Apologies for missing the live reveal, I had to sleep again x Quickly caught up with this earlier and just read back through in a bit more detail.

Well done Jim on a very well deserved first BJSC forum victory! I didn't really think to predict a winner but this song doing well definitely makes sense, even if the ostensible real life parallel of Qatar winning the World Cup would be clearly absurd (arguably one of the worst teams in the actual tournament). At least Brazil coming 2nd is a bit more realistic although pleasantly surprised Arandu Arakuaa did so well, was a very standout song but I'd have thought its niche wouldn't be big enough to carry it that high in the results - great top 2 anyway which were also next to each other in my own votes (though the other way round with Arandu Arakuaa on 9 and Dana on 8). Also voted for 4 more of the top 10 in Jones & Stephenson, EMEL, Gulinur and She Past Away - nice for New Helvetica to grab a top 10 placement with their first (only?) entry, that was a lovely tune. 'Devona' was a major earworm and 'Mizantrop' not quite as great for me as their main contest entry but still great enough to get double figure points from me - I've had their album on my to-listen list for months but being lazy with that, really must get to it soon.

None of my medallists making the top 10 but two coming very close - the host entry was actually sitting as my 18 after my initial listenthrough (me stanning a post-punk entry shocker) but ended up slipping behind a couple of others in the end, the extra 5 points wouldn't have quite been enough for it to come top 10 though so cannot feel too bad. A bit annoying that the song that ended up being my favourite is the only one that's not on Spotify! Also aw so close to the top 20 for BUHA 2030 (I mentioned on SyncTube that it just needed a guy ranting over it with a northern accent and it could pass for a Maruja song). Another little cluster of underrated faves for me in the 24th-28th section (minus France, sorry Mack), Xico Gaiato and Diblo With Loketo both really got robbed though, both some lovely discoveries there.

Enjoyed the spin on the reveal format to match the theming of the contest, thanks for all the efforts Dan - although poor brave Imarhan getting a bit of an unlucky draw to be 'eliminated' in the round of 32 despite being top 15 overall! (Not quite as unlucky as my fellow North African EMEL though of course - and in my own 'tournament' style simulation the other North African entrant Bab L' Bluz also went out early due to bad luck). Very happy with that result anyway - Algeria was quite a fortunate draw for me really as I had bookmarked a song by Imarhan to investigate them for song contest potential a little while back anyway so as soon as I realised they were Algerian I didn't have to spend much time to find an entry (though I was stuck between 3 different songs from them for a while). Very similar musically to Tinariwen who I sent to the last Foreign Language spinoff and finishing with a pretty similar result so that makes sense (they came 12th although from a smaller field of 29 songs). I'm sure they must be the only two songs ever sent to song contests on this site in the Tamasheq language thanks to @Julian_ being my biggest fan with a silver, @nine¾ and @NocheLuna for bronzes, @Assy! and @Chez Wombat for double figure points and a healthy spread of further points from @AllStarBySmashMouth, @Jade, @matto, @gooddelta, @HarryInnanen, @Ansel, @CowTzy was here, @danG, @pavi, @King Rollo, @seven. and @Mack. <3

If anyone may care at all these were the other two songs I considered sending:

This one has a bit more of a 'modern' and upbeat sound to it although still clearly rooted in traditional stylings.

And this was actually the first song I found by them and it's a toetapper but ultimately felt it was a little bit too similar to the Tinariwen song I sent before.

As far as an Algerian blues rock entry can possibly be 'cheap', 'Achinkad' was kind of the cheap choice as it's by far their most viewed music video on YouTube with some 10 million views so I guess it must have caught some virality somewhere at some point - it did end up being the song I was most drawn to from the ones I checked out though so the views are deserved, a really beautiful and entrancing tune with a great guitar solo in the second half. x

Congratulations Jim, really excellent to see my 18 winning, incredible song. Great top 2 overall, Brazil/Lentyll was a very interesting entry so great top 2.

Really appreciated a good mix of sounds in this contest, I think the Asian and South American countries especially were quite good but some good stuff from every continent. Thanks for hosting this through the break Dan, I found it a decent way to do a lowkey contest in terms of just putting on the playlist this month.

Thank you to everyone who pointed Motionless In White, I was recommended them by an American friend who was talking with me about getting into BMTH and this current single track really grew on me after a couple of listens, they have another track they just released with Skylar Grey of all people which also slaps (link below). Felt like a nice direction to go down to make my American draw a bit more interesting, or at least certainly the direction I would take, I'm very happy with a top half.

Congrats Jim, great winner!

Thanks Dan for the fab hosting, what a cool format for the reveals!

I really enjoyed this contest overall, I feel people are a lot ballsier when it comes to spinoffs, loads of interesting picks.

On 26/06/2026 at 09:35, pavi said:

@danG I think there’s an error in the spreadsheet. I did not vote for Uruguay. My 13 points went to Uzbekistan instead.

18 Ghana

15 Qatar

13 Uzbekistan

12 Netherlands

11 Norway

10 Jordan

09 Japan

08 Spain

07 Brazil

06 Mexico

05 Algeria

04 Iraq

03 Tunisia

02 Cape Verde

01 Australia

*Cough cough* reminder of this in case it got lost in your notifications @danG Can you fix my votes in the scoreboard please?

On 25/06/2026 at 23:31, danG said:

06 173 Uzbekistan :: Lotunia :: Gulinur – Devona

07 163 Tunisia :: New Helvetica :: E M E L – Holm

08 160 Austria :: The Spodic Empire :: Kaleen – Heart in Stereo

09 158 Turkey :: FSR Rontvia :: She Past Away – Mizantrop

10 152 Norway :: Yehesi :: Ylva – HÆ?

11 145 Czechia :: Danaæviia :: Plusminusnula – Letná

12 142 Japan :: Land of DW :: Nikoん – (^｡^)// ﾊｲ

13 141 Uruguay :: Wholune :: Cuarteto de Nos – Ya no sé qué hacer conmigo

Corrected scoreboard ^

10 hours ago, danG said:

Corrected scoreboard ^

Hmm, not sure how to feel about this, it's nice to be bumped up a place, but I would've loved for Uruguay to make the top 10.

I'm a bit obsessed with 'Ya no sé qué hacer conmigo', listened to it loads today, might be one of my top 3 buzzjack discoveries of the year.