Scandal DNQs amid despair and wailing and gnashing of teeth

 

It's safe to say Séyetana were not happy with the semi final results, revealed tonight by Séyetana. One silver lining is that we did record break to become the first nation ever to announce their own DNQ, so that's cool. We're now unsure what to do next but given the country has just come off of its second-longest streak ever, there's no need to panic about participation yet. Currently the country is probably still in favour of continuing the current Asian theme, although whether that'll be more J-pop-rock or K-pop is yet to be decided. It may be that we switch genres completely, but the current consensus is to mourn Stamp! by putting it on continuous 24/7 rotation on all Séyetan stations and... breathe and move forward.

 

------

 

Second nightcore batch uploaded

 

 

And part of the reason I'm doing this is so I can sneak the second part of nightcoring my entries in. Covering Come Together to Sabotage, it provides fast new looks at most of the entries (plus a sneaky slow look at the original of Angel With A Shotgun in the middle - because it would make little sense to nightcore it again)

That nightcore version of "Paralyzed" is just asking for a drum n bass rework.

Persephonia offers its condolences in this time of need :'(

BJSC 79

http://static.zerochan.net/Tomori.Nao.full.1905975.jpg

~yay hype posts~

I See Stars - The Hardest Mistakes

 

 

I've entered an electronicore band! Except the song is pretty light for that, this isn't Asking Alexandria levels, it's more electronic than core. 'The Hardest Mistakes' is a potential I've had for a good while, I nearly sent it a couple of times at the beginning of the year and the time felt RIGHT this month. I hope you approve.

 

Oh yeah, there's also Cassadee Pope featured on this, if you haven't heard of her, she's best known as the singer of that pretty awesome band Hey Monday... wait, what? She won something else? One of the million US Voice editions and subsequently produced underwhelming country-pop? Eh, no one cares about that, this is back when she USED to be good. I see you Joseph & Ryan. Actually, I don't. I See Stars. Izzy Stars.

 

Séyetana ignites the sky above Aeroche

 

 

Sometimes you get inspiration from unexpected places. Sometimes a song really hits through to you through outside factors, and instead of guarding against sending it because people won't get it in BJSC not having gone through the same experiences and therefore potentially ignoring it, you are sure it could well be good enough to stand on its own two feet and rapture BJSC participants into submission. And to be honest, we achieved our yearly goal of 50% qualifiers or better in August so however this does, we will be proud of Eir Aoi and Ignite. Also watch Sword Art Online, it's a fun anime. This is the opening theme for the first part of the second season (so I guess partial thanks must go to Brett-Butler for pointing me in the direction of the show), and therefore is pretty much the theme song for the girl in my sig, Sinon, aka the current badass tsundere anime girl I'm currently in love with enjoying. I might need the season 3 that's coming out next year very soon. The song itself is a pretty great pop-rock song, I normally enjoy anime themes anyway but rarely do they work as well when translated to a full song rather than a 1-minute opening theme. This however, and the other season 2 theme Courage, do. I chose this over Courage as it's a lot more instant and upbeat, while Courage is far more emotional and relies a lot more on having seen the anime to have its full impact ( :cry: )

 

tl;dr LET'S TRY THIS J-POPROCK THING AGAIN SHALL WE?

2015: Séyetana's year in BJSC

You guys know I like nothing better than writing long pieces about anything and everything by now, and so I may be a little late, but it's time for me to write down exactly what I thought of every entry in BJSC this year. Yeah, every entry. Well, not exactly every entry as such that I'm dedicating a Youtube embed and a paragraph to it because we'd be here until Ramrynia wins and no one wants to stick around for that long. But, you might remember if you were here in 2013 (or decided to look back a little earlier in this thread, it's a wonderful thread, you should read through it), that I did a short review of every country rather than a countdown. I didn't do that in 2014 and I regret that a little now, it would have been nice to look back that way. I will present a list of my favourite BJSC entries at the end regardless.

But that doesn't mean I can't do it for 2015!! #brestolemyidea #imgonnadoitbetteranyway

Séyetana
Obviously I always start with myself because the thing people will read most in whatever countdown you do is the first post of it. So I want as many people to read about my awesome entries as possible. And they were pretty awesome. This has been a rather strange year for Séyetana, I started out hopping from genre to genre with a nice home base in rock as normal, then towards the end of the year I caught a bit of an Asian bug and started to see them as far more emotional and meaningful to me. Despite not understanding any of the words. I guess it's partly because I want my entries to feel unique, which is why I haven't sent a single party dance song or indie-blogpop song this year because there's far too many of those already, BJSC needs variety to come alive and I must provide that. It's a feeling I get, each time I send an entry I ask if it's right, and if it is, I send it. (that gif of Sinon below is giving me inspiration for this speech :wub: )

So let's start from the beginning. Porcelain was a pretty obvious entry for me at the start of the year, given me by my brother and I was obsessing over last Christmas. It was between that and 'St. Patrick' and I thought the former was far more likely to force a pop win. Obviously. As it's actually my highest-peaking entry this year I'm grateful to it for that because at the time I was used to getting in the top 10 far more than I normally do (such that I was once known for my 'top 10 or bust' results) and this year hasn't been good for those.

