ScottyEm

Is it this? ijxk-fgcg7c I think this is a much stronger song than last years... nothing else in the contest like it, but it's sort of intriguing at the same time. A bit of a second rate Paloma Faith, could flop but could also do very, very well.

I'd say they are perhaps our best? Love City Groove is a little toe curling now, but back then it was a brave move. Imaani is a great song.

At the moment Sweden, Germany and Slovenia occupy my top 3 and these are the only ones I would listen to out of choice. Norway and Ireland perhaps would get some points (and for ironic/daft factor, Romania!)

It was my first time on hearing it and I found it instant, as did my mate watching it with me. Perhaps we were in the minority but I think it's fare to say there is no overall winner at this stage (though I think Denmark will win.... sadly)

I watched it and "You" was my fave - looks like Sweden will be getting my 12 points for the 3rd year running! I thought this sounded like the winner after hearing all ten (bare in mind I haven't watched any previous MFs), but was aware it wasn't a favourite. If this doesn't get a top three placing on the night, I'll be equally shocked and outraged!!! By the way, that "Heartbreak Hotel" was absolutely dire, like a cross between Pete Burns and Justin Hawkins - Terrible! Glad it god bashed into second place.

I find this far more entertaining... ryjZjI-E024

Well we are obviosuly holding out for a zero then... :D Popchartfreak is right, I think the BBC aren't fussed about winning, but rather send a well known name instead. The song is utterly unmemorable, how she performs on the night will have little to zero effect on the score... A bottom five placing is on the cards again.

I don't think this will have any problem qualifying. Chorus isn't great, but it's catchy enough to get the votes.

I couldn't abide Cascada at their peak, terribly naff dance music but not even with the passing charm to make it likeable. "Glorious" however is very hard to dislike. It just pushes the right buttons, in a very obvious and forceful kind of way - perfect for Eurovision in other words and currently gets my 12 points! IMO at this early stage, it's a 2 horse race between Germany and Denmark for the winner (although I'll be well annoyed if Denmark win).

I have a vague recollection of watching the 1992 contest in a busy bar in Portugal and Michael Ball coming second, though I didn't quote know what was going on (my parents would always take me on an annual holiday around May time so the majority of Eurovisions in the 90s were normally watched in a bar somewhere in the Med!). 1993, however, was the year. I was (still?!) a big Sonia fan (I was just 9!) and I think it was that more than the Eurovision itself that interested me... however I fell in love with it and although the majority of songs are various levels of total naff, I just bloody love it and now I'm going this year!

Defo can't forget mine! It was when Shakespears Sister "Stay" knocked off Wet Wet Wet "Goodnight Girl" from number one around Feb 1992 and being a proper giddy kipper! It was great to be just about old enough to listen to the charts and still be surprised the following week, before it all went tits up from 1995 onwards.

I'm going to the jury final on Friday night - top seats too. These seats cost me £77 each. We're staying in a reputable hostel (yes I know I know) for 2 nights in the centre of Copenhagen at £64 and the flight (inc all taxes) is £111. So me and me mate are doing the whole thing for £256 each! I think that's pretty reasonable.. not doubt it'll be mage expensive when we get there though! I booked the room on 8th July - VERY organised and the second the date was confirmed, I literally saw rooms being sold before my eyes!

...well, the Jury final on Friday night! In the queue for the final but was left with singular seats in the gods BEHIND the stage (no thanks...). £75 quid each - it's been on my bucket list to go at least once and I've always wanted to go to Denmark and Sweden.

I totally disagree. While I feel there is an argument when comparing to the charts say, between 1997 - 2007, when it was all about plugging a track to death before release, it cannot possibly compare to the erractic and unpredictable charts of basically anytime pre 1995. I don't pay much attention to the charts (when you're pushing 30, this is what usually happens!). The charts are incredibly slow and singles can spend absolutely ages falling down the charts (this is my observation anyway) and I often find several consecutive top 40s look very similar.... and Reggie says the charts are exciting?? I'm glad he's done one!

