Thanks everyone for the votes so far <3

Fun fact, I never heard ABBA’s version before Sylver :o. Only when Sylver released it circa 2007, I went and listened to ABBA :o

Fingers crossed Nina Simone gets it

2 minutes ago, Brer said:

Well it turns out I might be reaching the heights of Locust again after all (in fact I already have more points than that got in total). I'll post some more after the final results since we're so close to the end anyway but how exciting xx

(fwiw if I was going to predict a winner I think I would have said either Sylver or Gigi D'Agostino! but yay for me not shooting my own foot with the former though it wasn't far off my points, coming in 12th)

They're the two I would have guessed to win also - the one I thought was Addy and the one that it turns out actually is Addy!

Out of that top 4, I hope Brer wins as the other three have won song contests recently.

Either of those would be a great winner, Rachid Taha was my favourite discovery, such a riot to listen to!

Bjork gave us Ms Amos giving us her take on R.E.M's breakthrough hit.

Will the big points go to Sylver or Rachid Taha?

Emma Conquest gets the 12 (Thanks!) with nothing for Sylver and only 5 for Rachid.

 

Bjork (Tori Amos)

 

12 Emma Conquest

10 Groove Armada

08 The Breath of Life

07 Kelsey Lu

06 Dinosaur Jr

05 Rachid Taha

04 Chicks on Speed

03 Clubdrugs

02 Sophie Ellis-Bextor

01 Gigi D’Agostino

Emma Conquest moves up to 2nd but Rachid's lead drops to 4 points only. Dinosaur Jr are off the bottom but Mr Ed slips back.

Scoreboard

 

95 Rachid Taha (Brer)

91 Emma Conquest (Severin)

85 Sylver (Addy!)

83 Kelsey Lu

81 Nina Simone (Julian_)

79 Clubdrugs (clubdrugs)

75 The Breath Of Life (Jade)

74 Gigi D’Agostino (Dobbo)

63 Groove Armada (AH Gold)

53 Tori Amos

50 Chicks on Speed (Chez Wombat)

46 West End Girls (gooddelta)

44 Pentatonix (Herbs)

42 Fratellis (Mango)

41 Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Jester)

40 Adam Lambert (Scene)

36 William Shatner

33 Halocene (Cowtzy)

32 Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazelwood (Suedehead)

27 Dolly Dots (WoW73)

26 Dinosaur Jr (Jimwatts)

22 Mr Ed Jumps the Gun (Cody Buckley)

And so the last two sets of votes revealed will decide the winner. Anyone of the top 5 could win it but the voter behind Kelsey Lu cannot vote for themselves, obviously ruling them out

I really liked Tori's take on 'Losing My Religion', definitely made it feel like her own song!

Argh Severin still well in contention for a second win on the trot... (no matter what happens I hope I can get 5+ points from the remaining voters to make it to triple figures in this for the first time!)

Thanks Bjork - wonder who the other entrants are (I thought there was another guest voter, but was probably mistaken with Bop Idol)

King Rollo and Fiesta have decided. Rollo provided Kelsey and Fiesta gave us the Shatner but where did the points go?

King Rollo (Kelsey Lu)

 

12 Chicks on Speed

10 Nina Simone

08 Paraorchestra

07 Rachid Taha

06 The Breath of Life

05 William Shatner

04 Fratellis

03 Sylver

02 West End Girls

01 Gigi D’Agostino

 

 

Fiesta (William Shatner)

 

12 Rachid Taha

10 Adam Lambert

08 Sylver

07 Dinosaur Jr

06 Paraorchestra

05 Gigi D’Agostino

04 Nina Simone

03 Dolly Dots

02 Fratellis

01 Groove Armada

Congratulations to Bre and Rachid Taha!!!!