So in the next contest I entered 'St. Patrick' and I won, nah... that's not right, I entered a pony entry and came mid-table, oh that's not right either. Yeah, I gave both of those away. Well Cameron found PVRIS on his own but I found out he was entering it and at the time he couldn't qualify for shit :kink: So I didn't fight for it, I tend to do that. Also I never saw it as a winner because it's a lightning strikes once type of winner (so my search for a replicant has haunted me ever since). And I had 'Love Is In Bloom' for a contest further down the line so it wasn't a priority so I gave it to Jahq. Instead, I set about the important task of gaining my first DNQ of the year for (although I do really like the song, it's my least favourite of the 10) Lightshy, largely because I was planning to enter Flutterwonder next contest and by entering Lightshy I'd get to enter both halves of Fluttershy :D It ended up a nice diversion and something a little different for me, being harsh electro rather than harsh rock though.

So, Flutterwonder. That was painful, I've been pleased to see it in loads of EOY lists and hopefully we'll win the Rejects with it and all will be cool there. Again it was something nice and different. I had it in my wings because I thought, again, it could be a winner. I tend to think lots of my songs are winners. But Flutterwonder was one of only two times I've DNQed with one of the ones I genuinely thought could contend - the other was Team Me and I think we all knew I totally misread the situation there. Again it reinforced the three-years-in-a-row trend that I'd take an awful blow in the third contest of the year with an entry I really love, I'm not looking forward to that one next year.

Fortunately another trend is that in the fourth contest of the year that adversity in contest 3 makes me come back STRONG with a top 10. And that was Paralyzed. Partially sourced out in my attempt to find another PVRIS, I'm glad I caught a new Fueled By Ramen signing with a really strong pop-rock song, though I wavered over other songs of theirs I think I chose the right Against The Current song there.

I'm proud of Goodbye Tomorrow. It's not my sort of thing usually but in one of the few things I picked up from the blogs this year I found a mystery rap outfit producing great songs while sounding just like Kanye or Kendrick. I tend to like mystery outfits, just see Zhu. Anyway, if any male rap was going to hit it big it would be one sounding like those two rappers and I thought 'JAY Z' was a tune, so even with a starting Q streak to preserve I took the risk and I'm glad I did, little else is more satisfying than getting a top score from the host.

Which I did twice in a row with Chisu following Goodbye Tomorrow's 18 from Bré with an 18 from Mikey. That was also important, it was my 40th entry, and for the first time I got a Finnish-language entry to the final. Which was all I wanted for that contest
So the next logical step was... K-Pop. Actually I dithered over this one for ages. I entered Truls, as I've said too many times around here, come on Iz, it was only a 2nd, it's not like you gave away a winner for days but I got a little bored of it due to playing it 40 times or something. Then I switched to another K-Pop entry, before finally making Lee pull his hair out and entering the sexiest K-Pop song of them all. I know the straights here appreciated the video. Or something. It was also important as it broke my previous trend of not making it in August and to top it off, the August entry being my least favourite of the year, so regrets all round. Which Stellar is not. It's my second-least favourite of the 10.

Scandal next, and I've raged about that enough. Let's just say that I adore the guitar chords, I adore the summery, happy feel of it, I love the girls' voices and my reaction has generally been just simple bewilderment that it's now my worst performing entry ever when I couldn't think of an entry that deserves that title less. I understand it wouldn't have been a BJSC hit, and I would have been still unhappy, but more understanding had it barely failed to make it to the final rather than getting such total indifference, which is what I thought it would get AT LEAST in a rather weak semi., which made it hurt all the harder. It deserved far better than it got and the result really made me disillusioned a bit for the rest of the year.

Which really explains my last two entries. Now I love 'The Hardest Mistakes', and it's one of my best entries this year but for entering it when it was entered, it was because it was the best thing on my longlist and I couldn't face searching for more entries at the time. Again I thought this could put up a good challenge for the title, as much as any entry of mine could because I saw it as appealing to all bases. It was 'only' 90 points off the win though which isn't the worst thing and again I've enjoyed seeing it in a lot of EOY lists.

