At the risk of pushing myself down another place I will point out again that ties in the song contests are usually broken by number of votes (and certainly have been in all the previous editions of this particular contest). Though maybe it's not such a universal standard if I keep having to point it out to hosts defaulting to number of 12s instead.

Congrats Chez anyway, 2 for 2 on my top pointers winning the anonymous song contests so far this year after MARINA winning the PFSC Special - can this manifest me having better luck with actually voting for winners of BJSC this year? I did clock what Wardy was doing with the reveal order really early (I waited to see if the pattern was still holding for a few votes before posting about it here but it seemed like too much of a coincidence to not be intentional) so saw it coming a mile off but still an excellent and inspired winner <3

Glad for my own predictive abilities to see that my winner prediction came in 2nd, the Ministry track was quite an earworm and felt like one that'd appeal well across genre blocs, well done there Jim. Wonderful to see my silver medallist coming 4th as well, plus solid top 10 results for Tori Amos, Portishead and Saints & Sinners (I wouldn't have predicted the latter doing anywhere near that well actually! though the former two were obviously safer picks). Two more of my faves lining up just outside the top 10 but inside the top half as well! The only one of my votes finishing near the bottom in the end was Bows, justice not really achieved for their BJSC DNQ then </3 but thanks Jade for another lovely song discovery from them.

Whether I am really 15th or 16th I did achieve my goal of not bottom 5 at least so I'll take that, I suppose it counts as my biggest song contest hit of the year so far as I'm continuing a run of mediocre form, knew it was a niche entry but I guess there weren't enough fans of that particular niche here to really push it far up the scoreboard. Great to pick up a couple of gold medals though, thanks muchly to @Dobbo and @Jade for those, almost did a 12 swap with the former! And thanks to @jimwatts, @gooddelta, @Chez Wombat, @matto, @Addy!, @Julian_, @King Rollo and @dandy* for the other points, not bad not bad x

And thanks to Wardy for the hostings of course, another pretty strong edition of this and looking forward to hopefully another Chez hosted edition next!

Congratulations, Chez. Onyx was my favourite new discovery from this contest, it wouldn't sound out of place on Moon Safari by Air so it's 20 years ahead of its time.

Thanks to Wardy for hosting this contest and for the results presentation this evening.

Thanks to all those who voted for Liar, especially Nine And 3/4 for its top score of 10 points. It's my 102nd favourite song of all time.

Thanks Wardy for hosting - I know a few of us passed on it including myself, the timing was really difficult for me this time. I look forward to a Chez-hosted edition if he's happy to take up the mantle!

The theme made for a very interesting mix in this contest and got me searching - I thought I'd found something competitive but didn't quite see it doing this well - thanks again to all the voters! Now if I could take some of this form from the recent anon contests into BJSC...

6 minutes ago, awardinary said:

I meant to ask this at the start before the results, but I will ask it now... @King Rollo please could we have a list of the previous winners of this contest to date.

All the winners can be found on the pinned archive thread.

Oh my. Well done to Chez Wombat! Gave it 8 points.

Rather unlucky for jimwatts with the second 2nd place in a row.

And uh, oops for being first in sending Portishead. I was rather a bit nervous I might have sent the wrong song and confirmed too early after looking for something for a bit without pressure. 8th is not bad though even if it's not 3rd or higher. Thank you!

16 minutes ago, awardinary said:

Final Scoreboard

1. (113 Points) Space Art – Onyx [Chez Wombat]

2. (93 Points) Ministry – Revenge [jimwatts]

3. (87 Points) U.S.U.R.A. & Datura – Infinity [Astrological Mix] [CowTzy]

4. (83 Points) Out Of Order – Tears [Dobbo]

5. (82 Points) Saint Etienne – Avenue [Mangø]

6. (73 Points) The Beloved – Satellite [Addy!]

7. (70 Points) Tori Amos – Hotel [dandy*]

8. (68 Points) Portishead – Biscuit [AllStarBySmashMouth] (more 12's)

9. (68 Points) Hubert Kah – Limousine [gooddelta] (less 12's)

10. (64 Points) Saints & Sinners – Peace [AH Gold]

11. (61 Points) Happy Rhodes – Winter [matto]

12. (60 Points) Wonky Alice – Caterpillars [Suedehead2]

13. (57 Points) Peter Gabriel – Intruder [Julian_] (more 12's)

14. (57 Points) Queen – Liar [King Rollo] (less 12's)

15. (56 Points) Christoph De Babalon – Water [Brer] (more 12's)

16. (56 Points) Earth & Fire – Weekend [WoW73] (less 12's)

17. (50 Points) Deep Forest – Gathering [awardinary]

18. (47 Points) Pulp – Stacks [Jester]

19. (41 Points) Bows – Rockets [Jade]

20. (35 Points) Ted Nugent – Stranglehold [Nine And ¾] (more 12's)

21. (35 Points) The Doobie Brothers – Spirit [Scene] (less 12's)

22. (20 Points) Talking Heads – Heaven [Severin]

23. (16 Points) Juniper – Weatherman [Herbs]

In this case (to appease Bré fixation)...

