dandy*

We did debate Gabrielle - the thing that swayed us was that it only has a six figure play count on Spotify which was right towards the bottom end of the entry list… so it’s either not well remembered, or not well liked! Marlene had a better chart run, slightly higher peak and with higher Spotify plays so it ended up higher up the veto list than Gabrielle did. Saying that, both wouldn’t have been eligible at all if we had a stricter no top 40 policy.

Oh I was genuinely considering asking if people wanted to say why they chose their entry with their votes - if you do then I’ll gladly include it when I reveal which song is yours

Sophie B Hawkins did show up… just temporarily!

Oh there’s more than one… I think there was still 4 in the end. But they all stuck to the 7 figures or less streaming criteria. I was hugely surprised just how low the streams for one of them was, probably the one that jumps out? As an aside, I’m planning on starting a thread/poll to see what direction people would like the contest to go in soon - tighter veto criteria or not?

I’d have liked to have seen more from the 60s and 70s as well - but I think people naturally gravitate to the 90s unless the theme specifically restricts them

I did think Joni Mitchell was a glaring omission from the entry list. I was tempted myself but couldn't decide on what I would send from her, I think a lot of her songs are brilliant but they're often growers. Suzanne Vega was entered but we ended up vetoing both Luka and Marlene on the Wall. A shame we didn't end up with a song of hers in the contest as she has a good back catalogue of potential entries. @matto interesting to see you choose a 90s Joni track as it's not often referenced among her work - but I really enjoy both the Turbulent Indigo and Night Drive Home albums and Sex Kills would have been an interesting inclusion

Giorgio Moroder With Philip Oakey - Together In Electric Dreams <3 <3 <3 Sade - Smooth Operator U2 - Pride (In The Name Of Love) Chaka Khan - I Feel For You Prince And The Revolution - Purple Rain

Hopefully I’ll be around and at my laptop. Sadly they’re just not worth joining on my phone

I knew 21 of the acts already too! Although there's only 8 (including my own) where I'm really familiar with the songs chosen.

PLAYLISTS (Note if you use the Spotify or Apple playlists you will still need to watch the Kate Bush track on YouTube as it isn't available on either platform) Apple Music - Web PlayerSinger Songwriter by Jarrod Schofield on Apple MusicPlaylist · 27 Songs

Thank you to the 28 people who submitted an entry for the 14th edition of the song contest. The list has been accepted so we're all good to move on to the voting stage of the competition. Below you will find a list of all the submitted songs. You have two weeks to listen to them and decide which ones you love the most, I'll be closing the voting period at 23:59 on Saturday 29th August. Hopefully I should then be able to present the results on the bank holiday weekend. To vote, simply send me a PM with your favourite TEN songs listed in the following order as per the traditional Eurovision voting system: 12 POINTS: (your favourite song) 10 POINTS: 08 POINTS: 07 POINTS: 06 POINTS: 05 POINTS: 04 POINTS: 03 POINTS: 02 POINTS: 01 POINT: (your 10th favourite song) Anyone is welcome to vote. However if you submitted a song you must send through some votes or your entry will face the horror of having its final points total reduced by one third. And nobody wants that. Without further ado, I present to you your competitors: 01 Đorđe Balašević - Ne lomite mi bagrenje - (1986) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyMIrlUt37M 02 Ani DiFranco - Untouchable Face - (1996) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ham2PqGjUzY 03 Sibylle Baier - I Lost Something in the Hills - (1972) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-oERBst8L0 04 PJ Harvey - 50 Ft Queenie - (1993) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKLiU7Hq93w 05 Natalie Merchant - Wonder - (1995) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zpYFAzhAZY 06 Elvis Costello - I Want You - (1986) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CykE5DFJVr0 07 Melanie - Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) - (1970) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1sFa2ilgN4 08 Dory Previn - The Lady With The Braid - (1971) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaXZY-ZuhVQ 09 Rufus Wainwright - April Fools - (1998) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIF6f3tFxBw 10 Tom Waits - Downtown Train - (1985) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLtZKkCIVmI 11 Iris DeMent - Let The Mystery Be - (1992) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlaoR5m4L80 12 Kate Bush - Ken - (1990) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ns_I5rsHRA 13 Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan - (1988) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTC_fD598A 14 Exuma - Dambala - (1970) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q4rXpaOhAU 15 Laurie Anderson - Sharkey's Day - (1984) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqRt6tBnX-0 16 Gabrielle - Forget About the World - (1996) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKGGFnNu1p0 17 Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colours - (1971) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyP0Sy9KFf0 18 Fish - A Gentleman's Excuse Me - (1990) - https://youtu.be/WAmaCvHx4mg?list=RDWAmaCvHx4mg 19 Noriyuki Makihara - Mo Koinante Shinai - (1992) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naz0-szzYXk 20 Alanis Morissette - That I Would Be Good - (1998) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0noUjTwghM 21 Laura Nyro - Captain For Dark Mornings - (1969) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRzs-OtL6gw 22 Scott Walker - Such a Small Love - (1967) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXfUlDEXZuA 23 Aimee Mann - Stupid Thing - (1993) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTm7aZE6u6w 24 Joan Osborne - St Teresa - (1996) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAeTywPiP4 25 Youssou N'Dour - The Lion (Gaiende) - (1989) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxnkYygQrZU 26 Buffy Saine-Marie - The Big Ones Get Away - (1992) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5o8gwt26To 27 Stina Nordenstam - Little Star - (1994) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzMaivdJ2jc 28 Jewel - Foolish Games - (1995) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RlDaqtFHtA Happy listening all! D*

