gooddelta

Pixie is like a female JLS conundrum. Riding high by copying whatever the in sound was at the time to grab a hit. Her first album was really great pop, one of my favourites, and while it aped that soul pop vibe, a lot of the album tracks and later singles were more pure pop, but I didn't care much for the second album. I'd probably rank this track in about the same area, quite fun and nice to see her get another No.1, but did feel a bit like a box ticking exercise to get another hit, and it does sound dated indeed now. Kudos to her for serving a brave follow-up in What Do You Take Me For? though, which didn't sound like it was chasing trends. Looking at that release week, All Fired Up is by far the better pop song for me.

I ordered the delxue CD and vinyl from Amazon, should come later this evening. Not too bothered about the vinyl usually but 1999 was one of my favourite years. Got Cascada's Everytime We Touch album vinyl at the same time

Bronzil beats Brazil! Congrats Jim. Well deserved win, a very inspired choice. Netherlands was great, as good as many of my main contest BJSC 18s, nice one Scene! 9th is a great finish for She Past Away, I had a good look around for an act I hadn't already sent to the main contest but got stuck on this one as I enjoyed it so much again from them. Glad it did well for them again. Thanks Dan for a great spin-off, a lot of fun with some nice discoveries.

I enjoyed both of these but one was my top scorer.

Knowing BuzzJack, England/MEEK for the win. Would love to see Netherlands personally.

Loved Japan, shame it's not on Spotify!

I enjoyed the Swedish entry, shame to see it knocked out. Glad She Past Away have progressed!

Linkin Park

The Game again

Quite a statement debut single, not sure it was in a good way, but the album had some better stuff on it. Living by the seaside growing up, the melody Oh My Darling Clementine just reminds me of amusement arcades at the beach which always had that melody pumping out.

Think this might be the worst thing i've heard this year. Absolutely drowned in autotune, and the lyrics don't rhyme at all and sound so clunky all the way through 🥲 Eternal Kane would have been more fitting.

Are there enough significant extra tracks for it to potentially steal the streams away from 50 Years - Don't Stop, or are all the songs included on that already anyway? As it looks like this will be the biggest 'selling' album of the 2020s unless something puts a fly in the ointment, like another compilation being expanded.

The middle eight of this is genuinely always in my head. "It's Neville to Cambell Cambell to Rio Rio to Scholesy Scholesy Gerrard Gerrard to Beckham Beckham to Heskey Heskey to Owen, to Nodd (five one)" Wavin' Flag and Waka Waka are great, we were spoilt in 2010, not by Shout though, which just spoilt it for us.

I found Wasted Love too contrived to enjoy unfortunately, it's like it was a meticulously crafted tick box exercise for jury points. I can't deny JJ's talent though. And the last 30 seconds of the track I enjoy for the switch up. Conchita was a great winner for the contest, a grand sounding production and an amazing performance. But the studio version isn't exactly a track I rush to play, and I feel this is why it was so low in the odds until the semis. Conchita is the real star in the package and sold it so beautifully. I didn't get much out of Nobody But You, but I do see why the juries liked it, it's a well sung strong composition. I really enjoy Loin D’Ici, the juries undermarked this a little I feel. Just checking some of the stuff I don't know, Keine Mauern Mehr sounds good, I need to go through the 90s contests properly. Falter Im Wind sounds nice too.

On paper Party Rock Anthem is everything I hate in music. However, I was going out clubbing a lot in early 2011 and it was everywhere and it went down extremely well in that environment and reminds me of some good nights, so it gets a semi pass on nostalgia.

Once more, Usher.

The Game

I didn't realise that, I own the album too but guess I haven't played the actual CD for a bit. I did funnily enough come across it in one of my CD boxes the other day so will have a listen when I get home. The whistles are certainly quite grating. It reminds me of how Calvin Harris and Ne-Yo's Let's Go used to have a post-chorus adlib that went 'it’s now or never' which is removed these days on streaming.

Got to be honest, this would be in my top ten. I bought it at the time and still find it completely beautifully sung, and a gorgeous composition. It gets lumped in with all the other choir/charity singles by most people but it's not a clunky cover like A Bridge Over You from 2015 for example, but a really lovely original. It was Christmas No.1 in my personal chart too.

The Example song I like although preferred the material from his previous album a lot more, especially Watch The Sun Come Up, which is one of my small pool of BJSC entries turned real-life hits. The Lazy Song i feel similar about, I don't hate or love it but all the other singles from the album are better. It is very odd how it did SO much better than Marry You, I guess the album had been out longer by the time that started to climb.

Coco plays football in the video too.

The Remember Monday song is their best since Eurovision, easily. Great 80s power pop vibe, glad they're supporting it. Ndlovu Youth Choir I sent to BJSC years ago with a song called We Will Rise, intriguing to see them on the playlist with Roger Taylor, probably one of the acts I've sent I'd have least expected to show up on UK radio.

Turkish/Rontvian votes are in. Lots of good stuff here, I'd have happily given 17 songs votes so glad we had the extended voting system in play. I didn't manage to vote for every group sadly, but one group nearly got a clean sweep, however one of the four ranked 19th for me so just missed.

I loved Loca People at the time, ended up just outside my top 40 of the year too. I lived with a couple of Spanish guys that year and they did love partying (and made sure to tell me this every day, and about how dry the UK party scene was compared to Spain), so it reminds me of them. It is such a strange No.1 looking back, feels like a novelty. 'What the f*ck!'

Alf Poier made me laugh. It was the bookies favourite to come last that year but it did stand out and I can see why it appealed. Going from a schlager song into a rock song was interesting. The Secret Is Love was in my top three entries of 2011 and one of my overall favourites from Austria, I thought that was a great Disney-esque ballad delivered with a lot of power, the final minute is brilliant (only weird part is the last couple of seconds). A lot of 'this sounds like' among some of the entries that have gone out, like Say A Word (All Right Now by Free) and We Will Rave (Think About The Way by Ice MC). Halo was decent in studio form but the live was just awful vocally. I didn't think I Am Yours deserved nul points, it's the kind of thing I could imagine doing well in the UK charts and on the radio in the early 90s, I'm surprised juries gave it zero as it was well written and performed.