BillyH

Paradise - See The Light (#73 in July 2005) fl1Uz2QwVAk Brilliant vocal track spoiled by naff production - that anonymous Flip & Fill-style trance-pop (absolutely out of fashion by '05) doesn't suit it at all, it needed a BIG remix to suit the singing. The version I remember hearing more than the above radio mix was the Audiolush mix - still not great but a little better than the above. 00wNE21IVqE Toddla T - Take It Back (#59 in June 2011) unpcCIisLQ8 Retro-90s throwback that, despite evoking the past, was released ahead of its time. A couple years later this would have charted huge with ease I reckon - although #59 on downloads probably meant it sold more that week than most of those I mentioned earlier.

The Nalin & Kane remix was the version released in the UK, although both are pretty awesome: SenTc7_p_zk Then the Fergie remix charted in 2001: iiQ352pj9mw

Oh christ, where to start :P Defining "flops" are tricky, as there are songs that are known by thousands but may not have actually sold much (or charted high enough) but these are the first few that come to mind that deserve way more love: BK - Revolution (#42 in December 2002): GJcpKp9jLAc Hard-house banger that was really unlucky to just miss top 40 just before Christmas that year, particularly as BK never had a top 40 hit but came close so many times. The two keeping him from #40 that week were Craig David's 'What's Your Flava' and Britney's 'I Love Rock & Roll', neither entirely up there with early-noughties classics. Michael Woods - Solex (Close To The Edge) (#52 in November 2003) 72XQnQQ0bBA From the very end of the trance era - I thought this had just sneaked low top 40 but nope, #52 was as good as it got. Brilliant trance-pop fusion with great vocals over a huge backing track, but this kind of dance music was by now rapidly fading as a commercial force compared to the turn of the millennium. Tiesto feat Kirsty Hawkshaw - Just Be (#43 in October 2004): qEYueRVuqmg ....seriously, UK? Tiesto. TIESTO with one of his best ever tracks and it doesn't even go top 40. Compared to the crap under his name that was going top ten a decade later this is absolutely heavenly, a huge noughties classic up there with Delerium's Silence. Huge top 10 hit in Belgium (#8) and The Netherlands (#3!) and just sneaked in at #39 in the Scottish chart at least, but sadly not the UK as a whole. J Majik & Wickaman - Crazy World (#38 in August 2008): _7Hf2kh9Mz4 Five years before its time, but charted with no video or CD single release which was impressive back then. Today this would be a huge top 10 hit if not a #1 I think, massive D&B anthem.

Groove Cutters got a fair bit of radio play but got completely lost in the huge 80s-looped house rush at the time. Song was ok but the video is typical "Sod the song, check out the hot women!!" material from the time.

I went to school with the lead singer, which always makes it slightly bizarre reading about them :P Haven't seen her for like fifteen years but good to see they're doing well!

God, I didn't realise it was that close :( I wonder if Fairytale of New York would have shot to #1 had (legal) downloads existed back then - certainly it would have been too close to Christmas (and somewhat distasteful) to give it an official rush-release on CD at the time.

This was when I first got into dance music - I was sixteen in 2004 - but with a few exceptions I disliked almost every dance chart hit for most of the rest of that decade! It was the trance of just a year or two earlier (and later the early 90s rave) that mostly dominated my mid-late teens. At the time I thought dance had absolutely lost its chart power for good and retreated back underground in favour of reality TV pop and landfill indie, the only stuff cracking top 40 (let alone top 10) being irritating novelty looped-house tracks with videos consisting of nothing but barely-clothed female models, as if that was enough to keep you watching the video in the hope you'd go out and buy the song - which in those (just!) pre-youtube days would be a CD single with the words "INCLUDES THE VIDEO" plastered in massive letters on the cover, normally along with a photo consisting of one or more of the women from the video. Or there'd be the DVD single for a couple quid more, Eric Prydz's 'Call On Me' predictably selling tons on that format. Even at age sixteen and presumably exactly the target audience said videos were aiming at, it all felt a bit insulting to me at the time - I wanted melody-rich euphoric tracks like those in the early part of the decade, not some three-second 80s sample repeated and re-repeated over someone in their underwear cavorting around a photocopier. But I still listened to them in the complete absense of anything else - I remember when 'Shot You Down' by the Audio Bullies charted really high (#3?) and that felt like a huge achievement at the time given how dance-less the top 40 was back in 2005. I think only the Crazy Frog and Madonna were "dance" #1s that year and both are somewhat debatable! A few of those mentioned in the first post I did enjoy though, and this is one I really liked at the time: E5rbTo8UhN8 #11 in December 2005 which I remember being thrilled by - finally an actual tune rather than a looped sample and some great vocal and instrumental hooks. Still takes me back nicely to the 2005/06 winter. For me I didn't really start enjoying chart dance again until 2010 when the Swedish House Mafia etc started to appear - the second half of the noughties was tough going at times, but still with its fair share of classics!

