gooddelta

J.Lo wouldn't be in my top ten either, but a perfectly fine pop song. I thought the singles from her debut album were brilliant (although replace the bland Feelin' So Good with the bizarrely unreleased global hit Let's Get Loud), and I still play them a lot now, but while she later had bigger hits than those on the first album, like this one, I didn't enjoy anything half as much until On The Floor in 2011.

A fair position, I wouldn't have it much higher or lower (albeit Westlife and Hear'Say would be lower). Emma went straight down the middle of the road with this album, which seemed to work for her. It's a nice enough song and cool that she got a solo No.1. The 1-1-8 run is a little odd but looks like there was a lot of competition on the third week. I did actually really love the follow up Take My Breath Away funnily enough.

Their only multi-week No.1! In my head I don't care about this song that much, but on the odd occasion that I hear it I enjoy it more than I expect to. It's a fun, hooky track - the irony being that they were not having any fun at all at this time if you watch their part on that Boybands Forever documentary. Definitely not their best for me but they were clearly hot property still four years into their chart career to get a big No.1. I wonder how long they'd have lasted if they hadn't broken up.

Voted. For such a short semi, it's been the hardest one to vote in for ages for me. I whittled it down from 22 to 18 after my first listen and then to 16 in my second listen. I could very happily have voted for those other six songs I left out but loving everything I've voted for - the break left people inspired and rejuvenated!

Glad you're a fan <3 Yeah for sure - I couldn't believe Mabe had never even been referenced on Buzzjack before apart from one appearance of another song in Uhsting's chart. The album is such a beautiful soundscape.

Get the single mix on Spotify!

This was the biggest hit of the year among my schoolmates. One of the cheesier garage records for sure but I can see why it was huge. The follow-up was cancelled in the end as a single but did appear on a few compilations.

Eternity and The Road To Mandalay are both good. When I saw Robbie live a few years back at the O2 I was struck by how lovely Eternity was live, I always forget about the song as it wasn't on a studio album. The 'ba ba bum bum bum' chorus of the other a-side is annoying for me but the rest of the song is solid.

If Austria manage more than 10 points on the televote with the victor of this national final then I'll be extremely impressed. Historically the Austrian public are awful at picking and internal selections did them the world of good in terms of results.

I was wondering when this would surface, but seems they are roughly sticking to the 20-year anniversary dates albeit a few months out. Also looking forward to having Singapore on streaming finally!

Guatemalan cellist steps forward for 176 After a long summer break, and scoring our first top ten success of the year back in early June with the dark İnziva by She Past Away, for the 176th contest - hosted by our friends in République d'Áskorza, we move to Guatemala for the first time and the Spanish language beauty Enfrente by Mabe Fratti. Specialising in avant-garde, experimental music, Mabe released Enfrente last year as a single from the album Sentir Que No Sabes. The track starts with a metallic loop that is soon joined by strings, Mabe's signature cello and her soft vocal, with the occasional glistening synth, before lurching to an unexpected breakbeat conclusion. Ricardo Delta explains the entry choice: "This entry really took our breath away when we first heard it, the opening instrumental loop is quite unusual. With trip hop influence, and clearly inspired by the likes of Portishead and Massive Attack, it is intriguing that Mabe hails from Guatemala. The lyrics are so beautiful while the music video is very dreamy. Three minutes of beauty and then the final minute is a different prospect altogether, with an unexpected breakbeat outro. It's just lovely and we're very happy to have Mabe represent us with her first ever appearance in BJSC." Enfrente is currently No.1 in FSR Rontvia for a third week, having knocked Sarah McLachlan's comeback single Better Broken from the top spot. Lyrics: Vas disimulando Dices que estás cantando Subes temblando al podio Buscas significado Dices que estás tratando Te quieres sumergir Empapar, comenzar Vas un paso enfrente de mí, amor Sé que no te puedo alcanzar Dices algo con mucho sentido Que nadie se atreve a negar Vas un paso enfrente de mí, amor Sé que no te puedo alcanzar Dices algo con mucho sentido Que nadie se atreve a nеgar Risas superficies Dicen lo quе esperas Mienten para dormir tranquilas English translation: You're dissembling You say you're singing You go up trembling to the podium You look for meaning You say you're trying You want to dive Soak, begin You're one step ahead of me, love I know I can't reach you You're saying something with a lot of sense That no one dares to deny You're one step ahead of me, love I know I can't reach you You're saying something with a lot of sense That no one dares to deny Laughter surfaces They say what you expect They lie to sleep peacefully

Sisqó at this point, it's just ok.

