SOLO FEMALE

Hallo, welkom in Amsterdam!

The second stop on The Pop Factor's European Adventure brings us to the liberal, progressive, cannabis-selling city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Home to the house of Anne Frank, the Red Light District, many a bicycle route, and the Van Gogh Museum, this will be the last stop for some artists. Eleven have landed safely, but only ten will continue on the adventure to the next location and venue. Singing for their place in the competition, let's welcome the solo female artists to the Ziggo Dome stage to audition again for the voting BuzzJack public!

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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03

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11 (least favourite)

For those voting who have entered one of the artists into the competition, you should rank all eleven performances in your own category (however it's encouraged that you vote in all categories), and when scores are totalled your entry will be removed from your list to retain anonymity in the competition.

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

When voting closes, the ten female solo artists with the highest scores will proceed to the next round while ONE artist will be eliminated from the competition and will not be going through.

However, the competition doesn't end there. Any artists eliminated from the competition - until stated - will be eligible to compete for the chance to return and claim The Gamu Nhengu Gold Card.

Voting will close on Monday 28 September 2026, 17:59 BST

So give a round of applause for our solo female artists and let's find out what they're performing for their ARENA AUDITION...

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Standard list of entries:

Milica Pavlović - Crna jutra (Balkan S&M)

Leona Lewis - Come Alive

Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault

Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move

Adele - Rolling in the Deep

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination

Dido - Take My Hand

Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes

Robyn - Hang With Me

Agnes - EGO

MARINA - Froot

This week, awardinary will be hosting a listen-through session for The Arena Auditions in Amsterdam on Thursday 24 September at 19:00 BST. More information will be shared before the session begins, but if you'd like the opportunity to listen to all of the performances with others, this is it.

Adele playing big again!

Could have been Adele’s winning song (if she gets that far).

Take My Hand is a wise choice, as it won Bop Idol recently.

Hang With Me ❤️ Robyn is HERE!

All the people at danger last time have sent brilliant songs this time… I suspect we will have a new bottom three.

Edited September 22Sep 22 by gooddelta

Some smart choices here, apart from Adele, everyone seems to have settled in the “not their biggest hit but still very much competitive” zone and, given I have no idea what any of Milica’s music sounds like and she pulled a shock last time, I can’t see an obvious “mistake” of a pick here.

Adele going big again! Loads of bangers in this round, loving the Leona, Sophie and Dido choices in particular!

Well that will be my 2 favourite Dido songs gone: great to see them but not sure where she’ll go afterwards.

Those are quite possibly my favourite Adele and Jessie Ware songs! Happy the FROOT era is getting some representation for MARINA too.

Adele is going big again but let’s be honest, at this rate she’ll be “going big” in practically every round, she has enough massive hits to cover most weeks 😂

(Also yay for me and my imaginations appearance ❤️)

Edited September 22Sep 22 by Lee_J11

The person behind Leona Lewis picking a Glassheart album track and it's "Come Alive". They're not playing this round.

Wow. Milica has come to compete again, great entry. It’s anybody’s guess who goes this time I think.

Adele, Zara, Marina, Agnes, Sophie and Leona are all bringing it this round. Holy sheet.

I don’t know the rest (yet).

Zara is coming back swinginggggg

Again, I like that Marina song but it's probably not one that I'd have picked although I'm more of a Family Jewels/Electra Heart stan

So many great songs this round. It’s going to be difficult to rank them.

EGO was my 2nd most play songs last year and 1st most played song released in 2025.

01. Agnes – EGO (fave)

02. Leona Lewis - Come Alive

03. Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move

04. Adele - Rolling in the Deep

05. Dido - Take My Hand

06. MARINA - Froot

07. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination

08. Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes

09. Milica Pavlović - Crna jutra (Balkan S&M)

10. Robyn - Hang With Me

11. Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault

I knew 3 songs here, but a lot of good finds! Ego is a bop and Come Alive is great too! Jessie, Adele and Dido were solid picks – does feel early for Rolling in the Deep, but she does have strong songs. Froot was good, Me and My Imagination has never really been one of my fave SEB songs, but was better than I remembered it being.