Finally, Ignite, and again, I entered this because I couldn't face searching and it was on an anime I was watching. I'm glad I got to introduce it to a few people but I had no expectations for it and I think I detached myself from it so 'Stamp!' wouldn't happen again so soon. As such I'm pleased with how it did and hopefully I'll be smashing in your hearts and minds again next year (albeit with something the rest of you ungrateful hoes aren't entering). Fortunately I'm now back to searching again and... ON THE WHOLE, this was a good year for Séyetana in my mind.

(Scandal > Against The Current > I See Stars > PinkiePieSwear > Goodbye Tomorrow > Rachel Taylor > Eir Aoi > Chisu > Stellar > Owl Vision - from 11/10 to 9/10)

tl;dr I DON'T TAKE THIS CONTEST SERIOUSLY AT ALL HONEST

Contests
LXXIV and LXXIX were the two best contests this year, nothing beats the total tunes that 74 flung my way. LXXII was pretty good but suffered from too many of the highlights DNQing, LXXV and LXXVI were also fairly good. The two end contests were honestly the weakest two this year, I'm afraid, maybe songs just sound better in summer.

Now I can't promise that I'll write for all of you as much as I just did up there, but the difference is I had context to get out. Anyway, onwards.

#+A-C (because I need to split them up somehow)

#00274E
So, JakeWild. Not the easiest one to start with as there have only been a couple of entries I've seen standing out from you this year, although of course when entries do stand out, I'll love you for them. Kara was a pleasant way to start the year and I always give props for K-Pop, even if I don't always point it. I thought your winner, Paradigm and Tokimonsta were pretty good songs if not especially stand-out. But #00274E rarely make such a misfire that they send a bad song, so that's all good. The two entries I have to be very complimentary about are machineheart and Bagarre. Bagarre was just crazy and I like crazy. But machineheart's remix really uplifted me and despite being in best contest, I wish I'd given it more than I did now, it's going right up there as one of the best remixes entered this year.
Entry Rank: machineheart - snøw (Myles Travitz Remix) > Bagarre > Paradigm > Kara > Delta Heavy > Tokimonsta > July Child > SCALES

Aeroche
I'm more an Aeroche fan than I used to be. I hope you'll remember how much I championed Heaven, I was excited when that won because finally Aeroche had a winner I could feel fully behind. Well, I suppose I like Beautiful but not as much as I love the euphoria that Heaven gives me, it's down and then it's up. That's the right kind of dance, the type that instills a feeling of euphoria within you, rather than firing repetitive beats at you and expecting you to like it. Aeroche tend to do dance well and that's often why I support them these days actually. Fiji was one entry I loved and was surprised didn't do that well considering we expect Aeroche to land top 5 every contest. PONIBBI was basically nightcore so seeing that get another top 10 was awesome. But much of the rest of the year, I felt a bit left behind with Aeroche. The ROZES entries were alright although Everything was definitely better, Tieks was funny, but I didn't fully get the appeal of the rest. Just one Aeroche entry a year is enough to make me appreciate their success so I don't mind, and this year I got three.
Entry Rank: Shaun Frank and KSHMR - Heaven (feat. Delaney Jane) > PONIBBI > Kryder > ROZES (Everything) > Tieks > ROZES (R U Mine) > Samantha Urbani > Sidewalks and Skeletons > Dusky > Kove

Ajanaeda
I'm ashamed to say I don't often notice Ajanaeda in the contest that much, stand out more Josh :( The Writer's Block was pretty good and then everything else somewhat blurs into one just a little bit. Oh and I must say a slightly ethnic entry in Alvaro Soler made me notice you a bit. We don't overlap much, so hopefully in the future, eh?
Entry Rank: The Writer's Block - Don't Look Any Further > Alvaro Soler > Saron > SYKES > Milo Greene > Cash+David > KLOE > Lauren Ashleigh

Altyr Muunlinst
Oh Altyr. How we have drifted. I don't really appreciate this being a whore for the dancebloc. Come back to the light and send entries that are quirky and that we'll like. Like OMFG. That was by far and away your best entry this year because it was so enjoyable and happy and really made me feel something. That's good. Out of the endless standard dance entries I'd have to say Jerome Price was the best so things are looking up. And People was cool even if it did tire on me a little quickly. But yeah, the theme is that sellout Altyr is an Altyr that doesn't really work for me. What were people thinking with Koven? :D
Entry Rank: OMFG - Ice Cream > Jerome Price > IIII (feat. Adele Kosman) > Hayden James > Awa > Gareth Emery > Shamir > Kasper Bjorke > Koven > Sam Feldt

Aprogonia
Again, afraid there wasn't much yet to interest me from Aprogonia, maybe in the future. God that sounds so shady, I'm always ready for anyone to impress me and eventually it will happen if you keep entering (where are you April). Elin Bergman was the entry that I enjoyed the most.
Entry Rank: Elin Bergman - Shoot Me Down > Ruth B > Elephante > Raluka > Malibu N Helene > Justine Skye

