16th-38th:
Trifoski // Drones Club - Hurricane
South Danaelanda // Gareth Emery and Standerwick - Saving Light (feat. HALIENE)
FARC // Stockholm Noir - Hopeless Dreams
République d'Ashton // Tone Damli - Pinnacle
Suedeonia // Bleachers - Don't Take The Money^†
Séyetana // SIAMÉS - The Wolf^†
Jupiterdonia // INNA - Yalla^†
St. Burbia // Billie Eilish - bellyache^†
Pupok // Jennifer Rostock - Schlaflos^†
Altyr Muunilinst // Kamferdrops - Jag Trodde Änglarna Fanns
Kluminican Republic // SMiLE.dk - Butterfly^†
Pupok // Mason - Fashion Killa (Papapapa) (feat. Stefflon Don)
Cor Lupus // LINES - Weekends
Oslol // K.I.D - Taker^†
Altyr Muunilinst // Hannah Diamond - Make Believe^†
Medhelnia // MisterWives - Machine^†
Ultraviolenceland // Jaded - In The Morning
Tinnmark // Vigiland - Friday Night^†
Espen // Offer Nissim - Miracle Part A (feat. Maya Simantov)
St. Burbia // Alice Merton - No Roots
République d'Ashton // Sabina Ddumba - Not Too Young
Harmonica // Hollyn - Alone^†
Hushkanukia // Ryder - Nirvana

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
18 Rolloland // Steven Wilson - Routine^†
15 Terra Avium // Steven Wilson - Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb)
13 Land of DW // Eivør - Í Tokuni^†

12 Pupok // Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums - Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin)
11 Fljótavík // Wealstarr - Feria Festival^†
10 Kluminican Republic // RÜFÜS DU SOL - Innerbloom
9 Aeroche // Me & My - Dub-I-Dub
8 Aeroche // TR/ST - Capitol
7 FSR Rontvia // Kosmonova - Danse Avec Moi!^†
6 Ramrynia // Sirusho - PreGomesh^†
5 Kluminican Republic // Studio Killers - Jenny
4 #00274E // CupcakKe - LGBT
3 Aesthetica // Wonder Girls - I Feel You^†
2 Lotunia // Ágy - Arvedávgi^†
1 Ramrynia // Birdflipper - Come On!

16th-39th:
St. Burbia // Eva Simons - Guaya
Ultraviolenceland // Ana Mena - Ahora Lloras Tú (feat. CNCO)
Dobago // Sagi Abitbul - Mariko
Unovia // Francesca Michielin - Vulcano^†
Greenfroze // CoCo And The Butterfields - Battlegrounds^†
D'yermak'er // Highasakite - Golden Ticket^†
Mulgracia // Grouplove - Good Morning^†
United States of Jack // Bree Runway - What Do I Tell My Friends?^†
FSR Rontvia // Emma Bale - Worth It^†
FSR Rontvia // Tom Fall - Kaamos
Medhelnia // Clare Maguire - Elizabeth Taylor (Mulholland Edition)^†
Daehun // Helena Paparizou - Haide (English Version)
Yehesi // MUNA - I Know A Place
Ojnoj // Leon Else - What I Won't Do
Ultraviolenceland // EASYFUN - Monopoly (feat. Noonie Bao)
Ojnoj // SAARA - Superpowers^†
Quintessa // Leah - Met Jou Klere Aan^†
Cadelicia // RABBII - All Men Must Die^†
D'yermak'er // Oh Wonder - Ultralife^†
Ultraviolenceland // Hannah Jane Lewis - Raincheck
FARC // Rhys - Last Dance
Oslol // Miss Li - Aqualung^†
Hendinia // Violet Chachki - Bettie
Cadelicia // Julie Bergan - Arigato

^† DNQed

~

Nominations

91
+7 Trifoski // Amnesia Scanner - AS Crust
+5 Summericia // CRIM3S - still goin
+3 Altyr Muunilinst // Ramin Djawadi - Light Of The Seven
+2 Jadakissnia // TEARIST - Headless
+1 Aeroche // Melé - Ambience