+30 Armand Van Helden - You Don't Know Me +25 Donna Summer - I Feel Loe +22 Blondie - Atomic +20 Sugababes - Freak Like Me +18 Kylie - Hand On Your Heart +16 Example - Changed The Way You Kiss Me +14 Madonna - Vogue +13 Dizzee Rascal/Armand Van Helden - Bonkers +12 Aaliyah - More Than A Woman +11 Liberty X - Just A Little +10 DJ Fresh - Hot Right Now +09 Gnarls Barkley - Crazy +08 Run DMC - It's Like That +07 Odyssey - Use It Up Wear It Out +06 Aqua - Turn Back Time +05 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Xmas Time? +04 ATB - 9pm (Til I Come) +03 Fun - We Are Young +02 Duran Duran - Is There Something I Should Know? +01 Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life -02 Nelly/Kelly Rowland - Dilemma

Brill thanks very much for your input! It's much appreciated. Regarding Frankie Knuckles "Your Love", it does sound a little odd when being so used to Candi Staton but, believe me, you'll be coming back to this one more and more! "French Kiss" is a bit of a marmite one, in some ways I shouldn't like it but I just find it so hypnotic and funky. I stuck this on my aunties 60th birthday at the weekend and cleared the floor (I should never be left alone near the docking station!). Yes I'd love to see you do something similar, we appear to have relatively similar tastes so would be very interesting to see!

"Love Truth & Honesty" - interesting choice. Yes, it's rather good. I also love "Only Your Love", post SAW track - bloody fab!

1 808 State/Pacific State HCP:10/1989 We've made it! And with, what is maybe a tad surprising in contrast to the other 79 entries - an instrumental! For those that have been following this, I hope it isn't an anti-climax either! "Pacific State" is a work of art. It gives me goosebumps and for that, it rightfully earns its place as my personal greatest hit of the 1980s! I say 1980s, it was released on the 7th to last week of the the decade so it almost didn't make it at all! 808 state were fundamentally a dance act, but thanks to their geographical status, the group got caught up in the baggy/indie Madchester sound which would become prominent as the decade drew to a complete close. "Pacific State" was bizarrely enough picked up by 80s radio DJ and presenter Gary Davies and quickly crashed into the top 10! It's a blindin track! The gorgeous pads, the ad-lib flute and chugging percussion... I could go on for a good while why I love this track so immensely but sod it - just play the damn thing and freak out! http://www.discogs.com/image/R-3492-1168686544.jpeg QkOAiyLHXM8

2 Lil Louis/French Kiss HCP:2/1989 If there is one common denominator in this rundown, it's a great female vocal and strong melody. So, it's ironic when we come almost to the top to find a track which is almost completely absent of both! Well, the great vocal is up for debate I suppose... Anyway, "French Kiss" is one of the most unusual and surprise hits of the 1980s. My other half disregards this as a daft novelty record - I however think it's quite the opposite. I think it's bloody genius! How a track so bare and simple can be so stupidly addictive and hypnotic. From the spiral up-down xylophone intro and then BANG! I'm engrossed! And then... a proper WTF?! moment! As a kid, I'd snigger at the groaning female but now some years older, I appreciate the track for what it is. Just a shame I wasn't around in 1989 to see how exactly this went down in the clubs... ;) http://www.discogs.com/image/R-99646-1139776448.jpeg 551y8goAs3A

3 Evelyn Thomas/High Energy HCP:5/1984 I don't consider myself particularly camp, but we're down to the final 3 and on reflection of this rundown, I may need to reconsider this self-observation! "High Energy" is very possibly the gayest track of the 80s! Like I've said already, 1984 was the year British Music came LEAPING out of the closet! I accidentally discovered this when youtube recommended me this and, as the first lady of Hi NRG cries in this very track, "there was no turning back!". It's all so gloriously 80s, pounding beats, dazzling snyth work and somewhere along the way - Hi NRG was born! Although Ms Thomas was born in Chicago, "High Energy" was produced by Ian Levine - a music producer from Blackpool! While "High Energy", a hit all over the continent (it sold 7 millions copies!), is his pension song, he has worked with an array of artists and kept many fingers in pies over time. Evelyn meanwhile never managed to even come close to topping this, her second biggest hit following this reached just No. 60! http://chartarchive.org/artwork/7415-raw.jpg Y8TtsakGgiE

