Jacob-

DNQ and lost my 12, 10 and 8. Honestly don't know what's up with this contest sometimes. :/ +12 // Wholune // Nekrogoblikon // Secret Elephant (feat. Reel Big Fish) +10 // Ennea // World's First Cinema // Make Me A Monster +08 // Ben's Sanctuary // SCHILLER // Euphoria: Der Traum (Extended Version) +07 // Q +06 // Q +05 // Q +04 // Q +03 // Pagasa // This Is Lorelei // Dancing In The Club +02 // Q +01 // Q Tbf Wholune was a 33% deduction but still, awful results. 🙃

BBC NewsLord Mandelson arrested on suspicion of misconduct in pub...The Metropolitan Police says a 72-year-old man has been taken to a London police station for interview following the arrest in Camden.Mandelson getting the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor treatment. Good.

Oh yeah and it's worth saying I was super impressed by this performance before deciding to enter Desperado Vespa to BJSC (I heard this before the studio version), from what I've seen he's a great live act.

Aelandor trendsetter. *.* Fantastic choice, a really cool artist who makes a lot of his own (usually analogue) synths. There's a lot that could be done with staging (I imagine loads of wires and industrial looking stuff everywhere) and I reckon he could pull off something both heavy and dancey if it's anything like Desperado Vespa (so perhaps broad appeal :O ), but will have to see what the song is like.

Congrats @Scene ! Lovely to see First Aid Kit do so well. Loved them for ages (The Lion's Roar, Stay Gold, Emmylou <3 ) but I missed some of their newer releases so this was a great reintroduction for me.

Finally updated this, although I haven't quite skimmed all the details I usually would, might collect the stats from specific threads later. Looks like 2025 was a decent year for Aelandor on the whole! Qs and DNQs are now at 47/47, keeping my 50/50 stat going it seems. Sad to lose my Q streak there, Villain was a fun track, wish it'd been a tad longer but thought it had a good shot at getting through anyway. 😦

I feel very strongly about this. AI "music" is pure theft and plagiarism, and a scourge on an industry already plagued with issues around exploitative streaming services underpaying artists. This slop should not be sold and should not be sitting alongside real work by artists on streaming platforms and stores. It's trained on a vast database of actual work without the consent of artists and spits out unholy generic amalgamations. Unfortunately, it is getting more sophisticated, there are fewer "artefacts" and it's getting harder to tell. If you just want to enjoy a song and aren't listening for it, it can be tricky. At the very least, I think it should have "[AI]" preferably in the title, or failing that in the same place you get the little "E" for explicit. And it should be banned from being sold commercially. AI can be a great tool for things like stem separation and other 'engineering' tool. Some creative uses (like Headache, mentioned earlier I don't mind because it was the 'recording' of the voice only, and it was clearly a deliberate artistic decision), generating a specific sample that can be chopped up and manipulated. But a fully AI song that isn't made with intent is artistically worthless and I can't take it seriously. At best, fully generated AI music is alright for non-commercial comedy and satire. As far as this contest, I won't blame the countries making the entries because of how difficult it is to tell if it is and I'm sure it's not intentional, but the moment I find out a song is AI (and I will be researching songs much more frequently that I used to) I will be vetoing it from my votes. As for looking for entries, I'll either enter older songs or do a lot more research on songs I enter, which is a shame because it used to be so cool finding 'faceless' obscure artists, I'll just have to do all I can to verify they're real. I would love a total ban but in lieu of legislation to clamp down on this shit it's tough to police in an online song contest for mods volunteering their time, I get that. In terms of using AI for banners etc, no one's selling it. I kind of feel like (even generally speaking) if it's not commercial and it's transparent what it is a lot of the harm is reduced. People don't have infinite time, and it can bring ideas to life... but it has none of the charm that even lil paint jobs have. Even though it's unlikely people would commission art for a contest like this so no artists are missing out, I feel the same way about AI 'art' as I do music, I'd much rather see real art. As far as this contest goes it's a lesser evil and hosting is a tough job (or seems to be, haven't had the opportunity yet! :O ) so I get why people use it, it's more about the idea/ concept when hosting, and the key thing is it's voluntary, not commercial.

Of all the results not to follow live. 😄 Had a great time catching up on this, don't remember seeing myself in 1st (certainly not a decent way through votes) on the scoreboard since The Midnight! Started to have notions when I saw that happening, was hoping for a top 5, but still very happy with 9th. Didn't expect that at all, you never know when something will click with so many people - thanks for all the points, especially all of those medals (18s from Terra Avium, Fljótavík and Summericia! ❤️). Like Bré said, it's only my 4th top 10 after Lights [5th in BJSC 96] , The Midnight [2nd in BJSC 110] and We Lost The Sea [7th in BJSC 157], so it's a big thing for Aelandor! 9th is an unique position too. Great way to close the year in BJSC. Congrats to Dan as well, great track, very happy to see it as a winner!

Voted! Thank you for the extension, it's been a busy week and was so useful to have this morning/ early afternoon to finalise votes.

A bit late but here for anyone who wants it: Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 179 • The Final by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 41 Songs

Apple Music - Web Player178 ◾FINAL by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 41 SongsAlso missing Scotland 2.