92
+7 The Jasmine Masters Kingdom // Fla.mingo - Die
+5 Hendinia // Troll - Jimmy Dean
+3 Pupok // Sam Spiegel and Ape Drums - Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin)
+2 Taahino // Sevdaliza - Human
+1 Bøtanikkä // Age Of Love - The Age Of Love (Jam & Spoon Watch Out For Stella Mix)

93
+7 Land of DW // Eivør - Í Tokuni
+5 Jadakissnia // aYia - Ruins
+3 Deandria // Fakear - Ankara
+2 FSR Rontvia // Tina Guo - Super Mario Bros.
+1 South Danaelanda // DJ Mangoo - Eurodancer

94
+7 Rolloland // Steven Wilson - Routine
+5 Aelandor // Port Blue - Up Ship!
+3 Singerpurear // Vitalic - Waiting For The Stars (feat. David Shaw And The Beat)
+2 Jadakissnia // BÖ - Waqqaberry
+1 Quintessa // Driftmoon - Genesis (feat. DSharp)

95
+7 Espen // ATB - Ecstasy (MYSTXRIVL x SOKOS FLIP)
+5 Terra Avium // felicita - a new family
+3 Aeroche // Me & My - Dub-I-Dub
+2 Jadakissnia // Hugar - Waves (feat. Arnór Dan)
+1 Pupok // Spinee - Hell Hound

96
+7 Kluminican Republic // Burial - Archangel
+5 St. Burbia // Tasha Tah - Malang (feat. RaOol)
+3 Deandria // world's end girlfriend - Les Enfants Du Paradis
+2 Land of DW // Paddy And The Rats - Join The Riot
+1 Varakë // Irina Rimes - Visele (Dj Dark & MD.Dj Remix)

97
+7 Jadakissnia // MONOMOTION - Mango Bay
+5 Terra Avium // Steven Wilson - Pariah (feat. Ninet Tayeb)
+3 Bøtanikkä // Rednex - The Spirit Of The Hawk
+2 Zanmatony // Paradisio - Bailando
+1 FSR Rontvia // Kosmonova - Danse Avec Moi!

98
+7 Espen // Mounika. - Long Silent
+5 Cumulonimbia // Kevin Abstract - Miserable America
+3 Fljótavík // Wealstarr - Feria Festival
+2 Kluminican Republic // RÜFÜS DU SOL - Innerbloom
+1 Land of DW // N.O.H.A. - Di Nero

99
+7 N DNTN // Yaeji - Last Breath
+5 Kluminican Republic // Glass Animals and Joey Bada$$ - Lose Control
+3 Cor Lupus // Aesthetic Perfection - LAX (Mr.Kitty Remix)
+2 Skall // Mike Mareen - Love Spy
+1 Rolloland // Archive - Bullets

100
+7 Rolloland // Anathema - Untouchable (Parts 1 & 2)
+5 Jadakissnia // Francis And The Lights - See Her Out (That's Just Life)
+3 #00274E // Orelsan - Basique
+2 Espen // Prequell - Part XIV (feat. Rae Morris)
+1 Skall // Kate Bush - Jig Of Life

Full Persephonian rankings and nominations for The Best of BJSC - The Rejects X

Final

Points awarded:
12 Thelonia // MC BOING - Dance Floor
10 Zanmatony // Envio - Touched By The Sun (Rusch & Elusive's Chill-Out Mix)
8 Flynnonda // Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth

7 Dobago // Grace Mitchell - Now
6 FSR Rontvia // Black Motion - Imali (feat. Nokwazi)
5 Cadelicia // Meg - Distante
4 Ultraviolenceland // Marmozets - Play
3 FSR Rontvia // Daithí - Mary Keanes Introduction
2 Ambienta // Aphex Twin - Ptolemy
1 Rolloland // Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix) (feat. Miss Kittin)