Aquafina
They never entered this year so I will not say anything about their entries. Actually, I was beginning to really enjoy their fare and in retrospect it seems a lot better than it did during the contest. Insomnia and Reverse are particular examples of this. The biggest is Galantis but I'm keeping that away from BJSC and more for an EOY. The same with Sigala to an extent. So this rank will look skewed and for the big songs it'll be what I thought at the time. The same will be true throughout.
Entry Rank: SomeKindaWonderful - Reverse (Oliver Nelson Remix) > Audien > Galantis > Alex Metric > Sigala > Max Elto > Sonny Alven > [REDACTED]

Avalonia
I'm really pleased to see Avalonia back. Well, they might appreciate symphonic metal if I ever send it again, and I may in the future finally get the chance to give them points. The comeback entries have however been all good but not quite good enough. They're getting there though and I'm sure I'll point you in the future Regina.
Entry Rank: Wrathschild - Mars > SVE > Anniela > High Dive Heart > Lifehouse

Beaverdonia
f***.
At least I'm past the A's. Now Beaverdonia are a fairly iconic country known for making a splash in the BJSC world with, ironically, oftentimes some really BORING entries. :D (it's just banter Michael). I really enjoyed Troubled Mind though and Conmigo was good for what it was. You can get there if you try, maybe eventually we'll see the elusive Meekul contest - at which point we'll all pray for death or something.
Entry Rank: Mozez - Troubled Mind > Sofia Reyes > FLETCHER > Mazoo and the Zoo (this was okay, not gonna say it was hilarious because it wasn't but it's a dece audio experience) > Chelsea Lankes > Preeya Kalidas > Yall

Bignia-Zaragovina
Yay ponies and entries about ponies and things like that. And the person who sends all my trashy potentials so I don't have to :D I'll be looking forward to whatever wacky return comes in the new year. As far as there were serious entries, Astrid was pretty good. But Bignia is one of the best nations for comedic and/or slightly less serious entries. And of course you know what my #1 is, one of my top marks coming here.
Entry Rank: Daniel Ingram - Love Is In Bloom (Archie Remix) > The Shires > Astrid > Saara > Zach Binspin > Karen Elson > Mikky Ekko > Andra Day

Botanikka
I guess my message to Botanikka is, send the weirder entries, they'll really get me points from you. And Botanikka's three entries that amazingly, all made the final, that followed this philosophy were some top-grade BJSC. Huri-Khan was a brilliant bit of weird dance, Happiness was dark and cool and really moody in its execution and Trance and Acid espoused the virtues of Trance and Acid. I also really enjoyed In My Dreams even though I didn't point that one, it sounded like a classic 90s song and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned. The DNQs I can take or leave but Botanikka can be a really good country when they choose to be.
Entry Rank: Storm - Huri-Khan > IAMX > Kai Tracid > Noemi > Sash! > Adrian Gaxha > !!! > Gulsen > Push

Cadelicia
Well at least a bit of #Seyelicia is showing itself on occasion this year. Often it's been in the past you abandoning me to dance and I end up not really getting it. But entries like Walk With Me and Spending All My Time give me a lot of hope, they're quirky and that's nice. In short, some bright summery entries and that's all you need to do to sate me for a little bit. For the earlier part of the year, About The Girl and easyFun were also very good, Tep No and Spinee were enjoyable songs, and XOV was an interesting prospect and came across to me a little despite not being my thing most of the the time. I think that's like the most I've liked Cadelicia since you first started! Entry Rank: Perfume - Spending All My Time > Cosmo's Midnight > About The Girl > easyFun > XOV > Tep No > Spinee > ALMA > Rytmeklubben > AYER

Cor Lupus
And nothing for Cor Lupus. Goodbye.























kek.



Hi Cody. So you have actually blossomed into a pretty great nation this year and you, for the most part, deserve your good debut year. Let's see you keep it up. That's a friendly challenge :D But in all seriousness, I loved those rock hits in the middle of your run. That's the sort of thing I want to bring to BJSC. New Politics especially, I've listened to that so much over the year, I shall need tips from you if you ever have anything like that left over from your 20 potentials or something. Some of the non-rock entries have been a bit over my head, and Brielle was a bit too basic pop for me, but I'm not going to get all of them, that's okay. Obviously Five Knives was a revelation and we of course need more rock-dance in the contest also. ^_^ But beyond that, Rivers was a wonderful tropical house entry and that's continually been growing on me, I don't like the new vocals as much but let's see it become a hit anyway.
Entry Rank: New Politics - West End Kids > Five Knives > Thomas Jack > Charlie > Wave Racer > A-Trak > Brielle

