BJSC 83

Host Country: Ethanola

Summary

A one month wait to return turned into two months as between 82 & 83 there was a one-off special contest celebrating 10 years of Buzzjack consisting of iconic songs which in some way "defined" the website. Speaking of which, I wonder if we'll see a 20th anniversary edition next year? :o anyway I had been set on my next main contest entry for quite some time as it was instant love on first listen, meaning previous would-be entry Every Single Night was shelved. 83 I recall as being one of my favourite contests ever, not just because of how my entry fared but by the sheer amount of quality dance songs that graced the final, including one that went on to become a massive UK hit a few months later, namely Kungs' This Girl which was my 15-pointer. This was also the most fun I had following the live results, definitely increases the excitement and tension when you're a genuine contender for once!

Dobago's Entry

Result: 3rd

Prior to the contest I recall thinking I might have inadvertently created possible barriers in even entering this song. As I was posting personal charts at the time this has topped my chart for several weeks and had gained some traction in the Personal Forum Multicharts as a result of others discovering and also enjoying what they heard, including some active BJSC participants. I had faith that no one would sneakily pinch it but of course there was still the the issue with possible veto points. As it transpired all was fine and the song went down incredibly well, qualifying from its semi in 2nd place and eventually earning me my first ever medal position in the final. Like my 81 entry, I had also discovered this song through European charts back when the deep house sound was still highly prominent. But this one had a unique selling point, THOSE gorgeous strings. Strings in dance music is a personal love of mine and this one was bang on trend too. Throw in a glorious sax breakdown as well and it literally ticked every box going. It's still one of my favourite ever personal entries to this day and proudly remains one of my best ever performing. Fun fact, Dobago became the first country ever to improve its finishing position in each of their first 5 contests (albeit with an aforementioned grand slice of fortune along the way).

Winning Entry

Country: Yehesi

Amongst the plethora of dance music saturating the contest the winner ended up being something about as out and out pop as it gets. Perhaps that played to its advantage but there's no denying this slice of bubblegum pop from Belgian/Dutch girl group K3 has charming infectiousness in abundance. I threw it 9 points myself which was the most I had awarded to a winning entry so far. Containing many typical tropes of its sound, the song is particularly B*Witched - C'est La Vie coded with the towering chorus, chanting middle 8 section and even your classic final chorus key change. It unashamedly captures the nostalgia of late 90s pop and packs an almighty punch in doing so. It was a first victory for Yehesi who went 2 better than the previous contest. Always a fun one to revisit.

18-Pointer

Country: N-Lazone

Dance music lovers really were spoiled for choice in this contest with the likes of This Girl, Love Druggie, Feeling as well my own entry all hoovering up points left, right and centre. However it was this exquisite slice of deep house which earned my top honours. The subgenre was all the rage in 2016 and this track fused both deep and tropical elements which were also emerging into the mainstream. I wouldn't say the production is anything particularly amazing but it evokes a sense of serenity that's hard to describe. Plus those dreamy vocals are absolute platinum silk to the ears. It's one of those songs that makes me feel something without even necessarily meaning to and I still give it semi-regular spins now and then. N-Lazone was a fleeting but extremely consistent nation that is sorely missed by the Dobagans!

33 minutes ago, dandy* said:

I think 82 was when I sent Harpe by Kenton Slash Demon as I remember being a bit gutted that something like Free Tibet was in the same contest as I felt it probably had a similar audience and was clearly going to do well (deservedly to be fair!) - but Harpe is one of my all time favourite entries and one I still listen to a lot now

Just giving that a listen now. Not my personal cup of tea but can see the appeal to certain pockets!

Impressive ascending results so far! The 'Feel' reminder has unlocked a memory, I found a song called 'Angels' by Vicetone while potential hunting at some point in 2015 and it seems to have exactly the same sax loop sample as your song, oh my.

