For those who have been around in BJSC long enough, what was the thinking behind your selection for your 50th and 100th anniversaries in BJSC? The understanding was to go for something that means something to your nation, perhaps something that defines you or represents the interests of the people of your nation, or maybe a chance to send something by one of your favourite former BJSC entrants. Did you sent an artist that you were more invested in than usual or did you see it as an opportunity to use up some additional veto points to send something a little cheaper than usual?

 

Also, for those with over 100 contest participation, did you recycle your 50th anniversary artist for your 100th anniversary or did you go for a different artist?

 

As it is Zanmatony's 50th anniversary this month we are interested in starting a conversation on this subject and making comparisons with decisions made in the past by other nations.

 

So what did you choose to send for your anniversary?

I decided not to do an anniversary entry for my 50th, but I did for my 100th earlier this year. It was 'I'm Yours' by Alessia Cara.

 

I chose it because of Alessia being an artist I really admired, she hadn't previously represented Harmonica in any way but I wanted her to. 'I'm Yours' is a big personal fave and I'd always wished it had been a single. I definitely could've sent it for my 50th, I guess I just wanted to wait 5 years and make sure I still loved it just as much. :lol: That was a lot of patience!

This provides a good opportunity for me to double check with the mods - do you have to send the same artist for your 100th entry as you did or your 50th? Somewhere in the back of my mind this topic came up a while back and it seemed a few people were unaware of this esoteric rule.

I know I sent different ones for both my 50th and 100th upon request as I could make justifications for how it ties into the Aerochian brand - Dux Content was Danny L Harle and A. G. Cook, the latter was one of my most iconic winners at the time of my 50th. 100th was Julio Bashmore and Jessie Ware, Jessie Ware was my first entrant so a full circle moment. I wonder if others might have done the same?

I just sent Delta Goodrem to both ha, I think it was nice to have sent her to the 1st, 50th and 100th contests. To mixed success, my 50th entry - Hunters and the Wolves - was a joint winner on points (but lost the tie-break in the same way Freya Ridings did). Believe Again and Take Me Home were both low top 20, but I'm still glad I sent all three. Not sure what the next anniversary is, 250?

I never know how many entries I've had so consequently I completely missed my 50th one. I think Bré somehow informed me that my 100th(?) wasn't too far off so I decided to send Tori Amos for it... not an act that had any particular relevance to the history of FLJ in the contest, but an act that had created several of my favourite albums of all time so it was more of a personal connection to her music as part of my life. In retrospect I could have chosen a different song from her as there are many others I prefer, but I also wanted to show a different sound to what most people would automatically associate her with.

My 50th came up not long after the original 'veto-skipping' rule was devised, I personally didn't think 50 was a significant enough milestone to do something cheap (and I was never on board with that aspect of the rule) or overly meaningful for, so I just ended up not using the mod request thing and just sent a theme from an anime TV show I was really into at the time, Assassination Classroom. The one consideration I had with that one was that it (intentionally) broke my rule of not sending songs that are too insular and connected to their origin - in this case a Japanese anime song fully about the TV show and sung by the voice cast etc. Did terribly but it's still a fun song and attached to a great series.

 

100th was different, I did take it seriously. Actually I looked back and I was actually considering BABYMETAL's 'Road Of Resistance' as a possibility as far back as my 50th, and I know I also considered it as an option for BJSC 100 too, so I'm so glad I finally chose to send it to a special contest as it's a really special song for me. I've always held to the idea that 'Megitsune' was the most important and influential entry in Séyetana's history, as my first Japanese entry, one of my earliest metal entries and a signifier for sending loud fun songs a good deal of the time, and of course attached to this breakout band who've become one of my favourite artists of all-time in the years since. I'm finally going to see them live next year after missing opportunities to see them in the past and I can't wait. 'Road Of Resistance' itself has a lot of history, as a song the band wrote themselves about their perseverance in becoming stars, it and 'Megitsune' are constantly fighting each other to be my favourite BABYMETAL song. It unbelievably coinciding with my never-again-gonna-get-this-opportunity of hosting was just perfect, made it feel really special for me. Plus a bunch of frightened checking that it would qualify, having to sleep through the final rush of semi votes, waking up to see enough votes in the PMs that I knew through mental arithmetic I was safe, and then relief and shock when it actually managed to finish top 20 in the final ranks among the top of whirlwind of emotions I've had with this contest :heart:

 

so I guess I went from being sceptical about anniversaries to loving them, but only because I managed to build up that narrative for myself about RoR. I don't think it would have worked with any other song.

For my 50th, I didn't technically use my anniversary pass as Marcus Warner's Africa would've never been vetoed anyway, but it was still representative of a sound I was into and the video had animals so it was a perfect choice, and it remains one of my favourite entries so I'm glad it came top 10. It captured the spirit of it's namesake beautifully.

 

I did use the framework skip for my 100th, as Thomas Bergersen at that point had won and been a bit overused, and as the first person that sent Two Steps From Hell to BJSC, it had to be them, and his own celebration of a million subscribers was a world music epic that still remains one of my favourite ever classical compositions (so much I'd decided it when I first heard it in 2019 and waited three years for it to happen!), I wish it were better known as it's the perfect unifying song for world sporting events and the like. Though it still did very well, I was slightly sad it couldn't quite win as it would've been my first at the time and ever so fitting

 

I don't often send epic classical these days as honestly these are very hard to top and it gets samey after a while, but it's clearly worked well for my anniversaries. I have always been wondering what the next one would be as 150 has been and gone for some, 200?

I never know how many entries I've had so consequently I completely missed my 50th one. I think Bré somehow informed me that my 100th(?) wasn't too far off so I decided to send Tori Amos for it... not an act that had any particular relevance to the history of FLJ in the contest, but an act that had created several of my favourite albums of all time so it was more of a personal connection to her music as part of my life. In retrospect I could have chosen a different song from her as there are many others I prefer, but I also wanted to show a different sound to what most people would automatically associate her with.

Hopefully Bre can remind me too , haha .

Like Rich I have perfect harmony between my 1st, 50th and 100th entires.

 

My anniversary artist is the Sugababes for entirely obvious reasons.