Cumulonimbia
Unfortunately Cumulonimbia haven't given us anything quite as standout as DyE, although given that made it to 3rd last year, that would be quite a challenge. Please attempt it next year. The dance entries are okay, I would say the best of them was Lxury but it wasn't enough to get points either. The classical entry was quite cool and I like long entries. But the best was the introduction to Young Fathers, who I'd never gotten around to checking out and so found 'Get Up' to be a pretty great rocky entry and a nice discovery. Thank you for that at least.
Entry Rank: Young Fathers - Get Up > Lxury > Brian Eno > Simon Patterson > Special Request > LCD Soundsystem

why do I do this to myself

2015: Séyetana's year in BJSC

So in the next contest I entered 'St. Patrick' and I won, nah... that's not right, I entered a pony entry and came mid-table, oh that's not right either. Yeah, I gave both of those away. Well Cameron found PVRIS on his own but I found out he was entering it and at the time he couldn't qualify for shit :kink: So I didn't fight for it

 

omg the shade! :lol:

It's kinda true though x

 

And I was very happy with how it did, even though it wasn't me, as I'll probably say again when I get to Hush.

I don't think there will ever be another New Politics - not that everything else I've sent was bad, it's just that they're celestial. No other rock entry has ever come close to that type of perfection. And because I want Soren to myself. #BowDownBitches

 

(Actually maybe "Girl Crush" but that's on another spectrum ~)

I feel like everything you say there is true. Yet all I hear is ''I WANT THE SUCCESS YOU ARE HAVING''. For shame.

This may be true. I'm too naturally competitive.

☺️ x

Excited for the KlumRep entry! These write-ups are a great read Iz!

How dare you steal my idea etc.

 

(fun reading, hope you do get this finished!!1 I am a fair bit into the alphabet after all)

D-F

 

Daehun

You know, I've actually come round to Raindrops. Somewhat. It's pretty decent. Karin Park is pretty decent. Aurora is pretty decent. And that's the crux of the problem! I wouldn't normally go on at a country about this but the point is that you could lose them from the lineup and not feel like you're missing anything, it's good blogpop but in a genre so many people send, from a person who's known for sending something that not many people send, it's a bit of a disappointment. That's why over the year I've been a bit disappointed with these entries Yu, it's not that I don't want you to send what you love, but the token Asian pop entry is almost a necessity for me at this point, even if it isn't good at least it breaks up the contest a bit. It's just the token rock entry, the token hip-hop entry, etc, these are good because they make the contest less of a monotonous experience. So someone else could send a K-Pop entry and I wouldn't mind Daehun not sending one. But sometimes that doesn't happen. And I never had a problem with Sanni or Louane because they were standout entries in their own right, Sanni making me exceptionally jealous, knowing that I'll probably never find a Finnish language entry like that again, and it's all worthy of adding to your huge amount of points collected from me. With the Asian entries, I obviously stanned R-Chord and I would have taken it off your hands had you not entered it, and I would have proudly taken the DNQ on that glorious entry, it's a huge shame that started off your DNQ chain. AOA was another great entry, it took a while for me to fully appreciate it but I adore it now, Red Velvet was also very stellar (heehee), Jolin Tsai was very good, and I just have a weird apathy towards f(x). So all in all, a year for Daehun that looked precarious at the start but you really pulled it back towards the end. Unfortunately I'm the only person that thinks that. :( Let's have a K-Pop qualifier from you in January.

Entry Rank: R-Chord - Love Doesn't Need To Pretend (feat. Diana Wang) > Sanni > AOA > Louane > Red Velvet > Jolin Tsai > SNBRN > Karin Park > Aurora > f(x)

 

Danaelanda

Ah, awkward. Qualified in most of the contests and I didn't give many points to them at all and the few points I DID give to Pep & Rash aren't worth much now as as a result of becoming big Rumors has somewhat tired on me now. In fact I'd probably say that Jammu is your best entry out of the 10, that has grown on me somewhat since the contest (likely due to becoming infatuated with Heaven). The Six and Oliver Nelson were also fairly enjoyable outings from you. See, I don't hate all dance! It's just that it takes a certain sort of dance song to become really remarkable to me and therefore get into my points and none of these majorly hit the spot. But I know I can enjoy stuff from you, it's just less often. On the other side of the spectrum, Stay unfortunately went right over my head, Boss was a bit too brash and in your face and Mediate and Same Stars were, in my humble opinion, basic dance that was so basic it's almost offensive for being basic. Shall we call that 50/50 Dan?