Kate and Milica were ok, Robyn I think she has better and I just didn’t really enjoy that Zara song (sorry).

01 Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move

02 Adele - Rolling in the Deep

03 MARINA - Froot

04 Kate Bush - The Man with the Child in His Eyes

05 Dido - Take My Hand

06 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination

07 Agnes - EGO

08 Robyn - Hang With Me

09 Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault

10 Leona Lewis - Come Alive

11 Milica Pavlović - Crna jutra (Balkan S&M)

Jessie going from last to first in my ranking '110%' you'll always be famous

1. Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault (always ADORED this. The ad libs make me go feral)

2. MARINA - Froot (love how kooky this is. it flies by for a fairly long song too)

3. Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move (always thought this was so cool and ahead of its time)

4. Robyn - Hang With Me (I didn’t know this at the time but I discovered it a few years back and I think its really nice)

5. Milica Pavlović - Crna jutra (Balkan S&M) (boppy in a eurovision way - complimentary)

6. Adele - Rolling in the Deep (a classic for good reason but a tad overplayed for me nowadays. My last.fm tells me I’ve only played it once in the last 11 years, until now!)

7. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination (there isn’t a bad Sophie ellis-bextor song, let’s be honest)

8. Agnes - EGO (I liked this for a few weeks last year and the forgot all about it!)

9. Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes (she’s just great also)

10. Dido - Take My Hand (interesting song but a bit long for me. I’d probably have enjoyed a radio edit more whoops)

11. Leona Lewis - Come Alive (sounds a little dated in today’s landscape with the dubstep kinda sound)

1. Adele - Rolling in the Deep (an incredible song from day 1 through to now - did the job of setting up one of the biggest albums of all-time, this is a final quality submission)

2. Robyn - Hang With Me (a beautiful song and production with fragility to Robyn's vocal, Body Talk is one of the greatest projects any pop artist has ever done)

3. Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move (great one to send as on name alone Jessie is not one of the bigger acts in this category, but there's just no denying a banger like this)

4. Leona Lewis - Come Alive (forgot how much I enjoyed Leona's dubstep diversion on this album, and the vocals were, as always, excellent)

5. Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes (a beautiful vocal, and a special song)

6. Agnes - EGO (great track as ever from Agnes from another good album from her, I saw her do this live earlier in the year when she spoilt us with a nine song gig at her headline show)

7. Milica Pavlović - Crna jutra (Balkan S&M) (I really enjoyed this again from Milica, it gives me RedOne gone Balkan vibes)

8. Dido - Take My Hand (nice recent winner of Bop Idol, and was always a highlight album track on No Angel, Jurgen Vries charted with a solid trance cover of it in 2004)

9. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination (not a major fave but a jolly enough single from Sophie from an amazing album, would love to see some of its album tracks at some point)

10. MARINA - Froot (this always comes into my head but isn't a great favourite, nor was the parent album, although I saw Marina live in this era and it was fun live)

11. Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault (I don't really mind this, although recent ranks and rates on the site are making me realise that songs with prominent horn style riffs aren't always my favourite)

Poor Zara being thrown around the rankings like a ragdoll :’)

Any news on when the Spotify playlists will be up please?

Starting again with the girlies.

FAVE

11 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Me and My Imagination

10 Zara Larsson - Ain't My Fault

09 Agnes - EGO

08 Robyn - Hang With Me

07 Leona Lewis - Come Alive

06 Adele - Rolling in the Deep

05 MARINA - Froot

04 Milica Pavlović - Crna jutra (Balkan S&M)

03 Dido - Take My Hand

02 Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move

01 Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes

LEAST FAVE

Something about that Sophie song I have always loved so I couldn’t not 🥰

Thought I’d continue the Zara ragdoll trend!

A largely decent bunch again. Agnes certainly redeemed herself this time. Marina and Milica were pleasant discoveries. Dido I semi enjoyed but it just took a little too long to get going.

The latter two not so much x

Edited September 23Sep 23 by Lee_J11