'Free Tibet' and '10.000 luchtballonnen' becoming back-to-back winners really showed off the beauty of the contest! Two standout but very different champions. I think the K3 song scraped into my votes at the time but I've grown to appreciate it more over the years, a strong addition to any feel-good pop playlist.

Ooh that I did not know re the sax sample! So Vicetone got there first then, how interesting. Although I'm having now difficulty working out where it originally came from 😆

Apparently it was just some random sample off of a website called Vengeance Sound, well there's a TIL moment!

Yeah 2016 overall had some real diversity in winners.

82 is still quite possibly my favourite ever contest for the variety and quality of entries (topped off with one of my favourite ever winners, one of relatively few that got a gold medal from me, and still the archetypal psytrance song for me) so it's a shame you had to skip that one!

BJSC 84

Host Country: Cadelicia

Summary

Yehesi opted out of hosting the next contest so duties were instead offered to and accepted by the runners-up Cadelicia. The quest was now on to work out how on earth to follow up two consecutive top 5 finishes with the acceptance that maintaining this unprecedented form would be highly unlikely. It would be the now tried and tested method of picking something performing well on my Personal Chart and hoping it would have as much crossover appeal as possible. 84 would be remembered as featuring one of the most successful entries of all time, more on that shortly!

Dobago's Entry

Result: 38th

Probably one of my most subtle entries ever. It's a relatively run-of-the-mill house track that's very easy on the ears with soft, delicate vocals and a bendy synth breakdown. It was never one that was going to garner hardcore fans but had enough of an appeal to qualify against 50/50 predictions, thus making Dobago the first country since Cor Lupus to qualify from their first 6 contests and indeed joining a select handful of nations to achieve such a feat. That news was about as good as it got however as it finished bottom 5 in the final and became my worst performing entry to date. On reflection however I would say this entry out of all my qualifiers is perhaps the most surprising and likely benefitted from a kind semi draw as well as its sound being more palatable to tastes at the time so even qualifying was an achievement with this one.

Winning Entry

Country: FARC

You certainly can not describe this song as run-of-the-mill. Pop music usually has to do a little bit more than other genres to stand out to me and this entry had numerous facets to bring to the table. The dark, moody sound and haunting vocals build up to an absolute powerhouse of a chorus, backed up by an excellent bassy synth riff throughout. And then it still gives you more and more with that stunning middle 8 section. It really wasn't hard to understand why this swept the scoreboards, appealing to almost every corner of voters. Dobago gave it 13 points, thus becoming our favourite winner to date. I definitely view this song as a flagbearer for excellently crafted pop music and it still sounds fantastic now.

18-Pointer

Country: Ramrynia

This must be one of my only 18-pointers that I have zero recollection of how it went from name alone. Listening back now I can see why it stuck out to me. Featuring a similar ATB-esque bendy synth production like my own entry, a strong pre-chorus hook and the addition of the "oh yeah" chants to add to the listening experience. That said, it's most certainly not an essential track and likely why I never gave it any subsequent spins. Interestingly, it was my 10-pointer in the semi but ultimately switched places with Evelina's Honey in the final scoring. Nowadays songs of those ilk would be very unlikely to trouble my top scores but I guess my tastes have altered slightly over the years. I thought this must have been a weak contest but then you had the likes of Save It, Shosholoza and Spring (my 13-11 section) which would all rank more favourably with me these days. RMB in fact would go on to win my 6th Club Bizarre some 7 years later.

BJSC 85

Host Country: Aeroche, FARC & Unovia

Summary

I certainly can't recall there being many contests with 3 hosts but that's what we had in 85 with previous winners FARC sharing duties with Aeroche (making there the first country we visited twice) and Unovia. Also noteworthy was that this was a rare June contest, of course the schedule being shifted due to the anniversary edition a few months earlier. I was feeling the pressure a bit now to continue the qualifying streak, especially given the close shave of last month but alas, there wasn't too much debate in what I wanted to send. The final results turned into a closely fought battled between 2 would-be first time winners.