Entry Rank: KSHMR - Jammu > The Six > Oliver Nelson > Pep & Rash > Sandy Rivera > Juventa > Colleen D'Agostino > Helena and Vassy > Christina Novelli > Mediate

 

Deandria

You're often really... unfortunate in BJSC Mattias. I mean, sometimes you send entries that sound like they're going to get zero points, like, well, Zero Point, and then you follow that up by sending something that's incredibly amazing and unique and it STILL doesn't get you through the semi. I'm really glad that you're back and enjoying this for good as it sounds like we've got you hooked and you always were too sporadic a player to really get a feel for your sound, which I'm starting to get more now. So, as it's up to you completely to decide your sound, I demand more stuff like LOLAWOLF please. Ms. Henrik and Daya weren't bad per se but Daya was a bit too far down the basic pop and something about Ms. Henrik's voice stopped me enjoying the song as much as I wanted to.

Entry Rank: LOLAWOLF - Calm Down > Daya > Ms. Henrik > Sutrastore

 

Desbuanda

Desbuanda started off this year fairly well. An outstanding piece of indie-pop in TV, deservedly smashing and it hit me rather well too. Following this up with some more typical Desbuandese fare in Throwing Arrows and Calling Out, I loved both of those too, particularly Calling Out with the little vocal samples that get mixed in with the chorus. Something about Noah's deep male-vocalled entries are often very alluring and it does tend to grab me more often than not. Unfortunately I've been missing that for a few months, I'm sure it's still there, not just in RnB but in other genres too, but the last few entries, Body Double aside, haven't grabbed me as much as I'd like.

Entry Rank: MONAKR - Calling Out > Eves The Behaviour > Amber-Simone > Lushlife & CSLSX > Flor > Steven A. Clark > CAPPA > Refs > Wolf Colony > Cloves

 

Dobago

A very interesting new country, with three very diverse entries, and I've given points to all of them! Hurrah. That's what we like to see. Yes, I mean two of them are actually fairly trashy Eurodance but I'm completely cool with that as it's a very upbeat and fun type of dance and I'm never against upbeat and fun. In fact though, Dobago's best entry so far has been, not the Basshunter homage from (great act normally anyway) ItaloBrothers, nor the AronChupa homage in Badpojken, but the rather beautiful and quirky Sail Away by Koo, those vocals are just something else

Entry Rank: Koo - Sail Away > Italobrothers > Badpojken

 

D'yermak'er

Unfortunately I haven't been on the side of the mak'er as much as I'd like to be this year, although I very much support the idea of the contest having a new tradition of token South Asian pop hit as well as a token East Asian one and I hope you qualify with one of those soon because I did like Look / Lak a LOT. Experience was pretty good, the FKA Twigs vibes are all good and I suppose your Mikky Ekko top 10 hit wasn't too bad. It was also a shame Orka didn't qualify. And then I actually gave points to Dynamite so obviously I loved that. Down Low passed me by a bit though, both of them, not that either were bad either. Hopefully more feelings towards your entries next year.

Entry Rank: Asta - Dynamite (feat. Allday) > Roshan Prince > Rajveer & Dr Zeus > Kacy Hill > Orka > Mikky Ekko > Alex Winston > Elohim > Jessica 6

 

Espen

I normally try to appreciate Espen, if only because they're one of the nations more likely to appreciate my foolhardy exploits into 'all genres but especially hard rock'. But Espen's entries themselves normally have the potential to be amazing. When it's not the sort of RnB I really find a bit hard to sit through or a dance track that goes in one ear and out the other but OTHERWISE... Actually this hasn't been the best year for Espen from my perspective although plenty of other people still are enjoying it. The main entry of yours to hit me was 'You', which is one of the really good dance tracks, and I enjoyed it for ages after its contest. Savanna (minor note, I'm always getting the artist, the featured artist and the song name in the wrong order on that one) and Waterfall were nice even if they took a while to hit. The Internet was a pretty cool track in the end, that also took ages to grow. Then of course there are Nicole Saba which was really fun and ethnic and an excellent entry to spice up the contest, and Tokio Hotel. :') Tokio Hotel are a swag band.

