gooddelta

What on earth is this recent trend of 'alternate cover' all about. Will labels ever run out of finding new ways to fleece fans? I suppose the only surprise that it's taken so many years to come up with this ploy.

I was going to say the order looked spookily familiar.

Interesting, I'm going to try and see it over the Easter weekend. I love Mario/Nintendo, but have seen the reveiws aren't great, but we'll see.

I'm afraid it is Jack for me this time.

Still The Farm, agree the original is a classic.

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Yes, I was just wondering the scale, maybe not quite as big a landslide as Ninajirachi as that did have some pop crossover that this may lack, but possibly 60-80 points lead by sweeping the board elsewhere.

RontBet odds for the final for songs with odds of 25/1 and up: 6/4 // Fljótavík // Joshua Idehen // Mum Does The Washing -- 5/1 // République d'Áskorza // Ditonellapiaga // Che Fastidio! 5/1 // Ojnoj // Charlotte Cardin // The Way We Touch 8/1 // Hendinia // Baby Jane // Starry Eyed 9/1 // Cor Lupus // ena mori // 19 Underground 10/1 // Mothertopia // horsegiirL // only the best -- 12/1 // Bronzil // Cult Of Venus // Sinner 12/1 // Altyr Muunilinst // Natalie Jane // sabotage 15/1 // Neliönoir // frutiger dillon // big chemistry ♡ 15/1 // Lentyll // Blood Cultures // Emptylands 18/1 // N DNTN // Art School Girlfriend // L.Y.A.T.T. 16/1 // FARC // sim0ne // freaky 18/1 // Aeroche // KREZUS & Surreal_dvd // Skins 18/1 // Bøtanikkä // Yseult // FREAK 20/1 // New Lexico // Channel Tres // Medicine 20/1 // Persephonia // Searows // Dearly Missed 22/1 // Cheiron // TOMORA // RING THE ALARM 22/1 // POPHub // Emerson Azarian // Lucky Stars 25/1 // Danæviia // Anna Von Hausswolff // Stardust 25/1 // Juranabaijan // Ally Salort // I've Never Met Her 25/1 // The Spodic Empire // HALLOWS // Catalyst 25/1 // FSR Rontvia // Ziyad Al-Samman – Ya Habibi 25/1 // Skall // Two Shell // The Nightmare 25/1 // Deandria // Neuroticfish // We Are Not Safe 25/1 // Summericia // Izzy Camina & Angrybaby // Seven Seas

I actually quite liked the other single from that era, For All That You Want, which was a Max Martin/Cheiron production unexpectedly. Stronger sounds like it was trying to appeal to both the slightly Latin pop/Metro Mix kind of sounds around at the time, but it hardly sounds true to Barlow's expected style. No doubt a big ballad would have done better, but he was probably doomed whatever due to his profile at the time.

On paper for sure, but then his opening sale was less than half that of ATB (maybe that was expected to be lower and Ricky higher?) and on the week 9PM (Till I Come) was released Whitney, J.Lo, A1 and Suede all released singles. So while I'm sure there was an element of labels running scared of Ricky, at the same time it was still unusual for only one major single to be released in a 1999 week.

❤️ Inget konstigt alls

Missing most of August is such a shame. So many good hits.

No sad losses for me apart from T Rex, gah, is this another lost license I guess some of the naff ones will turn up on the Extra.

Congrats AllStar! Amazing way to break the top ten for the first time. Another BuzzJack bridesmaid dress for me Thank you to all the voters, I did have an inkling this could be a hit and is why I probably wanted to send it to BJSC all those years ago. Nice to have some vindication that I was onto something at the time, and delighted a theme finally came up in something where it felt perfect, and not just shoehorned in for the sake of it. Thanks for the very original theme and great hosting Lewis! <3 Congrats Hlavkus for completing the top three and 100 points club! My favourite in Bassvictim did far worse than I expected, I seem to give Ansel high points in quite a lot of these non BJSC contests! Thanks for the great discovery (again). Shame Matto's Unbewegt just missed the top ten too.

