Iz様 🌟

thank you dandy *.*

big kath points yay <3 consistency paying off too thanks everyone

dare we say that BJSC has finally developed good taste? my evidence: I very unusually have cor lupus points

that's more like it, a nice steady stream of points <3

very deserved, such a wonderful track and grower 'Rasa' dewigged (though certainly supporting if it wins and cursing not sending it a few months back based on how well it's doing now)

3(san)Q for the points for 8485 so far (but more pls) interesting songs doing well

won't have time to guest vote but have to show some virtual 'hare hare yukai' love because that is THE sound of 2006 (in certain subcultures) will keep an eye on the results regardless as I vaguely know a fair few of these and those are decent quality

Love seeing some appreciation for 'Identitet', that's a favourite of mine, even though it often isn't very high on Albania fave lists, I think as you say it does this dad rock stuff very well and it's great in its class. Not sure which would win out of the 2 left but both are incredible so agreed there.

11. Cee Lo Green – Fuck You2 weeks at #1 (entered 10th October): 01-01-04-04-06-10-15-12-13-21-16-13-12-11-16-24-29-38-35-19-14-18-24-33-39-41-42-48-54-54-59-68-67-79-82-92-87-83-86-99-100 Kept off #1: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow – Shame EOY #12 One more. One more instance in 2010 of delving into the Midas touch that The Smeezingtons had over UK charts this year as one of their number, Bruno Mars, soared to stardom. Both of his songs in this countdown have already gone, but there’s one more breezy and light pop-RnB song to come that Bruno had a big hand in writing, and that is ‘Fuck You’, bane of radio station censors and the biggest solo hit for one Cee Lo Green. Quite possibly more commonly known as ‘Forget You’, given how good for airplay this song is, this song was released in a fair few versions, the standard clean version of ‘Forget You’, the also clean version, ‘FU’, and of course the uncensored version because we don’t have the watershed on this site, plus the odd remix here and there to add performers, but those are the important ones. Certainly at the time UK radio stations were just playing ‘Forget You’, at least in my memory, and there it got a little bit overplayed, this and ‘Just The Way You Are’ were easily the two most common songs to hear on UK radio in the second half of 2010, so Bruno Mars' dominance would be assured. Very big chart run and at this point I was absolutely listening to the chart show every week so got big exposure to this for a long time after. That said, this comes from one half of the genius that made up Gnarls Barkley and ‘Crazy’ and with time away from hearing it and taking note of its composition, it’s a very well-made song, with some of the Smeezingtons' best ever production. Cee Lo’s soulful voice is incredible here, and it’s packed full of memorable and fun lines that Cee Lo delivers really well despite the quirkiness ‘I guess he’s an Xbox, and I’m more Atari’, ‘Yeah, go run and tell your little boyfriend’, and it flows together pretty beautifully. It’s not quite as fun or obviously singable as ‘Crazy’, and ironically for a song telling someone to fuck off, I don’t feel all that much emphasis and therefore need for the swear word here, meaning ‘Forget You’ might even be slightly better which would be an insane thing to say about a censored version normally. It is only a small criticism, and either way, it’s a great package of a song, and the message, a sort of cold nonchalance after being treated badly is very empowering, and Cee Lo looks fantastic in the video, as one should if you're laying a beatdown about how you are far better off even though a previous love interest has left you. Or the music industry. Apparently. Cee Lo was chosen for this song as one of the guys who could say all this stuff and stay classy while doing it so that may be why his style is oozing out from this. Also a good and understandable critique for a production team trying their best to make it big, the Smeezingtons trio had been trying to break in for the best part of half a decade at this point. Although quite obviously given the success of this and all the other songs that Bruno Mars was singing on, another example of capitalism subsuming all critiques into itself by making the production team a stunning success and the song radio background fodder, going on to write standard industry radio pop, by writing a 'fuck you'. Though certainly not radio fodder without its quality when you actually take the time to listen to it. It kept off possibly the most forgettable #2 of this year, the thinly veiled warmup to Progress that was 'Shame'. I mildly liked that but it has nothing on this song. Yet again though, despite Cee Lo Green delivering a generationally good vocal performance here like he did on 'Crazy', he seemed unable to get more than one huge hit at a time, and despite this leading off his only solo album that anyone has ever heard of, The Lady Killer, and a few more follow-up singles that did okay and that I thought were good for the time, 'Bright Lights Better City' was certainly fun enough the year after, this remains his only significant moment as a solo artist. Next up, the top 10. At this point, I love all of the songs remaining a lot, hopefully most of you still have a few favourites left and that's all I'll say about that.

