BillyH

1. The Favourite (Cineworld Leicester Square, Thursday 3rd January) Always a relief when the hype of an Oscar contender turns out to be richly deserved :) Adored this all the way through, even if I didn't quite get the end at first. Would love Olivia to win at the Oscars but would be very happy with Glenn or Gaga too!

The answer is always going to be whatever the biggest kids movie was the year you turned 5 :P For me it was 'Aladdin' back in 1993, which I still remember really well as it felt like a huge event at the time. We were queuing outside the cinema for what felt like ages before the movie started! I saw this too but it was one of my most embarrassing movie experiences! I was 13 and had to pretend to my Dad that I was watching something else (Lilo & Stitch I think) as I didn't want him laughing at me for seeing "a girls film", then when I entered the screen with my Mum I'm the only boy in the cinema and the only kid older than about 8. To make things worse my mum fell asleep halfway through the film! I work at a cinema now and had to tell off a (male) staff member recently for advising a young female customer that Bumblebee is "a boys film" which was wrong on a million different levels. Reminded me of the Odeon usher when I saw 'Mamma Mia' who asked me where my wife and kids were when I watched it alone...

I remember James Arthur being the moody one when I saw the 2016 special being recorded, getting angry at Reggie for getting the name of his song wrong ("Say You Won't Go?"). Everyone else was pretty chilled. My Grandma and me were able to relate this year as "Shotgun" for both of us was the only song in the show we knew. The hell was that sausage roll thing?

First memory of actually knowing there was such thing as a "chart" was just after Christmas 1993, seeing a bit of Top of the Pops and noticing that Mr Blobby had gone from number 1 to number 3. But I only knew the odd song or two until we got The Box in early 1999. Online I started following the likes of Dotmusic and the long-gone Top of the Pops forum in late 2002/early 2003, leading on to CoolClarity and eventually here!

Just like the only track I knew on Now 99 being Live Forever by Oasis, the only one I know here is When I Kissed The Teacher :P My guess is that they reserved 'Shallow' for that spot, didn't get it so found another musical they could fill the space with.

I work at a cinema and the crowds for A Star Is Born were insane, hundreds crowding into the screen on what's usually a quiet Wednesday. Expecting even bigger audiences this weekend - I still have nightmares about the first few days of La La Land and the queue stretching out the doors and down the road!!

It's not about the... oh

"Rang-a-dang-a-dang-dang-diggy-diggy"? ehsq5qLxeX4

I don't mind late 1980s songs on 1990s compilation CDs, as it's perfectly realistic that those songs would still have been on the radio and in clubs into the early 1990s - the annoyance I have is the other way around when they stick stuff from the 2000s on. I went to a "90s Night" in London a few years ago and they were playing the likes of So Solid Crew and Mis-Teeq, which didn't make any sense.

OMG. I just went into my local charity shop and I kid you not there was actually a copy of Now 100 on the shelf. FOR 49P. :lol: Best charity shop bargain I've ever purchased!!

I've rarely if ever heard anything sung so much as Three Lions was last night in London. Every few seconds you passed someone bellowing it out or playing it from their car - it's become a huge meme to the point where it's going to remind me of 1996 and 2018 in the future. People were even crossing the street singing "Let's cross the street" to the tune of the song :lol:

I can't wait for the big Christmas 2029 campaign of thousands of people just shouting the name of a song into their phones over and over again to get it to #1.

Wasn't it the original 1992 mix of Snap that re-entered? Certainly was the one used on the ad.

24. Drake - I'm Secretly Reading Buzzjack

I've never heard Power by Little Mix.

I literally know none of these except This Is Me. Am I missing anything amazing?

I can see this being similar to Kiev 2017 - a much quieter contest with a smaller turnout, with anything other than the live final mostly populated by locals. Flights to Israel are *really* expensive at this time of year from most of Europe (usually £100 each way) and the political situation of the country might put a lot off attending. It's impossible to compare it to 1999 as the contest was much smaller then. We've had a nicely varied mix of countries winning it the last few years - Western Europe (Portugal), Northern Europe (Sweden), Central Europe (Austria), Eastern Europe (Ukraine), the Caucasus (Azerbaijan) and, erm, not actually Europe at all in Israel's case! Hoping for a Baltic or Balkan win next year!