Surprise! This song was my only ever BJSC veto in 2013, as they had a top 40 album the prior year (that did not contain this song). Anyway, finally got the chance to use it 😂

Maybe Emma Raducanu for me. Patchy a lot of the time, floppy sometimes, but an occasional win when I feel up to it.

Opening with a Christmas song, well that's new. Nice to see the UK Eurovision entry and winner on there together.

It's interesting that Blur didn't move at all in the end though, as I remember the fuss at the time about them supposedly missing the top ten due to lost sales. I don't understand why it missed the top ten on the other hand, one of my favourite Blur songs! Interesting on that second week there were barely any new entries in the whole top 40 (and only one in the top ten), had the Gary Barlow song been expected to go top ten? Must admit I wasn't following his career closely at the time but it didn't feel like he was high profile to me then. Beverley Knight charted higher than him with Greatest Day that week, one of my favourites from her, effortlessly summery and joyful with great vocals.

Yes, I think the 'wrong semi effect' is just something everyone has always accepted for the sake of a more simple and straightforward contest. You go into it knowing that you need luck of the draw on your side sometimes, particularly if you take a risk, and it's up to you if you want to take that risk or send something that sounds more 'safe', even though that can backfire if you play it too safe and it ends up being samey. There are obviously people that get through every time, and it's a combination of being extremely good at choosing entries with mass appeal (or knowing how to target niches well) and, yes, sometimes luck being on their side with the draw. People feeling like the playing field isn't as level for them as others is a bigger issue imo, but only anonymity can prove whether it's true or not.

It wouldn't be as easy to solve without making everyone listen to everything in a very short space of time, or scrapping semis altogether. Hypothetically though maybe each semi could have 15 direct qualifiers instead of 20, and then everyone would have a three-day 'rapid fire vote' to vote on the remaining entries left not in the top 15 of each semi, and the top 10 of that vote would progress to the final too while the remaining 20 or whatever would DNQ. But that also would come with its own problems: not everyone would vote in that round unless it was enforced with penalties, so it could end up being just as 'unfair' in the end, and it would make each contest longer by a few days (unless you made voting shorter for the other stages).

It's rather feeling that Zanmatony was robbed with multiple promises of top marks coming from the other semi. The video that Wardy made himself deserves to be seen as obviously many people vote based on Spotify and won't have got to the listenthrough and seen it there. 23 views is not enough:

My Semi DNQ points: 8 Points // Zanmatony // Onlynumbers & KLOFAMA // ONLYFAMA 4 Points // Aelandor // PUPPET SUNSUN // TOTETO 2 Points // Ben's Sanctuary // SCHILLER // Euphoria: Der Traum (Extended Version) All three were fantastic/standout. I haven't looked fully at Semi 2 but Sovarasma would have got 6 points or more.

I think there's several reasons for this: We are all still in it at the semis stage and invested We are all hearing the entries for the first time and keen to share/hype/support our favourites Both qualifying and winning feel like massive achievements in different ways, however once we have qualified only one country can win and sure there's always a bunfight and race to come top 5/10 etc but I think by this point it becomes fairly clear that only 10-20 remaining countries are left in contention to have really big hits out of the 60 participants (although surprises can always happen!), so it naturally quietens down for many

Ooh, that sounds fun. It's a new twist and very interesting idea to have it anonymous only for the semis but not for the final. You could also then more easily gauge if people really are giving 'friendly votes' if you see some scores suddenly inflate in the final compared to the semi. It might be worth it for a trial because it's a shame to see so many people looking to either drop out or not vote due to not qualifying (although I do understand other very fair reasons are at play too!). So anything that makes the playing field feel more level for everyone is good in my book. When we did it in the past in 2010, it was fully anonymous all the way through, and discussion rather died off (and the same countries more or less indeed did well as usual - but it was 16 years ago and we don't have the same countries dominating each month anymore). By doing it this way you would have plenty of discussion still from the intrigue of the semi results and identity reveal, and then everyone hyping their favourite entries as normal come the final. The counter point of course, is at the semi stage many people will only listen to half the entries so would have the same 'unconscious bias' for the other half that reach the final that they hear for the first time. But nothing is a perfect solution, and at least everyone would feel they had a fair and level chance to Q.

Can it really be any worse Knowing mid-00s Westlife, probably.