Pop Fleet 26 have safely escaped Twinktopia, The Kittysphere and The Planet Ireland. All three spacecrafts will now join together to form one mega-craft; searching the stars to find Lady BuzzJack. But... personnel have detected a black hole within range of the spacecraft. Vital levels are critical, and in order to successfully pass the black hole, the maximum capacity aboard the spacecraft has shrunk by 50%, meaning only 12 artists can remain on board to complete the mission. There's no time to waste, so you've randomly been assigned another artist on board that you must battle to the death to keep your place. Lose, you'll be ejected and fall into the deep void.

How it works:

There are 12 battles. Each artist will participate in a head-to-head battle with another artist. Once you have listened to all 12 battles, you should submit your votes by clicking the link to complete the voting form (see below). Voting for The Black Hole Battles is completely anonymous and you should not reveal your votes until after the results have been announced. In the form, you'll be asked to vote for your favourite in each battle and the artist with the most points (votes) in each battle will progress to Live Shows.

In the event of a tie in any of the battles, the outcome of the battle will be decided by a special guest judge Commander Eye Sack. Only in the event of a tie, Commander Eye Sack's vote will be doubled and will count as two votes.

For those voting who have entered one of the artists into the competition, you must vote in all of the battles. You may vote in your own battle but it will not count. Failure to vote by a participating artist will result in a 12 point (vote) deduction from your final score.

As always, even if you aren't participating in The Pop Factor as an artist, you are more than welcome to vote too! Now, more than ever at this crucial stage in the competition, is when the artists are relying on every vote!

When voting closes, only TWELVE artists will have passed by the black hole safely and will continue on to the Live Shows, while the other TWELVE artists will be eliminated from the competition.

However, not all is lost. There is a chance for one eliminated artist to return to the competition should they win The Platinum Paije Rock of Hopes and Dreams when the time comes.

VOTE HERE

Voting will close on Monday 16 March 2026, 17:59 GMT

LET BATTLE... BEGIN.

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Standard list of battles:

Conan Gray - Overdrive vs. Scissor Sisters - Fire With Fire

Chappell Roan - The Subway vs. ROSALÍA - DESPECHÁ

Nelly Furtado - Maneater vs. Blondie - One Way or Another

Florence + the Machine - Shake It Out vs. FKA twigs - Eusexua

Troye Sivan - YOUTH vs. Nik Kershaw - Wouldn’t It Be Good

Kesha - Tik Tok vs. Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone

Delta Goodrem - Lost Without You vs. Fred again.., FKA twigs & Headie One - Don’t Judge Me

The Weeknd - Can’t Feel My Face vs. ABBA - Lay All Your Love on Me

Atomic Kitten - Whole Again vs. George Michael - Fastlove, Pt. 1

Erasure - A Little Respect vs. David Bowie - Heroes

The Corrs - What Can I Do (Tin Tin Out Remix) vs. Ruel - Wild Guess

Lily Allen - f*** You vs. HAIM - Now I’m In It

Oh wow this is gonna be insane!

OMGGGGG!

I did not think we'd be losing The Weeknd so soon but that ABBA song is unbeatable surely.

Most of these are savage and I can't call them. Whole Again vs Fastlove, gah. Maneater vs One Way Or Another!

The Subway showing up <3

Edited March 10Mar 10 by gooddelta

A Little Respect vs Heroes is a ridiculous duel. Two of the greatest songs ever.

Just now, gooddelta said:

A Little Respect vs Heroes is a ridiculous duel. Two of the greatest songs ever.

Was just thinking this. There’s some that I think will be so tight

Kesha vs Kelly is cruel

The two songs I do know and love from Erasure and David Bowie are head to head! LMAO! Omg. Also as someone who is only partial to ABBA and not quite on the "OMG THEY'RE AMAZING!!!!!" level... 'Lay All Your Love On Me' is my absolute favourite by them! WHAT A SONG! (I also love 'Does Your Mother Know' and I hope that shows up at some point!)

Kesha vs Kelly is insane too! I cannot call that one!

EDIT: Also I think Troye vs Nik will be very close! That's the one Nik song people do know and I can see it causing an upset (inferior to Cascada's version though - sorry!)

Wow

some interesting match ups and some defo easier than others.

Also good to see that we are guaranteed at least one of each category through!

And what happened to the secret duel of Ace Of Base V The Chicks

Some pretty brutal decisions to make, although Maneater vs One Way or Another is gonna quite literally be a coin toss!

Many of these battles are going to be so hard to choose between! 😱

ROSALÍA against one of the two Chappell songs I really love 😭

'Maneater' vs. 'One Way Or Another' 😭

'A Little Respect' vs. 'Heroes' 😭

My favourite ABBA and FKA Twigs songs turning up ouch at The Weeknd being up against the former though.

I'm stressed x

I'm glad that I had already accomplished what I hoped to before going out - this is a ridiculous round!

...although on the plus side there's only two songs I need to familiarise myself with!

Nelly vs Blondie, Kesha vs Kelly, Weeknd vs Abba and Erasure vs Bowie are particularly brutal pairings agh

14 minutes ago, dandy* said:

...although on the plus side there's only two songs I need to familiarise myself with!

I'm taking a wiiiiiiiiiiiild guess you're gonna be such a fan

Ok let's just skip straight to the Golden Wagner or whatever it's called this year xx

Nelly vs Blondie, Kesha vs Kelly, The Weeknd vs ABBA…

🪦🪦🪦

(FKA twigs being here twice though *.* Fred's sender going a bit rogue plumping for a song from 'GANG' here, I'd have thought something like 'Delilah (pull me out of this)' would be the best play here)