voted, love every song in my votes and they all deserve to smash, though my 18 did sneak up on me, hope that one does well x

Shows I wasn't really deep in the charts even as late as August, I had forgotten completely about The Saturdays and the "'Missing You' 'nearly' got to #1" drama. Either that or it shows I didn't care about The Saturdays (sadly my last.fm records from the subsequent years has me playing them more times than I'd care to admit, so that can't be it) I checked on the background vocals for 'Club...', with Wiki as the starting point, but also cross-referencing it with other places that also mention this mysterious Carmen Key character as the vocalist (and also one of the writers!), with this song listed as a highlight in her bio (lol). But then if I check out the Nicole Scherzinger theory using similar research methods, I can find a fair few sources saying that is the case. Apple Music has Carmen Key credited on the background vocals so I suppose that's the correct answer but I'm intrigued as to how the idea of Nicole being on there was so widespread.

Last.fm is now independent again! (they had been owned by Paramount for a time) https://support.last.fm/t/last-fm-is-now-independent/118591 Excited but a little nervous, the team now have free rein to do what they like to improve it, but it's also a website I'm amazed is still going, even though it's objectively better at music data collection and listening habits than any of the big streamer's lame attempts.

12. Flo Rida – Club Can’t Handle Me (feat. David Guetta) 1 week at #1 (entered 1st August, #1 on week beginning 15th August): 05-02-01-03-03-05-09-09-14-20-25-30-38-44-52-59-59-49-66-77-77-66-52-63-85-62 Kept off #1: Eminem – Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) EOY #20 ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’ by Flo Rida, featuring the talents of David Guetta and a singer, Carmen Key, known for nothing else but the background vocals on this song’s chorus, is not a typical club banger. If that sentence looks silly to you, perhaps let’s expand a bit. It’s not typical because despite a lineup that would have anyone with more than 5 minutes knowledge of critiquing music running for cover, and tackling a lyrical subject that was done to death before the club existed, it’s a pretty damn great song. Tramer Lacel Dillard, aka Florida Man, was at this point not quite the joke in popular music that he would be when he made a surprise appearance on the Eurovision stage to prop up San Marino, capping off a flagging career that had been in terminal decline for years. I don’t recall thinking in 2010 that he was anything particularly special, but with ‘Low’ still relatively inescapable and beloved and ‘Right Round’ decently known, and with many of his sacriligous sample-based hits and unasked for rented rapper motor mouth features still in the future, he still had a modicum of credibility as an artist. His Only One Flo (Part 1) album (sequel renamed from Only One Rida, forever making this album look horrible in his discography) may have been the point where the downturn began, particularly as this was about the same time as ‘unavanessaroshell whatcha doing Saturday girl?’. However ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’, the lead single from OOF(P1), was one of those few songs in Flo Rida's charting career in the 10s that remained pretty gloriously untouched by his declining ability to hang onto the wheel of quality control. It actually sounds a lot more like David Guetta at his best, a sequel to ‘When Love Takes Over’ in some ways, as it should, the production is most of what wins here. The whole song works because of the tightness of the chorus and how well it builds into one of those reflective moments intended for the dancefloor to sing along to. Not something you’d normally associate with Flo Rida, but the club is his home, and here, his typical nonsense that he fills the verses with give off a really great momentum balance between the verses and the chorus and the whole thing ends up sounding pretty glorious. That was the real secret of Flo Rida, whatever he was wittering on about on whatever song he's on, he did it with such rhythm and energy that it was normally hard to hate even if objectively trashy and on 'Club...' you barely have to pretend it's not trashy, because it isn't, he fits with Guetta's production so well here. The song sounds so nostalgic as well, I am sure this was played so commonly in clubs over the next few years, proving the desire for uplifting dance interspersed with fast-paced hip-hop. Or something. It sounded good then, it sounds good now, just for different reasons. It’s a simple summer party tune produced by two kings of the club at the peak of their powers and I’m always surprised by how much I like this. Made it one of the few highlights of that crazy August on the charts where #1s just wouldn’t last, this climbed to #1 on its own powers, and yes, blocked Eminem in the process, but that one had other opportunities. Top 20 at the end of the year isn't bad either, relatively decent legs. The ‘club banger’ era of the late 00s and early 10s may be derided and quite fairly in a lot of areas (I remember mildly liking the follow up to this song, 'Turn Around' at the time, but without many memories attached to it and it was barely a hit, that one sounds awful now), but I have to recognise when even the most prominent recipients of that derision really outdid themselves and made a song that could last the test of time, this slaps.