I don’t believe I’ve ever managed a streak longer than the teens so I can’t see me holding on for much longer… I’m currently just hoping that I stumble across something I even want to consider sending next contest, although I think that’s been the case for about the past year so who knows. I do feel very out of touch with how to discover new music these days, most of the things I find are by acts already known to most.

Padam x 2

It kicks off with a classic! Love Chic (well I only know the big singles) and that’s definitely a song I’d think of quite quickly if asked to name tracks from the 70s. She is quite a lovely song really. It’s not a genre I’d really listen to but it definitely has that timeless feel that the best love songs from the era have. Much less familiar with Substitute and I can’t say it’s one I’ll likely return to. It was alright but pretty unremarkable to me.

We've got 28 people who've submitted something so that's a decent enough turnout for the contest, thank you all <3 (sadly two of the people who we vetoed decided not to enter anything else due to other pressures </3 but that's absolutely fair enough - you're both more than welcome to vote should you wish to, and I'm sorry again that we couldn't allow the songs in) We're just waiting on one switch (the person knows so don't worry that it might be you!) and everything else currently on the list seems fine to us. If there are any late stragglers out there, you've got until I wake up to submit!

I think that Gotye will be my favourite #1 of the year, it's definitely one that I still listen to a lot. It was so refreshing to see a song like that do so well in the UK. Call Me Maybe is brilliant pop. I'm going to join yourself and Jade in the camp of people who didn't love it at the time but now think it's one of the strongest pop singles of its time. I don't enjoy Paradise as much as I enjoy the above two, but it's definitely a lot better than much of what has been in the thread so far. I suspect it would be low top 10 maybe for me.

I’ll be sharing the final list with the other mods at the end of today so it’s not too obvious to them who has sent what - although I don’t believe anything since my message should cause an issue (famous last words etc)

Last day to get your entries in folks! ☺️

My debut entry was one of the first things I hunted down when I bought a turntable <3 I also have Kenton Slash Demon - Harpe, Working Men’s Club - Valleys, Underworld - And I Will Kiss, Lamb - Gorecki, Bran Van 3000 - Astounded, Jam & Spoon - Find Me (Odyssey to Anyoona), India Jordan - For You, Utah Saints -Ohio, Rex the Dog - Maximize and Digitalism - Pogo all on 12” single. I’ll have more as part of albums but I won’t count those.

It’s a really lovely album, I’d forgotten how much I enjoy her music. Seen a lot of comments about it being a grower but I think it’s her most immediate for me, instant feels from it

Or…

It was at first, but that choice was the song Rollo referred to that had well in excess of 100,000,000 plays on Spotify... your one was their second choice. (I do really like the song as well so I'm a bit sad to see it gone)

The song you were thinking of did end up as being one of the choices... and was one of the songs that ended up feeling a lot more well known than the rest of the list. We do definitely have a few artists that people will already know but generally the chosen tracks are pretty inspired choices rather than just the singles.

I must admit I thought we were looking at out first nil pointer… but not close!

#8 is an insane result!!! That’s about 20 places higher than I’d dared hope for!!!