dandy*

GUTTED that Nelly has gone, she was my second favourite act left in the contest </3 And given nearly all my other favourites got knocked out last round that's not great.

It’s settled with me now and I really like everything, It Don’t Mean a Thing isn’t quite as good as the rest but I do still like it. Into the Sun is my favourite at the moment.

Could you just post a screenshot to make it easier to see what you mean?

I missed this final completely, thank goodness the correct song won. It was my #1 song of the entire year <3

Can't go wrong with that Supremes track, it's a classic for good reason. Great to see it finish so high in the contest as older songs (well before 1980 anyway) do tend to perform worse

Great top 2 in the most recent chart. Amazing sales for ATB, I know it had been building up momentum for some time by the point this release came out but I was so surprised that the sales were just so much higher than any other trance track had even vaguely managed. Plus Whitney with the second of three brilliant singles that year, her best run of singles of her career for me.

The production on that Prodigy track is superb. I can still remember hearing it for the first time as I excitedly put the album on and it was such an awesome assault. The breakdown is probably my favourite part of the whole album.

I’ve only flicked through it so far but it sounded intriguing, I felt like I was hearing quite a lot of potentially upbeat moments which is great. Looking forward to listening properly tomorrow

I’m enjoying it more than I was expecting to. Phew! My only criticism is that it does feel more like one of the Body Talk individual drops rather than the final album. A couple more tracks would have been welcome but I do enjoy what’s here.

Just predict everyone through, we only look for ourselves anyway so we wouldn’t realise you’d done it

Generally speaking my view of Who’s That Girl is that when I listen to it I find it isn’t as bad as I remember it being. But it’s still not brilliant so no grumbles about it dropping out

01 David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes - this is the clear favourite for me, one of my most listened to songs of all time <3 02 Florence + the Machine - Hurricane Drunk - have such great memories of the Lungs album and always loved this 03 HAIM - If I Could Change Your Mind 04 ROSALÍA - PIENSO EN TU MIRÁ - Cap.3: Celos 05 Scissor Sisters - She’s My Man 06 Nelly Furtado - Big Hoops (Bigger the Better) - I was expecting to like this less as I remembered being disappointed at the time, but it's actually not bad! 07 Conan Gray - Maniac 08 ABBA - Super Trouper 09 Lily Allen - Madeline 10 Atomic Kitten - Be With You 11 Troye Sivan - Bloom 12 Delta Goodrem - Believe Again 13 Chappell Roan - Red Wine Supernova 14 Kelly Clarkson - Never Again - this isn't my taste at all, that kind of 00s pop rock wasn't a trend I've ever been fond of 15 The Corrs - Irresistible - sorry to whoever is behind the band, I'm afraid I've just never been a huge fan of their sound and this isn't one of their better ones

Padam Padam was a clear last place for me I'm afraid, I'd say it more over performed to get to the final if anything. Like Jade said, it was nice to see her get another top 10 hit and seeing the Kylie fans on here enjoy it all, but sadly it isn't one of her better singles for me - It doesn't stand up to her best material, in fact I much preferred Tension and Hold On To Now as the other singles from the same album.

The Cure for me. It just doesn’t have her personality in the way the majority of her other tracks do

OMG I am so jealous you already have this available. Did you arrange to be in New Zealand specifically for the release? Understandable if so.

a rare moment of someone managing Fljótavík perfectly but failing instead with dandy 😂 But 😂😭😂 at 750-1! Brutal!!

Finally got round to listening to this and it is really interesting... not at all what I was expecting and I love it all the more for that, we're three tracks in and I have no idea where the album is going to go but it's shaping up like it should be a really intriguing project and I'm definitely pretty hyped for it. Plus tbh, within the context of a world of 2 minute songs for max streaming potential, I love that we still have people who are wanting to do something more artsy like this and Genesis.

Yay! Did you watch the video as well, that elevates it even more for me 😂

Awwww Reet Petite deserves a bit better than a 3.5... I'll wait and see what else is to come before deciding how much higher I'd place it but I think it's really fun and can't fault the vocals or production really considering its age

Frank does the odds. It’s in the constitution. End of discussion.

Yes is another brilliant track to drop out! I hadn't spotted the low scores being racked up so was expecting it to finish a bit higher than this - although equally I was surprised by the amount of people who were also rating it highly as it always feels very much like a forgotten gem from the 90s.

btw the biggest shock of the reveals for me was Jade being behind Blondie and not Rosalia - I had Pav down as Fred Again as I didn't think Dan would choose him if he went with a dance act.