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 178 SF1 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 28 SongsApple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 178 SF2 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 SongsScotland 2 also missing from semi 2 on Apple Music.

It's essential to distinguish between the "true believer" racists/ fascists and those swept up in the rhetoric, because unfortunately Reform has effective, powerful rhetoric (not helped by our awful right wing media, even the BBC is complicit in wildly disproportionate coverage of Reform and Farage). Reform correctly diagnoses problems, then provides either no solutions or disastrous ones that would actually exacerbate the problems but on a surface level sound good. People are suffering economically and want someone to blame, billionaires and corporations desperately want to distract people with something and immigration is the perfect scapegoat, there is a legitimate issue there due to the abysmal handling of asylum processing under the Tories and the still existing backlog in that system. The fact that small boats make up 2-3% of total immigration is irrelevant, politics is about narrative, and the narrative is "your life is worse due to public services and taxpayer money being strained by immigration", instead of "the top 1% are slowly acquiring assets ordinary people used to own". I have no sympathy for most of the flag shaggers marching yesterday, especially those lapping up words from Elon Musk of all people (aside, the irony of "patriots" cheering on a foreign billionaire directly attempting to interfere in our democracy is quite something) but we can't afford to lose everyone thinking of voting Reform forever, there will always be the 15%ish fascist rump and f*** them, they'll reveal themselves every time they open their mouths, especially as they've been emboldened in recent times. Others however, are understandably disillusioned with neoliberalism and a stagnant economy and in their minds see someone presenting an alternative to the status quo. They're wrong, I shudder to think what might happen to our country should Reform get anywhere near power, but the people who can be reached need to be reached, not with watered down right wing rhetoric that Labour are attempting to co-opt, but with a real alternative. If there's no political rehabilitation possible we might as well just give up. I know of people who have successfully pulled themselves out of ring-wing thinking, which is only really possible if there are lifelines from the left. All that said, outward bigotry should still be socially stigmatised, some of these bast*rds used to at least need to dog whistle.. :/

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 177 Final by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 42 Songs

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 177 SF1 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 SongsMissing: Lookylion. Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 177 SF2 by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 Songs

So it has! Ah well, good to have it in anyway. Am out tomorrow. :O

Voted, prepped it hours ago but forgot to sent them oops, just got in before the deadline.

Finalising my list now, will be sending shortly!

Apple Music - Web PlayerFinal by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 41 Songs

Apple Music - Web PlayerBJSC 172 FINAL FESTA by Jacob Sturtridge on Apple MusicPlaylist · 42 Songs

Fixed!

Got a placeholder, might switch, will see if it grows on me or not.

:nocheer: I should not have read the odds thread. At least some of my votes are doing better than I expected. :o

About time I update this: Owl City; Mathew Koma (Heaven, London: 25th Oct 2012) The Hoosiers; The Carnabies (O2 Islington, London: 2nd Dec 2013) Clean Bandit; Years & Years (Great Hall, Exeter: 26th Oct 2014) Backbeat Soundsystem/ Imperial Leisure; Joe Biddle (The Hub, Plymouth: 12th Dec 2014) Muse; Marmozets; Moriarty (Great Hall, Exeter: 20th March 2015) Coldplay; Reef; Lavana La Havas (Wembley Stadium, London: 16th June 2016) The Hoosiers (2nd time); [No support] (The Watering Hole, Perranporth, Cornwall: 2nd July 2016) Against The Current/ As It Is; Beach Weather (Shepherd's Bush Empire, London: 30th September 2016) Bastille; Rationale (The Eden Project, Cornwall [Eden Sessions]: 15th June 2017) Meadowlark; Martyn Crocker (The Junction, Plymouth: 11th October 2017) PVRIS; COIN; Tyne (O2 Academy, Bristol: 22nd November 2017) Paramore; MewithoutYou (Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff: 11th Jan 2018) Bjork; Klein; Lanark Artefax (The Eden Project, Cornwall [Eden Sessions]: 7th July 2018) Death Cab For Cutie; The Beths (O2 Academy, Bristol: 30th January 2019) The Midnight; Savior Adore (Scala, London: 6th March 2019) Lights; Lizzy Farrall (Thelka, Bristol: 27th May 2019) The Midnight; Violet Days (Roundhouse, London: 12th Nov 2019) The Midnight; Goose (O2 Academy Brixton, London: 7th May 2022) [Rescheduled From March 2021] My Chemical Romance; Placebo; Starcrawler; Charlotte Sands (MK Stadium, Milton Keynes: 22nd May 2022) [Rescheduled From June 2020] Green Day/ Fall Out Boy/ Weezer; Amyl and The Sniffers (London Stadium / "Olympic Park Stadium", London: 24th June 2022) [Rescheduled From June 2020] Death Cab For Cutie; Slow Pulp (Royal Albert Hall, London: 29th March 2023) MUNA, Rina Sawayama, Declan McKenna, Becky Hill, Imagine Dragons, Billie Eilish (Reading Festival 2023: 27th August 2023) Proms, Various (Royal Albert Hall, London 2022 - 2024) Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra [Elden Ring Symphonic Adventure] (Royal Albert Hall, London: 28th April 2024) Within Temptation; Annisokay (Wembley Arena, London: 16th November 2024) Upcoming: Linkin Park; TBC (Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt, Germany: 8th July 2025)