Guys, I'm conflicted. Should I have enforced late vote deductions back then?!

What do you think?!

rob voted because he knew it wouldn't be jade winning in place of him had he not voted

joking aside, congrats rob for winning! thanks allstarbysmashmouth for hosting x

Love that reveal

congrats to the winner. And again thanks to those who got me a high finish again!

FINAL SCOREBOARD

1st	Allie X - Private Life	109	RobBot
2nd	Kero Kero Bonito - Well Rested	101	Chez Wombat
3rd	emily jeffri - ECHOES	93	Herbs
4	Sandra - Secret Land	92	Mango
5	Chrissy Chlapecka - Apollo	88 (15 votes)	Lindsey.
6	Romy - Love Who You Love	88 (14 votes)	Cody Piastri
7	LEXXE and Loren Allred - Stars Align	83 (14 votes)	uhsting
8	Geowulf - Deep End	83 (13 votes)	DaTilt
9	Baby Bugs - Wishing for Wounds	78	Jade
10	Alison Goldfrapp - Strange Things Happen	72	x leww x
11	Kim Wilde - Trail Of Destruction	68 (14 votes)	jimwatts
12	Sally Oldfield - Blue Water	68 (9 votes)	gooddelta
13	Fancy - Bodyguard	59	Dobbo
14	Jessica Folcker - I Do	58	Addy!
15	CATTY - Make You Love Me	55	Calum
16	Gabriella Cilmi - Robots	49	Tafty
17	Francisca Valenzuela - Prenderemos Fuego al Cielo	45	matto
18	Diana Ross - Swept Away	44	J00prstar
19	New Constellations - Hot Blooded	40	Scene
20	Phil Collins - Colours	38	King Rollo
21	Albemuth - To the new world	37	AllStarBySmashMouth
22	esoragoto - I'll Forget You!	35	Iz
23	Jesca Hoop feat. Erika Wennerstrom - Tulip (Undressed)	32	Julian_
24	Sticky Fingers - Wastin' My Love	31	WoW73
25	Vagabond - I've Been Wanting You	29	awardinary
26	Neon Bunny - It's you	28	Brer
27	Laura Mvula feat. Simon Neil - What Matters	27 (27.47)	WhoOdyssey
28	7!! (seven oops) - Orange (Orchestra Version)	22	CowTzy
29	Whitney Houston - Thinking About You (Bruce Forest Dance Remix)	16	vibe

Edited Wednesday at 19:341 day by AllStarBySmashMouth
Tie breaks

Hype and suspense lmao

Ha, i really thought peeps were going to be introduced and loving a new Whitney tune 🤣🤣🤣!

This song is Mariah Careys fav Whitney song and she even claims ‘no one even knows it’! After seeing this interview i rediscovered the track.

The remix isnt too far away from the original which is on her debut.

Oops too late for me to say that - I thought maybe some deductions were happening(?) and it said 'final' with a question mark

But I guess Allie X has now won (at least) two song contests? Congrats Rob! And at least I finished in the top 20 lmao. Thanks v much for hosting, ASBSM! 😁

Chez is bad at bluffing, it was still obvious he sent KKB xx quite easily my fave here <3 I can't remember if I listened to it when it first came out or not but I slept on it either way. A fitting title for the song as they're certainly well rested now with them still having not released another project since the EP this was the closing track on 4 years ago (and only a couple of throwaway singles / collabs).

Also lol that it was Whoddy himself who initially sent Remi Wolf again when he was the one who sent it in the first place :') 'What Matters' was a good replacement though and one of my biggest growers on the second listen, was initially only my 1 pointer but bumped all the way up to 6. Disappointingly low result for it even before the deduction!

And a good tune there from Herbs as well, finding your stride in this contest it appears x

Thanks to Chez and uhsting giving my 2nd and 3rd highest points at the end there momentarily yeeted back into the bottom 3 by Harry's guest votes but then back up to 4th from last because of Whoddy's deduction lol. I'll take it. Same result as I got in the last Bop Idol as it happens ~

Congrats Rob, this is now the fourth song contest on here that Allie X has won (BJSC twice + 'Mistress Violet' also won the Drag Race Song Contest lol) so she's clearly too much of a cheat code even with decidedly average songs like this one which I ranked 23rd/28 ddd. Great to see my 12 finishing 2nd anyway (Chez back in his favourite position x) and I still ended up voting for all of 2nd-5th (edit: 2nd-4th + 6th after tiebreaks) even though I'm not that big on the eventual winner. Also nice at Geowulf making the top 10 and Baby Bugs hanging on there even though she fell back a bit from earlier in the reveal aw. Francisca and esoragoto were robbed as well x

Thanks for the hosting AllStar

edit: actually I'm wrong, 'Mistress Violet' was only 2nd in the Drag Race contest, it was the other recycled song from BJSC that won again there x but still, 3 song contest wins for Allie now

Woop woop consecutive bronze medals

I guess I should probably take some confidence that the past contests could've have late vote deductions applied to some songs. This is not a unique case or anything but I won't be lying If I say am under some panic and anxiety that I make a mistake or unintentionally disappoint people that wanted a different song to win. Especially when I ordered the entries reveal yesterday, the KKB and Sandra drought today was a complete accident, but it made for a strangely fun watch... like a race!

