Okay I've just finishing listening to all my voted songs and have changed my mind as to what gets the gold now (sorry pop), the utterly glorious 'Introspective' which somehow I only gave 5 points to at the time. Clearly my mind was not all there back then

BJSC 123

Host Countries: Hendinia

Overview

From one (outgoing) moderating nation to another, Hendinia took over the reins for 123 following their dominant victory. This contest took place right around the time much of the real world plunged into lockdown but there were no such disruptions to the BJSC universe where it was all very much business as usual. Perhaps because of this, uptake and interest in the contest was on the rise, with the number of participants reaching the 60 mark. A BJSC record was broken in this contest, one which still stands to this day, that being the longest ever submitted entry in terms of song length, namely the rather cryptically titled '@@@@@' which clocked in at all of 62 minutes and 21 seconds. The contest was won for the first and so far only time by the United States of Jack, the first maiden victory for 5 contests.

Dobago's Entry

Result: DNQ (25th in Semi)

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for punjabi/bhangra music. There's something about the playful drumbeat that tends to draw me in and I enjoy the typically lively vocals in spite of not understanding a single word of much of the genres. This particular track of course is a Western fusion containing English-sung sections which I was introduced to during my year living in New Zealand post-university. Working in a sales team which was about 60/70% Indian, this was a track they would frequently play on road trips, most likely because it served as a more accessible entry point for their remaining mostly-European colleagues into their general tastes and one which understandably had wider appeal. So this was a song I had played from time to time for a good 6 years prior to submitting it into the contest. At one point it was THE song I had planned to send as an AQ should Dobago ever win the contest but banking on such an occurrence is clearly fool's play so something in early 2020 compelled us to just throw it out there. I do enjoy the switch ups between the singers/languages and the chilled nature of the piece and of course a bonus point for referencing where I was living at the time but it likely is a song that retains personal appeal due to nostalgia and this of course was never going to yield the same effect with a brand new audience. That said, despite it's flop performance it did receive a 12, a 10 & a 6 in the votes albeit that was literally it. This meant back to back DNQs for only the second time and a significant bullet-sized hole straight into any hopes of climbing higher than a personal best of 14th in the EOY.

Winning Entry

Country: United States of Jack

Much like with NINA, Betty had had quite varied success in BJSC with her previous entries but Who also struck gold in 2020 with this early noughties-inspired pop bop. Sounding like something straight out of Max Martin's playbook among Backstreet Boys' and Britney Spears' anthems of the past, it's a catchy and confident track with very relatable lyrics. Listening back now, it still actually sounds pretty fresh and would probably still do decently today if perhaps not managing to go the whole distance. 123 was certainly a much stronger contest however than its predecessor and because of this, 'The One' didn't quite sneak into our votes however this is a much better song than the first 2 winners of 2020 and also managed an extremely impressive winning margin of 75 points ahead of the runner-up as that throwback sound captured the interests of many of the Buzzverse.

18-Pointer

Country: Terra Avium (result: 16th)

From a retrospective gold medal to Terra Avium to an actual one this time around and there's no doubt whatsoever here that the sentiment remains. Fractal Dreamers were a name I was already familiar with courtesy of their appearance in an early Club Bizarre edition and this song is impressively different to that one but without compromising on quality. A glorious, hypnotic instrumental that constantly builds to an epic climax which truly takes you on an exhilarating journey. This song could totally soundtrack a furious space chase movie scene, with crafts dodging asteroids and gamma rays aplenty. I actually feel this song could have been longer despite a 4m+ runtime as it has quite the abrupt ending following the breathtaking final minute section. Nevertheless it was an easy favourite from this contest with little competition for top honours. Included in that "little" would be the phenomenal rap entry 'Blood Of The Fang' which broke down glass ceilings by landing in the top 10, helped on its way by 15 points from us. Taking bronze was the gorgeous new age number 'Adiemus' which truly channelled its inner 'Illumbarada'. In stark contrast to the previous several contests, there are a handful of songs on our vote list that we can confidently recall from title alone, namely all of 'Everybody Wants To Be Famous', 'Golden', 'Cherry Red', 'Dancing Next To Me', 'Black Leather' and 'Guilty Conscience' so this was a quite brilliant contest packed full of quality across the board. You even had another soon to be huge UK smash in 'Fake Friends' kicking about which passed us by in this contest before growing massively following its commercial breakthrough (sorry!) and the first appearance of a certain LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER who will be performing in some pretty well-known real life contest next month. The bar is set high for the rest of 2020!

NB that lyric from Black Leather 'You come in here looking like a snack' still makes me laugh every single time...

Wow I don’t recall Betty Who being submitted at all!!

10 years of Drinidad and Dobago!

123 was a great contest of this year, certainly in contention to be the best one of 2020, of all those highlights you mention in your votes I have a very similar list that I can recall, 'Azure Of The Horizon' is beautiful and of course I still love 'Blood Of The Fang' very much. Very good time for the contest to be this good.

love that you entered 'Crab Rave', don't think that really gets old.

'Crab Rave' showing up in BJSC was iconic - still a relevant meme to this day (most recently referenced it offsite when Viktor Orbán got 🦀ed x). All memeing aside it is a really fun high energy house banger, got 11 points from me. I think I remember ranking the Felix Snow song highly in its semi as well although I was in the opposite semi - every song on its parent EP had the word 'Buffalo' in the title, not sure what that was about.

Also much love for Fractal Dreamers + 070 Shake getting a passing mention yay (still one of my faves of my own entries albeit one I was a bit cheeky sending a bit after it had already given me one of my biggest hits in PopJustice's contest - funnily enough a trick I just kind of repeated with Searows who also got a similar result in both contests).