jimwatts

France were my 7 pointer, nice entry from Mack there.

Tunisia were my 10 pointer - looks like Julian had an unlucky tie there!

Sorry to hear that Gezza. Hope your laptop and files can be recovered! 🙏

Another big scorer out - I gave 9 points to Panama! Hard luck seven and Cow

Nooo, not DR Congo - that was my silver medallist and I could have enjoyed many more 8 minutes of it!

Spain just missed my votes - no second contest win for Alizzz after PFSC a few years ago

Switching to Sugababes, a very safe ballad which will have a second appearance in these

Switching to The Game this time

'DANCE...' becomes Slayyyter's first multichart top 20 hit! Slayyyter: 2019 68 Mine 2021 26 Troubled Paradise 2021 53 Clouds 2021 66 Stupid Boy (Slayyyter feat. Big Freedia) 2025 28 ATTENTION! (Kesha, Slayyyter & Rose Gray) 2025 46 BEAT UP CHANEL$ 2025 58 CANNIBALISM! 2026 19 DANCE... 2026 50 OLD TECHNOLOGY 2026 56 YES GODDD 2026 74 GAS STATION 2026 28 BRITTANY MURPHY.

Another of my votes out in Group C, I gave 2 points to Juranabaijan's Haiti

oh my Bad luck Herbs, 3 of those points were from me. (South Korea didn't have an entry)

'This Charming Man' is a fantastic debut hit, worthy of achieving The Smiths' highest peak, albeit belatedly in 1992 when a greatest hits promotion took it to #8. It's probably my favourite of their songs these days too, although it's main competition for me won't even appear until 1992. Johnny Marr's guitar work is fabulous. 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' is great too with ahead of its time production. I'd also rate 'Islands In The Stream' higher, a country classic that can hardly be held responsible for the UK chart-topping Comic Relief version, or 'Ghetto Supastar' before that. It's a shame that the only time a Vince Clarke composition topped the chart came when he wasn't on the record, but the Flying Pickets' cover is nice and festive in flavour.

I'd forgotten 'Wherever You Are' was still to come on Monday - not a song I came to know very well at the time nor have had much desire to return to, but there's certainly been worse at Christmas #1 and perhaps it was the one to prove that the X Factor stranglehold was truly over. 'Party Rock Anthem' is trash and was highly annoying at the time, but "every day I'm shuffling" had plenty of meme mileage.

I'm used to that: 'DOIT4ME' -> blanket top 10/20 predictions -> 23rd 'Heavenly' -> winner contender / top 5 predictions -> 7th 'Sinner' -> several early top 5/10 predictions -> 18th 'Implosion' -> 100% Q predictions -> DNQ and so on...

6,973 is the Monday figure for The Essential - it was on more than double that last Wednesday

Yes I was going to mention that although the ACR effect is a slightly different argument. Harry's two #1s and 'drop dead' would have been #1 regardless of ACR, as would 'stupid song' had it not been for Taylor's CDs.

How about we rise above these anonymous people and not do the same thing. The concept of non-#1s pretty much died at the end of the download era - there are so few #1s now and songs usually need 5 million+ streams just to get there for a week - not something that can be achieved by fanbase alone.

Same as Monday then - think we could have waited for Joseph's update for that. Also there are more climbers to include than usual this week!

'Never Never' is my favourite of the latest batch - Vince Clarke's music and Feargal Sharkey's vocals are unmistakeable. It's a shame this project didn't lead to any more hits, but they would both be back separately of course. 'Oblivious' I also like, but my favourite Aztec Camera single came between its two releases and that's the #64 peaking 'Walk Out To Winter', especially the near 8 minute extended version.

I don't have much to add on the songs at 18-15 - I'd put 'Every Loser Wins' lowest, perhaps below 'The Chicken Song' too, as it sounds very MOR / dated by 1986 standards, whereas the other three are fairly bland but passable. 'Don't Leave Me This Way' however would be much higher for me, it's a great danceable production and turns quite euphoric with those echo effects and the high notes from Jimmy. I've heard Harold Melvin's original a few times, but I'm very familiar with Thelma Houston's disco version and that's great too.

Since you asked: In 1953, Mantovani's 'The Song From The Moulin Rouge' debuted at #10 and stayed Top 10 all the way to reaching #1 on its 12th week! For the 1990s however, 'Think Twice' reached #1 on its 9th week in the Top 10 in 1995, but as Gezza mentioned it debuted below the Top 10, so Gina G's was probably the longest climb to #1 after debuting Top 10 for a very long time, possibly since the 1950s. It was soon beaten by All Saints' 'Never Ever' which climbed to #1 on its 9th week in 1998.

I really like 'Kickstarts', and Example's other singles from the previous album were quite breezy too, but despite a hardened dance production on his first #1 it didn't have the same appeal for me - if anything I also prefer his next #1, elastoplast mention notwithstanding. (There's another two songs I'm a little surprised haven't appeared yet, but have even more scope for ironic appreciation.) The Doo-Wops & Hooligans album kind of saw Bruno redefining pop for the 2010s with accessible tunes and lyrics - there's some charm to that style of songwriting, including on 'The Lazy Song', but I find its actual lyrical content leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm fairly certain 'Mr Brightside' has never had a 25% increase in any week within the last 3 years other than the first week in January when such increases don't count. If it had, I'm sure they would have reset it (as they did for 'Dreams').

I still called most of these right then ('Share The House' is inconclusive) - I did have a feeling 'Dracula' and 'I Want You Back' would be going too.

After this week's ACR semi-clearout, the longest currently active SCR runs by weeks on chart: 54 weeks 'Rein Me In' 33 weeks~ 'Stay (If You Wanna Dance)' 25 weeks 'Choosin' Texas' 25 weeks 'Landslide' 24 weeks 'Die With A Smile' ~ non-consecutive chart weeks on same SCR run