4 minutes ago, matto said:

Oops too late for me to say that - I thought maybe some deductions were happening(?) and it said 'final' with a question mark

But I guess Allie X has now won (at least) two song contests? Congrats Rob! And at least I finished in the top 20 lmao. Thanks v much for hosting, ASBSM! 😁

I was losing my composure when I wrote that. No additional deductions that were not announced (that's not cool for anyone to do anyway)!

At the end of the day, song contests are (for me) like a collaborative playlist and a celebration of music from different places. I get that it's a "contest" but I am glad to have come across a lot of tracks throughout the years!

3 minutes ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

I was losing my composure when I wrote that. No additional deductions that were not announced (that's not cool for anyone to do anyway)!

Oh of course, I was just confused for a minute. And I remember how nervous I was hosting Unknown Pleasures in particular and got so befuddled or something that I announced the winner too early! Other songs could've still won. 🤭

Oh, there's actually more one thing then it's truly done

...

As tradition for the winner, they are going to perform live in front of the fans. This is the...

Winning Concert

...

Taking centre stage

...

The winner of PFSC XVIII

Allie X!

Congratulations to RobBot for the teeth-grinding victory!

"Incredible! Please come back to Tracen Academy and book another event!"

-Director Akikawa (maybe)

---

...And that's the end of my horse-related nonsense.

Thank you for putting up with me likening song contests to (horse) races at some points and being generally kind to my ridiculous theme and the results.

Edited Wednesday at 18:541 day by AllStarBySmashMouth

Not bottom three for my favourite, I want a refund on my points for the song that were deducted!

Well done Rob, Allie X you can’t really go wrong with in a pop contest. Also to Chez (I saw them supporting Saint Etienne about a decade ago and their sound system wasn’t working so she was just singing with no sound or mic and didn’t realise)! And Herbs for another PFSC podium - you’re good at this!

Thanks very much All Star for hosting, I found some great songs here and pleasantly surprised with 12th too as it wasn’t the most accessible of songs. Three 12s is wonderful - late thanks to Dobbo for his. But thanks to all the voters!

Edited Wednesday at 19:021 day by gooddelta

I almost neglected to break three ties.

That's done now!

Congratulations Rob for winning the Hot Spring ticket, Chez for getting the Director's Fan, and Herbs for winning the Tissue!

Well done @AllStarBySmashMouth for doing such a cultured contest theme x

will thank the pointers later as I'm still obsessed with my Bleach marathon

Fab contest. It was a lot of fun. Thank you for hosting @AllStarBySmashMouth . Congratulations to @RobBot . Happy with a place under the Top 10.

Congratulations RobBot on winning this. Your song was 20th in my own rankings.

It's great to see my top 3 finishing 2nd, 3rd and 4th, all very good discoveries.

Thanks to everyone who gave points to 'Colours' and to AllStarBySmashMouth for hosting.

omg i'm one position higher we MOVE

You did say in advance that you weren't going to give a deduction for late voting so not like you were intentionally influencing the winner, I wouldn't worry about it. I think a lot of the non BJSC contests usually don't bother with late voting deductions.

KKB still the moral winner in a way because they were only denied the win by a guest voter though tbh xx

7!! 'Orange' holds a lot of weight for me after seeing Your Lie In April (in one April ) and being reminded of that show again. I thought the song was familiar at first, it's been some years.

Albemuth 'To the new world' on the other hand was a recent discovery a couple months while looking for virtual and fictional girl (fascinating stuff) pop songs to enter. Big effect of KPop Demon Hunters. It sounded like a calling, with a tempo change and a key change (and a high quality art music video) and had to go for that regardless of results. I have a habit of trying different things so I don't even know what I'll go for next time. Also, I've already won the last PFSC, there's no need to win again (would be nice to have placed higher though), that might be too greedy...

Very late edit: Thanks to everyone that gave my emotionally stirring (to me) pure pop points!

Edited Wednesday at 20:021 day by AllStarBySmashMouth