4 Jocelyn Brown/Somebody Else's Guy HCP:13/1984 Some tracks just refuse to die. They show up time and time again - at weddings, work functions, your Mothers birthday do's. And so this leads us onto very nicely to 1984 and a then relatively unknown soul diva from North Carolina. Already lending her vocals to an array or underground Salsoul tracks in the late 70s/early 80s, the incredible Ms Brown would get her break in '84 with this soaring anthem. I'm a massive Jocelyn fan, loving the tracks she did in the mid 90s with Todd Terry however, thanks to my mother who introduced me to this, it opened up a new found love for 80s soul. But this is the money shot, a knock-out vocal and dramatic acapella-like intro and then BOOM! I was at a dodgy work function and, in the midst of a lot of rubbish played, this came on and for nearly 4 minutes I was in a trance! A truly stunning vocal almost impossible to top. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/7420-raw.jpg BFLkM5yDZpc

5 Inner City/Big Fun HCP:8/1988 "We don't really need a crowd to have a party...". No truer word said. We've already heard from the Detroit's finest at Number 11, however it's their debut smash "Big Fun" that does absolute wonders for me. House music was in its infancy in '88, however Inner City made a track which bridged the beefy sound of techno and the soulfulness of vocal house to make a big, chunky ecstatic dance classic! Reverse cymbals, frantic synths and a truly joyous vocal from the lovely Paris Gray. "Big Fun" hogged the charts long enough in '88 to eventually become the 6th best selling dance hit of the year and a pan European hit to boot! http://www.discogs.com/image/R-239021-1284033716.jpeg omfiVkkJ1OU

6 Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle/Your Love HCP:59/1989 Without little doubt, the sexiest song of the 1980s. Frankie Knuckles is a familiar name, but the song perhaps not... Until you play it, that is. Yes, "Your Love" is fundamentally responsible for The Source & Candi Statons legendary anthem "You Got The Love", which was a mash up between an old Candi Staton Track and this complete beauty. Although getting a release in October 1989, it's been said "Your Love" was originally produced as far back as 1985! While there is no denying "You Got The Love" is a titanic sized house anthem, "Your Love" oozes a new depth that is so rarely heard in electronic music - or music full stop. Not a hit as such, but has since been a track that is constantly being revisited all these years later and introduced to new generations. http://www.discogs.com/image/R-507193-1151097992.jpeg hPrGnh7QUDo

7 Bananarama/I Heard A Rumour HCP:14/1987 WAHEY!! THE ultimate f*** YOU track of all time! There is 11 SAW tracks in this countdown, but what is exactly is it about "I Heard A Rumour" that is just so bloody brilliant? Well, Waterman has said many times how difficult Sarah, Siobhan and Karen were to work with (which basically means they wouldn't just do exactly what they were told to, eh Pete?) but Waterman still regards this as one of his personal faves. Song writing between the two parties was tiresome and taxing, refusing to use cliched lyrics meant having to think a little out of the box. This stuborn attitude thankfully paid off and what resulted was a masterclass in orgasmic 80s pop. The faux horn siren at the start is enough to get me a little over excited along with that typical zingy SAW production and electric guitar riff in the middle. It also pains me that I never got to see 2/3 of the finest girl band of all time do this live in Hyde Park! http://chartarchive.org/artwork/9309-raw.jpg V-O6n8I7jx4

8 Sterling Void It's Alright/Runaway Girl HCP:53/1989 Oooh bit of an obscure one! Unless of course you're an old-skool house music devotee like myself, that is. This was a double A aide (remember them?!) on the FFRR label and, well, there's an element of cheating here as I'm basically getting 2 songs for the price of 1! "Runaway Girl" is a quick blast of piano house - and it's great! But what I'm more interested in is "It's Alright". hTe song was produced in 1987 so production-wise, it's primitive, yet rarely have I ever heard a song with such emotion and optimism, such a profound vocal it can almost convince one that world peace is on the horizon. It's certainly one that raises the hairs on the neck! It's criminal this failed to get mainstream recognition - proof that music injustice is not a new thing. Pet Shop Boys however DID turn it into a hit just 6 months later, dumping their frankly appaling version high in the top 5. http://chartarchive.org/artwork/10326-raw.jpg OqDkrdaXfQU