Posted April 7, 20187 yr Surprise hits are very fun. Surprise flops not so much. I'm interested to know which entries of yours outdid your expectations the most and those you expected more out of. I think the biggest example of a surprise hit for me in the main contest was synthwave instrumental 'Arcade Summer' by FM-84! It was bottom 10 in odds (at the semi-final stage and all :lol:!) and was one of the worst performing songs on plug that month, but smashed it all the way to 9th place :o I was so shocked when all the 18s rolled in for that one. K Á R Y Y N's 'BINARY' from 101 was another surprise hit for me, I thought it would qualify but never imagined that it would have the appeal to go top 10 so that was wonderful. Francis And The Lights placing in 14th was also a bit of a surprise for me in a mammoth contest like 100 when it didn't have much hype. There's something about 14th placers clearly, because I remember thinking that FEYNMAN's '1-800MYLOVE' would DNQ but it did as well as 14th in the final (and 3rd in the semi!) so that was great. The final result was only a tiny bit disappointing in a way because I actually hosted that contest (with help from Bré) so I already knew how well it did in the semi :lol: Lastly, M+A's 'When' only came 36th in the final but I was surprised it qualified at all after getting about 8 mehs that month on plug.dj! I think my biggest surprise hits actually occur in spinoffs though. I don't think anyone saw my (default x) win for SOLDOUT's 'To The Ocean' coming in the first instalment of Worldvision for example. Also, I adore my metal/witchy entry 'Blood Blood Blood !!' by Unison from the Halloween spinoff but I thought it would flop, so it placing as high as 7th was a complete shock. Then on the other hand, I've been surprised by three out of five of my DNQs! SOLDOUT's 'Do It Again' has to be my biggest shocker to date as some people placed it higher than the actual winner 'Saving Light' in odds. I didn't see the DNQs for Stranger Cat or Elena Temnikova coming either so those were disappointing too. Over to you x
April 7, 20187 yr '1-800MYLOVE' and 'Binary' were both fab. x I came 2 points off winning with a classical-crossover cover of the Lord's Prayer in Swahili, so there's that. I've since long searched for unexpected songs doing well, but alas, I've not finished in the top 10 since then. It's so much more satisfying to have success with a song that's a bit more out there in terms of genre or era or country of origin, or has some personal meaning to you, rather than some predictably-pleasing buzz track that you found from searching on a blog or youtube channel (as much as blog tracks can be very good x). Edited April 7, 20187 yr by Harve
April 7, 20187 yr • Five Knives coming 4th • Pixel Fix DNQ’ing • Rain Man coming 6th • The Naked & Famous winning • LIONE coming top 10 • Agolo qualifying • Midnight X qualifying
April 7, 20187 yr Christine and the Queens doing so well was my favourite surprise result for me, she had been predicted to DNQ I think and then to do pretty awfully in the final.
April 7, 20187 yr The main one that comes to mind for me is 'The Wandering Songstress', that's probably my only top 10 hit that really came out of nowhere to me. With all my other big hits I had at least an inkling that I was onto a hit (partly just because I thought they sounded like hits, but also in large part because most of them were songs I had already sent to a bunch of people beforehand and got positive feedback in advance, honestly all levels of success since I (for the most part) stopped doing that have felt a lot more satisfying since I am trusting only my own taste to find hits :lol:), even with the ones that got middling predictions. That said though, I would never in a million years have predicted 'Cry For Freedom' to actually win so I guess that would be up there too, and the back-to-back top 3 successes of 'Ocean' and 'Waves' were IIRC predicted by basically no one (especially the former). Also, it was much less successful than the other songs I've mentioned, but I sent 'Hearth' with absolute 100% certainty that it would DNQ but it went on to not only do pretty decently in the final but even make it to the TBO semis and do about as well there as my 2 actual big hits (I know that's just because its niche fans happened to mostly bother to vote in TBO but it was still a nice surprise). x Aron Can coming as high as 12th was a big surprise as well to me! (it still deserved better than that but it's a foreign language male rap song, I'll take what I'm given :D)
April 7, 20187 yr Jillette Johnson going top 10 despite having awful odds Cardiknox flopping at the lower end of the top 20 despite being predicted to come 2nd 5 DNQ'S THEN A WIN AND QUALIFYING FOR OVER A YEAR STRAIGHT.
