Dobbo

BJSC 83 Host Country: Ethanola Summary A one month wait to return turned into two months as between 82 & 83 there was a one-off special contest celebrating 10 years of Buzzjack consisting of iconic songs which in some way "defined" the website. Speaking of which, I wonder if we'll see a 20th anniversary edition next year? :o anyway I had been set on my next main contest entry for quite some time as it was instant love on first listen, meaning previous would-be entry Every Single Night was shelved. 83 I recall as being one of my favourite contests ever, not just because of how my entry fared but by the sheer amount of quality dance songs that graced the final, including one that went on to become a massive UK hit a few months later, namely Kungs' This Girl which was my 15-pointer. This was also the most fun I had following the live results, definitely increases the excitement and tension when you're a genuine contender for once! Dobago's Entry Result: 3rd Prior to the contest I recall thinking I might have inadvertently created possible barriers in even entering this song. As I was posting personal charts at the time this has topped my chart for several weeks and had gained some traction in the Personal Forum Multicharts as a result of others discovering and also enjoying what they heard, including some active BJSC participants. I had faith that no one would sneakily pinch it but of course there was still the the issue with possible veto points. As it transpired all was fine and the song went down incredibly well, qualifying from its semi in 2nd place and eventually earning me my first ever medal position in the final. Like my 81 entry, I had also discovered this song through European charts back when the deep house sound was still highly prominent. But this one had a unique selling point, THOSE gorgeous strings. Strings in dance music is a personal love of mine and this one was bang on trend too. Throw in a glorious sax breakdown as well and it literally ticked every box going. It's still one of my favourite ever personal entries to this day and proudly remains one of my best ever performing. Fun fact, Dobago became the first country ever to improve its finishing position in each of their first 5 contests (albeit with an aforementioned grand slice of fortune along the way). Winning Entry Country: Yehesi Amongst the plethora of dance music saturating the contest the winner ended up being something about as out and out pop as it gets. Perhaps that played to its advantage but there's no denying this slice of bubblegum pop from Belgian/Dutch girl group K3 has charming infectiousness in abundance. I threw it 9 points myself which was the most I had awarded to a winning entry so far. Containing many typical tropes of its sound, the song is particularly B*Witched - C'est La Vie coded with the towering chorus, chanting middle 8 section and even your classic final chorus key change. It unashamedly captures the nostalgia of late 90s pop and packs an almighty punch in doing so. It was a first victory for Yehesi who went 2 better than the previous contest. Always a fun one to revisit. 18-Pointer Country: N-Lazone Dance music lovers really were spoiled for choice in this contest with the likes of This Girl, Love Druggie, Feeling as well my own entry all hoovering up points left, right and centre. However it was this exquisite slice of deep house which earned my top honours. The subgenre was all the rage in 2016 and this track fused both deep and tropical elements which were also emerging into the mainstream. I wouldn't say the production is anything particularly amazing but it evokes a sense of serenity that's hard to describe. Plus those dreamy vocals are absolute platinum silk to the ears. It's one of those songs that makes me feel something without even necessarily meaning to and I still give it semi-regular spins now and then. N-Lazone was a fleeting but extremely consistent nation that is sorely missed by the Dobagans!

BJSC 82 Host Country: Danaelanda Summary After scoring our breakthrough hit we would have to sit out the next contest (the delegate was travelling in China at the time), which was a shame as it would have been a first visit to our close ally, then known as Danaelanda! Had we participated our entry would most likely have been Norde - Every Single Night, a breezy deep house track with an eccentric vocal delivery which was flying high in our Personal Chart at the time. I imagine this would have been a close call in terms of qualifying. As the contest was drawing to a close I gave the final a quick listen and at the time, was fully behind Lushington's You Got Me Baby for the win (which almost certainly would have been my 18-pointer) however it was another contender that took the spoils. That contender being Hilight Tribe's Free Tibet, which has gone down as one of the most unique winning songs of all time. It was when psytrance properly arrived and spawned a myriad of soundalike entries in the years to follow. These days Free Tibet stands in much higher stead for me than You Got Me Baby and goes down as one of my all time favourite discoveries.