13. Lady Gaga & Beyoncé – Telephone 2 weeks at #1 (entered 29th November 2009, #1 on week beginning 21st March): 30-41-62-82-74-67-55-48-49-42-39-39-34-37-31-12-01-01-02-04-06-11-11-15-16-19-24-22-33-38-40-43-46-45-55-61-59-63-75-86-91-89-83-95-89-91-x-66-88 Kept off #1: none EOY #15 My relationship with Gaga’s music as I started to pay more attention to who was making the music I was listening to was a little complicated. She was inescapable throughout 2009-2010, all her music raved about, and just as many column inches displayed to her weird music videos and occasional publicity stunts – barely a month after the infamous meat dress incident I saw an impersonator at a lounge bar in the retirement-home/respectable part of Tenerife, Los Gigantes. Point is, everyone knew who she was, what she represented and it was very much the weird, cutting edge of pop. Vaguely appreciated by society but also comes with some mild pearl-clutching here and there. Sabrina Carpenter now is perhaps in a similar position. This largely applies to her music videos, as much as The Fame Monster has gone down in history and in my estimations as her tightest and highest quality piece of work as a follow-up EP to The Fame, this era, especially at the time, was all about what weird stuff Gaga would get up to in her music videos – interestingly I remember seeing the videos for the yet-to-appear ‘Bad Romance’ and follow-up single ‘Alejandro’ a lot more at the time. Though the latter drew the ire of various Christian groups so that may have been why. Perhaps because they had a lot more transgressive and auteur-creative imagery than this one. ‘Telephone’s music video is very Tarantino-inspired, and the length and many lines of dialogue allow for a number of fun lines and snapbacks that helped cement Gaga as an icon of self-confident feminism, alongside one of the other modern music legends who could lay claim to that title, Beyoncé. It's a really interesting song on the charts in that it does reflect the ongoing appreciation for Gaga, never far from people's minds, inspiring a huge fanbase that is still very active to this day and of course working with one of the biggest OTHER fanbases - its climb to #1 accompanies the music video's release and a huge single push that cemented it firmly into the charts as a strong seller, this is such an easy sell for anyone who had experienced the music market of the year before, and holding on as a #1 as a far more pernicious monster, Justin Bieber's 'Baby', was in its greatest ascendancy was very welcome. Even if 'Baby' would only peak at #3, it was closest to #1 on this second week (narrowly). ‘Telephone’ is not my favourite Gaga song from this era or the associated Fame era by any means, I mainly consider it notable for a good collaboration with Beyoncé. The song is catchy enough and certainly fun on its own but doesn’t have quite the same euphoria or highs that so many of her other works around this time do. Part of that might be how the song was originally written by Gaga for Britney Spears’ Circus, the song, production wise has more in common with a lot of Britney's more airy electropop-esque singing than most of the rest of Gaga's work, though the glitches are definitely more a Gaga trademark. Most of the oomph here, and it's really good oomph, comes from either Gaga's dance breakdowns or the points where Bey enters the song with a bit of fire, I think while the song suits Beyoncé possibly even less, she really keeps it from going stale and is a great addition. The lyrical theme is excellent as an expression of Gaga's insecurity at being in constant demand and subsequently her expression of power in taking back the telephone. When it calls everyone to the dancefloor, it can be really euphoric and does that very well, it has the potential to be a damn good club track under the right circumstances. Considering that Beyoncé's parts were recorded in Japan and Gaga recorded hers at Darkchild's studios in California, it flows well. As it should, this is quite literally a superstar collaboration and quite possibly up there with the biggest in history. There really is a lot of energy in this song, it's great to listen through and I feel this might be one that some would put up very high - my criticism is that while a good song, it doesn't quite feel as suited to Gaga as most of her songs and repeated exposure makes it a little annoying. But that's why I'm not a monster, for me Gaga is a good entertainer and certainly talented popstar and creative, but that's it. I've always enjoyed and respected Gaga when she's good, and I don't criticise her lightly, but she isn't perfect, and this is one of her good, but less than perfect, songs.

