-Jay-

Voted. A very clear and easy Top 1 choice, then a huge gap, followed by my bottom 6! (I'm just kidding, I was just amused at there being a string of posts along these lines )

Oh! Here's hoping that's true... and it's not just a 30th anniversary Wannabe t-shirt x

I wonder if Simon had stayed whether Stop would have had a newer photo shoot used for the artwork? Maybe it was cheaper for the girls to use a relatively old shoot for it (in terms of licencing?) They're definitely bold/striking pictures and designs, but still a bit lazy to use them lol x At least the Too Much pictures, although from Elle magazine, were more recent (September 97).

Do we think Geri has met Rory? Was he in the picture during the 2018/19 reunion? Geri being a no show and not even firing off a Pippa written congratulatory post/story... eek

I wonder! The track list was definitely lacking so B Sides could in theory have encouraged more sales. It just being the album version of Stop, rather than creating a Radio Edit, might have been a slight issue. I mean, not that there was really a need for an edit as it's quite short - but maybe a "Single Mix" could have been an incentive? Maybe it should have included live tracks of hit singles rather than album tracks, if they had to go down the live track route? For that matter, maybe that Stop CD with the live tracks on it should have had different artwork, with imagery from Istanbul. Which is what they did for Viva Forever CD2, the artwork was tour photos. Tbh I'll always find it a curious choice that they used those pink background photos for Stop, seeing as the photoshoot occurred in May 1997 - making it older than the photos used for Spice Up Your Life and Too Much singles! I wonder why they went back months for this single, rather than using something newer? Although those photos do have a very strong association with Stop regardless, it's just funny really as technically it's a 'Spice' era photo shoot.

If this contest was more of a "let's all send obscure songs / discoveries" thing, I would have liked to send Manifesting by Louise, from her new album. There's lots of very strong choices in this round! It's going to be so hard to rank these!

Oh this surprises me! From my perspective it is her most obvious remaining choice to send! Since her new album release, her old songs are slowly reemerging in her popular Top 10 on Spotify... and Let's Go Round Again is the second to return after Naked:

Wow this is actually a tough question! There's reasons why I'd like all of them to be #1! Mostly repeating what Spiceboy has said really lol but I wrote this anyway 😆 I do wonder if Forever getting to #1 might have made the girls feel it was worthwhile continuing the era. But on the other hand, if it had got to #1, they might have still faced bad press if it had fallen sharply in the second week (remembering that Forever went 2-16... but it's hard to say whether Forever might have had a stronger second week if it had the impact of being a #1 album). Stop being #1 and giving them 10 #1s in a row would be iconic and a highly memorable stat... and it deserved it! I will always wish it had come out a week earlier and had a solid chance of outselling Celine Dion. Victoria having a #1 debut could have completely altered the perception of her as a solo artist. It's wild that a #2 peak set off the narrative that she was a flop. Geri having 5 #1s in a row from debut would have been so cool, and it'll always be frustrating that her reaching #2 was more of a self-inflicted own goal moment because of the lack of a CD2. EMI seriously dropped the ball for her there. Spice Girls having a #1 Greatest Hits would feel so right, after all it contains so many #1s, yet all those #1s together resulted in a #2 lol... I think I'm least fussed about Emma getting to #1 with her debut. The best scenario would have been her releasing in a separate week to Geri and them both having a turn at #1. Although that chart battle is a one of the most memorable moments in chart history for me personally. Ahhhh I want them all to be #1 but I think I'll go with Stop. It would have just be such a grand achievement. Although it being a #2 did in its own strange way make it stand out. I kind of wonder if it had gone to #1, whether this would have prevented Geri from feeling like leaving - or whether she would have done anyway regardless. We know she was quite obsessed with chart peaks.

I know that @Spiceboy is going to want some alone time with The Rogue Trader x That's a very stacked set of songs, some of their biggest songs! (FYI: 'Let's Go Round Again' is Louise's biggest selling single in the UK - which is interesting because she had 9 singles chart higher than it! It peaked at #10).

What a bop! but I think I’ll proceed with caution, with another golden oldie…

Not sure which way to go next for Louise!

Oh my which way is this going to go!

