Loods brings the house sound of the summer to BJSC

 

London-based Australian producer Elliot Struck, aka Loods', new single Gummi has been chosen as FSR Rontvia's entrant for the 126th edition of BJSC, held this month in Altyr Muunilinst. The uplifting instrumental house track has been one of the biggest hits of the summer in FSR Rontvia and currently sits at No.2 in the nation's chart, only behind fellow Aussie Delta Goodrem's anthemic Paralyzed.

 

Ricardo Delta from the RTVN outlines the reason the track was chosen: "Every year when the summer heats up we love to send a big dance anthem or two and we've had some fantastic instrumentals represent us before - Flares by Prance Faris, Colors by Rivaz, and Platinum Chains by Michael Woods, to name a few.

 

"When we first heard Gummi by Loods we were mentally whisked away to the nightclubs and Balearic bars that the coronavirus pandemic has stopped us going to for now. While the track will one day sound amazing on the dancefloor, the reaction on Rontvian radio and Spotify suggests that the nation's ravers are currently enjoying it hugely in other settings. The track is fresh and contemporary, with a killer house riff employed throughout, but also with more than a hint of 90s influence to it, and we're very excited to be sending it."

 

this is great. another good one from rontvia this year!

Thanks Leww! Very much appreciating the recent support <3

This is a huge standout this contest and certainly would have got my top marks if I was in the other Semi.

Edited August 14, 20204 yr by Dobbo

This is a huge standout this contest and certainly would have got my top marks if I was in the other Semi.

 

Thanks, really glad to hear you're a fan!

I liked this one a lot too, FSR Rontvia have a pretty good record with instrumental dance entries!

South African youth choir lift spirits for BJSC 127

 

Hailing from Moutse, Limpopo in South Africa, the Ndlovu Youth Choir will represent FSR Rontvia in the 127th edition of BJSC in Aeroche with their uplifting new single We Will Rise.

 

The choir, which features members ranging in age from 14 to 28, reached the final of America's Got Talent last year, with spirited covers of songs including Toto's Africa and Kygo & Whitney Houston's Higher Love. They quickly released an album of covers, which reached the top ten in FSR Rontvia upon release, but their first original single has been an even bigger hit, as Ricardo Delta explains:

 

"We quite often send acts from the musically brilliant and underappreciated nation of South Africa, but the Ndlovu Youth Choir are perhaps already quite well known to some audiences, especially Americans. However, their first original single, We Will Rise, deserves more attention - we were so impressed with it the first time we heard it.

 

"It has a contemporary tropical house style production in the verses but the choir's vocals, harmonies and chants in the bridge, chorus and middle eight make this track anything but formulaic. The chorus is a monster, and so uplifting, and the song has been all over the airwaves this summer in FSR Rontvia, climbing to a new peak of No.3 in the national charts this week on its 7th week in the top ten."

 

Mason comes Alive for 128th contest

 

Dutch dance producer Mason's Alive has been confirmed as FSR Rontvia's entry to BJSC 128, taking place in République d'Áskorza and Terra Avium this month. The song, which has been battling it out with What The Future Holds by Steps to top the Rontvian charts over the last few weeks, is the third major Rontvian hit for Mason.

 

Way back in late 2006 his electro instrumental track Exceeder made it to No.3 and then the vocal version Perfect (Exceeder) peaked at No.1 a few months later, as well as being a huge top three hit in the UK. He also previously achieved contest success for Pupok in BJSC 98, when Fashion Killa (Papapapa) finished 2nd. But Alive is a sonic shift from that track, as Ricardo Delta explains.

 

"Alive caught our ear immediately due to the grand cinematic Agnes meets Disney style string intro. This gives way to completely different sounding but lovely laidback verses and then an energetic pop/dance earworm of a chorus. Things slow right down again towards the end of the track as the beat drops out and there is a more subdued Zero 7 style chillout to close. It's a compelling listen that doesn't stay in one lane, and we hope it can win some fans."

 

A metre apart...we blankly stare

 

 

After a DNQ last month for Mason's Alive, we're going with our heart and sending our most played song of the year to FARC 129. Monster originally appeared on English singer-songwriter and Youtuber Dodie Clark's 2019 EP Human, which reached No.5 in the UK. A very popular track among her fans, it got the video treatment and became a live favourite. She later teamed up with American husband-and-wife duo Pomplamoose to overhaul the track with them and a full live band, and it is this version that we are sending.

 

Ricardo Delta takes up the story: "The original version of Monster was already a major hit in FSR Rontvia in early 2019, but the Pomplamoose version, which was released on Spotify earlier this year, amped everythng up with beautiful vocals, lush harmonies and brilliant musicianship and turned a 9/10 song into a perfect 10/10. This version of Monster has been by far the most played song of 2020 here, but we were waiting until more than 18 months had passed since dodie's UK top five album to send it.

