Herbs

Loving the love for the Pentatonix version And yeah I shouldn’t but I low key like Cannonball (and I’ll always have X Factor to thank for giving my fave artist a top 10 single)

Votes sent

18 Alexandra Burke Hallelujah #2s held off #1: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah I'll start with this. I am an Alexandra Burke fan. She has a cracking personality and a great soulful voice. I also love that she exudes confidence (something that was twisted by bigoted viewers on Strictly). It's been great to see her shine on the West End in the last few years. She was also a revelation in her film debut. I run a local queer film group and one of our screenings was of 'Pretty Red Dress', a film where Alexandra predictably plays a regular person, auditioning for singing roles. Why does that sound familiar?! Some of you may remember that Season five of X Factor was not Alexandra's debut. She appeared on Season 2 and went to Judges Houses with Louis Walsh. I remember at the time thinking that Alexandra should have made the live shows. But when Louis is choosing, you will no doubt lose some talent in place of a cute boy or a gimmick. And that is exactly what happened. She was devastated at the time, but little did she know what was around the corner. She returned three years later and bowled everyone over. This all culminated in THAT performance with Beyonce, which meant there was to be no other winner. I always likened her comeback and win to Nadine Coyle's Irish Popstars~Popstars journey - i.e. if Louis had put her through in Series 2, she'd likely have been an early out, never to be heard from again. Her winner's single, a cover of the Leonard Cohen track 'Hallelujah' was a bold choice. Famously covered by Jeff Buckley, many were enraged by the choice. So much so that they downloaded the Jeff & Leonard versions in protest. This led to the very rare circumstance where the official top 2 songs were the same. I personally have three other covers of this song that I adore. Pentatonix's version was just epic. Damien Rice did a great version (available on YouTube). But probably my favourite is Rufus Wainwright's. I was a maaaaaaasive Shrek fan back in the day (still am). I'm pretty sure the Rufus version was the first version I heard. And I was hooked, to the point of tears. Alexandra's version is good (in my opinion). I think I liked it more at the time, but quickly got bored of it. It sold by the bucket load however, spending three weeks at number one. She followed it up with two more number one singles and a chart topping album.

Actually. I've changed my mind on the next song!

Colour me intrigued! What’s the betting the one you hate is my #1!

Ruth was definitely written off because at 27 (or however old she was at the time) she was considered too old…. Thank the Lord she had those vocals and delayed the inevitable for a while!

Maybe

Ignore my registration!

Would love a Valencia win but I can’t deny that it wouldn’t sting from my recent NQ

Take that

Appreciate the top 10/20 predictions. Not expecting to finish there mind you - I seem to finish below predictions normally!

Doubt any of them will do anything but I’m hosting film screenings of Peter Hujar’s Day, A History of Sound and Twinless in the next few weeks. Hoping one of them can crack the top 10/20

Would be very surprised if any of the pop songs challenged for the win. There is so much alt/dance stuff in the final and I can see that racing ahead (with the usual strong start from pop songs)

Does anyone remember the show Micro Soap? Rebecca was on that before she was in AllStars. Adored that show!

Finally on my first listen through. Well this is an interesting set of songs - sometimes it feels like BJSC is the complete antithesis of the multi chart!

lol the trend here of get rid of whatever song can keep Bloc Party in! I met James recently - seemed like a sound guy

FYI - the number 18 song may be a controversial choice for some......

19 X Factor Finalists Hero #2s held off #1: TI ft Rihanna - Live Your Life (week 3) You guessed it! Next up it's the annual charity song released by X Factor Finalists. If milking the British public for sales of the winners single wasn't enough, they came up with the genius idea of getting all of the live show finalists on a charity single. I'd say this was a bit of a risk at the time (the Pop Idol version of Happy Xmas slightly bombed a few years before), but a bit of a safe risk as the show was really at its peak. For this set of finalists they chose the song 'Hero' by Mariah Carey. Is it anywhere near as good as the original? No. Not even close. Did they produce it in a way that showed off the better singers talents, relegating the weaker singers to 'oohs' and 'aahs'? (and the odd line sung with a better singer). 100%. I remember this year being the year that f***Ing average at best Daniel Evans kept making it through week after week, with stronger singers like Ruth Lorenzo/Rachel ending up in the sing off multiple times and others like Laura White/Austin being eliminated early. Going back to Ruth, she was my favourite of the series and her performance of 'Purple Rain' to this day stands the test of time as reaching the upper echelons of quality X Factor performances. It was great to see her pop up in Eurovision a few years later and get a rare top 10 finish for Spain (pre-Ruth/Chanel days for Spain were not kind). The live performance saw the twelve finalists lip sync their way through, leading to a rather hilarious moment where a dodgy door prevented Ruth & Daniel from appearing on stage. Others had to lip sync Ruth and Daniel's parts, even though it was glaringly obvious the voices didn't match (see the clip below!) The song itself did remarkably well - selling a bucket load and staying at number one for three weeks. A yearly charity record then became the done thing, with each release decreasing in sales.

