Commisserations to all the eliminated mentors, I know there are plenty here I'd have loved to hear more from (Tove Lo only getting 2 songs?!), and as a big M83 stan I know they had so many more great songs they could have used. Also knew that both Agnes and Leona had good chances of getting back in but I didn't count on Kate Bush getting knocked out and then straight back in with her classic, feel for them.

Pretty decent acts getting back in but with good song choices from all so I'm happy on the round front.

So M83 weren't actually my first choice this time and someone beat me to it. That act is still in the competition so I will keep quiet for now, but I've always been a big fan of their massive soundscapes and epic scope (so good they cause @Brélican persistent amnesia x) so like with Bowie, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to explore their music a bit more, I did decide to mainly stick to Hurry Up We're Dreaming and before as the material since has been patchy - and I was really pleased to experience that along with Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, Before the Dawn Heals Us and Saturdays = Youth, they were fantastic albums which indeed just reinforced they good they are great soundscapes.

The groups looked competitive and I didn't think I'd be able to make it all the way to the live shows, I didn't really have a strategy and was just playing round by round with a handful of big ones I was saving, Oblivion was a good start, being a past BJSC winner, and Kim & Jessie was one of their most pop-leaning and well known of their singles, I sadly flew a bit too close to the sun with my next one...

I guess with how well Warszawa went down for me last time, I had some confidence that Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun may pick up similar levels of support but sadly it didn't quite click as I'd hoped with my intended crowd and I clearly got too overconfident in a pop music competition. I think the song reflects what M83 do best with the long, ambient soundscapes that create a resounding epic feeling , it might seen a bit static to some but this is what I love them for so I don't regret sending it and I would've at some point even if not then. And I think it very much fits the brief of 'could've been a single' within their context - M83 are hardly hitmakers and they've released instrumental tracks of the same length before, this one also received a music video and an edit which none of their album tracks have, plus it's their highest rated album track on RateYourMusic and was ranked as their best or amongst their best songs by many publications. M83 aren't really a singles band apart from the obvious one, a lot of what they didn't release are mainly longer, instrumental works so almost anything I'd picked would've likely been the same.

Outro though was always going to be my last pick, it's one of my all time favourites despite it's overuse in Media and just works so much better closing out anything. It would've been wiser for me to use this as my album track and I did consider it, but I would've been sacrificed this poetic moment otherwise. If I'd have sent Midnight City, I would've been doing it just to get back in, and I'm not sure it would've beaten Enjoy the Silence anyway (I would've ranked it lower myself!), and it would've gone unsent (and a bit of a hot take, it's far from their best for me, it's very good, but not sure I'd put it in my top 5 songs from them!) It was far more satisfying knowing I had no chance and being pleasantly surprised I finished in the top half with the perfect closer.

In the version of events I went with strategy and did send Outro to the album tracks round and that saved me (and for those of you that were interested in discovering some more songs from them) then I probably would've gone: Don't Save Us From The Flames for part 2 of Boot Camp > We Own the Sky for Six Chair > Wait for Judges Houses and I have literally no idea what I would've sent to the next part as they're almost all soundtrack interludes I'm not familiar with! Off the chance I made it through, it would've left me with Midnight City for this round. I would've also really wanted to send something like Dead Seas... like Run Into Flowers at some point.

Anyway, thanks all for having me again if for a shorter time this time, I still had a great time and good luck to those left, I of course will continue to throw my support behind the old men and women of the live shows as long as possible x And I may or may not have an idea of sneaking in an old woman to the Females round next time, let's see x

'Moonchild' or 'Don't Save Us From The Flames' or 'Teen Angst' or 'Farewell / Goodbye' would have been amazing to see at some point to say nothing of what 'Car Chase Terror!' would have done to everyone's minds <- delusional Before The Dawn Heals Us stan

But going out with 'Lower Your Eyelids' was really some rotten luck, well played Chez; 'Outro' was a good choice and my top score for this round.

Oh yeah, had I made it to another album track round, Car Chase Terror and Farewell/Goodbye would've been top of my list!

Just caught up now - quite a reversal of fortunes after it was all alt bloc faves being dumped out in the last round, with 2 of the 3 being right back and the other returning act being even more of an alt bloc fave. All 3 of the returning acts placed in my top 2 of their categories so happy with that!

My rankings (iirc, I should really save these things x):

1 Gary 2 Bladee 3 Calvin 4 Lewis 5 Roosevelt 6 Damien 7 HRVY 8 Mackenzy

1 Kate 2 Dido 3 Agnes 4 Tove 5 Milica 6 Leona 7 Jessie

1 Ultravox 2 Depeche 3 iamamiwhoami 4 wejustdon'tknow.gif 5 Vengaboys 6 DOA 7 Sade 8 Y&Y

The Bladee song was a great discovery and more what I'd have hoped to hear from him than the odd pick for the first round - obviously it's still BuzzJack poison but we could have had two songs of that calibre from him at least!! And shoutout again to his Cold Visions album/mixtape which is all bangers x I also thought this was one of the best picks from iamamiwhoami so pavita finishing on a high for me <3 + the Dead Or Alive song was quite good too so the randomiser didn't do them too much of a disservice for me, mind I was one of the few defenders of 'Misty Circles' in the first place.

I do think playing 'We Found Love' at this stage was a bit of a blunder and Calvin could have got through with 'I'm Not Alone' (I'd have ranked that 1st myself... fwiw I didn't penalise 'We Found Love' for the Rihanna thing, it would never have beaten 'Cars' for me and the Bladee song was a good enough discovery to nudge ahead of it, it's comfortably better than the rest of the solo men field even though that is another one of Lewis Capaldi's better songs) but alas! We love to see a mild upset for the old man *.* Numan making it quite far in the early stages but still having to burn through 'Cars' in the Wagner to make it into the live shows may not bode well for him to last a lot longer as he's a bit bereft of obvious choices now so intrigued to see how his mentor plays him now.