 

"A few hours after we confirmed it dodie revealed that her first proper album is due out in March next year, and the local Rontvian stations have already started heavily spinning its lead single Cool Girl. But for now, Monster is thematically relevant due to Halloween and social distancing (albeit in the sense of a rocky relationship). Monster is sonically a little bit like something from Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten album, especially the middle-eight, and definitely not the sort of thing that screams big BJSC hit in 2020, but we just had to share it regardless of how it's destined to do, it's absolutely wonderful in every way and we hope it can win over some hearts and find a route to the final."

 

Monster is currently in the Rontvian top five once again, this version having first reached the top five back in March and climbing to No.1 in the summer, a year and a half after the original EP version was a Rontvian top five smash.

 

 

Original version

 

Edited October 29, 20204 yr by gooddelta

Maybe I’m just old-school, but to me this is the first entry since I’ve come back that really sounds like a classic FSR Rontvia entry :wub: Really hope you make it through the semi this time!

Edited October 29, 20204 yr by Thom Kerewolf

Thanks Thom! True, it's essentially the sound I was peddling back in 2008 :lol: I'm glad someone is still making pop like this.

Edited October 29, 20204 yr by gooddelta

Xenomania band Capulets rounds off mixed Rontvian year

 

Finishing off a mixed 2020 which has seen us score two big top tens, a handful of top 20s and two DNQs on the trot in the last two contests (very sadly in the case of Monster, which yesterday topped the nation's Spotify Wrapped chart), British trio Capulets are hoping to return FSR Rontvia to the final with the spellbinding Stranger Love. Produced by the iconic Xenomania and comprising former BJSC favourite Florrie (on instrumentation and backing vocals), Toby Scott and lead singer Sarah Thompson, the band have been steadily releasing quality singles for over a year but only recently came to the attention of the RTVN.

 

Ricardo Delta explains: "We gather Stranger Love came out over a year ago, and it had been on our long backdated list of 'new' music we had yet to check out. Safe to say we were blown away when we finally got around to playing Stranger Love, Sarah's voice has a hint of soulful singers like Adele and Rebecca Ferguson and like them she can certainly belt it out - showing restraint in the subdued but beautifully shimmering verses and glistening bridge but delivering a powerful performance on the epic chorus. We are so thrilled to have a Xenomania produced entry too, we have been fans of their work for decades and they are currently responsible for two of FSR Rontvia's current top five in the charts - Stranger Love and To The Beat Of My Heart by Steps. We can't wait to hear more from Capulets - they released a new single Tribe a couple of weeks ago and it's also fantastic so they are definitely ones to watch."

 

I have been strangely LUKEWARM on Capulets before but this one is better. Still not on the par of past Florrie BJSC entries of course.

It's funny, I'd never even heard of them until a couple of months ago, not sure how I'd missed them. I was thinking that this backing track screams Altyr *.* It is a surprise that Florrie isn't on lead vocals, although if she had been that would have probably increased the veto points!

To be fair to dear old Florrie, she was always entirely superfluous to the quality of her own music so I'm not sure she would have added anything on lead VOX.

It's funny, I'd never even heard of them until a couple of months ago, not sure how I'd missed them. I was thinking that this backing track screams Altyr *.* It is a surprise that Florrie isn't on lead vocals, although if she had been that would have probably increased the veto points!

 

You'd probably have got away with it considering this is the first I have been aware Florrie has anything to do with this despite doing veto research on it :lol:

 

This song was also a winner on PopJustice a while back!

You'd probably have got away with it considering this is the first I have been aware Florrie has anything to do with this despite doing veto research on it :lol:

 

This song was also a winner on PopJustice a while back!

 

I figured it would probably be ok anyway as her solo entries were quite a long time ago now.

 

:o Ooh, that’s interesting to hear. I didn’t realise that although I noticed that the original version of Dodie’s Monster was sent there a while back and actually did reasonably well so I imagine the crossover with results isn’t huge with BJSC.

This is unrelated to your current entry but just noting that I'm really liking this new song from DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ, every bit as much as the one you sent to BJSC!

 

Oh DJ Sabrina is wonderful, one of my favourite acts I’ve sent in the last few years. She released a new album a few weeks back and it’s insanely good, like The Avalanches at their very best.

 

It’s quite a ride at three hours long but I couldn’t recommend it enough, I love how random the samples she uses are, I spotted a few old niche favourites of mine being used!

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Edited December 23, 20204 yr by gooddelta