RobBot

Houdini feels MUCH lower down than expected. I have a sneaky feeling that if the album campaign had felt like more of a moment, then it MAY be a bit more celebrated here but hey, top 100 is still nothing to turn your nose up at. And it's still a 10/10 song for me, adore it.

Even amount of entries so I can get to the 50 mark without having to ~sweat it out too much, thank U x

Don’t think Espresso is quite closing in fast enough to take #2, ugh :(

Kanye.

There's been a pop entry that I thought would smash coming 16th-20th in every contest recently. POPHub this time, Askorza last contest, Alice Chater the contest before. I think it definitely speaks to the ~alt side of BJSC being more uniformed than the poppier side. Obviously, it's not split down the middle of two camps, as there's a decently sized dance side too but I think even the tightness of the top 2 and how different they both are, really speaks to there being quite an even split. It probably is also worth mentioning POPHub would've made top 10 if the non-voters had've voted, cos I'm 100% sure Ramrynia would've given it 18 and Kyriatine clearly enjoyed it too.

Katy Perry - Teenage Dream :wub:

Q’S - 135 / 145 01 - 6 (Good Times, Someone Like You, Raining Diamonds, Goliath, Cupid, BET) 02 - 7 (Shadow Of The Sun, Healing, Falling Apart, Shockwave, She Swam Higher, The Thrill Of It, TRUST!) 03 - 13 (Medicine, Number One Enemy, Run On Love, High, Lipstick, Money, Jimmy Dean, Eclipse, Pyramids, Literal Legend, V I B R A T I O N, No Room For Love, Dead Man Walking) 04 - 8 (Discotheque, Box Of Secrets, Take Me Home, House Of Cards, Outsiders, Too Much, Can't Bring Me Down, Dancing and Crying) 05 - 6 (Left My Heart In Tokyo, Just Like That, The Mother We Share, Samurai Swords, Be My Drummer, Piece Of Work) 06 - 4 (Don't Upset The Rhythm, Buy My Love, Batman & Robin, Ciao) 07 - 5 (Taking Off, Drop Drop, Tumor, Friday Night, Backfire) 08 - 5 (Phone Sex, 5-HT, Perfect Form, Illusion, Bye Bye Bby Boo) 09 - 5 (Say It, Everybody Dance, Go 2.0, Dip N Drip, Diskoteka) 10 - 6 (You'll Be Mine, Fall In Love, The Ocean, Chemicals, In My Dreams, Was I Ever Alone?) 11 - 6 (Reprogram My Heart, Natteravn, The New Kings, I'm High, Teardrop, Diamonds) 12 - 6 (Money, Swallow The Bullet, Hold This Moment, Good At Losing, Radio, I Don’t Cry (I Dance) 13 - 6 (Love Struck, Die For You, Bettie, Cry For Me, The Audacity, RITMA) 14 - 2 (Dust, Taste Of Heaven) 15 - 10 (2 All My Girls, Like You Better, We Are Young, If You Let Me Go, Anthem, Riot, Cherry, Nobody, Youth, GET UP BITCH! shake ya ass) 16 - 4 (Bad Dog, Presence, Razor Heart, Didn't Wanna Do It) 17 - 0 18 - 1 (Have It All) 19 - 0 20 - 0 21 - 2 (Don't Know Why, Breathless (Keeping Me Up All Night)) 22 - 4 (You Can't Get In My Head, Warrior, All We Need, 99%) 23 - 5 (Toy Boy, Got This Feeling, Wet, Loving U, Last Dance) 24 - 1 (Hoida Mut) 25 - 3 (Karma, Money All Around, This Summer) 26 - 3 (Dirty Face, Kill It With Love, Beam Me Up) 27 - 2 (Nights Like This, Stranger) 28 - 1 (Small Town Scandal) 29 - 2 (Problem With Love, Summer Smash) 30 - 3 (Lost, iPhone, Stolen (Namasenda Remix)) 31 - 0 32 - 1 (Shoes) 33 - 0 34 - 1 (Five Times) 35 - 2 (Chica Bomb, Rendezvous) 36 - 0 37 - 1 (MOOD) 38 - 2 (Poison, PWR RNGR) 39 - 0 40 - 1 (Love Me Better) 41 - 0 42 - 0 DNQs - 10/145 (Everybody On The Dancefloor, Texas, Get Your Sexy On, Sugar Free, This Is My Hair, Nightmare, I Still Wait For You, Heroine, Get Off My Dick, Not Yours Never Was) I used to struggle to get 2nd places, but it's become a much more regular occurence in the last 5 years :lol:

I think of all the 2nd placers I've had (up to 7 now!), this is the one I was most willing to JUST eek over the edge, but I was never actually leading and can't feel like it was ever really taken away from me. Terra Avium had it for so long that it only feels fair it ended that way, but what a nailbiter! Well done Tom, not a song I considered voting for not a bad song by any means, and can easily see why it had such appeal. I personally knew when it came down to Lewis that there's absolutely no way he'd built such suspense just for me to win, that just wouldn't be a satisfying payoff :lol: Thank you to all 28 that voted for Trust, especially the 18s from POPHub (snap!), Cheiron, Taahino and Kluminican Republic, which is a fun and interesting mix of countries! Wonderful hosting, theme, concept etc Lewis, as ever. Such an amazing film to take inspiration from and delivered so precisely, loooved it :wub:

I’ve already seen it! Although, I would happily see it again and again, best film I’ve seen all year ❤️

TRUSTING that the predictions won’t be too far off and hopefully I can score another hit with, what is, COMFORTABLY my favourite entry of the year. Excited for any final presentation done by Leww, although I will be in the cinema for most of it lol x

Final prediction IS… we’re going to Terra Avium xx

Yeah, in terms of chart success, I think to say Gaga’s star power carried someone like Bruno Mars is a bit of a stretch. She obviously is a star but he’s certainly got quite the wealth of success behind him too, that’s never felt like it’s waned hugely.

