I was just thinking about this - I'm not really sure if it's happened before in the history of BJSC, perhaps in the very very early days when there were only 20 competitors, but even then it was probably quite unlikely.

Do you think it could ever be possible now for any entry to ever get a full house of votes e.g. at least 1 point from everybody? And what sort of entry would it take to achieve this? Does anybody know what entries have come closest to this recently?

In Eurovision it's relatively common for a very popular entry to score on every country's televote, despite the wide difference in tastes between countries, but in BJSC as we are broadly split into three camps (pop, alt/electronic/dance, floaters in the middle who go for both as well as the more niche genres in a big way), I can't really imagine what kind of song could unite every one of us.

I suspect the most likely candidate would be an accessible, catchy pop song but with some nice electronic production or some sort of edge to it that helps it to cross over. But I don't see that even that would make the top 15 of every person's vote in the final. Could any genre other than pop ever get more than 40 votes even?

I voted no btw.

I think there's an argument that it could happen in a semi if you were drawn with extremely favourable countries (and it may well have happened, I haven't checked). But I don't see it in the final.

I don't think this will ever ever happen, people's taste are just too diverse.

I think there was a similar convo a few years on this subject and someone said the closest any entry ever came to receiving votes from everyone was CHVRCHES - The Mother We Share? But nowadays the contest is even less pop-leaning...

Also that Salt Ashes winner in 2016 scored a huge amount of points/voters, although I can't remember what exactly as the image of the final scoreboard from that contest is no longer available, but it broke records at the time.

I think if anybody now could get over 45 votes, that would be an absolutely colossal achievement.

But then I think of extremely universally loved songs on this forum, like Frozen by Madonna. Imagine something like that was entered brand new - would many people leave it out? Or is the fact that that was so popular because it was by Madonna, and a fresh and admired sound for her at the time, so there's star power and nostalgia attached to it on top of the song quality itself?

Edited May 30May 30 by gooddelta

Easy Love must have been close as well, still holds the record I think for most total points but it got loads of 18s mainly whereas Save It was more spread out.

From what I’ve seen in my limited time in the contest, I would also vote no.

There are quite a few different voting blocs and some of them will never/rarely vote for songs from another bloc.

It does make it interesting in the final as there’s rarely a runaway winner.

At the same time I do think it leaves people at the mercy of the semi final draw. A song that could get tons of votes in the final doesn’t make it because they ended in a semi final with voters from another bloc

I sort of want to believe that this is possible, that there could exist, potentially of any genre, a song good enough that it would cause even people not normally into that genre to give it points and therefore achieve this, but while this certainly happens to a lesser extent with some of the big hitters, you're still going to always just on balance of probability have some people not voting for it because it didn't cross over for them, even if it crossed over for some.

Potentially also a spoiler effect in place that with any song potentially popular enough to achieve this, the signs of discussion in the contest will be so hyped that for a 'least likely fan' who might in a vacuum rank this song 15th place, they would see enough overhype relative to how they would rank it that it could well be pushed out of their votes.

I was thinking about that anti-hype effect too, I think it might be more likely to happen in one of the forum's anonymous contests where there are no unconscious voting biases, little discussion, no chance to be put off something by overhype etc, and of course a smaller pool of songs to vote for in the first place.

Yeah, CHVRCHES The Mother We Share (in the semi) I think is the closest any song has come and it still didn't quite manage it. I think a well regarded indie-pop favourite in the same vein as that, maybe snuck in as an anniversary entry, would be the only chance of it happening, and I think most if not all songs of that calibre would be vetoed these days.

So, No I don't believe it will ever happen, though it's possible in a spin-off, the range of tastes we have is just too far reaching. I think it would've already happened in the pre-veto days if it was going to.

Now I wonder if any song from any contest across this site has ever got points from all other participants. I'm sure that first winner of The Best Song Contest In The World Ever must have been close given how much it won by (although I was one of the few who didn't vote for it). Something tells me one of the early UP winners did it though but could be wrong...

