GROUPS

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 groups. 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 groups to the Ziggo Dome stage to audition again for the voting BuzzJack public!

How it works:

Once you have listened to all of the groups 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)

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

11 (least favourite)

For those voting who have entered one of the groups 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 groups with the highest scores will proceed to the next round while ONE group 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 groups and let's find out what they're performing for their ARENA AUDITION...

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Standard list of entries:

Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

Sade - Your Love is King

New Order - Age of Consent

Years & Years - All For You

Ultravox - The Voice

Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

M83 - Kim & Jessie

Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)

Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

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.

Some interesting choices this time. Some new to me but they will have to be pretty great to beat my 2 immediate faves

All For You

I fear we may be seeing quite a Vengaboys fall from grace here but it’s a fun cover, if you ask me 😂

That's an unexpected choice for Bananarama but I love it, it's their last properly amazing single!

Quite a few on this list I don't know though, looking forward to checking them out.

1 minute ago, Mangø said:

That's an unexpected choice for Bananarama but I love it, it's their last properly amazing single!

Quite a few on this list I don't know though, looking forward to checking them out.

Yeah it’s really good. Hope it doesn’t put them in any danger as it’s not a heyday classic but is great dance pop.

Oooooh early hype to Sade

Ha Vengaboys really said "I Wanna Go Back" after finishing top in the last round with a song from... 1999. I see what their mentor did there.

49 minutes ago, RobBot said:

I fear we may be seeing quite a Vengaboys fall from grace here but it’s a fun cover, if you ask me 😂

Didn't realise they covered that song... its certainly a choice

The Vengaboys sacrificing their place in the competition with a flop so they can triumphantly return in the live shows with all their bangers still to play

Vengas coming to do a HAIM style 1st to last?

I enjoyed the Vengaboys cover of 1999.

Edited September 22Sep 22 by Paddington James

Fun fact, I just returned from Amsterdam and Vengaboys were played in drag bingo last night !!!

Is this some sort of a sign!!!

Going to work with vengaboys playlist on :) 😂

01. Years & Years - All For You (fave)

02. iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

03. Ultravox - The Voice

04. M83 - Kim & Jessie

05. Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

06. Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)

07. Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

08. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

09. New Order - Age of Consent

10. Sade - Your Love is King

11. Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

 

Only knew the Texas/ Year and Years entries here… and I guess the song that the Vengaboys have covered. Overall, not bad and some good finds with iamamiwhoami, Ultravox and M83. All For You is such a good song and deserved way more success than it got! Enjoyed chasing kites, the Voice and Kim & Jessie too.

 

Texas, Bananrama and Fontaines were ok, wasn’t overly keen on the bottom 2. Sade I just kinda find a bit boring… but the Vengaboys cover isn’t great. I think as it’s a cover as well sort of goes against them. They do have bops though and I get wanting to save songs like Boom, Boom, Boom for later, but I just didn’t enjoy the cover (sorry).

1. Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) (A gem from the band's duo days, it's a cover of an 80s Italo disco track but this is such a slick version, great dance pop 00s sound)

2. Texas - I Don't Want a Lover (a late 80s classic and the only big Texas hit before their imperial phase in the late 90s, I have a lot of time for this rockier sound from them)

3. iamamiwhoami - chasing kites (really lovely production on this, shimmering Scandi electro-pop)

4. Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line (liked this one and didn't know it, there's still a big Fontaines fave of mine I hope to see which I expect could top the group for me!)

5. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again (very good, more modern song from them, they've still got it)

6. Sade - Your Love is King (another smooth and soulful classic)

7. New Order - Age of Consent (I like the guitar riff going through this)

8. Ultravox - The Voice (solid track with good vocals from Midge)

9. Years & Years - All For You (had forgotten about this one, it's not really a favourite but has a good chorus)

10. Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back) (I have heard this before, it's a fun choice of song for Vengaboys to cover as a modern release for thematic reasons, but as it doesn't really change much it does come across a bit karaoke)

11. M83 - Kim & Jessie (production sounded quite decent with some of those M83 hallmarks but otherwise it went over my head a little unfortunately, I didn't dislike it though)

Another good week for the groups! I wouldn't be against hearing any of these again.

16 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

1. Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) (A gem from the band's duo days, it's a cover of an 80s Italo disco track but this is such a slick version, great dance pop 00s sound)

Oh wow I never knew this was a cover, colour me shocked

Just now, Mangø said:

Oh wow I never knew this was a cover, colour me shocked

Yes, of an 80s band called My Mine, and then Master Blaster did a typical Clubland era version of it in 2003. Maybe that version inspired Bananarama or their team to pick it up.

01 Ultravox - The Voice

02 New Order - Age of Consent

03 M83 - Kim & Jessie

04 iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

05 Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

06 Sade - Your Love is King

07 Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

08 Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)

09 Years & Years - All For You

10 Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

11 Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

Ultravox's mentor is killing it so far 🤩

1. iamamiwhoami - chasing kites (this is more like it!)

2. Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) (looooove these girls)

3. Texas - I Don't Want a Lover (I can tell I’m going to love discovering more from Texas as the competition goes on )

4. Sade - Your Love is King (some nice easy listening, they’re good vibes)

5. M83 - Kim & Jessie (lovely synths)

6. Years & Years - All For You (this Y&Y era passed me by at the time because I wasn’t a fan of ‘If you’re over me’ but this is good)

7. Ultravox - The Voice (not hugely my thing on paper but I could imagine myself tapping my toes to this on Heart 80s)

8. Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back) (objectively not great but I can’t’ deny having fun when I listen to the vengaboys)

9. Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line (sounds like most other Fontaines songs but that’s a good baseline so I enjoyed this)

10. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again (suffers from not being my cup of tea but it’s objectively nice) 

11. New Order - Age of Consent (sounded like I’d expect it to but it’s decent)