1 Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again 🖤

2 Ultravox - The Voice

3 iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

4 New Order - Age of Consent

5 Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

6 M83 - Kim & Jessie

7 Sade - Your Love is King

8 Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

9 Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)

10 Years & Years - All For You

11 Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

That's the best DM song I've heard since the 90s, awesome stuff. iamamiwhoami with another great discovery for me, even better than last week's I think. Would have loved to see how many rounds the Vengaboys could win with their hits until they run out, but guess they'll be relying on the Gamu thingy after this.

FAVE

11 Years & Years - All For You

10 Ultravox - The Voice

09 Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

08 Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

07 M83 - Kim & Jessie

06 Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)

05 Sade - Your Love is King

04 Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

03 iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

02 Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

01 New Order - Age of Consent

LEAST FAVE

Sadly, not the greatest bunch overall for me.

Years & Years was the clear winner but I did discover a few new pleasant surprises in the form of Ultravox and Fontaines!

1 Ghosts Again – Depeche Mode

2 Your Love Is King – Sade

3 Age of Consent – New Order

4 Kim & Jessie – M83

5 Jackie Down The Line – Fontaines D.C.

6 chasing kites – iamamiwhoami & ionnalee

7 The Voice – Ultravox

8 All for You – Years & Years

9 Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) – Bananarama

10 I Don't Want a Lover – Texas

11 1999 (I Wanna Go Back) – Vengaboys

1 Texas - I Don't Want a Lover this is a fantastic selection! *adds to playlist* Intrigued to see what else they bring to the table.

2 Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back) their mentor is definitely flirting with danger here but I can't deny it's still an all out bop and sounds so fun against these songs.

3 Ultravox - The Voice another really enjoyable cut from these guys.

4 Sade - Your Love is King last round's selection didn't click with me but this is a big step-up imo. Surprisingly enjoyed this a lot.

5 Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) this is another big step-up imo. Great production!

6 New Order - Age of Consent again, I much prefer this selection to their last one.

7 Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again another solid choice from DM.

8 iamamiwhoami - chasing kites I enjoyed this one but it got a bit lost in the pack for me.

9 Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line another one I enjoyed and expected to rank high - until I listened to the others oops.

10 Years & Years - All For You this is ok. Probably a smart choice to play this now rather than later.

11 M83 - Kim & Jessie this is not for me (sorry).

On 22/09/2026 at 17:45, Calum said:

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.

For those wanting to come along and experience the reactions to your own entries, we invite all mentors and voting members to come online at 7pm to hear this week's songs.

https://sync-tube.de/room/Uy2urZ2Z

The session will begin with the male vocalists, followed by the females, followed by the groups.

01. iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

02. Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

03. M83 - Kim & Jessie

04. Years & Years - All For You

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

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

07. Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

08. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

09. New Order - Age of Consent

10. Ultravox - The Voice

11. Sade - Your Love is King

Great iamamiwhoami song! Gorgeous. Nice bop from Texas and M83. Not a fave Y&Y track but it's good! Enjoyed that Fontaines song more than their first round one and I like the Bananarama track. That cover is so... pointless but I can't help but stan. Decent from Depeche Mode, New Order and Ultravox. Sorry, but I found Sade to be quite boring/not really my thing tbh. :(

Starting with the groups again this week...

01 iamamiwhoami - chasing kites - great choice, one of my absolute favourites of theirs so it's two out of two top placings for me. Curious to see whether ionnalee tracks will also be eligible for this or not

02 M83 - Kim & Jessie - Takes me back to when I first got into M83, I really love the Saturdays=Youth album

03 Ultravox - The Voice - Didn't know this one before today but it was a really good discovery, thanks!

04 Texas - I Don't Want a Lover - Really solid choice, one of my favourites of theirs

05 New Order - Age of Consent - Intriguing choices for New Order so far, I do like this but not sure I'd have been brave enough to send it!

06 Sade - Your Love is King - Another nice track from Sade, liking that an act like this is present

07 Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line - Decent enough but didn't strike me as that special compared to some of their other material

08 Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again - I didn't already know this one, which is mad seeing as I was obsessed with this band for so long. It was okay but it definitely felt like a lesser version of some of their better moments to me.

