Hello from myself, @Mangø and @Paddington James

Following the same structure used successfully in various genre forums, we are going to run a monthly poll for new contemporary music releases in 2026. Each month, 20 new releases are selected to go head to head, with three winners which will then go up against future monthly winners at the end of the year to determine the ultimate winner of 2026.

 

Each week, choose up to ***THREE*** songs only that you feel are your favourite from the selection of releases that month. If you wish to post a rate of the selection of songs in the thread, please feel free to do so.

 

Here are January's contenders:

A*Teens – Iconic

Agnes – WAKE UP

Appleton – Falling Into You

Bryan Adams – Charlie The Wonderdog

CHVRCHES – Addicted To Love

Connie Talbot – Original

Culture Club – Letting Things Go

Elvis Presley vs Jamieson Shaw – Wearin' That Night Life Look

Embrace – Road To Nowhere

Gabrielle Aplin – Start Again

Jack Savoretti – We Will Always Be The Way We Were

Jessie Ware – I Could Get Used To This

JP Cooper feat. Gabrielle – Sad Song

Kula Shaker – Lucky Number

Matt Cardle – Fading Lights

Melanie C – What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Nathan Evans with SAINT PHNX – Happy Place

Peter Andre – Rock U Right

Robbie Williams – All My Life

Rogue Traders – Take You Down

Stephen Sanchez – SWEET LOVE

Zak Abel – Hallelujah

Results of this month's poll will be revealed in next month's thread. The poll will remain open until the first day of the following month.

2026 Contemporary Track of the Month Winners:

January: TBC

My votes have gone to A*Teens, Appleton and Rogue Traders.

@LiamSime I added your BJSC entry to the list as I enjoyed it, I hope that's ok! 🙂

Went for A*Teens, Agnes and Jessie Ware. With apologies to Rogue Traders who were fourth.

Only three of those charted for me - voted for Connie Talbot, Jessie Ware and Stephen Sanchez

18 hours ago, awardinary said:

My votes have gone to A*Teens, Appleton and Rogue Traders.

@LiamSime I added your BJSC entry to the list as I enjoyed it, I hope that's ok! 🙂

Of course, really glad to hear you enjoyed it!

I went for A*Teens, Agnes and Rogue Traders.

Oh wow that A*Teens song is actually quite the banger! Iconic indeed!

Stephen Sanchez had the only one I liked enough to vote for.

2 hours ago, jimwatts said:

Stephen Sanchez had the only one I liked enough to vote for.

Expand your palate Jim! 😁

3 hours ago, awardinary said:

Expand your palate Jim! 😁

Me to anyone who thinks my BJSC entries are either too "pop", or not "pop" enough 😀

(There's nothing I disliked here, I'm just going by what I'd be likely to seek out again.)

Just discovered three new songs to add to my playlist from skimming through these (Road to Nowhere, Sad Song and We Will Always Be The Way We Were) so thanks for putting together! Voted for those, alongside Happy Place (I think there are much better songs on the album, but maybe that's just because I was already familiar with the original version of Happy Place)