J00prstar

I'm actuslly most intrigued for the early outs on the cast so Arantxa, Gothy and to an extent Scarlet. Also hope that Choriza manages some iconic moments. Surely it's between Marina and Tia for the win though!

Ok, sure: MEGAMI to win (although I think one of those chosen already is more likely) PLASMA for first out Q for congeniality

I'm also hearing a heavy influence of George Michael - Outside on this

I can only agree, she came across as very boring and tryhard. However I did appreciate that she was strategic and made money out of it. Geneva's lipsync was very embarrassing, makes me think she won't be long for the competition. How do you lose a Becky G song to a basic white girl? Plasma is giving obvious first out, she was doing way too much. And so is Mihya Iman LePage. She was really giving go girl give us nothing outside of her talent performance, no ability to volley whatsoever with Ru.

15 // Dua Lipa // Dance the Night OiC1rgCPmUQ A slice of near pop perfection from Dua. Houdini, despite being something of a sleeper hit, also manages to land within my top 100 for the year despite its Q4 release date and competition with a lot of Christmas music around that time of year. Its set to hit a new peak in my Jan 24 charts. As for DTN, a nice little earner for Dua off the back of Barbie's billion pound box office draw, and shows just how far she's come from her shaky start as a minor pop girl unsure if she might ever break through. 14 // David Guetta, Anne-Marie & Coi Leray // Baby Don't Hurt Me k3DBmAlUh1A I have no shame, I enjoyed this. Yes, it's trashy, yes, it's a sendup/cover of a classic existing song. But, in this case I don't care. It's structured well and it's just a modernised alternative, not a replacement or an 'adding lyrics to an existing instrumental bit' like that godawful Issey Cross symphony that came out later in the year. Very repeatable. I also ended up liking the Guetta/Kim Petras Scooter cover one :lol: 13 // Romy // Enjoy Your Life Ws4zFeLkYP8 One of three top 5 singles for me for the ex-XX member in 2023, all of which vyed for number 1 through their runs but only one of which (Strong) actually made it there. However, it split its plays across 2022 and 23 so falls foul of the boundary here. This was another winning moment for Romy and picked up a lot of plays as it reflected my general approach to 2023, especially earlier in the year when I had more time to do things before half of my team at work left and weren't replaced! 12 // Käärijä // Cha Cha Cha l6rS8Dv5g-8 Eurovision's and my own fan favourite of the contest this year. As anyone familiar with Jupiterdonia's music taste could tell you, a fusion of growly rock and hyperpop was never not going to be a top scorer for me, although Loreen definitely planned the full package to seal the deal with juries, so we can't knock her. Incidentally Tattoo also made it into my top 30. Hoping to see more from Mr K in 2024, is a guest appearance at the next finale totally out of possibility? 11 // Jessie Ware // These Lips ukZ1_xE6_g4 Jessie Ware tracks often prove to be slow burners for me and this was no exception, floating around my top 40/50 off and on for a lot of the year before eventually surging in the early summer and ending up peaking in my top 5. She's already at work on the next album apparently, but I expect I might yet end up charting a lot of the existing tracks from That Feels Good in 2024. Begin Again also lands in my top 30 of the year after a similar slow ascension run. Between the two tracks alone Jessie lands an impressive 20 weeks charting within my top 40, nearly half of the year!

20 // Tove Lo // I Like U _Pn5OyGgLiE Had I discovered this sooner it might have been in contention for an even higher spot. Unfortunately I didn't get on with a few of the tracks that Miss Tove dropped before this one so I ignored it completely for about the first month or two of its release, only ending up discovering it through a shuffle playlist where at first I thought it was by a new artist. Tove has a decent history on my charts, racking up to date four #1s including this one, and a string of other top ten and twenty 'singles'. I'm highly anticipating her planned 2024 collabs with SG Lewis and Flume. 19 // Ilsey // Heart of Gold lfaaStdN8Rs The first cover in the countdown. This was another shuffle discovery but turned out to be a really lovely country/hazey/shoegazey take on Neil Young featuring Bon Iver on the backing vocal. Ilsey is perhaps best known as a feature vocalist on mostly dance tracks, but dropped a lovely little pop-folk EP in 2023 including this and a few other tracks. This was another #1 for me and she very nearly had another as well which you might see me submitting for a contest in 2024. 18 // Nothing But Thieves // Overcome QApcyPKEwXI Their biggest chart hit to date for me and another #1. NBT have had a few minor hits on my charts before but this sounding like a theme tune to an 80s movie was right up my street. Just a shame it got a little overshadowed in the official charts by their lead single Welcome to the DCC. 17 // Latto & Lu Kala // Lottery m8_8tMzmpTg The first non-#1 of the countdown. Fresh (ish) off the success of Big Energy and a few other minor hits in 2022, Latto followed up quite nicely with this slightly Doja-esque disco bop featuring Lu Kala on the chorus. This peaked just outside my top 5 but had a second run at the chart with the warmer weather after debuting around the spring initially, helping it land within my top 20 plays for the year. 16 // Ben Howard // Days of Lantana iGm9L7clwII It was a good year for Ben Howard who's only before had some very minor hits on my charts. Album 'Is It?' is really solid and has several standout tracks, but this is one of the more repeatable ones and also has something of a timeless quality to it, which helped it slot on to a lot of my 2023 playlists that featured a lot of throwback/retro music. Walking Backwards from the same album also lands in the top 100 this year, and off the back of the album I've (re)discovered some of BH's earlier work which is great to sing along to. ---