April 7, 20187 yr Christine and the Queens doing so well was my favourite surprise result for me, she had been predicted to DNQ I think and then to do pretty awfully in the final. This one seems really bizarre in retrospect since it went on to become basically BuzzJack's favourite song when it eventually charted!!
April 7, 20187 yr Author Oh don't even get me started on TBO!! Both of my 3rd places 'Scope' by MssingNo and 'Waqqaberry' by BÖ not advancing when songs that came like 30th in the same finals did :lol: On the other hand 'Mango Bay' by MONOMOTION advancing when it only finished 24th in the final was incredibleeee. It really depends on big fans voting I guess. '1-800MYLOVE' and 'Binary' were both fab. x :wub: your taste can stay.
April 7, 20187 yr Amaranthine being a surprise top 10 and being in the lead at multiple points in the results is probably my favourite. Iinadukeblue, for an unprecedented third top 10 in a row comes pretty close after, I knew Paradise Awaits and Blood would be somewhat big but I didn't call that at all, and it's still my most successful Asian foray so I love it for that of course. And then Tanz Mit Mir was another surprise overperformance I think. Loved my experience of sending all of those.
April 7, 20187 yr Also I can't believe we've really not had a Skall entry go top 10 since 'Baba Yetu'. Many, if not most, of the best Skall entries don't even make the final, mind. Fix this soon please people. x
April 7, 20187 yr step aside pretenders, Trifoski are the masters of the surprise hit ~ Ghost Loft's victory (an unforgettable moment <3) ~ Prom Night finishing top 10 (mainly because of our ~pessimistic phase~ at the time) ~ Drone Logic finishing top 10 (it is a rather weird song) ~ Kool-Aid reaching the final ~ Touch-Tone Telephone's 2nd place in the semi final ~ Electrify finishing top 10 (after a near 2 yr duck - the moment trifoski broke the glass ceiling, the song that changed everything!) ~ Paradis finishing top 5 ~ Hello Hello finishing 4th in BJFest (given our history in that contest this is kind of astonishing) other side of the coin- Paper Crows is the main one that springs to mind after people touted it as a contender. There's a good reason i tend to go in with low expectations x
April 7, 20187 yr Author 'Kool-Aid' qualifying is a great example. I remember being well and truly shook by that one! Songs of that ilk are typically somewhat doomed.
April 7, 20187 yr I mean, not to sound all pretentious, but I'm often surprised with a lot of my entries as a lot of them don't sound like traditional BJSC hits, although there's a spectrum with this, these are my main surprises (conveniently using my list of entries from the other thread) BJSC LXXX / Owsey, Jernalism & Resotone / I've Been Secretly Falling Apart / 3rd/41 BJSC LXXXIV / Hiatus / Precious Little / 10th/41 BJSC LXXII / Power Glove / Crypt / 22nd/31 ^ The three above are all of the same ilk - I thought that these would have really limited appeal due to the style of song they were (an ambient minimalist ballad, a piano instrumental and a horror-inspired electro rock instrumental) and massively outperformed my expectations on all grounds. BJSC LXIV / Bok Bok feat. Kelela / Melba's Call / 23rd/52 BJSC LXXIX / DIA / ЕГЕЯ / 29th/42 BJSC LXXXV / Delhi 2 Dublin / Apples / 31st/41 ^These were very risky entries that were outside of my usual style and though they didn't set the scoreboard alight, the fact they even qualified was a surprise. BJSC LVIII / Keep Shelly In Athens / Flyway / DNQ (18th in Semi Final) BJSC LXXIV / Crywolf feat. Maigan Kennedy / Home We Made Part II (Skrux remix) / DNQ (25th in Semi Final) BJSC LXXXI / U.S. Girls / Woman's Work / DNQ (27th in Semi Final) ^These were surprises in the worst sense, I actually felt a real sense of hype around these and felt they would appeal widely but was proved wrong in all cases :( (the latter two made up for it at Rejects at least x)
