Congrats Jupiter and well done on a great contest Uhsting!

 

21st…oops. Thanks a LOT to the five voters, especially Eastovka for the gold, as clearly it could have gone a lot worse. The track is magic to me, a Latin American pop classic! Maybe a bit dated sounding though looking at what did well.

Aww at Hendinia not voting too, their track was comfortably my favourite discovery here.

RESULTS SPREADSHEET

 

Thank you all for the kind comments! Really happy to get another good result in a spin-off contest and I hope I will be able to win one day! ^_^

 

Let's relive the winning song here:

 

I'll take 15th after that awful start, some pretty solid points in the second half of that reveal, thanks all ^_^ I guessed I was either going to do well or fade into the background given it's not a song that appeals widely to one extreme and using the 12 point system, so I'll take middle of the pack!

 

Amazing to see my top 2 as the top 2 *.* Congrats to Jupiter, love what I know of Dead Can Dance and this was suitably wonderfully haunting entry that was an easy standout. I added this, Jadakissnia and Thelonia to my library, all fantastic finds. Shame the latter finished quite a bit lower as that struck me as a likely winner!

 

Bien joué, uhsting B-) #Frenchup

Thanks Izzle for the final mealworm - wow at managing to finish in the top half (even before the deductions but not gonna complain at them pushing me up another couple of spots :teresa:), I've had this song (and/or another Tinariwen song 'Cler Achel' which is quite similar) as a song contest potential for... probably at least 5 years at this point? and was fully prepared for it to culminate in an anticlimactic bottom 5 finish or something so very pleased that wasn't the case and it managed to find enough niche fans to bring home a pretty good result :cheer: a solid improvement on my result from the last Foreign Language spinoff in the end *.* Tinariwen are a really interesting band, they've been active since the late 70s although only releasing albums since 2001, and they've amassed a surprisingly large cult following / global critical acclaim for a Malian blues rock band, including winning a Grammy in 2012.

 

All of my top 4 finishing in the top 5, the taste of it all! :cheeseblock: well done J00ps on the win, there's something a little amusing about the voters collectively deciding the song in a completely made up language is better than all of the 'real' foreign language entries :kink: but it is an excellent song and stood out for a mile so no wonder it did so well. Jadakissnia's song was using all of the cheat codes to be an easy top pointer for me and indeed ended up being my favourite song here by a considerable margin so fantastic to see that being in the mix too even if losing its lead at the last minute. And brilliant to see my fellow African language entry also slaying and Altın Gün achieving some justice for their far too low finish in the main contest a few years back + doubling as the first big success for Abeltesfayeton <3 and not to forget Zanmatony rounding out an overall very strong top 5.

 

The rest of the top 10 was not quite so much to my tastes but happy to see Lotunia sneaking in, this song felt like a cousin to 'Ojitos Lindos' by Bad Bunny and Bomba Estéreo (and I was thinking that even before I found out that Li Saumet is in fact the singer from Bomba Estéreo so that makes sense lol), immaculate vibes. A little surprised how low Thelonia ended up after the glowing reception on SyncTube but still top half at least - Scotland 2 and Pestolia on the other hand both getting a bit robbed x

 

Oof at Iz foot shooting himself into last place :ph34r: although flinging Aesthetica all the way up to 23rd after them being bottom 2 for the entire results before that, kinda ikonek. Oh MY at that graph tracking the results - I remember wanting to do one of those during one of my song contest hostings before but deciding it'd be too much effort and be too messy :kink:

 

Thanks for the hosting uhsting, has been good fun! (and we can expect another spinoff in the relatively near future... #mysteryandintrigue)

Congrats Jupiter on the win! Enjoyed watching Pestolia float around near the top ten for a while even if it wasn't to be, thanks to any voters ^_° from my votes Beaverdonia and Bronzil deserved better! Thanks uhsting for hosting x

The absolute TEASE of the first few voters

 

But I predicted myself coming 19th so at least 17th is an upgrade! What a great contest, thank you Uhsting and all those who voted for POPHub!!

Congrats to Jupiter, love what I know of Dead Can Dance and this was suitably wonderfully haunting entry that was an easy standout. I added this, Jadakissnia and Thelonia to my library, all fantastic finds. Shame the latter finished quite a bit lower as that struck me as a likely winner!

Ooh just remembered, it was bugging me for days that Dead Can Dance were mentioned at the listening session because I knew I recognised them outside of their BJSC entries somehow and I've realised what it was, 'Papua New Guinea' by Future Sound of London (The Best Song Contest in the World... Ever! winner for Addy) sampled one of their songs! *.*

 

also, yes... how did Thelonia not finish in the top 10?! :o have been obsessed with that one :wub:

Oh I totally forgot about that 'Papua New Guinea' sample, wow at us randomly having 2 Dead Can Dance-adjacent song contest winners in the span of ~7 months then, what are the odds!

DISGRACE

 

Good winner but mine woulda been better!!!! Jealous Judies.

This goes to show that hype trains are a REAL THING!!! One bad word in a listen through and your chances are OVER!!!!

Not the non language winner :o

 

PS I LOVE the progress scores chart

On a serious note, I didn't expect to win it, but it did stand out in the field. This was my first time getting high scores (esp so many!) in a while, so ty for the boost :3 plus I'm glad to have found something that yall can add to your libraries. It's grown on me a fair bit & I will be looking out for similar things too!

Oof at Iz foot shooting himself into last place :ph34r: although flinging Aesthetica all the way up to 23rd after them being bottom 2 for the entire results before that, kinda ikonek.

 

I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm not mad.