1 1 The Kid Laroi & Miley Cyrus - Without You (CR: 1-1) 2 2 Hayley Kiyoko - Found My Friends (CR: 2-2) 3 3 Bebe Rexha ft Lil Uzi Vert - Die For A Man (CR: 1-3-3) 4 4 Rina Sawayama & Elton John - Chosen Family (CR: 1-2-4-4) 5 8 Conor Maynard - Crowded Room (CR: 37-48-51-43-19-14-9-7-8-5) 6 7 Bebe Rexha - Sabotage (CR: 7-5-6-6-8-2-3-5-5-5-7-6) 7 NE Tina Arena - Church 8 5 The Veronicas ft Allday - The Life of the Party (CR: 1-2-3-5-8) 9 6 Ben Platt - Imagine (CR: 1-1-1-3-3-4-6-9) 10 NE Rag N Bone Man - Crossfire 11 NE Moby ft Gregory Porter & Amythyst Kiah - Natural Blues (Reprise) 12 NE Prospa - Want Need Love 13 NE Olivia Rodrigo & Joshua Bassett - Even When/The Best Part 14 9 Guilt Trippin' - Catch Me (CR: 9-14) 15 NE Tia Kofi & Cahill - Look What You've Done 16 10 Ina Wroldsen - Fires (CR: 10-16) 17 12 The Aces - Don't Freak (CR: 6-12-17) 18 11 Daya - Montana (CR: 11-18) 19 14 Andrea Bocelli, Matteo Bocelli & Virginia Bocelli - The Greatest Gift (CR: 2-4-9-14-19) 20 15 Brooke Combe - Are You With Me? (CR: 8-15-20) 21 18 Lion Babe - Frida Kahlo (CR: 4-8-11-18-21) 22 17 Afrojack & David Guetta - Hero (CR: 6-10-17-22) 23 13 Hook N Sling & Galantis ft Karen Harding - The Best (CR: 13-23) 24 21 Sam Ryder - Tiny Riot (CR: 1-1-1-1-1-1-2-3-2-3-3-4-4-4-7-11-15-21-24) 25 19 The Weeknd & Ariana Grande - Save Your Tears (Remix) (CR: 7-12-19-25) 26 20 The Eves - Brand New Day (CR: 2-6-10-13-20-26) 27 25 Kygo ft James Gillespie - Gone Are The Days (CR: 1-2-5-7-11-17-22-25-27) 28 16 Kriss Kross Amsterdam ft Shaggy & Conor Maynard - Early In The Morning (CR: 16-28) 29 23 Ashe & Finneas - Till Forever Falls (CR: 16-23-29) 30 NE The Hara - Black Soul Ceremony 31 24 Jessie Murph - Look Who's Cryin' Now (CR: 8-13-19-24-31) 32 26 Jonasu - Black Magic (CR: 12-20-26-32) 33 22 Anitta - Girl From Rio (CR: 14-22-33) 34 30 Katy Perry, Luisa Sonza & Bruno Martini - Cry About It Later (CR: 12-16-20-24-30-34) 35 NE Michael Ball - We Are More Than One 36 27 The Struts & Paris Jackson - Low Key In Love (CR: 3-6-10-14-21-27-36) 37 NE The B - Dumb Heart 38 40 Olly Alexander - Starstruck (CR: 1-1-2-4-6-8-11-18-25-32-40-38) 39 NE Human Nature - Planets 40 37 Rhys Lewis - Seasons (CR: 3-6-8-12-19-26-37-40) 41 28 Billie Eilish - Your Power (CR: 17-28-41) 42 29 Alfie Templeman - One More Day (CR: 29-42) 43 33 Estrella Damm ft Joan Dausa, Santi Balmes & Maria Rodes - Another Way Of Living (CR: 18-33-43) 44 38 Winona Oak - Old Insecurities (CR: 38-44) 45 36 Boy George - Good Intentions (CR: 5-9-15-23-36-45) 46 NE Adele & Andy - As Much As I Miss You 47 NE Suzi Quatro - Do Ya Dance 48 NE Discrete, Ouse & Dylan Fuentes ft Kiesza - Drown In Me 49 31 Dictator - Hide & Seek (CR: 31-49) 50 39 Cherry Valentine - Aesthetic (CR: 1-2-5-7-9-13-21-29-39-50)

But Ruth Lorenzo though!

Really appreciate the points from you and glad you liked the song This result has made it clear to me that being unique won’t work, which seems a shame. I’m glad so many of you have a common music interest though :) but I’m out

Been a busy week work wise. Will resume tomorrow with a probably unsurprising next placed song! Any predictions?

bloc party

Seriously I give up, clearly I don’t know what good music is when I regularly come near the bottom of the leaderboard and barely vote for what’s at the top So many people sent songs that I felt were similar to mine and they have given me nothing….

Thanks GD for getting me off zero But wow did not think I’d be bombing like this!