Entry Rank: Etienne De Crecy & Madeline Folin - You > Nicole Saba > Tokio Hotel > Tobtok > The Internet > Vok > DJ Haus > Club Cheval > Snoh Aalegra > Tiffany Evans

 

Ethanola

Regrettably I find that all too generally Ethanola are found to submit insipid tedium ad infinitum a la dance. However, to your credit Ethan, this was a strategy that you didn't rely on too voluminously this year, at least partially. Veritably, there were some entries I quite enjoyed, most of them comprising the genre of equatorial residence. Like that pretty great Matoma remix in the first contest of the year which was a captivating entry coupled with coming off a few DNQs for you making it apt. I also indubitably liked Bebay for what it was, it was idiosyncratic and that's refreshing. Jay Hardway surprised me by being superior than expected and then I also enjoyed Serani and Ferreck Dawn at least reasonably. One of the dance nations that can be really sound when it wants to be. :music: (I may be a hardline on samples but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy each others entries and use thesauruses together)

Entry Rank: MYNGA - Back Home (Matoma Remix) > DJ Paypal > Jay Hardway > Serani > Ferreck Dawn > Sirens Of Lesbos > David Vrong > Silience > Luca C & Brigante > The New Sins

 

Farahtyn

Probably the longest running nation to have avoided my points bracket every single time, I always wonder with every sporadic Farahtyn entry if this will be the one. It generally isn't. Although none of their three entries this year were bad, it's just that they weren't... good enough.

Entry Rank: Charlotte Lawrence - Ever After > Benjamin > Jessica Andersson

 

FARC

FARC are cool. Like, even though they often enter blogpop, I can normally rely on it to be very good blogpop, and then occasionally they also come across with the most excellent remix of a pop song that suddenly makes you notice them. I'd say the best of those is Katelyn Carver, it really uplifted me, and it's pretty addictive. Somewhat more than Paulini which was pretty great but not... most excellent. Wolf Tide was another great song, again reinforcing the wolf thing, it's not as strong for me as it is for Bré but still a pretty strong correlation. Tkay Maidza and Golden Coast were too other entries that stood out from the pack quite well. A very high quality country most of the time.

Entry Rank: Katelyn Tarver - Weekend Millionaires (Young Bombs Remix) > Wolf Tide > Paulini > Golden Coast > Tkay Maidza > W.Darling > Ji Nilsson > Cassian > Mocki

 

Federal Republic Of Ashton

The bit of Ashton I most look forward to is always, ALWAYS the trashiest entries, because they are good at doing that. Something about trashy entries makes you want to listen to them over and over again. That and the odd pop entry. So therefore, I enjoyed The Boom Boom and Midnight Red especially ^_^ Something just feels right about them. Moriah Peters was pretty slick as an entry too, it's a shame that couldn't quite make it. Gabrielle was a cool entry too. The other stuff is nice, I think, if I'm honest it doesn't really stick in the memory that well.

Entry Rank: The Boom Boom - Creature > Midnight Red > Moriah Peters > Gabrielle > Daphne & Celeste > Kato & Safri Duo > ROMANS > Iris > IDA > Emil Berg

 

FKA Pi

Lucky that name change didn't put you into the P section Pavel. You don't care, do you? Well, I liked some of your entries this year, it was awesome seeing Hatsune Miku getting entered, with a song that actually made Namie Amuro acceptable too, less awesome seeing her dumped out by the awful taste of BJSC 78 semi 1 voters (even before you not-voting) but there we go. And that entry from Aeondia was rather lovely in the end. It turns out I love tropical house remixes of songs so much and it never tires on me. Well, nearly never. Actually most of your entries were good this year, it's just a shame you leave them to be deducted so often. Also, all these name changes are making it impossible to find a list of your entries. I hope you're happy. If I've missed one it's not my fault.

Entry Rank: Namie Amuro - B Who I Want To B (feat. Hatsune Miku) > Benjamin Francis Leftwich > Zhala > Omar Sueleyman > Hot Chip > Nicola Cruz

 

Fljotavik

It's always great when I can support a Fljotavik entry, something about it feels very rewarding because you take such a chilled, pleasant approach to the contest these days Dandy*. Something I could maybe learn from. Mmm, anyway. I had a lot of support for Lao Ra last contest as her voice fell into that sweet spot that gets me actually excited about an indie-pop song, it's similar to Kyla La Grange and that's always a strong position to start from. Bloodline was also a pretty great entry, I'm glad that grew on me in time, the build and the drop made it by far the better Kolsch entry for me. The other late year Fljotavik entries, Grace Mitchell and Dagny were some pretty strong pop entries too so this was very much a 'got better in the latter half' year for you. The first lot didn't stand out to me as much, I'm afraid although several months on I've finally gotten at least some of what everyone thought was good about Christine.