11th-30th:
Terra Avium // Varien - Lilith
Jadakissnia // SOLDOUT - Do It Again (feat. GOOSE)
Singerpurear // Chicks On Speed - We Don't Play Guitars (feat. Peaches)
South Danaelanda // Vitalic - Tu Conmigo (feat. La Bien Querida)
République d'Ashton // Gabrielle - Nattergal
Bøtanikkä // Red 5 - I Love You...Stop!
St. Burbia // Serayah - Look But Don't Touch
Beaverdonia // Skit Box - ACTIVEWEAR
Cadelicia // Emrah Karaduman - Cevapsız Çınlama (feat. Aleyna Tilki)
New Lexico // Glasperlenspiel - Geiles Leben
Quintessa // Woolf And The Wondershow - Cages
Summericia // VNV Nation - Illusion
Unovia // Manelyk - Odiosa
Pupok // Bip Ling - Curry
Aesthetica // Poppy - I'm Poppy
Umiiruka // Pixx - Waterslides
Terra Avium // Alev Lenz - Fall Into Me
Flynnonda // Tyne - Crawl
République d'Ashton // Molly Sandén - Rygg Mot Rygg
Hushkanukia // Laura Tesoro - Higher

~

Semi-Final 1

Points awarded:
12 Skall // Martyn Bennett - Blackbird^†
10 The Jasmine Masters Kingdom // The Blaze - Territory^†
8 Cadelicia // Meg - Distante

7 Ultraviolenceland // Marmozets - Play
6 Buzzjack Mountain // Lee Mills - From My Lerv^†
5 Jadakissnia // SOLDOUT - Do It Again (feat. GOOSE)
4 Singerpurear // Chicks On Speed - We Don't Play Guitars (feat. Peaches)
3 Summericia // Prince Rama - Fantasy^†
2 Séyetana // Girls Dead Monster - Ichiban No Takaramono (Yui Final Version)^†
1 St. Burbia // Serayah - Look But Don't Touch

11th-32nd:
Beaverdonia // Skit Box - ACTIVEWEAR
République d'Ashton // Gabrielle - Nattergal
New Lexico // Glasperlenspiel - Geiles Leben
Summericia // Dark Sarah - Dance With The Dragon (feat. JP Leppäluoto)^†
Niceland // Project Jenny, Project Jan - Train Track^†
Quintessa // Woolf And The Wondershow - Cages
Terra Avium // Conner Youngblood - The Warpath^†
Harmonica // Daniella Mason - Cover The Earth^†
Unovia // Manelyk - Odiosa
Quintessa // White Lung - Below^†
Pupok // Bip Ling - Curry
Aesthetica // Poppy - I'm Poppy
Kylienips // Zolita - Fight Like A Girl^†
Bignia-Zaragovina // Handsome Poets - Sky On Fire^†
Taahino // VUKOVI - Weirdo^†
Flynnonda // Tyne - Crawl
Singerpurear // Grace Slick - Dreams^†
République d'Ashton // Molly Sandén - Rygg Mot Rygg
Harmonica // Moment - All This Time^†
Aelandor // Sœur - Slow Days^†
Azure // The Summer Set - Someone Like You^†
Hushkanukia // Laura Tesoro - Higher

^† DNQed

~

Semi-Final 2

Points awarded:
12 Thelonia // MC BOING - Dance Floor
10 Zanmatony // Envio - Touched By The Sun (Rusch & Elusive's Chill-Out Mix)
8 Flynnonda // Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth

7 Dobago // Grace Mitchell - Now
6 Pagasa // The Blue Nile - The Downtown Lights^†
5 FSR Rontvia // Black Motion - Imali (feat. Nokwazi)
4 Ambienta // Aphex Twin - Ptolemy
3 FSR Rontvia // Daithí - Mary Keanes Introduction
2 Rolloland // Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix) (feat. Miss Kittin)
1 Terra Avium // Varien - Lilith

11th-31st:
Dobago // Will Sparks - Flamenco^†
South Danaelanda // Vitalic - Tu Conmigo (feat. La Bien Querida)
Bøtanikkä // Red 5 - I Love You...Stop!
D'yermak'er // Balvir Boparai - De De Gerra^†
Thelonia // Bonzai - I Feel Alright^†
Cadelicia // Emrah Karaduman - Cevapsız Çınlama (feat. Aleyna Tilki)
Thelonia // Antony & Cleopatra - Dust^†
Buzzjack Mountain // Slam Dunk'd - No Price (feat. Chromeo and Al-P)^†
Kylienips // Methyl Ethel - Ubu^†
Summericia // VNV Nation - Illusion
#00274E // ONUKA - Other (Live) (feat. NAONI Orchestra)^†
Espen // josh pan - give it to ya (feat. ABRA)^†
Land of DW // Apocalyptica - Faraway Vol. 2 (feat. Linda Sundblad and Dave Lombardo)^†
Land of DW // Dover - Let Me Out^†
Tartford // Lisa - Rocket To Your Heart^†
Terra Avium // Alev Lenz - Fall Into Me
Umiiruka // Pixx - Waterslides
République d'Ashton // Tessa Violet - Sorry I'm Not Sorry^†
Desbuanda // Charlotte OC - Medicine Man^†
Helgon // Eden Prince - Obvious (feat. Cassie)^†
Triangledonia // Lynz Munich - We Are Balloons<sup>†