09 Years & Years - All For You - Not bad but agree with Scene that it's probably sensible to play it early

10 Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) - Not a massive fan of this one I'm afraid, but can imagine it appealing to others with more pop leaning tastes

11 Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back) - This was no Vengabus!

1. Bananarama - always loved this track, one of my faves of theirs, so it was going to be hard to beat.

2. Texas - another classic brilliant track from Texas

3. Ultravox

4. Years and Years

5. Sade

6. Fontaines DC

7. Depeche Mode

8. New Order

9. Iamamiwhoami

10. M83

11. Vengaboys - honestly such a shame to have sent this one, it's terrible lol.

so many haters, like where's the fun!!!

FAVE

Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back) (I got you babe <3)

Sade - Your Love is King

Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)

Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

New Order - Age of Consent

Years & Years - All For You

Ultravox - The Voice

M83 - Kim & Jessie

Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

LEAST FAVE

01 Bananarama - Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango) (Favourite)

02 Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

03 Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

04 Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

05 iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

06 Ultravox - The Voice

07 New Order - Age of Consent

08 M83 - Kim & Jessie

09 Years & Years - All For You

10 Sade - Your Love is King

11 Fontaines D.C. - Jackie Down the Line

I'm sure the Vengaboys mentor wants to go back... back to 1999 the drawing board to undo this colossal mistake of sending that. I think they should have stuck with music from 1999 instead if they wanted to get past the first two rounds.

1. Ultravox - The Voice

2. Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

3. New Order - Age of Consent

4. M83 - Kim & Jessie

5. Texas - I Don't Want a Lover

6. Sade - Your Love is King

7. iamamiwhoami - chasing kites

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

9. Years & Years - All For You

10. Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

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

44 minutes ago, awardinary said:

I'm sure the Vengaboys mentor wants to go back... back to 1999 the drawing board to undo this colossal mistake of sending that. I think they should have stuck with music from 1999 instead if they wanted to get past the first two rounds.

Maybe the Vengas mentor is employing a high-risk strategy of trying to exit and do an Amelia Lily and then come in through the back door Gamu round in a few weeks with another strong single and then make a run to the final with the competitive singles that they have left.

They have one song that very much could be a Gamu winner contender, but of course many strong acts will have left by then and will be trying to get back in (but may have used up many of their competitive songs on the way?).

Yeah for me that’s a risk too much - there a lot of artists still with a killer song or two left and I’d be surprised if Vengaboys could beat those

They may end up safe yet regardless - but they did so well last round that maybe their mentor just felt they could afford to take a risk this round? Everyone is playing a balancing game of sorts and there's a lot of unknown variables in the decisions we're making with song choices. If they do want to get a bit further and not just only send the 4 big singles from 1999, they had to play things like this at some point

Also @Addy! if it is you I apologise for my language. No mentor is responsible for mistakes and you don't until you try. I'll do my best to support them where I can.

1 hour ago, gooddelta said:

Maybe the Vengas mentor is employing a high-risk strategy of trying to exit and do an Amelia Lily and then come in through the back door Gamu round in a few weeks with another strong single and then make a run to the final with the competitive singles that they have left.

They have one song that very much could be a Gamu winner contender, but of course many strong acts will have left by then and will be trying to get back in (but may have used up many of their competitive songs on the way?).

That was my line of thinking too...

1 hour ago, Herbs said:

Yeah for me that’s a risk too much - there a lot of artists still with a killer song or two left and I’d be surprised if Vengaboys could beat those

I thought I was safe sending Irresistible by The Corrs to the first Live Show last series, earlier in the year. How was I was. 😢

If people love an act but the song sent in a certain round is generally considered a bit of a dud, do people actually bump them up their rankings to try and save them?

I guess it works the other way round too, by bombing acts to try and get rid?!

I’m not saying I do this btw, I’m just genuinely curious 😂

Edited Friday at 12:033 days by Lee_J11