My view was blocked by heads at the start of the stage invasion - at first I thought there was a sound error and they'd played some kind of recorded message by mistake over the song, but then I saw the guy get dragged off stage - as mentioned lots of credit for Surie for carrying on and the audience support. It reminded me of Iveta's earpiece failing in the Family final two years ago, causing her obvious distress but the crowd support helping her complete the song! Glad she didn't come completely last and hope one day we can actually match a good performer (as the last few have been) with a good song. As devastated as I am for Queens Jess and Saara, there were just too many fiesty female pop bangers this year and most people's votes went to Israel and/or Cyprus in that category. Compared to last year when the full scoreboard roughly matched my own choices, this year everything's all over the place...as for Italy being *that* high, the only possible reason for me is that televoters got confused and thought they were voting for Fuego. I really took to both the top 2 on the night, and while Cyprus would have been an amazing winner, Israel was equally a big moment and a relief after I thought at one terrifying moment it was going to be Sweden. Fuego will go down in history as one of those great Eurovision near-misses and hopefully storm the Eurocharts, but Toy at least is a deserved win and ended the show on a party vibe for the first time in three years. Now I have to work out how the hell I'm meant to get to Israel cheaply next May - at that time of year I fear it's going to be a few hundred at the least!

Mikolas Josef is greeting the queue and I just got a selfie with him!! Slightly fanboying lots right now.

Already a queue of about 150 of us four hours before the show. And this is just the Standing zone...

Slovenia tried a slightly different gimmick at the Family Final today, Lea now has a minor freakout and shouts "Stop the music!!" herself. Then gets the audience to sing as before. My votes remain the same as last night, really feeling Fuego now so wouldn't mind it winning but hope at least all my faves do well!

Thoughts from the jury final! Let me know if you want to know how a particular song went in the arena tonight! * Intro felt overlong after how nicely speedy 2016 and 2017 were, looooonnggg musical introduction followed by flag parade followed by hosts followed by Song 1. Was a bit relieved by the time Ukraine appeared on stage. * It's hard to judge the audience response of 'Big 5' countries, as there's simply more audience from them in the arena loudly cheering their faves, but the reaction to Spain's entry was slightly comparable to the second coming of Christ. Even more so than Portugal. * Bless the crowd support for Surie - even though I feel like she's doomed for a low place everyone sang and cheered along like she'd won the thing. Nice to see her happily chatting away to other artists in the green room and grooving to 'Toy' as well. * Rybak is POPULAR, guys. Don't rule out a second top ten for him. * Jessica Mauboy dancing to 'Monsters' as she got to the green room was enjoyable to watch. * Israel and Cyprus seemed tied for the best and loudest crowd reaction - maybe Cyprus *just* edging it but some particularly loud Netta superfans next to me making it hard to tell. Quietest probably Lithuania and Serbia. As mentioned I was hearing every song for the first time tonight. I have the family and live finals to refine my choices - some of the big favourites were hard to hear under the crowd noise - but from that first impression, here are my personal jury votes: 12 Estonia 10 Australia 8 Czech Republic 7 Cyprus 6 Israel 5 Finland 4 Hungary 3 Norway 2 Denmark 1 Ireland Bailed at the interval so I can actually get some sleep before the family final and real thing tomorrow!

Arrived in Lisbon this morning after a short stopover in Madrid last night (the cheapest way of getting here and back). The waiting hall in Madrid was incredible, everyone around me glued to their smartphones and tablets watching the second semi-final live - it's a big deal here! Looks like the whole thing has sold much better than Ukraine last year (when you could still buy tickets for the final at this point and the semis were so empty they had to heavily discount the tickets) so I'm hoping for a much better atmosphere than in Kiev, closer to Stockholm 2016 which felt much more of an event. I've deliberately not heard *any* of the songs yet and the jury final tonight will be my first exposure to them - will let you know how it goes!

This is amazing - it still feels like absolutely no one has any idea as to how well anyone's going to do. It seems like Cyprus has won it but from memory Australia or Russia were in the lead this time in 2016. Ireland's surge might just be from Irish betters getting overexcited that they're a) in the final and b) not terrible - a more extreme version of Lucie Jones shooting up the odds last year. But maybe they acrually are in for a good result this time?

Actually being on camera in 2016 behind Mans, Carola and Loreen and slightly losing my shit in excitement upon realising. Can now say I've been seen on TV by 204 million people. (and yet I'm still single)