gooddelta

It's been on my potentials for some contest or another (probably not BJSC) for about 15 years oops! Delighted it's doing well here. I feel like Mike Oldfield is just one of those acts that spans generations and tastes.

They're not in a bloc! They've had alt winners before.

I'm following along quietly on the sidelines. I liked most of the contenders so the top half does look strong. Glad Aeroche are doing better currently than where the odds had them. Herbilore last though? This is where I don't understand the pop bloc and the way they vote.

A slightly odd time in the charts. Half of the industry were wheeling out the usual 3rd/4th singles from albums dirges/ballads/strained numbers (hardly the best from Travis, Blur, Stereophonics, although I do like that Texas song When We Are Together, it's very uplifting and Sharleen is such an electric frontwoman). Whitney's I Learned From The Best deserved better though, that is a power ballad, great vocal and key change. And then lots of other people were partying and/or singing about the millennium - Will Smith, the appalling Cliff record (probably my least favourite song of all time), and a load of novelty hits scraping the charts around this time. And there were some major underperformances, as seen by those Christmas no.1 contenders, many of which came nowhere near and were wildly overhyped. She's The One is a nice song by Robbie, albeit a note for note cover of the World Party version, but he gave a very sincere performnace. I'm not as fond of Manics ripoff It's Only Us and doubt that would have been a No.1 if not part of a double a-side. And I like the A1 single, Everytime is a lovely ballad; in Norway where Christian is from it was a much bigger hit and is regarded very highly as a bit of a pop classic. I've never been overly fond of King Of My Castle personally, I much preferred a dance song creeping in lower down around this time from Madison Avenue, which did rather better the following year. I remember hearing that for the first time the week it charted in the low top 40 and thinking 'this is awesome, why is it this low'.

Can't see anything to disagree with here. Will add: Aya Hirano - CowTzy Dannii Minogue - Vibe RabbitFurCoat for either The Pipettes or Camera Obscura. Slightly stumped otherwise! I think Together We Are One was my favourite Delta release in 2006... not sure that would have been very competitive though as it sounds a bit like an X Factor winner's song (indeed it was covered by American Idol finalists), so I get why the sender went with Flawed.

Voted! Very good final indeed, I limited myself to seven commiserations. Well done to everyone that made the final, some top quality stuff in here and choosing my 18 wasn't easy between four songs, so I just went with the one stuck in my head the most.

I find it very corny these days, maybe ever since it was appointed as the official soundtrack for cheering us all up by every TV programmer going in the 90s (and New Labour's use of course). U R The Best Thing though is one of my favourite songs of the 90s, a masterpiece.

Brief thoughts from RontBet: Winner contenders (in descending order) Hendinia: ILLIT - It's Me
 The Spodic Empire: Public Service Broadcasting - Go!

 Kathaldazia: horsegiirL - earth is turning Bøtanikkä: Mike Oldfield & Maggie Reilly - To France Jadakissnia: Liv Del Estal - CŒUR TITANE
 Sovarasma: oktobernatt - Rasa
 Ennea: Boy Harsher - Pain
 Top 10 contenders (in descending order) République d'Áskorza: Annette Pfab - Wherever I Go
 Cor Lupus: Ellen Benediktson - WID4L

 Bronzil: Tiffany Day - DOIT4ME
 East Rukahavian: Chalk - Longer Herbilore: Meg Smith - Carlos, Get In The Car!

 Kluminican Republic: Say Now - Supermarket Scotland 2: My New Band Believe - Love Story Zanmatony: Way Out West - Sequoia Altyr Muunilinst: Cannons - Light As A Feather

Time to wheel out my Grange Hill (90s version) mash-up of Flo Rida. I remember thinking for ages, 'what does this melody remind me of?' and then it came to me. Former BJ member Hitstastic helped with the mixing. It needs a remaster these days as it's 16 years old but I do think the idea holds up, especially in the middle eight rap. I do like the original, I always thought it was Nicole Scherzinger on the chorus, but must just be a soundalike. Telephone is a really good one too, loved that climb to No.1 when the video came out! I love when a superstar collab is actually good, as it doesn't always happen.

I did send her to Club Bizarre and came 6th tbf, BuzzJack icon. She genuinely sounds great on trance.

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.