Happy to see them all through!

Phew!! Louise slaying another round Very happy that she's been well received since the twist comeback!

Ready

Very very happy for Mel and she looks radiant! Emma looking lovely too! Seems that Melanie C had a scheduling conflict?

The Saturdays - Disco Love [fave] Mary J. Blige & U2 - One Ellie Goulding - Army Avril Lavigne - Don’t Tell Me Lady Gaga feat. Christina Aguilera - Do What U Want Pet Shop Boys - Go West A-ha - You Are the One CHVRCHES - Bitter End (and I enjoyed Bitter End!)

Oooh happy to see that! So it took 87 weeks for it to sell the 40,000 copies required to make the jump from silver to gold. That's an average of around 460 copies a week.

I'm enjoying the EP a lot The ballady tracks have grown on me, and Drums goes all the way off! Obsessed! Probably their most K-pop flavoured song yet. It's produced by Shift K3y who's done quite a lot of production for K-pop groups in recent years. Here's the music video:

Hmm… this season was a mixed bag! Spoilers ahead. Having always watched this with Korean audio & English subtitles, it really took me out of the experience that the English-speaking VIPs sounded (and behaved) like they were AI generated. It was like they’d still been dubbed into English… I mean, I’m convinced they were dubbed actually, because they just sounded unnatural & at times didn’t even move their lips in time with what they were saying. Atrocious acting. Really cheap. Plus they added nothing to the plot really. Every scene/piece of dialogue involving them could be removed and it wouldn’t have affected the understanding of the plot whatsoever. I guess if you watch the whole thing in the English dub (in which pretty much every character sounds ridiculous) then the VIPs wouldn’t stand out so much. I just wasn’t expecting this in the actual Korean original version. Hate! Episode 2 with the hide & seek game was definitely one of the best episodes across the whole 3 seasons. However we lost too many strong characters in quick succession during & following that. All my favourite characters. For me that seriously affected the final game, in which there was way too much fodder, characters we’d not really seen before - it made the stakes feel low. You knew ultimately that 456 was going to outlast them all without someone managing to kill him beforehand. So every piece of action on those high platforms just felt like… treading water until 456 was on the final platform, which we all surely knew from the start he’d make it to. I cared about 222 - the woman, but not 222 the CGI baby. There was a lot of emphasis placed on caring about the “456 + baby” dynamic and I kind of just didn’t. But honestly, 456 would probably be low down my Top 10 characters I cared for in season 3. I wish he’d been killed off far sooner. Everything to do with the island search in the boat was ultimately a waste of time. At best it enabled the escapee to get back to his ill daughter. There was no sense of satisfaction that the brother of the Front Man achieved anything. Maybe that’s the larger point, but that’s so boring. I actually laughed at “why?!” being the conclusion to all of that screen time. I’m wary about the American spin-off... Anyway, I appreciate that’s quite the negative sounding assessment but I still enjoyed a lot of it. Overall across three seasons it was incredibly thrilling and certainly one of the most memorable TV shows of recent years. I sadly just feel like the conclusion was a let down!

Updated to 3rd July. Half way thorugh the year! Average weekly sales: Singles - #1 - 56,815 #2 - 41,269 #3 - 36,764 [25 weeks (one week wasn't revealed)] #4 - 31,928 #5 - 29,200 #6 - 27,179 #7 - 25,831 #8 - 24,424 #9 - 23,265 #10 - 22,408 Albums - #1 - 28,959 #2 - 15,812 #3 - 12,213 [25 weeks (one week wasn't revealed)] #4 - 9,657 #5 - 8,168 #6 - 7,569 #7 - 6,950 #8 - 6,559 #9 - 6,220 #10 - 5,918

+5 Good Luck, Babe! - Chappell Roan +4 Die With A Smile - Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars +3 APT. - Rose & Bruno Mars +2 Pink Pony Club - Chappell Roan +1 BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Billie Eilish -1 That's So True - Gracie Abrams -2 Beautiful Things - Benson Boone -3 Messy - Lola Young -4 The Days - Chrystal -5 Ordinary - Alex Warren

Seems so! Surprised they didn't do shorts / socks!

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