Final Scoreboard

1. (113 Points) Space Art – Onyx [Chez Wombat]

2. (93 Points) Ministry – Revenge [jimwatts]

3. (87 Points) U.S.U.R.A. & Datura – Infinity [Astrological Mix] [CowTzy]

4. (83 Points) Out Of Order – Tears [Dobbo]

5. (82 Points) Saint Etienne – Avenue [Mangø]

6. (73 Points) The Beloved – Satellite [Addy!]

7. (70 Points) Tori Amos – Hotel [dandy*]

⬆️ 8. (68 Points) Hubert Kah – Limousine [gooddelta] (more votes)

⬇️ 9. (68 Points) Portishead – Biscuit [AllStarBySmashMouth] (less votes)

10. (64 Points) Saints & Sinners – Peace [AH Gold]

11. (61 Points) Happy Rhodes – Winter [matto]

12. (60 Points) Wonky Alice – Caterpillars [Suedehead2]

⬆️ 13. (57 Points) Queen – Liar [King Rollo] (more votes)

⬇️ 14. (57 Points) Peter Gabriel – Intruder [Julian_] (less votes)

15. (56 Points) Christoph De Babalon – Water [Brer] (more votes)

16. (56 Points) Earth & Fire – Weekend [WoW73] (less votes)

17. (50 Points) Deep Forest – Gathering [awardinary]

18. (47 Points) Pulp – Stacks [Jester]

19. (41 Points) Bows – Rockets [Jade]

⬆️ 20. (35 Points) The Doobie Brothers – Spirit [Scene] (more votes)

⬇️ 21. (35 Points) Ted Nugent – Stranglehold [Nine And ¾] (less votes)

22. (20 Points) Talking Heads – Heaven [Severin]

23. (16 Points) Juniper – Weatherman [Herbs]

Well done @gooddelta @King Rollo and @Scene on moving up a place!

Oh. 9th then. Still fine. 😅

Thanks Wardy for hosting and well done Chez!

I enjoyed all but a couple of the songs in this contest to the point where I found it quite hard to vote. In the end I decided to prioritise the artier songs over the boppier songs, hence only giving 3 points to the whole Top 5 oops! I should have pointed Dobbo’s entry though and in the end I must admit I forgot about it because it wasn’t on Spotify. Mea culpa! That could have got it a medal position .

Thanks for the votes for Peter Gabriel. I dug a bit into his catalogue as he’d produced some of my favourite hits of 1980 and I thought this was a stunning and creepy opener to the album that all those singles are from.

Thank you for the appeasement and yay that I didn't shoot my foot any further so staying top 15 either way x

(I know there's not really a rigid rule about this outside of the BJSC forum but I think it just makes sense to keep things consistent rather than just being decided on a whim by the host every time)

((also oop that 2 of those tiebreak switcheroos have pushed an entry I voted for behind one I didn't but it is what it is ))

Congratulations to the winner! 😍

I was wondering why I wasn’t among the voters, but then I realized that I would have tipped the balance so that Onyx would take the lead with my 12 points.

As for my participation, the tradition continues: the songs I give 12 points winning, while I finish near the bottom, and I have no problem with that. 🖤 I grew up on different things and I’m happy that I more or less exchanged points with the people who gave me points as well, so bingo!

I had a few other options to submit, but as I already wrote, I guess I interpreted the UK chart too rigidly and should have taken a risk with something else. As for Ted Nugent, I honestly don’t know what kind of person he is or what he’s been up to, and I don’t really follow UK news or anything like that…

Thanks for hosting! I made a great discovery, cheers for that, and also thanks for the voters for Dutch band Earth & Fire, and congrats to the medalists!

Well done Chez! I really enjoyed your track so very happy to see it win - and really happy to see that the top 4 all ended up being tracks I didn't know prior to the contest, the four of you did really well to source such great entries.