Just to throw another name out, I think Nelionoir will definitely be in the mix. It’s a more widely reaching entry than the previous Ela Minus song that came 7th so I think, at the very least, this could be a top 5.

I hope that this weeks discussion hasn’t scared people off from doing odds 😩

If I could like a comment, it’d be this because TOO REAL x

Oh and MORE KEY CHANGES in pop music please x

This is SUPERB. I listened to it because I'd seen plenty of people posting it on Eurovision Twitter ridiculing him for selling it and low and behold, I was met with a FANTASTIC pop song. It sounds huge to me too, if this was released by Harry Styles, I think it'd be a massive smash. And I think he's a stand out of his own right, such a natural star quality and charisma, that I believe it coming from him. I love the styling, the video, the whole vibe feels correct even if it does feel a surprising departure from the Maneskin sound. Probably won't make a dent anywhere sadly as I'm not sure he's enough of a name on his own outside of Maneskin, but it's got all the makings of a smash otherwise :(

Also this. (And I do recognise the irony in me, of all people, making a 3 paragraph post about how people should feel about not qualifying lmao)

I reserve the right to have spread false information on that front, maybe Mothertopia isn’t who I thought they were? :lol:

In the least condescending way I can possibly say this, I think we all have to remember at the end of the day that we are not the country we’ve made up for an online contest. I’m Rob from Manchester, I’m not actually Hendinian, and I think when streaks of misfortune crop up in this contest then people have a tendency to think it’s a personal attack. And I do get the frustration but I’ve never seen any sign of things being personal in this contest. Other than maybe Aeroche/Klum and Ajanaeda/Mothertopia, who literally live together and may be naturally influenced by one another’s listening habits, I’ve rarely seen influence between other members towards their votes. I can only speak for myself on Herbilore that I certainly don’t have any different feelings towards Herbs than I have done in any other month, but I gave you 6pts in this semi. I’d really encourage you to take a step back and remember that this contest is nothing more than 60 silly bast*rds pretending to be countries in a bid to discover new music. And I do think predictions/odds are essential to the contest because otherwise there’d be no discussion for 7 days and the forum would be a ghost town. It creates talking points and hype, which then makes the results more exciting. If we censor discussion, then I do think you lose a centrepiece of what makes the contest more than just sending songs and forgetting about it for a week.

11 countries on 100% qualification streaks for the year is really impressive, no easy feat at all! ---- Lost a few of my votes in SF2, definitely wasn't expecting to lose so much pop (not sure if that bodes well for me, but I'm choosing to believe they all just voted Queen Rebecca xx) 12 Q 10 Q 08 Aesthetica 07 Q 06 Herbilore 05 Q 04 Q 03 Ramrynia 02 Q 01 Q

EXCITING

40 Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away With Me 39 Dua Lipa - Physical 38 Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling 37 Katy Perry - Never Really Over 36 Ariana Grande - Into You 35 Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To Cry 34 Little Mix - Sweet Melody 33 Ariana Grande (feat. Zedd) - Break Free 32 Loreen - Tattoo 31 Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now 30 Little Mix - Touch 29 Käärijä - Cha Cha Cha 28 Dua Lipa - Houdini 27 Dua Lipa - Be The One 26 Clean Bandit (feat. Zara Larsson) - Symphony 25 Dua Lipa - Levitating (Original / DaBaby Remix) 24 Taylor Swift - Style 23 Go_A - Shum 22 Katy Perry (feat. Juicy J) - Dark Horse 21 Charli XCX & Troye Sivan - 1999 20 Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - Rain On Me 19 Troye Sivan - Rush 18 Rita Ora - Anywhere 17 Tate McRae - Greedy 16 Cardi B (feat. Megan Thee Stallion) - WAP 15 Charli XCX - Good Ones 14 Years & Years - King 13 Ariana Grande - One Last Time 12 Kylie Minogue - Padam Padam 11 Charli XCX & Christine And The Queens - Gone 10 Sam Ryder - Space Man 09 Dua Lipa - New Rules 08 Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 U 07 Katy B - Crying For No Reason 06 Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer 05 Elton John & Dua Lipa - Cold Heart (Pnau Remix) 04 Miley Cyrus - Midnight Sky 03 Lorde - Green Light 02 David Guetta & Bebe Rexha - I'm Good (Blue) 01 Tove Lo - Habits (Stay High) (Original / Hippie Sabotage Remix)

It's definitely a shame this hasn't done any better out of the gate, but plenty did predict that 1) Die With A Smile and 2) The Joker would detract from this feeling like a lead single. I'm sure to many, this feels like the 2nd single, after the Bruno collab. So, all that being said, I don't think the start is any kind of disaster. It's gonna be about how well this stabilises, though the Christmas onslaught in about 3 weeks time does make me worry a little for this.

Sorry Jade, I just know you’d have got 80 more points if I hadn’t voted as usual x