Final Scoreboard

 

114 Rachid Taha (Brer)

96 Sylver (Addy!)

95 Nina Simone (Julian_)

91 Emma Conquest (Severin)

83 Kelsey Lu (King Rollo)

81 The Breath Of Life (Jade)

80 Gigi D’Agostino (Dobbo)

79 Clubdrugs (clubdrugs)

64 Groove Armada (AH Gold)

62 Chicks on Speed (Chez Wombat)

53 Tori Amos (Bjork)

50 Adam Lambert (Scene )

48 Fratellis (Mango) Countback 1 x 10pts

48 West End Girls (gooddelta)

46 Paraorchestra with Brett Anderson and Charles Hazelwood (Suedehead)

44 Pentatonix (Herbs)

41 Willam Shatner (Fiesta) Countback 1 x 6pts

41 Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Jester )

33 Halocene (Cowtzy) Countback 1 x 8pts

33 Dinosaur Jr (Jimwatts)

30 Dolly Dots (WoW73)

22 Mr Ed Jumps the Gun (Cody Buckley)

Thanks fiesta - oh, have I snatched a top 20 place right at the end?

Thank you Bjork and Rollo for the points! Tori Amos and Kelsey Lu (due to the 10cc original) both make a lot of sense for those posters, good picks.

Rachid was a thoroughly deserved winner and a track I remember hearing years ago and thinking was great but completely forgot about until this, so thanks for the excellent reminder!

Some fun stats -

Most 12 pointers – Rachid Taha and Emma Conquest

Most 10 pointers – Clubdrugs

 

Only 7 voters out of 23 didn’t award any points to Rachid Taha

Edited April 6Apr 6 by Severin

Thank you everyone for the points and attending.

Hope you all enjoyed it and discovered something you love

Edited April 6Apr 6 by Severin

Congrats Brer, you were actually my 11th so well done

Amazing job Severin hosting and the theme was spot on <3

And lastly, so happy with 2nd place for Sylver. I did take a risk by sending a very popular ABBA song but I’m glad it didn’t backfire!!!

Oh well done Brer! I really liked your entry so very glad it won ☺️

Thank you for hosting Severin, it turned out to be a good choice of theme

Congrats Bré !! Love the original Clash song and the Rachid Taha version stood out a lot in the field - gave it 6 points. Excited for what theme you'll choose!

I was hoping for a top 10 return this contest and indeed I got that, very happy with 6th thank you to everyone who voted for The Breath Of Life, pleased that this theme allowed me to find this version and I made lots of good discoveries elsewhere, particularly glad to see my 12 Emma Conquest in the top 5.

Thank you for a great hosting job, Severin

And thanks to everyone that voted for Emma Conquest. Was genuinely worried I might win at one point which would have looked very dodgy, but relived by the last few voters giving it very little 😅

Quite a convincing win in the end - congrats Bré!

As I mentioned earlier your entry was just outside my votes - with my votes being literally every song from 2nd-11th!

It does indeed look like I've snuck into the top 20, so I'll take it - not sure whether it's 19th or 20th in 'canon' as ties in these contests are usually separated by number of votes before number of 12s, 10s, etc. regardless not my finest performance in one of these contests. but I'm glad some of you enjoyed it.

Great theme, thank you Severin for hosting!

Congratulations Bray - really happy for you to win one of these as I know you haven’t always had good luck in them. The Rachid Taha track was a really interesting take on a classic and I particularly enjoyed the non English parts.

Thanks Severin for great hosting and a really challenging and different theme!

Thanks very much all who enjoyed Nina Simone - especially those who gave it top points (Addy, WoW and Dobbo I think), and jim, dandy* and Rollo who gave 10s.

Delighted to get my first medal position in this contest. It’s thanks to popchartfreak really as he always said when I was reviewing Dylan’s ‘60s hits that they’re even better when sung by someone else. I found that Nina had made a thing of doing Dylan covers and I was absolutely floored by this one.

The way the lyrics that I hadn’t fully appreciated before come alive as she squeezes every drop of emotion out of them. And the ceremony of the organ solo before she comes back to deliver the climax. Thinking about how much the words must have meant to her in the context of the civil rights movement it all makes sense. x