Generally it was a busy year for music for me, hitting just a few k less plays than 2022, which was itself only the second year since 2016 in which I passed 30k plays within the year. Normally I listen to music most days at work. The majority of that is spotify, with maybe 10% being on the radio and 5-10% being on youtube. Universal scrobbler tool has been invaluable in the last couple years for tracking those and saving to listen again certain songs I wasn't already familiar with, whether old or new. It was close but all of the tracks in my eventual top 20 of the year did end up being releases from 2023 or 2022. I'll also drop in some of the older songs that made a big splash with me this year, whether discovering for the first time or rediscovering.

I don't think I've done one of these in a few years so, plus ça change ;) Watch this space

I wanted Nearah to win if it wasn't going to be Melinda or Kitten. Already I can't remember a single thing or standout performance Venus had in the season, apart from the lipsync to Alanis.

Also the way it kind of sounds like Let Them Know by Mabel!

Underwhelming and mid. Probably a grower though.

After watching that finale, I can say in the words of a Drag Race legend...

We may as well reuse this thread for the second premiere: Episode 2 drops tomorrow and introduces 7 new queens for (almost definitely) a second photo mini challenge, talent show, and rate-a-queen top 2 game!

Piano Man! Nice try..

Oops, I was a bit slow off the mark with this one! Get your rates in for the queens of season 16 each episode, like we do with every season ;) (just like the queens themselves are doing this season.... BuzzJack's impakt) Episode 1 Dawn Q Sapphira Cristal Morphine Love Dion Mirage Amanda Tori Meating Xunami Muse Episode 2 Plane Jane Megami Nymphia Wind Geneva Karr Hershii Liqor Jete Plasma Mhiya Iman LePaige

Jessie Buckley is a fabulous pick!

oh duh. I do have one

Ok I'll try and think again. Its not a genre I'm super familiar with!

I've brainstormed but I can't think of anything at all that fits the prompt! Am I misunderstanding it? A song from a musical movie?

ok we have an entry unless we change it

Really not sure what to fire up for this one!

Oop well it turned out it was just E1! Broadly I think it was good! But nobody but Sapphira is giving me top 4 energy. Amanda TM I think has potential for a Daya Betty run though (stumbles early but then goes a long way) Xunami and Morphine on the other hand, I wouldn't bank on going far after that ep. Although miss M's talent show was surprisingly strong.

The Telegraph and other media outlets are currently throwing a shit fit about Munroe Bergdorf, a trans woman celebrity, being given a role to work/represent the organisation as a UK Woman's Ambassador. The article and some online commentators have somehow managed to twist the definition of represent (i.e.: appear on behalf of) to suggest that the UN is putting her up as the ONLY POSSIBLE representation (i.e: visual appearance/physical existence) of women and thus erasing cis women or otherwise threatening them. The fact the entire argument is based on what's being kind,a basic misunderstanding, seems to be completely irrelevant. So much for facts being more important than feelings as they love to claim... I mean it totally falls apart when you bring up any other facts about people who represent any kind of law or authority in the country. The King represents the UK on the world stage... but he's not a woman, gasp, so how can he represent women?!

And with that, we have our top 4 and a finale next week! It's been a run of stellar episodes and this one was no exception plus some more touching scenes to balance out the cvntiness of recent eps. Disappointed by the elimination mind!

Tonight's the night folks!