I really couldn't call it between Kate and Agnes, wouldn't be surprised if it was very close between them (this is the first time there hasn't been a tie for first place in the Wagner round so I half wondered if they might end up also tying and we ended up with a 16 act live shows ) - it did go the way I wanted obvz but 'Release Me' is a legit great song so Scene gave her the best shot she had there. Wondering if Tove could also have been in the mix if she went with 'Stay High' (would have ranked 2nd for me I think), it's super unfortunate that she only got to play 2 songs.

I thought Ultravox would have put up more of a fight in the groups but nevermind - yay that the voters still collectively decided to advance 80s faves across the board xo (not a fan of 'King' I'm afraid).

Respect to @Juan Carlos, @Henessy Lake and @disguhsting going with such leftfield artist choices and all picking at least one good discovery for me along the way.

Not me making it to the live shows for a second edition in a row (unless I didn't submit an artist etc. x)

Firstly thank you to everyone who has voted for Agnes/shown support for her selections over the past month or so! Despite her not being my first choice (a vetoed group who weren’t totally European took that spot), I’ve really enjoyed delving into her back catalogue since, unlike Avril and Kelly Clarkson, I didn’t know too many of her songs beforehand. Now I can proudly say I’m an Agnes stan.

I originally sent EGO for round 1 before quickly realising that may be a fan-fave better played later in the game. I momentarily switched to ON AND ON (UK REMIX) but then got cold feet, thinking it might be too ‘Europop’ for some of the more alt voters. I ended up settling on SELFMADE on the rationale it came from a critically acclaimed album, was a bit quirky but still had some hook to it. I didn’t expect it to rank 10^th out of 12 but then I didn’t expect some of the other ladies to bring out the big guns so early lol!

After my near-elimination in round 1, I got a bit scared and played EGO, thinking it’d be a safe bet – and it was. Ngl, I did think when it “only” got to 5^th in the vote that Agnes’s long term future would be in jeopardy since I thought it was one of her biggies… perhaps not.

Round 3 threw me for a minute upon realising all of Agnes’s best songs were given the singles treatment. I was toying with playing YOU’RE LIKE GOD from Veritas but could foresee the vocal effects maybe getting dragged. I then settled on XX from Magic Still Exists but, after the lukewarm response to SELFMADE, I decided to give Agnes’s discography another listen. That’s when I found LOADED: it gave me instant Alanis vibes, the production was on-point and that chorus was pop perfection. I really enjoyed reading some of the comments for this pick so thank you to those of you!

I sensed after Round 3, the girls category would restart playing their big-hitters, so to give Agnes a chance I needed to play hard until the category rounds ended (hence my question to Calum at the time lol). 24 HOURS seemed like the best choice for Round 4 – though I did expect a little better in the vote, but the category was just that strong!

I always planned to play HERE COMES THE NIGHT during the “play your best” round. After all, I sent it to the PFSC where it came 4^th, so I knew it was beloved on here (and Joseph begging for it to be played as soon as Agnes was announced lmao). It really does sound like pop perfection in the vein of ABBA to me, so yes let’s say I was a tad disappointed with what transpired at 6CC. Had I known the “play your best” round was more “play to Iz’s tastes” I’d have chanced I TRANCE, based on the little I know of Iz’s music preferences.

Had I remained in the competition, I probably would’ve ended up selecting FINGERS CROSSED for the “most streamed” round (my original choice for that round anyway) and maybe something like NOTHING CAN COMPARE for the least streamed round – tbh I didn’t check what would qualify for that though.

My live show song list was as follows (assuming I got the amount of rounds correct):

Live show 1: MILK

Live show 2: BALENCIAGA COVERED EYES

Live show 3: HUMAN TOUCH or LOVE LOVE LOVE

Semi-final: LOVE AND APPRECIATION

Final: I TRANCE & LOVESONGS

I originally was planning to save Fingers Crossed and Release Me for the final but the wild competition in the females category made me reconsider. Fingers Crossed especially felt like the right successor to ABBA but it wasn’t meant to be. 😭 I originally planned to play Milk and Balenciaga in the category-voting rounds but thought they may prove too divisive up against some big-hitters. I thought maybe they'd stand more chance in the rounds including the solo males and groups.

Now if Kate Bush would like to roll back down the hill so Balenciagnes can make her grand return a la Zara.

Thank you for such a detailed run through @Horror Scene, you really did play it brilliantly. When the females category was announced Agnes was the one I most wanted to win, so I’m gutted she’s out.

Did you ever give any consideration to playing All I Want Is You or Don’t Go Breaking My Heartt?

Aye you did great, and it’s a shame Agnes didn’t get to the lives!

In fact there’s a few acts who had a fair amount more to give.

Be interesting to see how things play out going forward though and what themes will derail 🤣

Oh nice idea to show the song list if Calvin have made it:

Live show 1: Under Control

Live show 2: My Way or Bounce

Live show 3: Outside or Blessings

Semi-final: One Kiss

Final: Miracle & I’m Not Alone

I was also alternating between Adele/Calvin and another group (which I’ll keep a secret for now, in case I decide to go with them in the future) right up until the last minute! I don’t even know if I would’ve beaten the person who confirmed Adele first, but yeah, in the end, I decided to go with Calvin as my first choice!!!