BillyH

Those sales for Slow were commented on a fair bit at the time, it was when CD sales were plummeting week by week and there was no popular legal download site yet (the iTunes Store had launched in the US but not in the UK yet). That same week Johnny Cash's covers of 'Hurt' and 'Personal Jesus' charted at #39, which seem far more famous than their chart position suggest.

Only just finished work so sped-read all seven pages!! The moment I saw the theme I knew I had to send K2, finding it on Youtube was a brilliant "What the hell" moment - did get a bit excited when I was briefly second but really happy to get top 5, thought opinion would be split much more!! Overjoyed to see Jasmin win. Fun fact, it was released in 1996 but only achieved its German singles chart peak in 2010 after a RATM-style chart campaign against a reality TV winner! Loved it ever since I discovered it on Youtube while binge-watching happy hardcore hits about a decade ago. Credit to Maxx, Melodie MC and Da Buzz too which were all in my votes and deserved to rate higher! Looking forward to the next one!

I think Tina Cousins has a good chance of ranking highly in most votes and would be a fine winner, but as it's already been a UK top twenty hit I'd like something more obscure (from a British perspective) to do it, like Blumchen or Amber. K2 will either rate brilliantly or terribly and therefore probably finish mid-table overall.

Just a glorious chart all round which reminds me of being 19 and full of hope in life.

Happy to say I've voted this time after missing out in the Rave.dj contest - some incredible songs there but my 12 I especially adore!

The Linger/Zombie thing is similar to The Gossip - ask anyone in the UK to name their most famous song and (if they've heard of them) they'll probably say Standing In The Way of Control, which peaked at #7 here. But in several countries it was 2009's Heavy Cross that was their one massive hit single, which only peaked low top 40 in the UK but top ten in many other places. Doing a bit of research after my last post and the huge success of Zombie overseas only came several months after the UK release, in late 1994/early 1995 - in Australia it was Triple J's #1 song of the year in their Hot 100 poll. Normally if that happened a song would be re-released in the UK (like Sparks's 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way' which got reissued after it was randomly a big hit single in Germany) but it didn't seem to happen with Zombie. Happy that both it and Linger have done so well and amazing to see a song about the Northern Ireland troubles gaining so much audience.

I don't understand how Zombie only peaked at #14 when it was a massive #1/top 3 single all over Europe and Australia/New Zealand - I presume the subject matter made airplay/publicity a bit more challenging in this country. All three of those Cranberries songs deserve higher peaks.

Thanks to The Snake for alerting me to this thread! Submitted just in time with a gloriously bonkers track that did nothing in the UK but huge elsewhere...

Year of all the big hits starting with the letter F, clearly.

Does Les Miserables count? Obviously based on a theatre show that had been running for years but it was what everyone was talking about this time five years ago, comparing the movie songs to the originals etc. Also got a huge audience who'd never even seen the stage version before. A Wicked movie is scheduled for Christmas 2019, expect total chart domination from that surely.

I have no idea what the fourth biggest selling single of the year is, or how it sounds. The first time since... *Googles* ...1970, Freda Payne's Band Of Gold. There's not much I've heard this year that's appealed to me, but there's been years in the past where I've heard most of my faves much later than when they came out, so maybe I'll have a list of 2017 classics by the end of the decade...

Yeah there's a few on yours I think are more likely than on mine, like Hero for Now 51 - I chose 'Always On Time' because I still hear it a lot around today, but looking at the tracklisting Hero seems the more obvious choice. The version of In The Air Tonight on Now 12 was a remix rather than the original - if not Tiffany for that volume I'd say Salt N Pepa's Push It.

I wonder where they got that idea... :P An update to that would perhaps add One Dance (Now 95), Human (Now 96), Despacito (Now 97) and either Havana or Rockstar (Now 98) - if 'Perfect' makes Now 99 then that too, as Ed has to be on it at some point.

In a pre-planned chart "event", Adele and Ed Sheeran will release exactly the same song on the same day and break Spotify. The chart rules will be changed again so that songs may only stay top ten for one week each, only last four minutes or less and only feature a maximum of ten supporting artists per song, ruining the planned Calvin Harris feat. Everyone collab. The biggest selling artist of the year will be Daniel Bedingfield. The Christmas number 1 will be a cover version of 'Fairytale of New York' by Sam Smith and Mariah Carey, feat Stormzy.

The guy behind Eighteen Strings had a brilliant idea, basically taking the biggest rock anthem of the time (Smells Like Teen Spirit) and the biggest club anthem of the time (2 Bad Mice's 'Bombscare') and mashing them up for instant dancefloor success - the original white label had the actual Nirvana sample in it, but they couldn't clear it for commercial release so used that similar soundalike riff instead. It would be like someone ten years later mashing up Seven Nation Army with Call On Me!

Destination Calabria always makes me think of first year uni, even though I didn't start til September 2008 there were still plenty of '07 songs being played in clubs then. It's fun but not one I've revisited much since.

Vinyl :P

Yes at the #1, fair enough at the #2 but #3 was surely some kind of campaign by annoyed Russians still pissed that they didn't win :P Shows how the general perception of the show is different to the UK as well, as a UK vote would just be full of 60s to 80s UK entries with the odd Waterloo thrown in.

I'm a massive fan of European 80s pop that didn't for one reason or another make it to the UK...half of them weren't even given a release, shame as I think all these would have been huge in the UK given the chance: Gazebo - I Like Chopin Masquerade - Guardian Angel Modern Talking - You're My Heart, You're My Soul Sandra - Maria Magdalena Mixed Emotions - You Want Love (Maria Maria) Fancy - Flames of Love Mysterious Art - Das Omen

THEY'RE BACK ON SALE AND I JUST GOT A TICKET!!!! I swear I'm not joking! My wallet is empty but who cares :D Lisbon's happening for me!!

I hope you get a ticket - for Stockholm 2016 I missed out on the Grand Final but got the jury final easily, and a ticket for the Tele2 Arena next door which had live performances from Carola, Loreen and Sanna Nielsen, plus the Swedish voting and a bit with Mans on the live show where I'm on camera for about 30 seconds!! As mentioned more tickets appear on the site at random times (how I got lucky for Kiev), so even if you miss out on the 20th it's best to check every now and again. Don't bother with the touts on Viagogo unless in very very last resort. Just noticed the queue got paused when the tickets sold out, so I'm still in the 16,000s...surely that isn't going to last until the next lot of tickets go on sale?

Dare I say a gentle move towards quietly cancelling the show because "it doesn't get enough ratings"? It's been on borrowed time for ages. I had a great time in the audience for it last year, but it was notable how they had to use camera angles and various tricks to make the audience look larger than it was, and having to keep rearranging everyone to put all the grey-haired middle aged people at the back and the few photogenic young people at the front...

Your queue number - 17880 :lol: Not happening for me today then. Last year I gave up after an hour, checked back around midnight and got a ticket straight away - that was a lucky fluke though and all tickets went on sale on the same day, this is just standing. Kiev sold really low in the end - I remember when the Semi-Final tickets were discounted to €17 because the arena was half empty. This one will be busier I think because Portugal...will try again on the 20th!

Looks like it's only Grand Final standing/golden circle tickets going on sale tomorrow, the normal seated tickets on December 20th and all other shows at an unspecified time in 2018. https://www.blueticket.pt/info/eurovisao-en3.html

Let's go oh-oh-oh-o-oh!!