Olta Boka's good, though I haven't returned to it for ages. I think the entries I enjoy the most that missed your top 10 are 'Mall' and 'Duje', both pretty wonderful Albanian sneaks into the final.

Albania are one of my favourite countries for being so consistent and able to maintain their distinct style that often aligns with what I like. Even if it isn't always what Europe wants to see, though sometimes, like last year, it absolutely is. very much looking forward to seeing how you go through all these, I appreciate the scale.

14. Bruno Mars – Just The Way You Are 2 weeks at #1 (entered 26th September): 01-02-04-02-01-03-05-08-11-14-17-20-16-14-17-17-18-19-24-24-28-32-29-29-40-43-45-44-55-61-53-48-53-52-56-67-70-76-75-85-74-74-74-79-89-77-87-89-87-96-94-90-94-84-80-73-59-85-84-98 Kept off #1: The Wanted – Heart Vacancy EOY #3 Sometimes, especially in an era of fast turnover, #1s come and go with little fanfare, barely hearing them as they plummet out of the top 40 in favour of far more consistent, often radio-friendly, sellers. Many of the songs in this thread so far have been like that. ‘Just The Way You Are (Amazing)’, to give it its full UK release title at the time, was not one of those. When I came upon it in the chart, even as a new chart-watcher, I could tell that this was a song that would last. And last. And last. And last. Good luck existing anywhere on the planet with a radio connection, and certainly the UK in the latter half of 2010, while avoiding hearing this. I don’t think that it’s an exaggeration to say that if this song had appeared on the scene in a slower chart era like today, particularly any that involved streaming, it would be #1 for weeks and weeks. Maybe it would have even had a shot at beating the record for most weeks at #1. If I can add some figures to back up my vague assertions, it’s the highest certified single in history for the USA, based on their current system of streaming numbers, recently going 'double diamond', which means 20 times platinum (actually it's now 21 at time of writing) which means 20,000,000 x 150 streams of the song, though this also includes sales. It sold absolutely bucketloads in the UK too, for 2010 it sold nearly three-quarters of a million sales in the download era, which places it as a solid third for the year overall. It's also, given how many #1s there were this year, the only song to be #1 on two or more non-consecutive weeks in 2010, the second time keeping The Wanted's second, decent boyband effort off the top (though worth saying I thought at the time that 'Heart Vacancy' was far more boring than this, and still consider it worse, but I've slightly warmed to it over time). So after strongly alluding to Bruno Mars' warm-up to starting his very successful solo career, with 'Nothin' On You' and 'Billionaire' strongly featuring his voice on the chorus, we come to the payoff for Mr Mars, or Mr Hernandez, whichever you prefer. After slumming it out on production duties and features, this is it, this is him, and honestly it's one of the most well-orchestrated debuts in history. Based off the legacy of older songs that authentically wax lyrical about how beautiful the singer's object of affection is, it's pretty clear that a lot of this song's success is down to how convincingly Bruno manages to make you feel that he is singing about a truly amazing lover that he loves everything about, in all the ways that particularly women often want to hear, that there is nothing they need to change, their love interest, Bruno, loves them just the way they are. For me, those genuine feelings that he sells do elevate the song, but it's also just so smoothly and fantastically sung. You could see he was going to be a star, although thankfully he pivoted away from doing this thing all the time. It's better when you don't unleash these huge easy-listening radio monsters, too many of them can be dangerous. This was my birthday #1 in 2010, I clearly do remember listening to the chart show on that second chart week, I think I really embarrassingly liked at the time all of the 3 new entries that spanned from #9-#11 that week (look them up and you'll see what I mean), and as the one to have that title for this thread, though it hasn't affected anything, I really don't hate it. Which is something that has to be said about ballads like this, this one has a bit of tempo to it, Bruno's an undeniable talent, so so many similar songs to this are far more boring. Despite it suffering just a little from overplay, being a bit too sappy and in pitch just staying a bit too flat, it's a very fine song and a good intro for the charting world to this new biggest star.

