gooddelta

Eh, Fool No More definitely isn't the second worst here. Going for the mid Usher song again.

A particularly bad single from Gareth Gates, so that. Not surprised it ended his No.1s run.

Me too, although I've always loved Catch You anyway and thought it would peak higher at the time.

Absolutely, or stuff like Finesse by Bruno Mars, as their name was a pun on New jack swing. I had the same high hopes for them based on X Factor and some of the great soul numbers they performed that they didn't deliver on at all with the watered down generic dance stuff.

Wrong order in the top three that week for me. Although I recall Moves Like Jagger starting out as something of a surprise major hit as neither Maroon 5 or Christina were exactly highly relevant at the time. Don't Go I find pretty bland and boring, I preferred both Traktor and Unorthodox from earlier in the year. Heaven was a brilliant track from Emeli Sandé too.

Zero Gravity would be comfortably up there in my top 10 Eurovision entries ever, and definitely Australia's best for me. I've loved Kate since the 00s and was excited to hear she was doing the Australian national final, although expected Sheppard to come out on top (and their entry On My Way is actually great and has a lot of Spotify streams). But you can't deny her artistry, her vocal range and delivery is amazing, the lyrics about coming out of severe postpartum depression are such a unique but important subject, and the triumph of the last part of the song is so uplifting. Also...that performance, absolutely astonishing and looked incredible on screen. 9th was an absolute insult for a song and performance this good and I can't really understand why the jury marked it so averagely compared to Nemo and JJ, for example, a few years later. Singing and performing a great song with brilliant lyrics like that while swaying in the air, what more did they want from her? Promise came alive for me when we went up to Liverpool in 2023 to watch it. I enjoyed seeing it live in the dress rehearsal, and it stuck in my head for a long time after the contest finished. The public really underrated this in the final, as is often the way with Australia.

Q3/Q4 big comebacks/album campaign launches and X Factor season tended to boost the turnover of No.1s in the latter half of the year I suppose, and often not the quality of them if they were associated with the show beyond just being a guest performance. Yeah, seven weeks for Moves Like Jagger, it was tremendously unlucky to get stuck behind all those different individual songs, often a long-running No.2 is marooned behind a bigger No.1, but that wasn't the case at all. Shame as it was my favourite song of that year and some of the stuff that beat it is pure crap.

That's great news, I might download my highligts on iTunes in case it disappears again 😂

Yeah this is crap, a little better than The Club Is Alive, but not by much and just felt like a desperate attempt to copy the in sound to get an easy hit, right down to reeling off the countries and cities like Jade mentions. I'm realising how most of their singles were really trend chasing to what was around at the time. I wonder what their stuff would sound like if they'd been active from 2013-2016? UK house music influenced maybe? Or would they have released more stuff like the singles from their debut album that at least felt a little more natural than what followed. I don't think it's a great look to have no individuality and just copy whatever is popular at the time. Having said that I did like some their songs that didn't get to No.1 like One Shot and particularly Eyes Wide Shut, although granted the latter was just copying Calvin Harris' I'm Not Alone synth, but somehow it felt warmer and more authentic than these naff songs about the club that they kept coming out with. These are the kinds of songs that made me so tired of the club banger era when it was happening in real time. I look back on it more fondly now by only listening to the good singles to come out of the era/movement, and not this kind of stuff. Love that auction factoid though @Paddington James lol. The fact that RedOne was auctioning off his services at all is brilliant, imagine if Adele had won

Olivia Rodrigo – you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love Nerina Pallot – Fire Escape Symphonies: The Best Of Nerina Pallot Freya Ridings – Mother Of Pearl Tori Amos – In Times Of Dragons Benefits – Constant Noise horsegiirL – NATURE IS HEALING Cazzi Opeia – Nothing Lasts Forever Rogue Traders – Midnight Alarms Zara Larsson – Midnight Sun: Girls Trip Dua Lipa – Live From Mexico Olivia Dean – Messy Conan Gray – Wishbone Deluxe Lady Gaga – Apple Music Live: MAYHEM Requiem Westlife – 25 – The Ultimate Collection Ed O’Brien – Blue Morpho Evanescence - Sanctuary Maisie Peters - Florescence Lykke Li - The Afterparty Naked Flames – First Name Naked Second Name Flames Kacey Musgraves – Middle Of Nowhere

Milkshake Man is fun, I saw it performed by Sheppard last year who wrote it, I'm surprised it didn't make the final in the end. I love Eclipse, although it's far from the best song Delta has done, and I do feel Wings could have been a slightly bigger challenger for her in 2015 if it had been used as Australia's first entry. Still, she performed the hell out of it as expected and came across so well, it was amazing to see her on that stage and doing so well, especially in the public vote. I agree with you about Sound of Silence completely. Brilliant performance but more of a number that I respect than particularly love myself, for reasons I'm not really sure. An incredibly impressive and deserved result though. My favourite has made your top two! The other song is strong too.

Master Jack Getting a 1968 song into a multichart has to be a new achievement unlocked. Amazing to see Delta with her biggest ever multichart hit! Top three <3

I believe it means the uploader has toggled off 'allow embedding' so that you can only watch it on YouTube. I've come across this issue before so to try and find out why I had a play around with some of the videos I've uploaded in the past, turned off 'allow embedding' on one and basically had the same thing happen where I could no longer post it on here.

