-Jay-

Awesome that it's on course to equal the position it achieved 10 years ago, but it would be even sweeter if it could manage a new peak... please get out of the way, Sam/Olivia.

I wish it had managed a week at #1, but regardless it's been such a huge success, and a cultural moment. It's really deserved for what is a great body of work.

Hand on heart, regardless of which category I'm in, or where my artist placed (and whether or not it would be to my advantage or disadvantage), I'd still have questioned this particular logic in how Round 3 is being approached!

I guess they'd save on distribution costs by cutting out the likes of HMV/Amazon & keeping the products as "direct to consumer" through Townsend. So in that sense keeping it "in house" could increase profits?

I haven't ordered it tbh. Currently it costs £58.50 (including postage) to buy both the vinyl and CD together, and I can't justify it unfortunately. I don't find a live album to be the most essential thing to own anyway, so I can live without them! If they sell out then that's ok. If they don't then I'll keep my fingers crossed for them to be in a sale at some point.

Presumably this release will be similar to Kylie (debut album) being midweek #3 on Monday but ending up at #30 on Friday, but hopefully Tension Live manages higher than that. Can't see this having a Top 20 outcome though. A live vinyl/CD restricted to her online artist store, renders this as being quite a niche product, so I suppose they're not too driven by a chart placement, or they'd strive to make it more accessible.

Regarding the Top 3 female artists not taking part in Round 3, while all artists from the male/group categories are to take part in Round 3... how do we all feel about it? I'm not really understanding the logic of it. So, Michelle Branch's withdrawal midway through Round 2 did indeed take away from the original purpose of the first two female rounds. That being, "determine which female artist gets the lowest points and leaves the competition". With that purpose gone, the female voting for Round 1 & 2 essentially had no point to it, because the Top 11 was automatically established with Michelle's exit. Therefore, I do understand why a new reason was brought in to justify all the female votes, so it didn't feel like a waste of time. The thing is, for the group/male categories, the original intention of Round 1 & 2's purpose, has remained intact (i.e. "determine which male & group artists get the lowest points and leave the competition"). Ultimately for these two categories, it didn't matter where in the Top 11 they placed in the combined results... they simply had to avoid being 12th (last). Now they're all required to compete in Round 3, i.e. no incentive for those that made the Top 3, which is the case for the females. To me, this makes Round 3 seem like it'll be unbalanced, and dare I say not too fair. Wouldn't it make more sense for the Top 3 in every category to be given a bye in Round 3? As things stand, a male or group who placed Top 3 in Round 2 could come last in Round 3 and leave the competition. Whereas the female Top 3 don't risk this happening, when in theory that could happen if they were taking part. But they're not, because of Michelle Branch? This doesn't make much sense to me. Just to be clear, I thoroughly appreciate that hosting an event of this scale is undoubtedy an immense task for Calum, lots of hard work to provide us with entertainment. I'm so grateful for it. So the last thing I intend with this post is to cause any upset. But this is my feedback for Round 3 and I wonder how others feel. If the consensus is that most people don't mind how Round 3 is set to play out, then that's ok.

Great to see that this is on course to get a Top 10 peak in the UK! It's #8 in the first look chart.

I voted last week but forgot to reply. I voted for The Great Divide and Takedown!

I'm happy that they're back! The new track is yet another great one from them. I really like the lyric "Bought your favorite ice cream, left it in the backseat. Just another sweet thing you let go bad", it's so MUNA. Roll on the album!

About time, 9th is a surprisingly high outcome for it Wood is my next vote!

'Sweat' Amazon variant vinyl is currently #1 on Amazon's vinyl store and #2 in their overall music chart... and is still available... which seems surprising if there's only 500 copies?

Six(?) different CD singles is... excessive! Get those sales though, Taylor

Just 500 copies available according to her Instagram story!

So pleased that it's made the UK Top 10

Sorry to see you leave the contest Matto but I'm glad you're good otherwise! It was nice to be reminded of Everywhere (it deserved more than its #18 peak in the UK) and You Set Me Free is great too, I hadn't heard that before this contest. I should probably check out 'The Spirit Room'! Had you decided on other Michelle Branch songs you'd have liked to send in future rounds, or hadn't you thought that far ahead? ~ Random observation: two songs from the 'Love, Simon' movie soundtrack are in the Orbit Auditions: Troye Sivan - Strawberries & Cigarettes, and The 1975 - Love Me.

01 Atomic Kitten - If You Come to Me 02 Blondie - Hanging On the Telephone 03 The Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice 04 Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama 05 Florence + the Machine - Queen of Peace 06 HAIM - I Know Alone 07 ABBA - Hole in Your Soul 08 The Corrs - I Never Loved You Anyway 09 Girlicious - Over You 10 The 1975 - Love Me 11 Ace of Base - Beautiful Life 12 Erasure - So the Story Goes Enjoyed my listen through, didn't dislike anything. If You Come to Me is towards the top of my favourite Atomic Kitten songs, so that was a very nice choice. I don't believe I'd heard that song by The Chicks before, really good!

I love it when artists have something of an encyclopedic knowledge about their own work. For instance you could ask Mariah Carey about anything from her 16 albums and she'd certainly be able to talk extensively about writing sessions, who she worked with, when it happened, how she felt at the time. She definitely has knowledge about her "rarities". So it does disappoint me a bit when quite the opposite of that is the case, and that's definitely the case with Emma regarding Spice Girls. I know it was fundamentally a job, and she's not necessarily a fan of herself, but gosh... her recollections about the music are so surface level. That could have been an interesting video but unfortunately not.

