Based on comments I was expecting podium finishes or 0 points, so all of these 1 and 2 point scores are greatly appreciated :)

Good to see Fish getting two more 12 point scores after my own one.

Leonard Cohen was 12th for me (I already knew the song too). Jewel was 11th.

Thanks Colm!

4 minutes ago, dandy* said:

All of a sudden Leonard Cohen has pulled out a twenty one point lead, that's surely got to be looking like a decisive break at this comparatively late stage... doesn't it?

I have previous of losing such leads...

Soooooo, Dolly, one of my more obscure moves that nobody would have suspected clearly.... Yeah as @Lee_J11 said, I'm a basic bitch what can I say, just ask @Chez Wombat after the thousand and two entries I submitted for his song contest. 🤭😘

I thought Dolly was the perfect choice, liked by everyone, hated by nobody, but which song to go for!? I contemplated one of her more upbeat ones like Here you come again or Baby I'm burning but when it came down to it, I thought it had to be between Me and little Andy or Coat of Many colours. Both quite deep songs lyrically in different ways, melancholy and with some stunning (if simple) lyricism.

I went with Coat of many colours in the end because Dolly herself said it's her most favourite song she has ever written, that it's her most personal song and about her own mother. It felt like the right choice. ❤️

Little did I know what was going to explode (and I suspect I would have been told "no chance" had it already done so before entering)! I definitely thought it would be very interesting to see if that influenced anyone's decision and would definitely like to know.

Either way I hope it was an enjoyable listen for everyone.

TWENTY FIVE

On 18/08/2026 at 03:44, nine¾ said:

Cohen and Nick Cave are among my top 10 favorite musicians, if I had to make a list, and poetry in lyrics is very important to me especially when I understand the lyrics and can experience the song on that deeper level. Maybe that’s also why I’m not really an instrumental kind of person.

I didn’t want to choose either Cohen or Cave because I assumed they’re already very well known in Britain. I’ve actually even seen Cave live. So instead, I chose a song in my native language that is painful to me. People can interpret it through the lens of their own lives, their own experiences of injustice, pain caused by injustice, power, cruel people, wars, whatever it may be... People are people, and the law is the law, and it should be the same for everyone. And when we stop believing in people, we start believing in the law. Yet, by the end of this song, even the law cannot protect a person’s own memories and emotions.

Maybe it will be obvious that this is my song, but honestly, I don’t care. I really wanted to submit it, and I’m proud of it, however it ends up doing.

On 29/08/2026 at 21:36, nine¾ said:

Okay, here are my votes. This was probably the hardest voting I've ever had to do, I wanted to give points to 22 songs 😭

I genuinely feel bad for the songs that didn't make it into my points.

12 Scott Walker - Such a Small Love

10 Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan

8 Exuma - Dambala

7 Joan Osborne - St. Teresa

6 Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colours

5 Sibylle Baier - I Lost Something in the Hills

4 Melanie - Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)

3 Fish - A Gentleman's Excuse Me

2 Buffy Saine-Marie - The Big Ones Get Away

1 Youssou N'Dour - The Lion (Gaiende)

Sorry sorry sorry to everyone else basicly

No real surprise at the reveal of nine's entry, but the tactic of sticking local seems to be working fine so far as she sits in 12th spot. Scott Walker moves up to fourth spot, quite unexpected given how clear the top 4 were at one point!

The top few all score here but again Leonard Cohen scores that bit more than the others, the lead is up to 27 points with just five voters to come! One of which is Bror up next...

1 minute ago, Spiceboy said:

Soooooo, Dolly, one of my more obscure moves that nobody would have suspected clearly.... Yeah as @Lee_J11 said, I'm a basic bitch what can I say, just ask @Chez Wombat after the thousand and two entries I submitted for his song contest. 🤭😘

I thought Dolly was the perfect choice, liked by everyone, hated by nobody, but which song to go for!? I contemplated one of her more upbeat ones like Here you come again or Baby I'm burning but when it came down to it, I thought it had to be between Me and little Andy or Coat of Many colours. Both quite deep songs lyrically in different ways, melancholy and with some stunning (if simple) lyricism.

I went with Coat of many colours in the end because Dolly herself said it's her most favourite song she has ever written, that it's her most personal song and about her own mother. It felt like the right choice. ❤️

Little did I know what was going to explode (and I suspect I would have been told "no chance" had it already done so before entering)! I definitely thought it would be very interesting to see if that influenced anyone's decision and would definitely like to know.

Either way I hope it was an enjoyable listen for everyone.

It slowly crept up my votes and into 1st position through multiple listen throughs - the news didnt change that for me :)

Goodness it looks like @jimwatts got it now! I am hoping Dolly can pull above Melanie and get the second place at least! This is so exciting!!

Thank you nine for the silver! I enjoyed your song a lot and will look up a translation of the lyrics

2 minutes ago, Spiceboy said:

Soooooo, Dolly, one of my more obscure moves that nobody would have suspected clearly.... Yeah as @Lee_J11 said, I'm a basic bitch what can I say, just ask @Chez Wombat after the thousand and two entries I submitted for his song contest. 🤭😘

I thought Dolly was the perfect choice, liked by everyone, hated by nobody, but which song to go for!? I contemplated one of her more upbeat ones like Here you come again or Baby I'm burning but when it came down to it, I thought it had to be between Me and little Andy or Coat of Many colours. Both quite deep songs lyrically in different ways, melancholy and with some stunning (if simple) lyricism.

I went with Coat of many colours in the end because Dolly herself said it's her most favourite song she has ever written, that it's her most personal song and about her own mother. It felt like the right choice. ❤️

Little did I know what was going to explode (and I suspect I would have been told "no chance" had it already done so before entering)! I definitely thought it would be very interesting to see if that influenced anyone's decision and would definitely like to know.