Very happy with how Tori did, I did think she was being over predicted a bit on name as it was an album track, and one that is reasonably uncommercial as well... but once I'd realised that it fit the criteria for the contest, I just couldn't find anything I liked even vaguely as much so I decided to take the opportunity to send it and let it have its moment. Now to focus on sending Blue Skies or Professional Widow(!) to Club Bizarre and Cornflake Girl to the next Pop forum contest ☺️

Thanks Wardy for hosting, and for coming up with an idea that resulted in a lot of decent entries. Loved the variety it produced, even if it was tough trying to order things from such different worlds. I'd definitely be up for similar non-genre related contests in the future.

18 minutes ago, dandy* said:

I'd definitely be up for similar non-genre related contests in the future.

My recommendation for a future theme...

"What's in a name?"

Task: Find a song with a person's name anywhere in the title.

Thanks for the points for Stacks!

I struggled with this one as Wardy will attest to, so I panic entries one of my favourite old Pulp songs.

I’ll be more inventive next time.

Interesting results and entries. I dont think my hypothetical votes would have made much difference, the winner is good playing it now. Reminds me of the theme to Terrahawks, if it had been pumped up on steroids, oops! 😄There would def have been points for Saint Etienne, Deep Forest, Portishead, Doobies, Beloved and maybe USURA with options on Tori Amos, Pulp, and a few others and any surprise unknowns.

Many congrats Chez on your first (?) victory in this contest! A very standout entry that I'm not surprised had wide appeal although was impressed with how many medal positions it received! I wasn't far off with St Etienne & Tori being contenders but that's still quite a significant points gap to Onyx in a relatively small field. Very happy to see Infinity up there too.

Really disappointed and shocked at Weatherman coming last though, definitely was my fave of the non-dance entries and I did not envisage me giving it 37.5% of its entire tally.

I'm very pleased with the performance of my entry, thanks to those who threw it support! This was actually a song I discovered a few years ago and had it on the backburners for a good while. I remember regretting not sending it to the Techno and Artistic/Experimental Electronica edition of Club Bizarre simply because I completely overlooked it as it was saved to a YouTube playlist rather than being on my regular Sportify Potentials playlist (obviously) and since that volume there hadn't been another Club Bizarre where it would have fit, but I'm happy I got to enter it into this contest instead as it happened to fit the very specific theme!

However not me manifesting this scenario actually happening to an entry of mine mere days after posting this in the BJSC forum... 😅

On 26/01/2026 at 10:19, Dobbo said:

Although I do remember a couple of times where people have literally forgot to even listen to an entry because it wasn't on the Spotify/Apple playlist so there's always that risk!

10 hours ago, Julian_ said:

I should have pointed Dobbo’s entry though and in the end I must admit I forgot about it because it wasn’t on Spotify. Mea culpa! That could have got it a medal position .

Not entirely the same as you did (presumably) at least listen to it but eh... it happens, no biggie!

I see the top 4 of the overall leaderboard all having strong results in this, just can't catch up with Addy & dandy* they're too damn consistent in this! 🤣

Thanks very much to Wardy for hosting. Look forward to volume 13!

1 hour ago, awardinary said:

My recommendation for a future theme...

"What's in a name?"

Task: Find a song with a person's name anywhere in the title.

I like that theme. Another one I was thinking is songs which appeared on movie soundtracks (but are still relatively unknown ofc).

Or how about Animal Farm: song/artist has to have an animal in their name/title?

53 minutes ago, Dobbo said:

Really disappointed and shocked at Weatherman coming last though, definitely was my fave of the non-dance entries and I did not envisage me giving it 37.5% of its entire tally.

I wonder if (the remaining) 62.5% is the highest percentage of an entry's points I have ever given on Buzzjack then. I'm not usually so out of step with one of my top favourites either.

Just finished catching up now (in the library x) as I was way too tired and grumpy last night to continue following the results, so I went to sleep. Congrats Chez! Good winner, that climb One of the best nouns too for sure! 😄 Alanis Morissette would be proud. I actually had it up higher in my ranking at first but it somehow ended up falling down to my 3-pointer. Still, happy to vote for it.

I was on the mark with Brer's entry as I predicted he had sent 'Water'. I just didn't say it at any point 🙃

Happy enough with 11th for me as well. Would've been nice to shove my way into that top 10 but thanks for the points and for cheering me up by handing me the first 12 of the night!

3 hours ago, dandy* said:

Now to focus on sending Blue Skies or Professional Widow(!) to Club Bizarre and Cornflake Girl to the next Pop forum contest ☺️

And I will send 'Not The Red Baron' to BJSC 😁