OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT_DEMON_WALSH_

Thank you for responding to The Planet Ireland's distress call. The Groups Fleet's pod has landed on the lime-green landscape of this beautiful planet only to find a clan of citizens who have managed to escape the lair of Demon Walsh, a tyrannical monster that roams the mountains looking for impressionable citizens to force into musical labour. Demon Walsh is waiting for all of you in his lair and in order to defeat him and free the citizens of The Planet Ireland you must come together in your groups and deafen him with the sound of brilliant, euphoric, freedom-filled music; something he hasn't been accustomed to for many years now. Fail, and you'll be transported to an eternal Westlife comeback tour.

How it works:

Once you have listened to all of the artists perform you should post a ranking of each of the performances. You can rank them from best to worst (making clear which is your favourite down to least favourite), or use the template below:

01 (favourite)

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08

09 (least favourite)

For those voting who have entered one of the artists into the competition, you must rank all nine performances in your own category.

Failure to vote in your own category at minimum will result in an 18 point deduction from your final total.

As always, even if you are not competing in The Pop Factor you can vote too!

When voting closes, the eight groups with the highest scores will collect some extremely valuable resources from the grateful citizens of The Planet Ireland, progressing to the next round, while ONE of the groups will be eliminated from the competition and will not be going through.

Voting will close on Monday 9 March 2026, 17:59 GMT

It's time to find out what tricks the groups have in store for Judges' Houses...

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Standard list of entries:

Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have a Kiki

ABBA - Take a Chance on Me

Erasure - Chorus

The Chicks - Julianna Calm Down

HAIM - Want You Back

Blondie - Sunday Girl

Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

Florence + the Machine - My Love

The Corrs - Summer Sunshine

Hmmm Atomic Kitten with a cover 😬

ABBA getting in there first before Erasure were feeling ABBA-esque

Excellent choice by ABBA!!

But the big one for me here is… The Corrs!!! What a SONG!!!

I know that Scissor Sisters song… thanks to Glee

Nice choice for Atomic Kitten.

Everything else I’m not all that familiar with.

Loving the Scissor Sisters and ABBA selections at first glance!

Also loving the continuation of people's names in the Groups' song titles - Earl, Denis, Shayla, Maria, Julianna...

That’s risqué for the Kittens to send a cover after what just happened to Ace Of Base!!!

STACKED

Adore those song choices by Haim & The Corrs

Surely this round is a foregone conclusion. I can see Atomic Kitten maybe struggling but can't imagine they will be close to going.

Love The Corrs and Haims choices from what I know!

Always loved Eternal Flame cover (which topped my chart) but I think that’s a tough draw for them.

Summer Sunshine ❤️

Some great (and big!) choices all round here.

Hmmm I think Atomic Kitten have a fair amount of fans, my gut is they will be just fine

I’m worried for Atomic Kitten here , I wonder if the Chicks can continue to defy the odds and just about slip through another round.

I’ve always loved that Haim track!! And it’s nice for a song to get a bit of love from a different era of theirs.

That Corrs song is my fave of all their songs too. Smashing choice!!!!!!

I’ve always enjoyed Eternal Flame, so it’s nice to see it pop up here.

2 hours ago, Lindsey. said:

STACKED

Right! SS, Blondie, HAIM, The Corrs and ABBA!

ABBA - Take a Chance on Me

The Corrs - Summer Sunshine

HAIM - Want You Back

Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have a Kiki

Florence + the Machine - My Love

The Chicks - Julianna Calm Down

Erasure - Chorus

Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

Blondie - Sunday Girl

Yeah this round was tough!!!

I don't dislike any of those, but I must say this must be my least Blondie song so far in this competition!!!

Everything else was at least 8/10!!!

Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have a Kiki

The Corrs - Summer Sunshine

ABBA - Take a Chance on Me

Blondie - Sunday Girl

Florence + the Machine - My Love

HAIM - Want You Back

Erasure - Chorus

The Chicks - Julianna Calm Down

Edited March 3Mar 3 by Lee_J11

1 HAIM (always loved this and the iconic walking music video. Maybe my fav ever HAIM song? It’s my most played!)

2 THE CORRS (also my fave song by this artist, Ive played it every summer since I discovered it)

3 FLORENCE (a Rare win for recent Florence for me. Poppier than all the rest of the album.)

4 ABBA (a classic, always reminds me of Julie Walters in mamma mia)

5 BLONDIE

6 ATOMIC KITTEN

7 SCISSOR SISTERS (Obvs a gay classic but I’ve always found it more irritating than camp, like most of their stuff tbh)

8 ERASURE

9 THE CHICKS

A round featuring three UK #1s at this early stage shows how competitive everything is for the groups!

01 = Florence + the Machine - My Love

02 = Erasure - Chorus

03 = The Corrs - Summer Sunshine

04 = HAIM - Want You Back

05 = Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

06 = Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have a Kiki

07 = The Chicks - Julianna Calm Down

08 = Blondie - Sunday Girl

09 = ABBA - Take a Chance on Me

1. The Corrs - Summer Sunshine (an amazing pop track, I always think it was underrated in the charts but then it was their first top 10 in four years, at a time they definitely weren't in vogue anymore, so the fact it went top 10 at all speaks volumes)

2. The Chicks - Julianna Calm Down (I'd like to see them get further, as I'm making more discoveries from them than other artists, this is really good and definitely not a song worthy of seeing them out)

3. Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame (I've always been a sucker for this, I was obsessed in 2001, I appreciated the updated production of the time and the strong vocals from Natasha)

4. Florence + the Machine - My Love (one of my favourite Florence singles of the 20s, really good)

5. Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have a Kiki (a lot of fun, a real earworm that I enjoyed from the album at the time)

6. Erasure - Chorus (one of my favourite Erasure singles, a great chorus funnily enough)

7. ABBA - Take a Chance on Me (a classic of course, although it's their No.1 that I listen to the least, but I respect that it's taken five rounds for even a top five hit to appear for them considering their discography)

8. Blondie - Sunday Girl (I wouldn't say it's a Blondie fave for me, but a good track)

9. HAIM - Want You Back (I do like this too but it's the song I'd least likely put on repeat in this round)

This group is all strong, I suspect the result is clear cut but I hope not!

01 ABBA - Take a Chance on Me

02 Blondie - Sunday Girl

03 Erasure - Chorus

04 Florence + the Machine - My Love

05 The Corrs - Summer Sunshine

06 HAIM - Want You Back

07 Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have a Kiki

08 Atomic Kitten - Eternal Flame

09 The Chicks - Julianna Calm Down

This is one of the big ABBA hits that never gets old for me, great choice