If Max finally wins in Singapore it'd be difficult to back against him tbh. McLaren look like they're about to implode... But if the Red Bull hot streak runs out of steam then it'll be Norris as McLaren will make sure their golden boy wins it.

I also initially picked a song off that album but effectively self-vetoed hence my earlier post in this thread!

There is no place for a Simpsons movie in 2027, just no.

My country thread tracks all the songs needed for this countdown up to a few years ago so we can cross that bridge if needed when the time comes.

Yeah this Flawless double is even more coincidental than the Kaci Battaglia double! Geraldine getting my vote.

"Content not viewable in your region" guess this is the Online Safety Act finally taking hold!

Welcome back Mattias! And just after I reviewed your former winner from way back Allie X :o Still miss our old school Club Bizarre rivalry too!

Ah yes the essay votes *_* Take It Or Leave It I gave 12 points so must have the hit mark back then. I recall Ganjaman vaguely, definitely the novelty-esque type of entry that usually goes down well with me. Monody was a tricky one as I really liked the instrumentation but wasn't a fan of the overly sickly vocals.

RIP Roscoe 😭

Looking back at my votes that contest there's not actually too many songs I instantly recognise. Pegboard Nerds - Emoji I enjoyed a lot but otherwise would have to listen back to most of them to remind myself!

BJSC 81 Host Country: Kluminican Republic Summary Into a new decade then and now with Dobago a fully established and integrated nation. After the traditional one month winter break I was very keen to get going with BJSC again, not least because I had found an entry that I was extremely curious about how it would perform. I don't recall off my head anything particularly noteworthy about this contest in general so on with the songs... Dobago's Entry Result: 5th The contest where Dobago truly arrived. This deep house remix of an otherwise fairly ordinary French pop soul record (although I can't even seem to find that original anywhere, just a live version) qualified with ease and smashed the glass ceiling of the top 10 to land in an eventual 5th place. It was a song I had discovered sometime in late 2015 and noted it was gaining traction in a lot of European charts which I had been following more closely at the time. Perhaps another month or 2 and it would have been arousing the veto fairies. It certainly now stands as the most commercial song I've ever entered given its subsequent global performance, even being certified silver in the UK despite not charting (it did place at #57 on the sales only chart however) and has more combined Spotify streams than any of my 98 other entries to date. Its wide appeal certainly stretched into BJSC and I still love hearing it to this today. Deep house is simply luscious when done like this. Winning Entry Country: Deandria This was an absolute landslide winner and one of the few to surpass the 400-point barrier. I get it, very VERY BJSC-friendly, slightly alt-leaning pop, towering chorus, quirky sounding vocals. But not my cup of tea. I do really like the chorus but the verses and bridges are extremely beige and drag on for far too long so you're left with most of the song not being very good. And the production is a bit too ploddy as well. About the most memorable thing for me was the spinning woman in the video. Now what was Spinning Adam's infamous Buzzjack tagline? 18-Pointer Country: What THIS is what I absolutely love BJSC for. Songs I would ordinarily never ever come across dragged out of the most random corners of the web. An Austrian lederhosen-wearing nu metal band who sing in both English and German. I can't say from memory that I've seeked out anything else from them truth be told (maybe I should change that one day) but they go down in Dobagan folklore for serving this chaotic banger. Those riffs, that towering vocal, the yodelling, all in one 4 minute sensory experience. Probably the closest thing I can compare it to is System of a Down's Chop Suey. And that's before we even mention that video *_* A top tier discovery that was deservedly rewarded with a top 10 finish. What happened to What?

It certainly did. One thing I've noticed from the early contests is that I clearly hadn't formulated a good voting habit/strategy as there were many songs low/not in my votes that I ended up far preferring shortly afterwards. And those are always d'oh moments! I don't think it's ever happened to me, the closest I can recall is Brianna - Lost In Istanbul which I very nearly sent a few months before it eventually finished 4th in its actual appearance.