†</sup> DNQed

~

Nominations

91
+7 FSR Rontvia // Daithí - Mary Keanes Introduction
+5 Dobago // Will Sparks - Flamenco
+3 Kylienips // Echos - Fiction
+2 Singerpurear // Chicks On Speed - We Don't Play Guitars (feat. Peaches)
+1 Ojnoj // TINY-G - MINIMANIMO

92
+7 Skall // Martyn Bennett - Blackbird
+5 FSR Rontvia // Black Motion - Imali (feat. Nokwazi)
+3 Jadakissnia // SOLDOUT - Do It Again (feat. GOOSE)
+2 Cadelicia // HI LIFE - When I Get To The Club (Donatachi's Del Mar Mix)
+1 Summericia // Prince Rama - Fantasy

93
+7 Skall // Musta Barbaari - Salil Eka Salil Vika
+5 Séyetana // Fear, And Loathing In Las Vegas - Let Me Hear
+3 The Jasmine Masters Kingdom // CVL† SH‡† - ßƟD¥ ßΔGƵ
+2 D'yermak'er // Balvir Boparai - De De Gerra
+1 Tartford // Hyper Go-Go - High

94
+7 Pagasa // The Blue Nile - The Downtown Lights
+5 Terra Avium // Varien - Lilith
+3 Ajanaeda // Hundred Waters - Xtalk
+2 Skall // Kjartan Lauritzen - Fredag
+1 St. Burbia // Serayah - Look But Don't Touch

95
+7 Dobago // Grace Mitchell - Now
+5 The Jasmine Masters Kingdom // The Blaze - Territory
+3 Bignia-Zaragovina // Hkeem and Temur - Fy Faen
+2 Niceland // Torul - Monday
+1 Beaverdonia // Skit Box - ACTIVEWEAR

96
+7 Zanmatony // Envio - Touched By The Sun (Rusch & Elusive's Chill-Out Mix)
+5 Desbuanda // Rone - Bye Bye Macadam
+3 East Rukahavian // The Orielles - Sugar Tastes Like Salt
+2 D'yermak'er // HËXĖ - Words
+1 Quintessa // Alisha Chinai - Zooby Zooby

97
+7 Cumulonimbia // Indian Wells - Cascades
+5 Cadelicia // Meg - Distante
+3 Thelonia // Bonzai - I Feel Alright
+2 Buzzjack Mountain // Lee Mills - From My Lerv
+1 Deandria // A_GIM - Rajka (feat. Klark)

98
+7 Ultraviolenceland // Marmozets - Play
+5 Rolloland // Felix Da Housecat - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix) (feat. Miss Kittin)
+3 South Danaelanda // Vitalic - Tu Conmigo (feat. La Bien Querida)
+2 Tartford // Marsheaux - Get The Balance Right
+1 Aesthetica // Yezi - Anck Su Namum

99
+7 Thelonia // MC BOING - Dance Floor
+5 Tinnmark // Unge Ferrari - Hologram
+3 Bøtanikkä // Red 5 - I Love You...Stop!
+2 Lotunia // LOBODA - Tvoi Glaza
+1 Buzzjack Mountain // Rose Windross and Kele Le Roc - Givin U (What You Want)

100
+7 Flynnonda // Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth
+5 Terra Avium // Cusco - Orpheus And Eurydice
+3 Deandria // Alvia Islandia - Sugar Complex
+2 Cadelicia // TEMPURA KIDZ - I Like It
+1 Ambienta // Aphex Twin - Ptolemy