5 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

I was thinking about that anti-hype effect too, I think it might be more likely to happen in one of the forum's anonymous contests where there are no unconscious voting biases, little discussion, no chance to be put off something by overhype etc, and of course a smaller pool of songs to vote for in the first place.

I'm sure it would have been noted at the time but Nuggets or Club Bizarre seem like the most likely, if it has ever happened there, I'm not sure I recall any song achieving it though.

I don’t think so! There’s just too many countries voting for that to happen. In comparison to Eurovision.

FARC’s entry Stranded got 20 votes in the semi versus the next country which I think was 14 votes so that was very impressive! That’s a good indicator of how a cross-over song would do these days

Voting biases intrigue me. Sometimes I feel like they exist, at other times I do not.

I have found that I tend to finish in the top half in the anonymous contests more than I do in BJSC (we'll forget my anomalies with Celine Dion, Courtney Act & The Vaccines!), but I think that's partly because when it's on theme I am more in line with what people like. Or rather, I hope that's what it is.

The hype stuff - from what I've seen I feel like hype helps people to qualify, but yeah when it comes to the final it can hinder. That's the love of an underdog I guess. Although if you want to support an underdog, support me as the perennial non-qualifier 😉

How about a full house of votes in a semi final? That seems more achievable, though still unlikely.

I fear it will take @uhsting to send another Fat Dog style entry to get close to this.

3 minutes ago, Klumzee said:

I don’t think so! There’s just too many countries voting for that to happen. In comparison to Eurovision.

FARC’s entry Stranded got 20 votes in the semi versus the next country which I think was 14 votes so that was very impressive! That’s a good indicator of how a cross-over song would do these days

Stranded is definitely the perfect sonic example of a song that could come closest in my mind, it has an undeniable pop chorus but the production is more electronic. FARC has always been very good at that wide appeal across tastes. Songs collecting that number of votes would also need to avoid things that could put people off, like marmite vocals, being too short or too long, nothing inaccessible about the production etc.

I voted 'no' as the contest has such a diverse selection of taste and a lot of participants.

I was trying to think of a really wide-appealing winner and I seem to remember 'Tokyo' by White Lies getting a huge reach of voters for FARC? I was a rare participant who didn't point it, but then it ended up being a huge post-contest grower, so I regretted it - not that they needed my help so that was a synth-pop song with rock elements.

6 minutes ago, awardinary said:

How about a full house of votes in a semi final? That seems more achievable, though still unlikely.

I fear it will take @uhsting to send another Fat Dog style entry to get close to this.

I think Fat Dog just hammered its niche really really well, rather than collecting votes from almost everyone (I can't imagine it had a huge amount of pop voter appeal), but I can't remember now how many it got.

yeah Fat Dog never really came close to getting every single vote from the participants.

10 minutes ago, Herbs said:

Voting biases intrigue me. Sometimes I feel like they exist, at other times I do not.

I have found that I tend to finish in the top half in the anonymous contests more than I do in BJSC (we'll forget my anomalies with Celine Dion, Courtney Act & The Vaccines!), but I think that's partly because when it's on theme I am more in line with what people like. Or rather, I hope that's what it is.

The hype stuff - from what I've seen I feel like hype helps people to qualify, but yeah when it comes to the final it can hinder. That's the love of an underdog I guess. Although if you want to support an underdog, support me as the perennial non-qualifier 😉

I don't think there is any conscious bias - although I know we've discussed this at length before on here. But I do think people might tend to - without realising - pay more attention to songs by countries they more often vote for and will therefore expect to enjoy, so it can become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, we did hold one BJSC anonymously many, many years ago (2010) and the same countries did well/badly as usual! Obviously it was a long time ago though, and also these days you don't tend to get the same countries in the top five every single month like you did back then. There are obviously some countries who consistently do well, but it's not AS consistently in the top five as the days of 2010-2014.

Was Stockholm Noir - Boy Like A Girl (FARC again!!!) not proportionately the closest at least in a while? (something like 42 votes to 58 voters or something)