 

f*** that's honestly a real shame though, I really began stanning my track while sending it*, it was really boppy and I'd have given it 12 amongst this admittedly very good contest if I hadn't sent it - the rhythm is so so on point which is what made it stand out to me in the first place racism against Japanese songs idk why when they stand out against the sea of Spanish/French songs - got a lot of commisserations though so thank you for those and those who did give me some points. Aesthetica was a really good choice too, I don't normally hold with big idol group songs on the whole (in part because their mass production anonymizes the artistry a bit) but that one had a great bit of punch to it.

 

*and I really do want to send more male J-Pop songs to the main contest, I may well still do it but that's a knock.

 

Great winner in Jupiterdonia though, and great to see Sovarasma and Abeltesfayeton in the top 5 as well, loved those in this contest - excellent hosting from uhsting too.

Alternatively you could push me down to second :teresa: :lol: (thanks for the points though!!)

Well there was a curveball waiting to happen, but Iz was the decider really! :lol:

 

Anyway happy for Jupiterdonia, my gold medalist, I was never going to win this without Kathaldazia’s or Cumulonimbia’s support, so I can’t complain really, and happy to have supported the silver medalist too! ^_^

 

Thanks for uhsting’ hostage.

Oh lord I see what happened here!!! Y'all heard meow meow meor and immediately jumpes ro novelty mode, rhinkinf it was a song about CATS!!!! :drama: When actually, it is like a Lana del Rey song, but about politics... The meow meow is the sound of hollow words that mean nothing!!! It's meant to be an X Files reference roo, bur I don't get that bit. Novelty, it is not!!!!

I totally forgotten about these results. 7th place is a wonderful result for The Spodic Empire.

Congratulations Jupiter, a distinctive entry and haunting song to win with, even though I was rooting for Jadakissnia.

 

Not going to lie, I was expecting more from Madame than a top 20 miss - that's 5 contests in a row for me now, including 3 of the smaller ones - still thank you to Callum for the silver, Wardy for 6, Phil and Leww for 4s and the other four voters.

 

Merci beaucoup uhsting!

This isn't even the FIRST mishap with an existentialist sang in a bjsc spin off, now IS IT, BJSC?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! God SAKE!! My philosophical ART of a song should have been top 3 - although congrats to Awardinary getting top 3 with my back up pop entry, taste - but at least I should be guaranteed top 5 this unknown nuggets.

 

DISGRACE!!

 

Always doing existentialist songs dirty, and minimising their specultive, conjectural musings, bjsc?!?! And thdn when an existentialist sang EXPERT like myself says no, this sang isn't a Christmas sang or about cats, y'all say but our panel says othrreise, but that panel is not an existentislist sang expert!!!!! Unbelievable. How could y'all treat an existential song like novelty ... AGAIN?! I cannot. I CANNOT!!!

 

Let's have a peep at the LYRICS why not!!!??

 

For starters, the sang marries politics and subsurface meaning with the dance beat, as Zahara sees dance as the ultimate act of liberation, of self-expression; this contrasts with the dynamics of control that she plays with in the lyrics!!! The sang's themes are: neoliberal politicians, with no empathy and wielding power over others with a smile, and about surrogacy, which she sees as unempathetic power.

 

 

e invitado a la bestia a cenar a casa

Le he puesto el mejor mantel

La cubertería más cara

Y es puntual, muy formal

Tiene la nariz plateada

Su sonrisa me dice que él

Le ha vendido su alma

Hablas contento ¿cómo lo haces?

Desde el estrado

Tu retórica de colegio privado

Es de campeonato

Tu raya del pelo es perfecta

Lo aprendiste en el parvulario

Y eres el segundo plato

Un auténtico partidazo

Miau, miau, miau

Suena en mi cabeza

Tus palabras están huecas

 

 

Ok, here la Zahara, la Lana Del Rey de Spain!!!, starts by inviting a neoliberal politician, and remarking on how hollow and empty he is, a trained vessel. It is a treatsie on inequality, too - he has been to private scjool and had everything handed to him on a platter, like at the dinner at La Zahara's casa. He is perfectly presented, well-trained in media and how to speak and carry himself; he is a perfect mannequin ... but then he starts to speak. Miau, miau, miau, and the words are hollow sounds. This is also supposedly an X Files reference, buy I don't get it.

 

 

Si eres tan valiente

Préstame tú tu vientre

Véndeme los hijos

Que tengan tus hermanas

Déjame que beba

Un poco de tu sangre

Sácate los ojos

Alquílame tu carne

 

Now!!! She goes off on surrogacy. She doesn't like it, so she pens, if you're brave enough, let me borrow your womb! She then conflates this with capitalism and power dynamics - sell me your kids, let me drink your blood, let me take your eyes and rent your flesh.

 

Now let me ask you this: is there any womb renting in Jadekissidonia's samg, the one you all flocked to? Hmm?? HMM? Any womb borrowing in that? Is there even a mention of a SINGLE WOMB?! Let's check. NO!! It's just I don't want peace blah blah blah, I just eant to hate wah wah wah!!! Nit a PATCH on womb raiders!!

 

I shoulda known better (thank you VB for inventing that phrase for us to use in these ttpes of situations!!!!) than to trust y'all with AUTHENTIC EXISTENTIALISM!! Y'all cannot be trusted with it!!! TRUSTED!

 

DESGRACIA!!! DESGRACIADOS!!! PANDA DE CAVERNICHOLAS!!! Know what? No le doy mas vueltas y me voy!! ME VOY!!!! Kmow what? I'm not even going to be MAD. I'm barely even bothered. I'm barely giving this a minutd of MY TIME!!!! Barrly even find it INTWRESTING!! But I will say I should never have trusted y'all with appreciating EXISTENTIALISM!!

 

DISGRACE! ME LARGO!!! But I'm not gonna give you thr satisfaction of even REACTING to this INSULT!!