Entry Rank: Lao Ra - Jesus Made Me Bad > Kolsch > Grace Mitchell > Dagny > Christine And The Queens > Verre > Space Above > MIYNT > GRRL PAL > Nina K

 

Florina

Generally a similar country to Fljotavik, with a similar name and a similar indie-pop leaning, I look forward to all the Florinese entries in 2016 ^_^ Sometimes Florina go right through me and I forget what they sound like quite quickly, they definitely are a more blogpop nation on the whole. Not that that's a wholly bad thing. Because it leads to some pretty great entries still, the (slightly better) Grace Mitchell entry, some lovely indie from Osca, the absolute brilliant quirkiness of Jai Wolf, some more lovely indie from Winters Island, some pretty cool stuff from Transviolet too. Absolute best of indieshuffle :kink:

Entry Rank: Osca - Blood > Jai Wolf > Winters Island > Grace Mitchell > Transviolet > George Maple > Lostboycrow > // LSBV // > berhana > Mabel

 

Flynnonda

I'd love it if Flynnonda harnessed their hard rock love a couple more times. Tame Impala was a good step towards that though. I sense that Harry, you're going through the often rough phase of trying a few things before getting comfortable with the BJSC process, and that's good, it'll come soon and you seem to be getting the hang of it a bit more lately. Oh and, seeing as no one else will probably mention it, I enjoyed you trying to send Bully, that's something different and it's one of the less deserving semi last placers. Lux Lisbon was a good debut entry, and it seems you're doing well so far. At least, you're not DNQing all the time.

Entry Rank: Tame Impala - Cause I'm A Man > XYConstant > Lux Lisbon > Bully > Spelles > Zara Kershaw > MORRT

 

Frandoot

Well, your second entry was MUCH better than your first. Send some really good K-Pop next time and we're set.

Entry Rank: Hyuna - Red > Juan Deminicis

 

FSR Rontvia

So, where did all that support go? Because I'm still enjoying FSR Rontvia on about as much a regular basis as I used to, there's very little decline in quality for me, and in actuality a slight increase in quality this year. In that I can think of only two entries I didn't enjoy as much as normal and those were Timo ODV which was quite forgettable and Wrabel which was fairly boring. The DNQs, none of them were deserved, Kadebostany I thought sounded like a proper sweet hit, Halleluwah I almost fell into the trap of sending myself, and then I ended up about its only supporter. Cream Soda was lovely and quirky and Paper Route was a pretty great pop-rock entry. So there's that. And then there's the hits. The Rua was quite good and I enjoyed it nearly enough to give points but not quite, all the others were amazing. One More Time needs no real explanation, I love Den Vilda so I appreciated the discovery of Highland. Little By Little was a pretty awesome remix of a song with some BEAUTIFUL vocals and synths, no regrets with that being my 12 there. And then there's 7even, I don't know how you find these but that was the pinnacle of what I want dance to be in BJSC, emotional, building, beautiful, keeping me interested while listening with no flaws detected. Rontvia isn't my #1 pointed overall for nothing.

Entry Rank: Andy Duguid - 7even (feat. Jaren) > Ulf Nilsson > One More Time > Halleluwah > Kadebostany > Paper Route > Ryan Hemsworth > The Rua > Wrabel > Timo ODV

Catching up on this now, I must say what a glorious effort! *.* I do love a good essay so I very much look forward to following this in its entirety. :heart:

It's times like this when I wish I'd given my nation a name that starts with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet ;) This is such a nice thing to do, great idea Iz, very much looking forward to what you've got to say about Taahino :D

 

Paralayzed ofc is my favourite entry of yours and really got me even more hooked on ATC, probably my second favourite entry from the whole year :heart: I found out that they're supporting All Time Low with Good Charlotte at the show I'm going to in February yesterday, so I will be seeing them live for a second time *.* #SeyetanaIMPAKT

Edited December 12, 20159 yr by SantasLindsleigh

Amazing thing you're doing Iz!

 

'Calm Down' is my favourite entry of this year as well. I love how it really has a certain uniqueness to it but also some form of fun accessibility without being cheesy. It just sounds so FRESH.

 

I have a bunch of potentials for next year and I kinda need variety in this contest so it's hard for me to develop a very clear-cut concept of a "sound", haha! Or maybe it's just hard for me to see it from the outside. My potentials are all quite different from each other I guess. I'll probably keep finding more as I'm very excited about finding music at the moment.

It's times like this when I wish I'd given my nation a name that starts with a letter near the beginning of the alphabet ;) This is such a nice thing to do, great idea Iz, very much looking forward to what you've got to say about Taahino :D

 

Paralayzed ofc is my favourite entry of yours and really got me even more hooked on ATC, probably my second favourite entry from the whole year :heart: I found out that they're supporting All Time Low with Good Charlotte at the show I'm going to in February yesterday, so I will be seeing them live for a second time *.* #SeyetanaIMPAKT

 

Don't worry I will get to them all. I finish things I start, people near the end of the alphabet might have to wait a couple days longer is all.

 

Ooh gosh, and I with my awfulness at seeing bands live still haven't seen them yet. Really glad I gave you a good discovery there.

 

Thank you all for the comments so far, this is very inspirational for writing things.