I had an initial run though of the boys earlier on and my initial thoughts when Darin came on can be summed up perfectly below:

Calvin Harris feat. Tinashe - Dollar Signs

Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind

Sam Smith - Lose You

Gary Numan - M.E.

HRVY - Never Be Us

Tom Grennan - If Only

Sam Fender - The Treadmill

Roosevelt - Forget

Darin - Om du var min

Damien Rice - Amie

I always struggle with male vocalists, this was harder to rank when I didn't know any of the songs to begin with but Calvin's mentor was smart by sending a Tinashe feature 🥰 there is such a huge quality gap in general between male pop and female pop, at least in my opinion 😅

1. SAM FENDER (fave)

2. CALVIN HARRIS

3. LEWIS CAPALDI

4. DARIN

5. HRVY

6. TOM GRENNAN

7. SAM SMITH

8. GARY NUMAN

9. ROOSEVELT

10. DAMIEN RICE

These are all pretty good. I could definitely imagine the Tom Grennan and Lewis Capaldi ones being top ten hits that dominated radio for months on end. I think the bottom three aren’t really artists for me. I do like the sound of Roosevelt but each one seems to go on too long.

Sam Fender (favourite)

Sam Smith

Roosevelt

Tom Grennan

HRVY

Gary Numan

Calvin Harris

Lewis Capaldi

Darin

Damien Rice (least favourite)

The Sam’s really brought it for me this round! Some nice discoveries from Roosevelt, Tom & HRVY too. Maybe I’d known the Calvin/Tinashe track at the time I might have liked it more but I thought it was only okay.

1. Gary Numan - M.E.

2. Damien Rice - Amie

3. Roosevelt - Forget

4. HRVY - Never Be Us

5. Sam Fender - The Treadmill

6. Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind

7. Tom Grennan - If Only

8. Sam Smith - Lose You

9. Darin - Om du var min

10. Calvin Harris feat. Tinashe - Dollar Signs

Starting with the Boys this time around…!

FAVE

10 Sam Smith - Lose You

09 Darin - Om du var min

08 HRVY - Never Be Us

07 Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind

06 Tom Grennan - If Only

05 Calvin Harris feat. Tinashe - Dollar Signs

04 Sam Fender - The Treadmill

03 Damien Rice - Amie

02 Roosevelt - Forget

01 Gary Numan - M.E.

LEAST FAVE

Rather a mixed bag here really between the top 5 and bottom 5. I already knew/loved Sam (Smith)’s song, so knew it was going to be hard to beat really!

Darin and Lewis were both great new discoveries… and I don’t say that about Lewis very often 😂

Everything from Calvin downwards, I’ll happily never hear again!

On 29/09/2026 at 17:35, Calum said:

This week, awardinary will be hosting a listen-through session for Boot Camp: Part One in Barcelona on Thursday 1 October 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 please feel free.

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/6vcaNiZZ

The week we will begin with the groups, followed by female vocalists, and lastly the males

1 Gary Numan

2 Sam Fender

3 Roosevelt

4 Darin

5 Sam Smith

6 Damien Rice

7 Lewis Capaldi

8 HRVY

9 Tom Grennan

10 Calvin Harris

Numan continues to clear everyone else with ease, the Sam F song as I said already is one of his better songs for me and Roosevelt was a pretty good discovery, best from him so far in this. Not that keen on anything below that - bonus points to Darin for going with a non-English song which does help it stand out among the rest (also think it is the best song from him in this so far too). I do like the strings on the Damien song but the song as a whole was a little bit of a slog unfortunately. The HRVY song was less actively irritating than his previous 2 and instead just serving mid which is enough for him to escape last place for once really not keen on Tom's vocal performance on this song and sorry to Tinashe but Calvin gave you an absolute headache of an instrumental to work with there oops (and it's not exactly one of Tinashe's most compelling performances anyway).

(also the concept of there being a song in the solo male Pop Factor European artists round that is sung entirely by an American woman and is not a pop song)

Bra serving heart attacks tonight at a not-last placement for HRVY

Calvin gurl, you’re in danger!!!

Dang!

1 Gary Numan - M.E.: imagine creating this level of production in 1979

2 Roosevelt - Forget: reminds me a bit of Tame Impala; a lovely warm track

3 Damien Rice - Amie: gorgeous strings on this

4 Sam Fender - The Treadmill: quiite a nice track with strong lyrics

5 Darin - Om du var min: fairly generic dance pop but the Swedish does lift it somehow

6 Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind: might be the most upbeat Lewis track I’ve heard; vocals a little rough but it’s OK

7 Sam Smith - Lose You: competent enough dance pop

8 Tom Grennan - If Only: lots of clichés in this

9 HRVY - Never Be Us: a very Jax Jones recycled sound to this

10 Calvin Harris feat. Tinashe - Dollar Signs: aside from the “Animals” similarity this sounds quite cheap

01 Sam Smith - Lose You Sam's very best hidden gem! Their voice sounds SO good on a yearning track like this imo. How tf wasn't this pushed as a single??

02 Roosevelt - Forget there's something so alluring about his choices so far and this is no different. Love it!

03 Sam Fender - The Treadmill another brilliant track from Fender. He can do no wrong between his anguished storytelling and the Springsteen influences that always shine through. Love!

04 Darin - Om du var min my favourite Darin song so far! Sounds really good to my ears.

05 Gary Numan - M.E. enjoyed this one - those synth effects were lush. It reminds me of a late 60s track but can't place it immediately.

06 Tom Grennan - If Only sounded a bit nondescript at first but improved with subsequent listens. His voice is fab!

07 Lewis Capaldi - Heavenly Kind of State of Mind another solid choice from Lewis. Catchy, melodic, great vocals as usual.

08 HRVY - Never Be Us this is good but has little replay value for me.

09 Damien Rice - Amie this just isn't my cuppa I'm afraid. Not bad by any stretch though. x

10 Calvin Harris feat. Tinashe - Dollar Signs beautiful gowns. x (probably a smart choice tbf with the current Tinashe hype but I'd happily not listen to this ever again lol)

5 minutes ago, Scene said:

01 Sam Smith - Lose You Sam's very best hidden gem! Their voice sounds SO good on a yearning track like this imo. How tf wasn't this pushed as a single??

Well according to Now 115, it was

Both of the Sams bending the rules

2 minutes ago, Bror said:

Both of the Sams bending the rules

This is news to me. How so?

7 minutes ago, Mangø said:

Well according to Now 115, it was

Must've been a dry few months.

I thought Calvin would walk this round but the last few votes suggest that Tafty needs to come and vote pronto.

Just now, Scene said:

This is news to me. How so?

The Sam Smith track appeared on Now 115 (not that that means it was an official single but possibly a promo single of some sort).

The Sam Fender track was playlisted by Radio 1 which almost always means it was an official single, even though Wikipedia doesn't list it as one.

So definitely just bending the rules rather than breaking them!

3 minutes ago, gooddelta said:

I thought Calvin would walk this round but the last few votes suggest that Tafty needs to come and vote pronto.

I was going to put it last as it feels like a cheat tbh. But then the same thing happened with Fred again last year when they basically used a Romy track one round to help swerve an elimination.

Crazy turn of events if a Tinashe feature knocks Calvin out the competition while the old man sails through!

2 minutes ago, Mangø said:

The Sam Smith track appeared on Now 115 (not that that means it was an official single but possibly a promo single of some sort).

The Sam Fender track was playlisted by Radio 1 which almost always means it was an official single, even though Wikipedia doesn't list it as one.

So definitely just bending the rules rather than breaking them!

Oh I see!