"Water" and "Cvet z Juga" are my ultimate faves that have persisted from the semi-final in 2007 - really interesting write-ups for the whole field though, I haven't listened to many of these for years but god some of it was so ropey and no quality control, I miss that in some ways.

we will follow it and we will be avoiding fan-base bias (is this a suggestion there could potentially be big names on board? big names in a bangladeshi sense of course)

15. Taio Cruz – Dynamite1 week at #1 (entered 29th August): 01-03-03-02-02-05-08-13-16-20-25-32-36-32-42-47-49-39-29-37-47-55-58-74-69-65-69-74-65-53-75-81-80-89 Kept off #1: Eminem - Love The Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) EOY #17 "The song 'Dynamite' itself is about when you go to the club and when you go to a party and when you're just going out... you got to feel like, 'I'm just gonna explode.’” – Taio Cruz "I thought ["Dynamite"] was the dumbest song I had ever written and thought it was going nowhere." – Bonnie McKee Those quotes, only existing on Wikipedia now as their sources, interviews from the time, have died to link rot, are a very good summation of ‘Dynamite’ as it stands in UK Chart history, a dumb bit of fun that is simply an uplifting club tune. Which it certainly is, and what most people who heard it took it as. On the surface. McKee, getting her second big writing credit hit after ‘California Gurls’ earlier in the year, has talked more about the song of course in public and most of her comments and interviews are less disparaging to 'Dynamite' and actually more about what she meant while writing those lyrics, she wrote the ‘hands up in the air’ lyrics in the chorus, and they came from a feeling of release of overcoming the struggles of getting sober. On top of a fairly generic Lukasz Gottwald and Max Martin melody and not even meeting McKee until after the song had been finished, Cruz wrote the verses, which makes sense, the verses are far more in the style that we'd come to know and like (?) him for in his short career, with all the repeated words about nothing in particular. Ironically, the song is perhaps known as the quintessential example of dead-eyed 'hands in the air' club tunes, because of Taio Cruz' insistence on being the blandest individual who ever stepped foot into a recording studio. All that said, it works. It works very well for what it is. Worth saying that the music video, complete with pyrotechnic explosions (because Dynamite!!!), does some weird things with the intro that aren't on other versions of the song, and the intro that is on the recorded version is pretty lush. It's also just such a good time that when I remember it exists, I am briefly affronted at the suggestion I might like this before happily giving it another listen. It's probably the strongest form of nostalgia elevating an average song, but 'Dynamite' knows what it is, gives out all the euphoric joy it can, then leaves. Can't really complain here. Allegedly 'Dynamite' was leading off The Rokstarr Collection, a deluxe album that's styled more like a greatest hits, as it includes songs from his first album Departure as well as the Break Your Heart-containing Rokstarr, giving the few individuals who would willingly purchase a Taio Cruz album the greatest deal of their lives. Cruz would swiftly move on, but this was such a hit he could have snuck another single in there had he cared. This is another song that beat 'Love The Way You Lie' to the top spot, though the latest temporally, with 'Green Light' on the previous week. Again I'd swap them easily, but that's more a statement on how good 'Love The Way You Lie' is. 'Dynamite' wasn't a bad seller by any means, it'd go onto have a long run in the top 40 and even come back again at the end of the year, I remember listening to this quite a few times on the chart show, and it's just a really versatile song, can be played anywhere, it's no one's favourite song but it's a crowd-pleaser. 'Dynamite' compares really favourably to 'Break Your Heart' and most of Taio's other hits, he wouldn't have any other #1s but he had a fair few hits in this short period, all as forgettable and generic as each other (except for the hilariously terrible 'Hangover', which now makes up what I choose to consider Taio's true legacy, being the base for one of Scottish pirate metal band Alestorm's best covers), 'Dynamite' is definitely the most likeable of them and does deserve its place in the top 15 here, as much as it's easy to make fun of, its uplifting mood is undeniable. While Cruz' career would fizzle fairly soon after reaching this high, and yes, this is definitely his high, McKee was just getting started in her pop writing career if not her infamously dogged singing career, after scoring this, her second #1, she'd be all over many hits for the next 5 years.

