Iz様 🌟

Good to see but I imagine Argentina aren’t going to go quietly. Imagine if we eliminate the New World before the quarterfinals ~

My plans are measured in centuries. Or in this case, precisely one century and a half of entries. vote Saint Agnes

That's a recycle I'd never have expected considering the song I submitted her on was her working with her dad (he was lead composer) on songs for the animated show RWBY, will be interested to hear what sound she and her band have now. I recall BJSC 43 very well, I really enjoyed that contest and found a lot to keep over the years, though that's what it was like in the early days when every contest I spent ages with. Should get round to listening to this one soon.

Restore apparently not standing, at least not in this one. If Clacton is contested, then it'll be a fantastic choice between Conservatives, Reform and any other right-wing nutter but that's what this seat is, so whatever.

Hope everyone refuses to stand against him and show it up for the publicity stunt that it is. Despicable tactics and I hope it backfires on him.

Incredible match from both Dimitrov and Fery, glad for the latter getting into the quarterfinals, what a run from him.

God I can't wait for Ronaldo to retire so I can root for Portugal as plucky European underdogs & allies again instead of a one-man team held up by an admittedly world-class player now far past his best, used solely for marketing purposes. Spain all the way please, they've played so much better in their non-Cape Verdean matches, and I know that was just Cape Verde making them look bad.

masterclass in defending What a match, had everything, well done England

The Azteca is silent lmao hell yes

eh, if a) a Portugal vs Argentina final happens, and b) their route to the final is as dogged by controversial calls as last night's game was, yeah, rigged I am begging for one of them to get knocked out somehow. By all rights Spain should beat Portugal handily in the next round but we'll see.

Gone for a lovely little bit of aggressive rock because I'm not into playing it safe for my 150th entry (how am I at that many?)

Tbf as awful as Dappy is as a person and the lyrical stuff behind 'No Regrets' is fairly obnoxious, it's got some great instrumental riffs so it comes together well as a song, this was something fairly common to N-Dubz actually, normative musical quality will tell you their songs are awful and they are but in the right mood they can be real fun. Love 'Promises' from the last few, I think that'd be right near the top for me, it's not quite 'Guilt' but it's a good progression from Nero's first two singles, an absolute banger of a dance song and one of those lovely #1s where I can't quite believe it's in the list looking back, in a good way, that such a comparatively underground act could get to the top. In comparison 'Louder' and 'What Makes You Beautiful' are just standardly good club songs, though moments with the latter definitely... occurred. 'Heart Skips A Beat' I really struggle with, this is where Olly starts to fall down for me, it's not quite his worst but nothing I'd go out of my way to listen through. As for 'Grenade', I think I put out 'Just The Way You Are' a bit lower than the average would have had it in my thread, I think I'd have 'Grenade' somewhere above the average in contrast, maybe about where you've put it or a little higher, I think it's also my favourite of the singles from his debut album, and it's the evocative (if basic evocative) lyrics that make the difference.

Reading that back I'm so glad I afforded Alestorm an entry, I love the band on the whole but that was definitely the right choice, full throttle profanity and glorious nonsense, very glad to get an 18 from you for that <3 EVERGLOW a great winner, as was 'Wetlands', again, haven't thought much of 'Lord & Master' in a long time but it still sounds quite decent. Think your highlights for me in 2020 were definitely The Tempest and MASTER BOOT RECORD, both real good bangers.

Indeed, this does feel like watering down the aim of the contest, like the football Copá America invites a whole bunch of random countries who want to take part in the South American tournament, or something like that. if the direction for Eurovision is to become more of a brand of one-upping new announcements, inviting more non-European countries (that fans will have to forever explain why they're there) at the expense of getting back Spain or the Netherlands, then it is not a good direction. Maybe Canada politically wants to move closer to Europe, that's fine - and they are politically compatible with the contest in the ways that Israel and Azerbaijan are not or shouldn't be. One clearly non-European guest was one thing with Australia, this is, well, a worry for how the contest will look and feel essentially.

sceptical that this will lead to US within a few Canada's fine by themselves but nothing too exciting on its own

We haven’t looked good I was concerned about this

Haaland against Brazil will be very good, hope he can stun them a bit. good game for Norway, great to see them having a good tournament thus far

fuck's sake like there was good play from Brazil in the second half but this Japanese team deserved far better than that, they had them wrapped up in the first half.

I dreamed of Japan doing this. Hold please.

Always happy to get a recommendation, thank you for thinking of it! I like that song, cool production. The only time I've heard of This Is Lorelei is when they were entered to BJSC a few months back with 'Dancing In The Club' which I also liked (didn't do too well which it didn't deserve), though with my bad short-term memory from that contest I had forgotten completely about them until just now, and this is another good one, I'll have to listen to a few more from him. Can definitely hear the similarities to Postal Service/Owl City and it's lovely.

Gonna need some upsets in this round (and with the amount of defensive sides that got through, could well have a few) to set us up nicely for a few unfancied nations to make some deep runs.

it would suit us to score but we are not doing so, painful

I think my favourite Azerbaijan performance is between 'Drip Drop' and 'Hour Of The Wolf' (this one is so well sung), they haven't done anything noteworthy for me for ages and were only sporadically good when they did well but they used to be really good at occasionally providing vibes and now they're even bad at that, 'Just Go' was like a pale shadow of what they've done before. Interesting choice of winner for Austria, I agree with your assessment of it, that's the sort of track we love to see occasionally giving us a ton of fun in the contest, Teya/Selena and Zoe easy highlights as well.

Scotland wishlist for tonight for maximum hope and then heartbreak: Croatia unexpectedly lose to Ghana by 3 goals, keeping Scotland just about in the running as we move into midnight UK time. Uzbekistan gain a point or win narrowly, meaning that the third place from Group K doesn't advance. Austria pay their debt to Algeria by resummoning the spirit of Gijón and play an even worse game than Australia vs Paraguay to put both through into the knockouts, leaving Scotland in 9th in the list of 3rd-placers. As destiny demands.

Though of course this is far more likely to be a similar performance to the match against Panama in the 2018 WC, where they look at us at the same level of nervousness when getting to the WC as Scotland does Brazil. Indeed England will now be the only nation that Panama has faced twice at a WC, due to this being their second WC lol. England will want to ensure they win the group, Colombia or Portugal wouldn't be ideal as a first opponent, so to protect against any hijinks emerging from the other match that'll put Ghana ahead of them there's a bit of impetus there.