Dobago's Entry

Result: DNQ (21st in Semi)

So it finally happened (for real this time). The first Dobagan DNQ was this string-laden deep house number, indeed very much what it said on the tin. At this point I felt like I was carving out a somewhat distinctive sound of sorts after discovering a considerable sphere of similarish sounding songs (sibilance alert) and felt this particular one had the legs to perform decently. On reflection it was probably a bit too much of a Feel-soundalike and certainly not as strong in overall quality. Having said that, in complete contrast to my first 2 entries, this entry received 100% qualifying predictions and only missed out on a tie-break so on another day perhaps this may have snuck through, although a strong result was clearly never on the cards. It's a nice listen, the string section going off in a playful direction towards the end of the song but there isn't too much else standout about this one. Brianna would go on to earn some redemption 2 years later with Lost In Istanbul, a song I seriously considered entering myself prior to its eventual appearance.

Winning Entry

Country: Beaverdonia

What. A. Song. This is unquestionably one of my all time favourite discoveries and have never gone too long without experiencing its uncompromising aural indulgence. The military-style marching production teases something huge is about to happen and that first drop hits you like a freight train. Proper blow me off my feet stuff I don't hear all that often. But somehow it gets even better with the second drop, a full on explosion of chants and sounds that heightens every sense. My only miniscule critique is how it fizzles out a bit at the end but when you've got one of the craziest first two thirds of a song I've ever heard I can allow it. Bewilderingly, I only gave this 4 points at the time, which may have been due to a combination of being less invested in the final (to my own discredit) and it just requiring that extra bit of time to appreciate its ingenuity. Thankfully my lack of vociferous support at the time didn't cost it victory as there was a reasonably healthy gap of 30 points to second in the end. A must listen to anyone who hasn't heard it.

18-Pointer

Country: Botanikka

Despite the heaps of praise directed at the winning entry it would have been near impossible at the time to beat this one to my 18. The first occasion (of which I assume there'll be quite a few) giving our close ally Bøtanikkä (then known without the diacritics) our top marks and shockingly, it was not a dance song! I was intrigued as to why the live rather than the studio version was entered but it ultimately didn't matter as it's an absolute stunning piece in either form. What an incredible voice which truly shines through in such a stripped back setting. Now I'm no expert in the soft/folk rock field but I can't say there's too many songs from that scene I've heard that have blown me away quite like this. Even aside from the beautiful melodies you have the zany whistles and a stupendous falsetto section to add to the allure. Of course in its studio format this was a massive hit across Europe (UK badly missing out on this one) and I still love it all these years later. But if I were retrospectively ranking this contest Aide would now just about edge it out as my overall fave.

If Addy reads this then I'd also be interested in knowing why he sent the live version... I'm not sure if I entered this one but Lost On You is a really good pop track, one of my favourites from the decade <3

I voted for both 'Save It' and 'Aide' so a strong run of winners continued that year!

Beaverdonia taking the crown felt like a moment

I personally liked the live version of 'Lost On You' way more than the studio version so I'll back Addy's decision there x

Aweee Lost On You

I sent live version because that was the first version I’ve heard it and it captured LP’s raw vocal power, grit, and emotional delivery in a way that the studio version lacked for me.

Also the live setting, I just felt like it brought intimacy and an extra layer of emotions.

I forgot that it did only ‘okay’ on a regular contest, but I think it did much better on the Best Of Year contest ❤️

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Addy!

Yeah think you're right about that and from memory I think half of your entries that year made the Best Of final!

I remember liking 'The Violin Song', I really liked the early Dobago wave of songs that started with 'Feel', even if this sounded similar and was undeniably not as good, shame for it to not qualify.

Really great run of winners throughout this section of the first half of 2016, I was having a great time with the contest here; entries like 'Lost On You' were also incredible discoveries (team live version if only slightly, great song either way).

Lost On You is beautiful!

Ayy Julian Perretta had already been sent to a contest before being the vocalist on the southstar hit x

I have really bad memories of 2016 but man Dobago were on it that year