Either way I hope it was an enjoyable listen for everyone.

I gave three points to Dolly before she died. I hadn't actually sent my vote at that stage but didn't change it so my score is definitely based on the song's merit.

Oops sorry for disappearing (for once it was not because I fell asleep...! just been a bit distracted by some other things x) - I'll post a catchup post at the end but I see my song is about to be revealed, wonder what it could be x

6 minutes ago, Herbs said:

It slowly crept up my votes and into 1st position through multiple listen throughs - the news didnt change that for me :)

❤️ It really is a beautiful song.

TWENTY SIX

22 hours ago, Bror said:

12 Joan Osborne - St. Teresa

10 Sibylle Baier - I Lost Something In The Hills

8 Laura Nyro - Captain For Dark Mornings

7 Elvis Costello & The Attractions - I Want You

6 Laurie Anderson - Sharkey's Day

5 Scott Walker - Such A Small Love

4 PJ Harvey - 50ft Queenie

3 Youssou N'Dour - The Lion / Gaïende

2 Ani DiFranco - Untouchable Face

1 Melanie - Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

Commiserations to Iris DeMent and Fish. A few other pretty good songs here but overall this theme is perhaps a little bit lost on me as I'm not normally one to pay much attention to lyrics really - my top 3 in particular do definitely stand out more to me for their sonic palettes than the words but hey ho! Shoutout to the Laurie Anderson song which was a surprise massive grower on second listen, it was a way off being in my votes at all from first impressions. Otherwise my opinions didn't shift much on the relisten. I totally forgot until the listenthrough that the Youssou N'Dour song had been in a BJSC spinoff before, knew it sounded familiar when I heard it but couldn't figure out where from - it gets points from me for a second time, but in retrospect I think I slightly overrated it when it was in the BJSC 80s spinoff oops, I gave it as much as 10 points there (under the 18 point system so ranked 6th), ahead of the likes of 'Where Is My Mind?', what was I thinking xox

My own entry came, as with a lot of my retro contest entries, from a keyword search on RateYourMusic - the theme immediately made me think of 60s folk music so I was originally just searching for 'folk' but then spotted an album tagged with 'psychedelic folk' and decided to refine my search to that (we love genre labels!) and there was this Exuma album sitting right near the top of the site's top rated all time albums of that genre looking immediately intriguing from the cover art (and other genres listed) alone. Seems to be a relatively obscure album but with a cult following and I could immediately see why, again this song is one I probably enjoy a bit more for the sound of it than the actual lyrics (was pleased to see compliments on the production at the listenthrough x) but I do think the words are quite powerful anyway, yass king get those colonisers x I did also check out a couple of other songs from the album ('Exuma, The Obeah Man' and 'Mama Loi, Papa Loi') and they were very good too but they didn't quite stand up to the fire and brimstone gut punch delivered by 'Dambala'. Hope a few of you enjoyed x

(and obligatory RIP Dolly Parton - very intrigued to see who sent her as they can't have been anticipating the song would become a top 10 hit on UK Spotify partway through the contest...! I do think it's a nice enough song but certainly doesn't stack up to her main classics for me so still falls short of my votes although I did push it up a few places after my relisten)

So it was our Bror who was behind the entry that I think was probably the most obscure of the contest; and it's working out okay at the moment as he sits in 8th spot. The top 3 looked reasonably set in stone at this stage but Scott Walker is putting up a fight for a podium spot. Laura Nyro moves up to joint 5th. The big mover though is Joan Osborne who leaps up to 13th after being the latest song to be crowned someone's favourite entry. Only Melanie scores out of the top 3 but it's only a mealworm so all is really much of a muchness.

A guest vote from AllStarbySmashMouth up next!

Not all too familiar with dolly’s music apart from like Jolene, I will always love you and 9 to 5 bc I didn’t grow up with her music, so spiceboy’s entry was my first intro to this particular song. I knew about her background and how it’s influenced her charity work in later life and I found the song to be a nice encapsulation of her past as well as her purpose in later life. So great pick spiceboy 💕 (even if you had insider info about her ill health)

Oh Booooo @Bror , blocking the poor saintly recently deceased Dolly from second place! May she cast a hex on you! 🤭 (I say that cos anyone who knows Dolly, knows she would never and in fact probs stick up for you 😂).

So intense!!

Ooh Exuma was the prediction for Bré I had in my head, yay! Great pick - glad to see this intriguing, obscure entry rewarded with top 10 right now.

Thank you for the bronze for Laura / pushing me up to joint 5th 🥰

Breeee thank you for the silver!! Loved your entry as well, def among the most sonically interesting of the entries here

12 from Bror and inching closer to Top 10

Thank you <3

TWENTY SEVEN

On 29/08/2026 at 18:32, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

Hello, D asterisk and everyone. I got enough time and decided to be a guest voter to make up for not having entered. Anyway, here are my votes:

12 Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan Then We Take Berlin

10 Laurie Anderson - Sharkey's Day

08 Ani DiFranco - Untouchable Face

07 Youssou N'Dour - The Lion (Gaiende)

06 Đorđe Balašević - Ne lomite mi bagrenje

05 Sibylle Baier - I Lost Something in the Hills

04 Alanis Morissette - That I Would Be Good

03 PJ Harvey - 50 Ft Queenie

02 Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colours

01 Noriyuki Makihara - Mo Koinante Shinai

...and we officially have a winner! I shall be passing the crown on to JimWatts after Leonard Cohen takes full marks from our guest voter here - congratulations @jimwatts !!!

Three voters left to reveal so the focus moves on to how the rest of the table will end up looking... CowTzy is up next!

The Youssou N’dour renaissance is upon us!

Also, congrats @jimwatts - a wonderful discovery and amazing winner! ❤️