1 minute ago, Scene said:

Fun fact: The Saturdays still remain the highest-finishing girl group (5th place).

There's also more men in the final (overall) than women

Just now, Jade said:

Daphne & Celeste coming to stomp all over this record next time x

They may get bottles thrown at them if they do x

Not Delta being mentored by gooddelta

Oh wow I was convinced that Joseph was behind Atomic Kitten!!

He was well behaved and didn't reveal anything IRL last weekend x

Well done Lukuzz and Rich for getting your acts this far ❤️

Think I’d locked in on GD being Delta a few rounds ago. Felt too much like a double bluff!

Shame to see AK go with that song. It’s a beaut

Two major favourite artists of mine, so glad they got so far, both mentored expertly as well!!

Brilliant job with Delta Rich, I think that line-up covered so many of her highlights, when she gets it right it's fantastic and this has been a great reminder of her versatility as a singer.

Atomic Kitten are very rarely my thing but very impressive to get so deep into the competition with them.

There is no amount of tomfoolery that could’ve swerved me from thinking Delta Goodrem was sent by anyone else 😂 Obsessed with the shenanigans you got into with the avatar changing though, Rich. I approve x

Well done to both posters for getting artists who, on paper, didn’t seem like they’d make it anywhere near this far all the way to the top 7. Very good work.

Great job @gooddelta , you played Delta’s hand fantastically. ❤️ Loved discovering Electric Storm in particular. Considering the names she was competing with this year, you’ve done such an incredible job to get her this far.

And well played @Lukuzz with Atomic Kitten. I think I’ve slagged them off multiple times on this forum in the past for their beige-ness but this competition has made me realise I’m still very much a fan. So thank you! Also well done on drastically bettering your position from last year. ❤️

Commiserations to two wonderful mentors! Neither act quite my thing but you’ve both done incredibly well.

@Lukuzz you’re such a great sport and lovely presence in this, and I think that’s why you took the Kittens further than anyone could have thought humanly possible based on their discography.

@gooddelta the passion you have for your artist showed throughout, and you’ve done her extremely proud. Not only that but I’ve enjoyed many of the songs way more than I expected. You’ve shown off her best with love and care, and that’s what this is all about.

6 minutes ago, Jade said:

Oh wow I was convinced that Joseph was behind Atomic Kitten!!

Yeah same, I thought Joseph was AK... I'm guessing he's Conan or Lily then

1 minute ago, ElectroBoy said:

Yeah same, I thought Joseph was AK... I'm guessing he's Conan or Lily then

Thinking Lily now as on reflection 'URL Badman' feels like quite a Joseph selection earlier on in the competition but who knows x

FINALISTS

CONFIRM YOUR TWO SONG CHOICES FOR THE GRAND FINAL HERE!

YOU HAVE UNTIL 17:59 TOMORROW!

REMINDER:

There will be NO scoreboards posted until after the Grand Final Results.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

The voting periods for the Grand Final will be as follows:

The Grand Final: Part One - Saturday 18 - Monday 20 April

VOTE FREEZE

The Grand Final: Part Two - Monday 20 - Wednesday 22 April

Make sure you vote on time to crown the winner of The Pop Factor: Season 2!

For now, let's get back to celebrating Rich and Lukuzz!

Congrats @Lukuzz, amazing run with Atomic Kitten, I so easily could have sent them myself and would have strung together a similar run.

I just wanted to thank @Calum for putting this incredible contest together. It's been a genuine thrill to be part of this and strategically choose a new song each week. Obviously I was Delta, and I had four things going through my mind while playing this, all of which I think I managed. First was never to use songs from the same album/era twice in a row so it didn't get samey or too cheap, second was that I didn't just want to play all of her UK hits (not that she had many anyway, six - three of which I used), third was that I only wanted to use songs that I truly love myself and not just songs I thought could do better (therefore I didn't consider the likes of The River, The Power, I Can't Break It To My Heart, which are all fan favourites, although I like but not love all of these), and finally, and fourth there were several songs that I wanted to try and make sure I played at some point, all of which I did manage to fit in. Ultimately I feel like Delta is mostly known for ballads in the UK and I mainly wanted to showcase her doing stuff other than just ballads.

Here's why I chose each song at each stage:

Round 1: The Earth Auditions - Innocent Eyes (2003) (3rd, 329 points) - I thought it was worth starting with a popular but not her most famous hit, to safely get through the first hurdle before introducing lesser known stuff. Funnily enough, this is my favourite UK hit of hers, so a good starting point

Round 2: The Orbit Auditions - Sitting on Top of the World (2012) (7th, 209 points) - This is in her Spotify top five most played and very popular with fans, I actually thought it would go down better than it did so it's good I played it early

Round 3: Boot Camp: Part One - Wings (2015) (3rd, 184 points) - this track is amazing, and could have been her Eurovision entry in a parallel universe, I never wasn't going to play this

Round 4: Boot Camp: Part Two - Electric Storm (2004) (1st, 251 points) - this is the ultimate Delta album track, as Delta has said herself, it's the deep cut that fans always requests her to play on tour. I wouldn't have chosen anything else

Round 5: Judges' Houses - Eclipse (2026) (4th, 195 points) - A little bit cheeky but it was free choice and the track had been released two days earlier and I was spamming it, it immediately seemed strong enough to make it further here so I grabbed the opportunity!