Shock horror Erasure was me! I just wanted to send an act I loved from my childhood and decided from the off that I wanted to send tracks that represented each of their key albums from their breakthrough to when they started to wain in popularity... and I achieved that so I'm happy enough with how it went. I also decided from the off that I wasn't going to solely rely on their biggest singles, so went with... Drama! (from Wild!) - this was the song that really got me in to them so it seemed like the perfect one to open with. I had it on a best of 1989 compilation that I had for christmas with my first walkman. This emerged as my favourite track on it and so began my obsession over the next few years... So The Story Goes (from I Say I Say I Say) - when I bought the album I wasn't expecting anything to top Always but there were a few album tracks that I really loved from it, namely Take Me Back, All Through The Years and this one) so I decided to represent the album with one of them to show they were more than just a singles band - I think they are overlooked in terms of albums and their first 3 from the 90s are particularly strong imo) Sometimes (from The Circus) - I wouldn't have chosen this if it weren't for the theme as it isn't a huge favourite of mine, but I decided to play by the rules and send one of their main signature hits. Sono Luminus (from Erasure) - I really like their self titled album, even though moving away from 4 minute songs to sprawling tracks pretty much killed their career. I could easily have chosen Rescue Me, Angel or A Long Goodbye as more commercial sounding tracks from that album too but Sono Luminus is really lovely and thought I'd make use of the lobster whilst I still had it. Chorus (from Chorus) - Chorus was my first CD album and I was absolutely obsessed with it, it's the album that turned me from a fan to a bit of a stan. The album is quite Moroder-esque in production and this was the first single lifted from it, I love the siren to announce its arrival and the choir of Andys in the breakdown - could have easily gone with many others from the album too but I was a bit nervous so went with one of the singles as I thought it was basically either them or the Chicks to go! A Little Respect (from The Innocents) - not going to lie, I was gutted when I saw what they'd been drawn against... and ultimately was quite chuffed when I saw they'd only lost out by one vote (I think?). Classic single and easily my favourite from this album, and this completed my aim to send one song from each of their peak eras. The one thing I did think about the draw against Heroes was I could imagine that all the people who probably voted Erasure reasonably highly in the other rounds would probably go for Bowie, where as I could imagine many of the people who had consistently rated Erasure lowly would prefer this to Bowie. No grumbles about losing to Heroes though. Rock Me Gently (from Erasure) - I actually really wanted to use the lobster to send this during the rounds I could but it never fitted any of the themes so I wasn't able to - I think it's a beautiful song that showcases them being a bit more experimental with ambient breakdowns etc, and it's also really special to me as it was out at the time when my grandma passed away and it reminds me a lot of her and how much I miss her. I gathered from the reactions in the thread that it may have been a bit of a WTF choice but realistically they were never going to make it and I'd rather send something that meant more to me, and hopefully was new to most other people than just send a big single that most people would already know. Was really nice to see a few people mention it in a positive way as the voting thread progressed though. It's a shame they didn't make it through the battles as I did think I'd left enough of their bigger hits to give them a fighting chance of making it through a few live shows, and I still had a handful of album tracks I think were strong enough to showcase as well. I'd probably have sent Always to the ballad round that seems to be being teased, and I'd have gone for Fingers & Thumbs for the flop round (a relatively upbeat track that seems like it's about a relationship but is actually about Andy finding out he'd contracted HIV and lamenting that he was paying a huge price for one mistake)... I was saving their #1 in case there was a covers round (would have been Lay All Your Love On Me, not the awful Take a Chance On Me cover though!) and Love to Hate You would have been played if we had to send a big OTT song. Finally - one major plus was that I got to own the Rebecca Ferguson Lobster of Resurrection! What an honour indeed! 😂 - and I imagine everyone was wondering how on earth I worked those clues out?!!!! Well, the answer is that I worked out within about 2 minutes that they were impossible and thought instead that the only way to try and solve it was to turn to the votes to decide which acts seemed to have no major support, plus I stuck to my initial guns for A1 when I first opened the act reveal thread and thought "Who in their right mind would send A1 of all acts?!!!" - it was nice to see that I wouldn't have actually needed it though.

Karma Police is amazing and deserved to get them another top 10 finish in these, the singles from OK Computer are all 10/10 moments for me.

This makes me very happy! It passed me by entirely last year but I heard it whilst giving the album a try and was absolutely mesmerised by it, at first I was like WTF but then I realised how clever and well humoured it is... it's going to be one of those entries that I'm really nervous about all contest because I absolutely love it (and the video)