If George Michael or Mariah Carey die just before Christmas, one of the highest-selling #2s of all time could finally get to the top - the Freddie Mercury effect, although Bohemian Rhapsody had already been a #1. Maybe 'Wonderful Christmastime' would go top 10 for McCartney too. But then if Kirsty Maccoll was still alive I'd be saying exactly the same about FONY...

Didn't this happen all over again with 'So Much Love to Give' charting as a soundalike cover a few years later? At the time I remember people being furious over what seemed like an harmless looped house single (by which time there were loads!) without me knowing the full story. They even had the cheek to call themselves The Freeloaders.

There's a whole thread to be made about the many, many Eurohits that were huge in every country on the continent - including Ireland - but completely unknown here, either due to flopping or (more likely) failing to be promoted and released. It's crazy seeing songs that were, say, #1 in Germany or Sweden for weeks or months on end but were never given the UK push. SOTB has always been pretty fun, but there were a *ton* of songs exactly like this in the late 1990s which I'm baffled never got anywhere in the UK!

That's one of the perks of Russia not winning - no visa needed for Ukraine, you just show up and you get at least a month (or more?)'s stay. I do feel sorry for those who had to get to Moscow 2009 or Baku 2012 who had to fill out a ton of forms before entering the country!

Six of the top seven (Russia/Australia/France/Sweden/Ukraine/Armenia) were predicted in the odds a month before the contest, though in a different order and Bulgaria being up there instead of Malta. The other three completing the top ten (Poland, Lithuania and Belgium) all performed much better than the odds then suggested.

As opposed to Australia which has tons of neighbours :P

Right at the front of Tele2 - gonna be a long 6-7 hours standing but brilliant view of the screen! (and have the barrier to lean on at least!) If Australia win I'm bouncing off the ceiling, Ukraine too would be joyous - but Russia wouldn't be *too* bad, they do have a catchy song and pretty epic staging. Looking forward to it whatevs!

Felt really sorry for poor Iveta at today's rehearsal, she suffered a major technical failure and couldn't hear anything which obviously was causing her distress, but shrugged and finished the song - note perfect - to a rapturous supportive reception. She apologised to the audience afterwards but there was no need as she was still brilliant. Good job it didn't happen last night!

As if the UK's gonna do better than Bulgaria.

The pedestrian crossings in Stockholm play Eurovision songs!! 'Euphoria' when the lights are red and 'Heroes' on green! (probably mentioned already but just heard them now!)

Every country I've been through has been on Eurovision overload...Germany I was hearing Jamie Lee played everywhere and her CD single(!) for sale in various music shops, Sweden have Petra and Mans beaming out from every magazine cover, and even Denmark had photos of their entry in the newspapers. Just arrived in Malmo so almost there!

I'm in Hamburg in Germany, been making my way from London by various buses, trains and ferries since last week. Train and ferry to Copenhagen tomorrow and then a night train up to Stockholm!

What on earth happened with Bulgaria? Huge slump in the odds compared to a week or two ago. Russia currently running away with it, but the above bot talk makes interesting reading...

There's a few that I'd adore to see here but I don't think they charted high enough. Initials CDM, ICHM, KOD and EN. I have high hopes for MSBWY though!

Scooter knocking Madonna off the #1 album in 2008 was one of the most incredible for me. They were never as big here as in Germany and other European countries (except in Scotland where they always did well) so to come back from nowhere with the highest charter of their career - six years after their one genuinely huge hit single - was pretty special. I remember being in HMV that week and a group of teenagers saw the album and virtually screamed "OH MY GOD SCOOTER!!" and snapped it up straight away - that's when I knew they was gonna sell way better than expected!

1SF4 and hoping it's Bulgaria!

There's also a few odd cases like a mashup of 'Hard to Explain' by The Strokes and 'Genie in a Bottle' charting as a soundalike cover version by a group called Speedway, as the original couldn't be licensed for commercial release.

Confidently expected to get all 30, and then shows up. 29/30, damn.