BJSC 80 Host Country: Aeroche Summary The final contest of 2015 was our first of many visits to Aeroche and we were keen to keep up our qualifying streak (with an asterisk) to see out the year. We were very much still in the "pick something that's currently doing well in your personal chart and stands out a little bit" phase here and it just about seemed to be working so far. #00274E took the honours in this contest which was also notable for Kluminican Republic finishing runners-up for the second time in a row. #spoileralertbutnotreally it would be a LONG time before they finally shook off their bridesmaid tag. The host's 11th place finished ensured they prevailed in the EOY scoreboard. And yay for no controversy in this one (that I recall at least). Dobago's Entry Result: 31st I'm always partial to a bit of what could be VERY loosely defined as 'happy hardcore'. I used to buy a lot of the Clubland X-Treme Hardcore/Hardcore Til I Die compilations as a teenager and German group ItaloBrothers tended to feature prominently on these tracklists. So I was already somewhat keeping tabs on them and stumbled across this recent release which was far, far more pop-leaning but still retained that out and out, balls to the wall instrumental breakdown for which they're familiar. Understandably likened to the likes of Basshunter and Scooter (one of my fave bands) we finally picked up some qualification predictions and the entry did not disappoint on that front, advancing a lot more comfortably than its predecessors. It would ultimately finish just outside of the top 30 but continued our run of gradually improving in terms of final position with each contest. So our first calendar year was complete with reasonable success, 3 out of 3 entries qualifying and picking up a small but solid fanbase. Plenty to build upon going into 2016! Winning Entry Country: #00274E After giving top marks to a drum and bass song in the previous contest, it was a song from that same genre which took victory this time around. However, although much like the previous winner where I did throw a few (slightly fewer this time) points its way, this one definitely wasn't a huge standout for me. The production is on point as you'd expect from a heavyweight of the genre but I was never massively keen on the vocals. They're a bit too high-pitched all the way through. And the middle part of song where things slow down break up the energy a bit too much. I felt at the time that the extremely memorable music video may have possibly helped out its performance (back when videos played a stronger role in selling entries) although now having looked again at its winning margin that's probably a little unfair. It's a solid track but nothing that makes me desperate to here it again. 18-Pointer Country: Fljótavík Given the oversaturation of dance entries in this final it was perhaps quite an eyebrow raising choice of 18 from me (and indeed 15-pointer Du Swipa Höger). But every now and then a song just captures my attention for no specific reason and a combinations of factors just make me really enjoy it. The reggae-leaning sound with a choppy drumbeat sticks out right off the bat but it's really all about the soaring chorus for me. The gritty synths complement the vocal melody perfectly. Add in a funky post-chorus bass breakdown with a tinge of steel drums and there are plenty of elements to get on board with. The rather on the nose song title certainly didn't escape me either! That said, it's not a track I've revisited too often and I much prefer another entry of hers Body Bounce which appeared a couple of years later. In terms of this contest's songs, it would ultimately be Mirror Talk's 1/M/T that left the best lasting impression, a fantastic 80s-inspired number.

Pretty sure I've given you top marks on quite a few occasions actually! But couldn't confidently say how many so will leave that till they come around. I think from scanning back through the forum the threads all appear to be viewable but will reach out if I get stuck, cheers.

+5 Demon Hunters Cast - Your Idol +4 Demon Hunters Cast - Soda Pop +3 Sombr - 12 To 12 +2 Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild +1 Sabrina Carpenter - Tears -1 RAYE - Where Is My Husband -2 Lewis Capaldi - Something In The Heavens -3 Olivia Dean - Man I Need -4 Olivia Dean - Nice To Each Other -5 Demon Hunters Cast - Golden

Definitely hearing some of the references made in this thread but the song it instantly reminded me of was Amerie's - 1 Thing. It's... ok. Not mad about the rushed vocals, it's certainly no Escapsim.

Yeah not minding this one after a couple of listens, his falsetto is definitely better than his screaming.

La Roux's is great

Definitely Amy.

Choosing between Boris and Reform would be like choosing what knife to stab yourself with.

Sunderland finishing above Newcastle this season is gonna be absolutely hilarious

Imagine saying Palace would be the last undefeated team in the league this season back in August...

Yep Mr Ratcliffe, Ruben is the man he said. He could relegate us to league 1 and he'd still have his backing.