01 Delta Goodrem - Sitting On Top of the World 02 LiSA - Gurenge (紅蓮華) 03 Chappell Roan - Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl 04 Michelle Branch - You Set Me Free 05 Lily Allen - Who’d Have Known 06 Toni Braxton - You’re Makin’ Me High 07 Kelly Clarkson - Gone 08 Kesha - Blow 09 ROSALÍA - DIABLO 10 Nelly Furtado & Tiësto - Who Wants to Be Alone 11 FKA twigs - Glass & Patron 12 Nadia Oh - Taking Over the Dancefloor Delta Goodrem sitting on top of my votes Ooh that LiSA song is a banger!A great discovery for me. Interestingly it's by far the most streamed song of the 12 on Spotify.

I think it’s just a “sources claim” / “reportedly” sort of thing, so it could very well be completely made up! I did previously wonder if Simon is au fait with how the singles chart works these days. If it’s true that he expected Top 5, then it was a very unreasonable expectation from him, and would show that his mind set is rooted in how things were a decade or longer ago. On paper, #72 won’t scream “great result” to your average Joe. It’s probably only us avid chart followers (and people working in the industry) who understand the complexities of how difficult it can be to make a splash in the singles chart, particularly as a new artist. So that’s a reason why I think these articles are coming out about it… because it’s quite easy to spin that chart position as a failure and as a blow for Simon Cowell specifically. Syco & EMI shouldn’t see a single’s chart position as being a false start. It’s actually a pretty encouraging start. The band’s social media numbers, and the engagement they get, is definitely strong for a new artist. As mentioned, their introductory tour has sold well already. I could certainly see their debut album go in towards the top end of the album chart with ease. (The album chart is another thing that Simon would need to have a better understanding of - how an album can be something of a one week wonder these days, if it relies more so on pure sales.) Tbh, if D10 go on to have a bunch of charting singles & a high-charting album, and that’s combined with a continued strong social media presence, then this could absolutely see their next tour being in bigger venues. Which I’d say is the ultimate goal. They’ll be an interesting group to follow and whether in the long term they shift the perception of what success looks like for a western pop group these days. I hope the boys aren’t at all despondent about how the single has done (if higher expectations were put upon them).

01 Troye Sivan - Strawberries & Cigarettes 02 Conan Gray - Killing Me 03 Ruel - Not What’s Going On 04 Shawn Mendes - Lost in Japan (Zedd Remix) 05 Guitarricadelafuente & Troye Sivan - midsummer pipe dream 06 George Michael - Freeek! 07 David Bowie - Young Americans 08 Markus Riva - Forever 09 Eric Saade - Every Minute 10 The Weeknd - A Lesser Man 11 Nik Kershaw - Gone to Pieces 12 Fred again.. - Berwyn (all that i got is you) I thought I'd get this done early. I listened twice through to the playlist before voting! I didn't dislike anything here, lots of good stuff. Just a few comments! Troye is first place for me again! I wonder if he will be in every round? 'Strawberries & Cigarettes' is a gorgeous song, and on the soundtrack to one of my favourite films. ❤️ I'm happy to see a track from Conan's 'Found Heaven' album being used already. Max Martin produced and 80s inspired... fabulous! 'Not What's Going On' is one of my personal highlights from Ruel's most recent album; I really hope this is well received by the voters. I lean towards preferring the original version of Shawn's 'Lost in Japan' over the Zedd remix - having said that, I think it was a wise choice to send the remix. Either way, it's one of my favourites from Shawn. Due to being such a fan of Troye's, I had heard this Guitarricadelafuente song many times before now, and I like it a great deal. It's very dreamy sounding, as the title suggests. I'm really intrigued to see what the reaction to 'Freeek!' will be - it's certainly quite a bold choice to send for George. Something about this song and its music video unsettled me a bit when it came out! It's quite a banger though. I know very little of David Bowie's music, outside of the really really big songs that I couldn't possibly have avoided. This was new to me though, and I have to say I enjoyed it. Very catchy and soulful! I think I preferred these latest songs from Markus and Eric over what was sent in the the previous round. Enjoying what has been sent from them so far. I hadn't heard this The Weeknd song before, I like the vibe of it. I wasn't as enamoured with 'Gone to Pieces' as I was with 'The Riddle', but it's still a fun, catchy slice of pop from Nik. Something had to come last and I did like this Fred again.. song; I would say I prefer 'Marea (we’ve lost dancing)'.

Troye appearing twice, love to see it

I randomly wanted to find out the highest placed artists that I've only scrobbled one song by: 58 scrobbles - Zac Efron (Rewrite the Stars) 47 - Lea Michele (Cannonball) 45 - A Great Big World (Say Something) 44 - Klingande (Jubel) 42 - Sexyy Red (Fat Juicy & Wet) 41 - The Pogues (Fairytale of New York) 39 - Little Nikki (Little Nikki Says) 33 - Disco Lines (No Broke Boys) 31 - Wizzard (I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday) 31 - Prince Royale (Back It Up) I'm not sure which of those artists I'd be most intrigued to hear a second song by! https://lastfmlists.com/

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Eldest Daughter