April 7, 20187 yr Also I can't believe we've really not had a Skall entry go top 10 since 'Baba Yetu'. Many, if not most, of the best Skall entries don't even make the final, mind. Fix this soon please people. x That says more about other countries than it says about Skall tbh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (tbf I am coming dead last in the semi this month and EVEN YOU might not like it but I am already at peace with this. Sometimes I try to make some sort of compromise, like with Jazmine Sullivan, and the results are mediocre)
April 7, 20187 yr huge welcome surprises are all three of my top 3s actually (Gareth Emery, TheFatRat, Basto) - particularly Basto which barely got any top 10 predictions at all, let alone top 3 predictions.biggest surprise flop in the final was Oliver Heldens 'Gecko' finishing as low as 26th!! it deserved better. I also expected Hardwell 'Apollo' to do a bit better (also finished in 26th)biggest surprise qualifier was EDX 'Touched' especially as it was initially announced as a DNQ, plus I had a run of four DNQs prior! (qualifying was much harder back in the day). there's been a few others I was half-expecting a DNQ too like Elektronomia & JJD last month.biggest surprise DNQers were The Aston Shuffle 'Sunrise' as it had good odds, plus Christina Novelli 'Same Stars' and Vitalic 'Tu Conmigo' as those two both ended runs of ten qualifiers each. also Tobtok 'Aber' did a lot worse than I expected finishing only in 30th in the semi.oh and of course both of my spin-off wins!
April 8, 20187 yr Most surprising finish in a final was Feel finishing 3rd. Most surprising qualifier was probably my debut Johnny G! And most surprising DNQ was definitely X With U, still can't fathom how that out of all my entries is the worst performing to date.
April 8, 20187 yr still kinda not over REZZ doing so bad, I was expecting it to DNQ but like I got good predictions so I got my hopes up a bit and then it just finished bottom 3 in the semi :/
April 8, 20187 yr That says more about other countries than it says about Skall tbh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ True that x ~ I think my most surprising underperformance would be SOHN's 'The Wheel', that was one I thought would be big and it initially got good odds but it ended up 'only' coming 19th. That was after SOHN won Unknown Pleasures and he would go on to also win BJSC, just with a different song. I don't see how my SOHN song was apparently so much worse than those two!!1 I'm also still shook at Kadie Elder's 'Simple Guy' not even coming close to qualifying.
April 8, 20187 yr Biggest surprise hits, in order of how surprised I was: 29 Tall Heights 'Spirit Cold' [91] - A last minute reconfirmation, a slow-tempo acoustic song that's typically not to BJSC's tastes, wasn't expecting it to qualify at all let alone top 30! 24 Phases 'I'm In Love With My Life' [78] - this almost didn't qualify due to a score mess-up so to see it do way better in the final was a surprise 08 Meg Mac 'Never Be' [87] - my first ever top 10, following a run of 6 DNQs and one month absence, sounded like a hit but I still couldn't believe it! 21 Kaneholler 'Paper Games' [92] - 21st was about where I expected for the final but 2nd in the semi was a massive shock 13 Hollyn 'Alone' [99] - I was pretty confident but still thought the rap verse would put people right off it, thankfully I edited it out for the MP3/video Biggest surprise flops, in order of how surprised I was: DNQ Ben Hazlewood 'Wanted' [80] - This one still kills me! So powerful and attention-grabbing, I'll most likely send this to the next YBO DNQ Moment 'All This Time' [96] - Another one that sounds completely up everyone's street, I had serious top 10 vibes with it DNQ Sizzy Rocket 'Need Somebody' [83] - Sizzy has so much star power, even though she'd DNQd before this was so much stronger so I didn't think she'd flop again DNQ Sarai 'Ladies' [75] - A rap entry tbf but it sounded like Iggy Azalea who was still popular at the time, still an absolute bop 37 Jocelyn Alice 'Jackpot' [77] - At least it qualified but I expected much more, similar to 'Royals' without being a complete soundalike
April 8, 20187 yr Actually, across all contests, I think Underworld winning the instrumental spin off was my most unexpected result - certainly my favourite one! #longsongbloc
Create an account or sign in to comment