11 Girls Aloud - Biology (deserves the 11 for pushing commercial pop boundaries in the mid 00s, amazing single and should have been a No.1) 07 Sugababes - Red Dress (solid but Xenomania have better on this album) 09 Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For? (such a statement pop single, love the structure and vocals) 07 The Pussycat Dolls - Don't Cha (feat. Busta Rhymes) (iconic and an earworm, but not a huge personal favourite) 09 Charlotte Church - Crazy Chick (loved Charlotte's eventual pivot into pop following the CMC trance alias) 08 Britney Spears - Toxic (legendary, but never been an absolute top favourite of mine...still, giving it below 8 feels like something I cannot do) 08 Ashlee Simpson - Boyfriend (I did like Ashlee's output, this deserved to go top ten) 04 P!nk - Trouble (I didn't like this very much, I'd sooner even listen to the Shakin' Stevens cover, quite a weak lead single after an amazing prior era for me) 08 t.A.T.u. - All About Us (written by The Veronicas, it does feel a bit like one of their cast-offs but I enjoyed it) 09 Rachel Stevens - Some Girls (from a fantastic cult pop album, Rachel (or her songwriters and producers) did good) 09 Atomic Kitten - The Tide Is High (Get The Feeling) (I know it's unfashionable to give a cover such a high mark but I just loved how effortlessly they did this, and loved the new middle eight, happy memories) 07 Louise - Pandora's Kiss (twinned with Don't Give Up, which was words written to the Asda advert theme tune (!), so I used to hear that one at work a lot. This is better) 09 Dannii Minogue & The Soul Seekerz - Perfection (a no.1 in my chart! Loved Dannii's AATW dance era a lot) 06 Mis-teeq - Can't Get It Back (the least essential Mis-teeq single for me) 08 Lindsay Lohan - Over (I actually bought this one at the time, I enjoyed Lindsay's sidestep into pop-rock) 08 Nelly Furtado - Turn Off the Light (great follow-up to I'm Like A Bird, love the tongue twister 'follow me, follow me, follow me down...) 06 Ciara - Goodies (feat. Petey Pablo) (fine but I prefer 1, 2 Step) 08 Amerie - 1 Thing (brilliant brass) 07 Rihanna - Pon De Replay (catchy and strong debut but she quickly bettered it, it did feel like she could be a one (big) hit wonder for a bit until SOS)

This is still down, I wonder what the issue is? It's not even available to purchase on iTunes.

The only good song from Katy’s last album showing up! Scotland (and, as always, Shakira) are showing how it’s done with getting World Cup songs out, is there really nothing new for England?

I would say on balance this was my favourite single from The Wanted, although at the same time it's not a huge favourite of mine or anything. I think the Euro sound (the production felt inspired by Edward Maya/Inna etc) worked and lyrically they sold the vibe quite well (it felt quite natural to see them doing a club track as they often gave off a bit of a 'lads on tour' vibe to me). I was surprised it did that well in the US, as it feels very European, but guess club bangers and boybands were marketable at the time. I haven't looked at the whole list but suspect it would be in my top 20.

Billie Jean. It will have its chance again when we run the 2026 survivor in 2045.

Amazing summer for pop and dance music. To say this was 26 years ago, there are a surprising number of acts who could still be considered 'relevant' today. Eminem, Pink (who'd have called that based on this single), Sia (ditto), Coldplay, Oasis, Kylie... On another note, I was sure that Whitney/George collab ws heading for No.1. It had the hype, A-list playlisting, pre-release buzz and was a superstar collaboration but just came nowhere near in the end (No.9). I was so surprised by that. And I'm aware it was a retooled version of an album track from 1998, but even so, it felt like George added hit power to the mix. The Woolworths chart had it at No.1 so bigger things were clearly expected.

Don't Break Me was solid and almost certainly would have been a finalist. I like Technicolour but get why it missed out, it's a bit like a budget Marina track. I quite like Tonight Again, would rank it the same. It's nice they opened their account with such a big local name. We Got Love was actually my top entry in 2018, but only 18th in my end of year chart, which is extremely low (a Eurovision song almost always ends up in the top three). But the studio version is better, Jess seemed a little bit frantic in places in that performance.

1. Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken 2. DARA - Bangaranga 3. Delta Goodrem - Eclipse 4. Benefits feat. Zera Tønin - Land Of The Tyrants 5. Nerina Pallot - Come Bring The Sun 6. Little Sister - Dear Abbie (One Night of Passion) 7. Taylor Swift – I Knew It, I Knew You 8. Ariana Grande - hate that i made you love me 9. Wet - Swinub 10. Public Service Broadcasting - Go! 11. Freya Ridings - If This Is A Dream 12. The Fizz - A Crazy Shot In The Dark 13. Keisha White - Don't Mistake Me 14. Jasmine Jethwa - I'm Alright Now 15. Charlotte Perrelli - Todas nacemos con alas 16. My New Band Believe - Love Story 17. Lola Young - From Down Here 18. Remember Monday - Delusional 19. Tori Amos - Provincetown 20. Alexandra Căpitănescu - Choke Me

Really bad indeed, thank goodness it was the last one. It was the last really great year of the show (James and Ella saving the following year) but this didn't stop the charity release from being another turd.

Usher. It's fine but feels like a bit of a leftover release after stronger hits from the album, and I prefer the other eight songs left.

2011 was a really memorable year for me too, I for some reason was going clubbing every Wednesday night with my housemates so enjoying all of the 'club bangers' in real time (and fortunately not working on Thursdays). Those songs sounded much more epic in a club setting than on the radio so I have quite fond memories of a lot of them. In the summer I moved back in with my mum in Brighton as the lease on my rented place in Wales with my housemates was up, and I started a new job fairly soon after, so it was a year of two halves for sure. Looking forward to reading your thoughts @Paddington James !

Australia has had my favourite entry three times in 12 years! All have made your top ten. My bottom two would be Not The Same and Don't Come Easy, although the latter was much worse live than studio. I appreciate what Electric Fields were trying to do but they didn't quite pull it off with that song so it would be 10th for me.