Round 6: The Black Hole Battles - Lost Without You (2003) (WIN) - I considered how strong the competition could be at this stage although ultimately Delta got lucky with her opponent so maybe I didn't need to play this so early in hindsight, but against potentially stronger songs I needed her biggest hitter to contend

Round 7: The Scoop - N/A

Round 8: Live Show One - Believe Again (2007) (4th, 340 points) - My favourite Delta song and my third favourite song of all-time, a majestic song that I was always hoping to play at some point and was keen to get through the first live show

Round 9: Live Show Two - Not Me, Not I (2003) (6th, 249 points) - Such a beautiful ballad, and a UK hit from her biggest album, I'd hoped it would do better in the ballad round tbh, it's so stunning, but I'm glad she went further

Round 10: Live Show Three - In This Life (2007) (6th, 233 points) - another very good, very fun and optimstic, popular with fans lead single of Delta's and another Aussie No.1, I felt a strong chance that this could go further although again it wasn't exactly safe by miles

Round 11: Live Show Four - Back to Your Heart (2023) (6th, 178 points) - I was quite surprised how restricted I was by the rules in the flop round, as the majority of her singles did in fact go top 40 in her home country of Australia. So after much thought, for me it was either I Don't Care, which I enjoy but felt a bit juvenile to go further, or one of her 80s influenced recent hits, and I prefer this one to Hearts On The Run, so I'm glad it scraped through the last round

Round 12: The Semi Final - Last Night on Earth (2004) (OUT) - I could see after three sixth places that the writing was on the wall here, and that Delta was basically out almost no matter what else was sent in the strength of the competition. The only act I could see her getting past was Atomic Kitten potentially, but I also expected them to play It's Ok which would have beaten anything left of Delta's. She'd have never won a judges vote either. So with that in mind, I was certain I was playing my last hand so I wanted to squeeze out one more inspired choice rather than just playing a UK single and coming last anyway, so I went with this majestic album track, and another huge fan favourite. It didn't go Delta's way, but that's fine, I do feel like I took her as far as she was going to go, and indeed probably a lot further than many expected with so many people calling her out in the last two shows particularly.

For the sake of transparency, if Delta had gone to the final then I'd have chosen between Predictable, Mistaken Identity, Out Of The Blue, and the two other BJSC entries I sent by Delta, Take Me Home and Hunters and the Wolves. But I hadn't fully thought it through, I was winging it a lot of weeks and deciding on the spot. I wouldn't have played Born To Try because the forum apparently dislikes it, going by the Pop Princesses rate, or Almost Here, because I didn't want to play any collabs unless a round of that nature came up, and it feels more like a Brian single than a Delta single.

Thank you all, it's been so fun! I'll be back next year with someone less obviously my act hopefully!

2 hours ago, Calum said:

I want it put on record that if anybody confirms an artist that does not have photoshoot-quality PNGs available for making graphics they will be vetoed for season 3

I think I’m safe with who I have in mind. 😂

Well clearly the previous 4 rounds going to deadlock were all building up to our judging panel finally coming to a majority decision at the last opportunity! It may have been slightly more of a climax if Rogue rather than I had the final judges' vote reveal, but was still nice to have the "decisive" vote to put ABBA through.

Commiserations to Lukuzz and Rich, but well done for guiding your acts so far in the competition. The songs you both sent in the battle round were my favourites by those artists and I was happy to see both through. I think Atomic Kitten did as well as they possibly could - I'd actually have given a high vote to 'Someone Like Me' if it had come up, but understandably there were more popular choices. I thought Rich and Paddington James had each others' acts early on, but in later rounds I was fairly sure this was a gooddelta project - as I mentioned earlier in the week, I'd had no idea she had been so prolific over the last 20 years until recently, so thank you for bringing your highlights to light in this competition, I've made some good discoveries from them too.

Thank you Calum for inviting me to be a judge - I'll be interested to find out if we did swing the 5th/6th outcome on this occasion, but before that I'm looking forward to the final. Good luck to the last five!

Are we allowed to make guesses (or requests) for the two songs we might like to see from each of our finalists? 🤔

3 minutes ago, awardinary said:

Are we allowed to make guesses (or requests) for the two songs we might like to see from each of our finalists? 🤔

The one about the Christmas tree please

4 minutes ago, awardinary said:

Are we allowed to make guesses (or requests) for the two songs we might like to see from each of our finalists? 🤔

Request away but I already confirmed mine. 😋

5 minutes ago, awardinary said:

Are we allowed to make guesses (or requests) for the two songs we might like to see from each of our finalists? 🤔

Guessing Kelly will be Since U Been Gone/ Stronger.

Although could she do Underneath the Tree