Run for me I think.

Mika to win. S Club 7 put up quite a big fight there to reach the top three.

That's a fair placing for Angel. I did like it at the time too and it was cool that Shaggy capitalised on It Wasn't Me with another huge No.1 and a big album. I do still hear this on Heart from time to time so it stood the test of time up to a point. Not completely sure why it was missed from Now, the only album I have it on is this: https://www.discogs.com/release/3692039-Various-958-Capital-FMs-Party-In-The-Park-For-The-Princes-Trust-The-Album-Of-The-Event

A very unusual No.1 for the UK, a schlager cover from a naff Austrian act that sounds more like Bavarian beer drinking music. I wonder why this particular song took off so much/got pushed in the UK as these schlager covers are a dime a dozen. It's not for me at all, although I always laugh whenever I go to Germany and the music shops have huge DJ Ötzi sections of albums, he's still a big deal in those circles. It's quite striking that stuff like this, Bob and Afroman were No.1 around and after 9/11. As a lot of radio had understandably moved to a more MOR vibe for quite a few weeks as I recall, and none of these songs were getting much airplay.

Glad it had a week at 21 in its chart run too. They performed this at my school about two weeks before the single was released, it was quite a coup as it was clear it was shaping up to be big. I remember them pulling up outside the classroom building in a big black car with tinted windows and all getting out. It's catchy, and I still quote the 'what cha laughin' at' intro, but I wouldn't have put it much higher myself either.

I love it a lot and the video is great, but the second half is where the magic happens. It's amazing how she pours so much emotion into just a few words and a great lyric.

1998 is really getting going now, I thoroughly enjoyed these two shows. Frozen is of course one of the GREAT No.1 singles, and My Heart Will Go On was just so huge and everywhere. Some classic ballads around from LeAnn Rimes and Savage Garden too. The Space song was their second single I really enjoy in the space of three months, their style was so unique, and the Cerys pairing and subject of the song was inspired. Robyn <3 Of course she went on to bigger and better things but Show Me Love was a great Cheiron hit and an early sonic template for Britney quite clearly. That's a great sale for Natalie's second hit, really nothing like Torn so it's impressive she managed another No.2 with it, it's more in Alanis territory. The Five song was also really solid pop. The less said about Cast from Casualty the better but Rebecca Wheatley could really sing at least so it wasn't completely hopeless. Shame the remix of Brimful Of Asha wasn't played on these shows, I really far prefer it to the album version.

One of those examples of a great debut single (All Rise) peaking lower as the act is not established yet but giving a hype boost/lift to the next inferior single. It's an ok cover of the Next track but does very little for me. I see why they picked it though, it followed the successful example of Another Level reusing Freak Me (which was a prior big US hit). And Blue perfected this kind of style with their own material later on.

Me neither oops. Will never forget 2009/2010 though, being a mod back then was TOUGH. Not helped at all by people sending stuff already being hammered on the radio/TV/all over blogs that was clearly heading for No.1/the top ten. Try overseeing that and keeping everyone happy. Fortunately we still had plenty of inspired winners too, otherwise I don't think the contest would have lasted long.

Aww I love Eternal Flame, I think they did a nice version with the production on that compared to the timeless but by then very 80s sounding production on the original. Natasha sounds great on it. You Are was cancelled as a single in the end sadly at the last minute, which is why it didn’t chart.

The Way To Your Love would be top ten for me - love love it. A British band doing a Scandipop kind of song - I liked it a lot more than Pure & Simple. The Blue ballad is really nice, some great vocals from Lee on that and far better than the Too Close cover for me. No grumbles with Robbie and Nicole’s position. It was marginally better than the Gordon Haskell song it beat but I never enjoyed it much. Robbie sounds great on it but Nicole just ok.

Let’s not forget the lore that same year of me holding a semi-final to turf out only three songs as the final was firmly fixed at 24 or something. We were young and didn’t know what we were doing 😂

Yeah many people used to switch entries that got bad odds before confirmations closed, unsurprisingly. So I’m not sure what Simondly’s excuse was for changing as we gave them very generous odds as you can see. We had the eventual winner at 25/1 there so take with a heavy pinch of salt. No wonder we took it all behind closed doors though. Edit: I just saw what Simondly switched to instead - good grief. Like Silas said - the Wild West. You can see what Margaret Berger had to overcome to win in the days of people sending any old thing. I think that was part of the reason that song became such a BJSC classic, it really overcame the odds.