Iz 🌟

Funny how I initially did not recall your entry to 97 from its name but hitting play I was immediately reminded of it and looking back I see I gave it 5 points, not normally my sort of thing that but it has a really nice charm. Dance Avec Moi and Gypsy were both in my top 3 of votes in that contest so very much agreed with your commentary on both, the latter in the rare group of winners that I gave full marks to and indeed, it really stood out among its field.

I don't remember how I chose it, it felt like the right name and nothing else would have worked once I came up with it. Of course the first half is Eyes backwards so that was probably where the inspiration came from but I feel my past self would have been less basic. He probably felt that it was inspired enough to add a suitably uncommon suffix in '-tana', which pretty much has no meaning. Wanting to be less basic is probably why I added the é. I phrase it like this because I don't recall wanting it to be 'eyes' backwards being the reason I chose it. Even if it probably was. Occasionally hosts leave off the accent in Séyetana and it does look a little naked without it. Been happy with it, so for alternatives, I know I wouldn't name it after a music artist or any sort of pop culture thing that various anime or emo or whatever phases might come up with - though if I'd made my country name in the direct middle of one of those phases you might have gotten a reference to them. It might well fit with Japanese phonemes. Though Séyetana does work (to make gibberish) with Chinese phonemes. Anyway if I were picking now from scratch then I'd probably make some reference to a favourite anime or VN (thinking Higurashi or Umineko) with a twist so it's not directly copying a name from one of those. Off the top of my head, Hinamimori maybe (from Hinamizawa, the village in Higurashi and using '-mori' as the Japanese word for forest and certainly not a certain artist I have had minor obsessions with in the last few years x)

As far as inadvertently working this into offline life: > in the very early days I made CDs with the music I discovered here as gifts for family and passed it off as 'music I came across' > my plans to enter the only confirmation battle I ever intended to enter prior to the contest starting were scuppered by canteen conversations at uni lasting longer than I expected them to. That was Ramrynia again, I'd decided to enter 'Wasting Water' to 52 but I knew Ryan was after it too and knew that by being late to the confirmation thread that it wasn't worth trying. > when I was in India in 2017 I had very very limited data and had to completely enter and listen to both BJSC 99 and 100 (!!) by watching my allowance slowly tick down. In the shared room I was living in with the others on the charity team. Or in the truck to the village I was helping in. Closest I've ever been to 'out of comfort' while entering although some of my contests over VPN in China were a little difficult too.

I recall it so well because I also got on the wrong side of it (61, if anyone was curious about the contest). Quite funny in retrospect tbf, more hosts should do it (no, they should not do that)

Believe it or not, also Pavel.

That is a fave. Weren't we waiting for quite a while with no indication of what had gone on before we had to abandon the semis? Like multiple days. Insane to think about.

That's a different one, SNBRN was 73 I think, this one was 54. Won by Postiljonen, quite an inspired winner in the end. But definitely incidents similar to that where songs got vetoed and people were mad or songs didn't get vetoed and people were mad ('I Love It' in 45 one I definitely remember being a good example of the latter, this was prior to it being a UK hit, it was just everywhere on Scandipop AND Pitchfork if memory serves so was a hugely obvious pick) that led to the mods having to put in a framework.

I have recalled the time where people were so up in arms about the 'unfairness' of the veto system that the mods in exasperation dropped it for one contest and nothing happened (I think one or two 'of the time' vetoed entries showed up and didn't do much of note). Though, I say, nothing happened, I believe that was actually a break contest so the mods could finalise the framework so there was evidence behind their vetoes rather than vibes. Not that vibes had sent them too far wrong but some at the time disagreed.

I must have confused 'Get Right' with '1 Thing' at least one time in my life. That's a decent one if unspectacular and again one of the ones from the early part of the year that have stuck with me less.

Axel F is a really good choice of song to cover though, instrumental for the frog bits to go over, good exciting build (and very much sped up from the chill 80s synthy vibes of the original), I think it fits in adjacent to the very fun German eurodance & techno of the early 00s in that way, even if it is very silly. Which is to say despite the prevalence of the annoying thing on it, it's a decent song. Agreed on the placing. If you gave me a random U2 song I would probably not be a fan of it, and that one is one I barely even remember if I've heard it before - very odd song to have been a #1 that fits with it being a low-selling one (though of course I wouldn't dare to suggest that a #1 being low-selling means they're undeserving). I guess I miss the time where a B-tier in recognition alt song could be #1 for even a week and then slip out of memory.

I think I tend to be quite good at it when I bother to make final predictions, but then I'm infrequent because the main reason that draws me to want to make a prediction is when I think the existing predictions are missing something (no crowd following for me). Of course that makes me quite prone to bias, and this whole statement to confirmation bias based on a few on-point calls from select contests, but if I make a prediction, watch out x This month I think I will because it does seem quite interesting to have a go, so maybe I'll look silly later.

Trump is now threatening to sue the BBC to the tune of ONE BILLION DOLLARS for defamation here. I would really like the BBC to put reporting on this in perspective here. Let us not forget, this is a documentary surrounding an incident where Trump incited and attempted to be part of a coup, attempting to overthrow the United States government because the results of an election were not to his liking. Now for reasons known only to the Americans, this somehow did not disqualify him from public office for life and even more incredibly, he has managed to get himself back into power on the wishes of the American electorate. That does not erase the fact that he at numerous stages between November 2020 and January 2021 made multiple statements questioning the validity of the vote, at multiple points made phrases including the sentiment 'fight for your country', and the fact that the BBC shoddily stitched together some speeches on the documentary (honestly poor form from them when they had plenty of material to choose from to make the same point) does not take away from him being an anti-democratic danger. There is a concerted push from right populists to undermine the BBC. What we constantly pull it up for, that it subtly frames towards government institutions and has said right populists on too frequently in the name of balance doesn't even figure from them, they hate that it's the most popular news org in the UK and is mostly grounded in reality and accurate reporting. It's 'too pro-Palestinian', or it's even lefty. Anyway they would love if it could be replaced by GB News and I think we ought to be very careful and watch what they're doing as they go to war with the BBC. For instance, see this article from the Telegraph (archived link) about BBC's climate change coverage being too biased and to need a review. Of course reviews are generally good, and if the BBC were to be unbiased and honest about the climate change crisis it would be forever the top story, there would be so much more focus about what climate change is doing to equatorial countries such that they are becoming less habitable year by year and the tone would be meandering between highly alarmed and downright apocalyptic. However while this article does acknowledge what 'the Left' have a problem with, that being the standard and correct claim that having a climate scientist and a sceptic on the same program is a laughable way to claim balance, most of the 'accusations of bias' are more along the lines of deniers complaining that the BBC is being overzealous. Think for example that Attenborough documentary talked about in this thread in 2023 getting cut (quoted below), or claims about net zero. Essentially that the BBC shows any care for the climate crisis at all is a problem for them.

full house of my votes through and I'm through and I think most of the songs I couldn't quite fit into my votes for are also through - this has gone super well and has led to a very strong final! thank you Jade for hosting!

phew! glad to see Sayonara Maybe in - same for Red & Gold.

oh fantastic to see Flynnonda and Aelandor safe, two entries that were essential to get through and wasn't sure either was nailed on.