gooddelta

I really used to love The Image Of You, great contest debut with a deserved result, my favourite 'old skool' Albania entry. Interesting that Identitet is still to come, it's not a fan favourite but I've always liked it. It remains the most unexpected song I've ever heard in a supermarket.

Going to stay with Supermode. The Avenue is a summer blast and Love Story (vs Finally) is great.

Probably Inaya Day.

I like it more than yes, and? myself on first listen, quite a hypnotic groove and the shimmering production in the verses is lovely. The chorus is basic but an earworm. I went straight back for a second listen anyway. The chords remind me of something else that I can't pinpoint at this moment.

My No.2s rank: Ace Of Base - The Sign Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You Let Loose - Crazy For You Kylie Minogue - Confide In Me Crash Test Dummies - MMM MMM MMM MMM MC Sar & The Real McCoy - Another Night Corona - The Rhythm Of The Night All-4-One - I Swear Bon Jovi - Always Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Philadelphia Big Mountain - Baby I Love Your Way Toni Braxton - Breathe Again Red Dragon - Compliments On Your Kiss Stone Roses - Love Spreads Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting - All For Love A far better list, probably 7 of my favourite songs of the 90s, and I like 8-10 a lot too.

Cool, well if someone could volunteer to make the sheet, I am more than happy to host that in the summer (probably a Sunday evening, with the date trailed way in advance). It would only be the length of a final listenthrough I think as we'd have to cap numbers at about 35 to allow time for voting and intervals too, but people wouldn't be able to dip in and out during the songs as you'd be listening 'live' for the first and last time before voting there and then. Could do a 5 minute break after every 10 songs maybe.

If a mod or anyone else knows how to set up a form whereby people can submit votes to a Google form and they go directly onto a spreadsheet, then I could host BJSC Live in the summer as discussed in another thread. It would only be possible to do this I think if votes don't have to be input manually onto a spreadsheet by a host, due to the time it takes. My intention would be to not reveal each country's results individually at the end of the show but to do a Eurovision televote style reverse scoreboard announcement from last to first. Could maybe announce everyone's 12s live at least, and then share the full spreadsheet at the end.

And voted, glad we used the extended voting system as I loved 11 songs and it would have been annoying to leave one out. Also really enjoyed a further five, which I was happy to be able to support four of. And really there were only three or four that weren't enjoyable to me in some way, a really strong competition.

Just listened to Janice STFU, and wasn't expecting the interpolation of Lykke Li's I Follow Rivers. It's not too bad, although certainly am not prepared to check the whole three albums.

How did I miss Radio 2 adding Delta's Eurovision entry! Cool of them to do that. Hopefully there's a slim hope for it to get onto Now 124, as they add 'Radio 2' songs and this sold 5k in a week which is more than many of the non-charting Now songs manage.

AI melted the BRAT cheeseblocks 🥲

I have no memory of the Trippa song at all! Sounds good from the live performance. I didn't know the song by Laptop either, apparently that did sneak into the top 75. Gosh, 21st Century Girls made it to Radio 1, they were so hyped and just completely bombed. Soul Surfing wasn't a single but curiously was licensed to a couple of compilations that summer. I bought the first one at the time so recognise the track (as didn't own the Fatboy Slim album). https://www.discogs.com/release/965715-Various-Ibiza-Uncovered-The-Return https://www.discogs.com/release/11608116-Various-Box-Dance-Hits

I can see the Rontvian fans in the crowd ready to throw their orbs at whoever knocked us out in joint 20th!

Been listening to them a lot since the singles catalogue went out. One of the remixes of All I Want (Blacksmith R&B Rerub) has a male rapper that makes me laugh 'I want a dream chick who looks like Sabrina, but not the teen witch' and 'shoot the breeze with my crew and Su-Elise'. Also I remember the joint video to Roll On/This Is How We Do It so well, it's nice to hear those songs again.

Sorry to have missed the listenthrough, I'm doing my second run through today and will then vote but this is extremely high quality (as Bop Idol always is tbf). My first listen was during a sunny car journey at the weekend and it was the perfect soundtrack. One of the songs here really took me back to a certain time and place, not sure if I'll give it top marks even so though because I found a couple of discoveries I'm really fond of, we'll see.

Not very keen on this one personally. Quite an unusual chart topper for 1994, so good diversity, but it's not one I would ever play.

Just The Way You Are could well be in my top five for the year or thereabouts, effortlessly good, and agreed that it feels heartfelt and genuine. In other news, I've realised Green Light wouldn't be my No.1, I forgot about a song still to come that's in my all-time top 50.

Oh yes you're right, presumably to keep out solo aritsts who had had multiple hits as part of bands and may have been considered to have an advantage in that respect.

Siobhan was allowed in Bop Idol 3, the b-sides round, I didn't realise the AF rule was in place in Bop Idol, as Madonna was even sent to one edition.

Interesting project, happy to follow along and comment. I know every song from 1998 onwards very well but at some point still need to go deeper with earlier years.

2007 was an interesting contest, lots of rock or guitar entries as a response to Lordi I guess. It's well worth a watch. It was very Eastern heavy results wise, but deservedly so for the most part. My favourite entries were Russia (great girlband pop), Belarus (a ridiculous Bond theme pastiche sung by a guy that looked like Princess Diana's son, what's not to love) and Bulgaria (incredible production and vocals - up there with If Love Was A Crime and Bangaranga as an all-timer). I did love Scooch though, sorry. Ridiculous song and entry, but I voted for it in the national final, so maybe I'm the problem. It works as a ridiculous British song with tacky sexual innuendo in a Carry On fashion, but I completely see why it didn't work at all out in Europe. Receiving the 12 points from Malta and almost nothing else was hilarious, and the fact it went top five in the UK charts. I'm not so sure Cyndi would have done as well as some people think, maybe mid to low table - the Norway 2010 entry was practically identical and did really badly. The Macedonian entry was great indeed, it's still in my head a lot now. Finland's host entry was also really solid rock. My sister was into pop punk a lot around this time so loved Andorra and was gutted it narrowly missed out in the semis. She also correctly predicted Serbia would win from the first listen, just as she had predicted Lordi the year before (when it was low top ten in the odds). DJ Bobo was actually the overall favourite to win early on, which was ridiculous, but I guess people assumed that another spectacle entry with big staging would win following Lordi. People just hedged their bets on the wrong entry. This was the start of Sweden's four year flop era, although I really enjoyed The Worrying Kind, as much as it was a copy of Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes). It was nice to see them steer away from schlager for once (not counting the terrible Las Vegas in 2005).

Ride It get outta here!

It will have to be Supermode, although I like it, and everything here.

Thanks for running this Jade! Sorry I got slow on commenting when I was away last week but just caught up and loved all your commentaries, context and facts. Happy These Words managed a top five finish as I know Natasha can be quite divisive. I thought Crazy In Love would do a little better but it did get some low scores to drag it down. I adore Better The Devil You Know but in the context of this album it's fair that it's not top five, very strange inclusion indeed. Love the top two, both among the very best by these artists, that era from Anastacia was so good.

Dynamite has aged surprisingly well for what is quite a naff track lyrically (but then, the whole Club Banger era was), I still hear it out and on the radio all the time. Very infectious melody and production on it. I wouldn't be surprised to see it get a second chart life at some point.