I'm sure we'll get to something you like soon! (perhaps)

16. Cheryl – Promise This 1 week at #1 (entered 31st October): 01-02-07-17-19-28-37-42-38-33-52-81 Kept off #1: none EOY #39 For a brief moment in time, coinciding with the winding-down of Girls Aloud and her stint as a judge on the Talent Show, Cheryl Cole was the hottest British pop property as a solo artist. ‘Fight For This Love’ had been everywhere in 2009 as her first solo #1, and like a few other artists who had new #1s in the later half of the year, a couple of songs from the previous album era were hanging around. Those were ‘Parachute’ and ‘3 Words’, the latter featuring will.i.am again, and the former being such a consistent seller that it would nearly outsell this #1 on the year-end chart. It was only a short time between her albums 3 Words and Messy Little Raindrops, the latter the album that ‘Promise This’ led off, but Cheryl's life had dramatically changed in that short time. This solo success happened around the same time as several significant changes in her personal life, she had publicly gotten separated, filed for divorce and completed divorce from her then-husband footballer Ashley Cole at various points throughout 2010, with the tabloids hanging on every new development, including ‘unreasonable behaviour’ from Ashley. At the same time as all this was going on, she contracted a life-threatening strain of malaria over the summer of 2010 in Tanzania, also again, luridly focused on by the media. All this meant that her new single, performed to great applause on the Talent Show in late October, would be almost certain to go to #1. Which it did, but not before ending up in what I think was clearly the biggest chart battle of the year. ‘Promise This’ and the song it beat sold so well that this was the highest-selling chart week of the year if you discount winner singles and charity efforts, so the highest selling ‘standard’ #1 of 2010. A good thing for ‘Promise This’ that it sold so well on this first week too, as it was clearly not going to last as long on the charts as the huge behemoth that it beat. Only Cheryl could have stopped that one, but only for a week. With all that context, ‘Promise This’ could have really sounded like anything and it would have gone to #1. It's not an undeserved #1 though, it's a fine song, and to its credit has some interesting bits to it. Most notable is the inclusion of the French-Quebecois nursery rhyme 'Alouette', that cheery song about plucking a lark and its body parts. 'Plumerai l'aile' specifically means 'pluck the wings', fitting with the rest of the lyrics - I really enjoy the 'Alouette' parts, I think they give a lot of rhythm and a sense of foreboding over the song. The rest is pretty great too, not so subtly alluding to Cheryl's brush with death and building up to a lovely finale. I think in the wake of a very significant year for her, out of this, came one of her best displays of artistry and challenge, all poured into one song. The main weakness is that, as ever with her, it's got some imperfections, she's a fine singer but not an outstanding one, and that production from Wayne Wilkins, it has some good points with the marching beats but in the verses I think it loses itself a bit. Wilkins, who also did 'Fight For This Love' had better production on that and if you compare it to the rest of Wilkins' work rather than Cheryl's, compare songs like Shontelle's 'T-Shirt', Jordin Sparks's 'Battlefield', or Beyoncé's 'Sweet Dreams', it feels production-wise like a weaker version of some of those - man has a style but I don't think this was his best work. Obviously I was exposed to this, like many in the nation, by Cheryl performing it on a very public platform and then later on the charts. It was fine at the time, but I moved on from it fairly quickly and it didn't have all that much cultural staying power, even with reinventing a nursery rhyme in an interesting way. That said, it's a fair second #1 for her and is only narrowly behind 'Fight For This Love' in my Cheryl-related affections.

12 A-Konohagakure: DIALOGUE+ - Miracles don't happen 02 Persephonia: PAON - Métamorphose 01 FSR Rontvia: Benefits - Land Of The Tyrants (feat. Zera Tønin) Was a very high quality set of votes, as said, very sad to see those 3 out. Cumulonimbia and Pagasa were the next two closest to my votes as well 😢

mad, that was such a contrast wish I'd given it a point extra now aarrrgh

oh god can we just have both of those in semi 2 through please?