Brélican

The OCC has never given any details about how exactly it estimates Thursday streams. Anecdotal evidence suggests it's not very accurate for these kind of unusual circumstances. Dolly will peak next week anyway so it doesn't really matter.

Antony Szmierek overtaking Sam Smith

I was going to say the graphics are very @blacksquare coded ddd I don't know what I'm sending yet (I had an idea but I've kind of gone off it), must avoid the ignominy of 4 consecutive DNQs. Hiipe anyway x

I think she is as popular if not more for her personality and her non-music activity as she is for her actual music.

Greg James played the Dolly remix of Sabrina Carpenter's 'Please Please Please' this morning.

'Blue Smoke' was attached to a greatest hits album iirc.

Ngl it would be lowkey iconic if 'Choosin' Texas' was lining up to finally hit #1 and was denied it because of Dolly Parton dying. I do think Dolly will hold up fairly well (maybe similar to Ozzy Osbourne but a bit higher), not sure if an official #1 may still be a bit of a stretch but I guess if it's going to happen it would be next week when sales for the #1 look set to be the lowest for years...

I hyped Model/Actriz to win for Scotland 2 as well x

'Islands In The Stream' was originally from a Kenny Rogers album and billed him first although all the versions on streaming services now seem to have the billing flipped. Theoretically it shouldn't count to Dolly's 3 song limit. (I hope it doesn't anyway, as I'd love to see her original and far better version of 'I Will Always Love You' finally charting).

Could definitely see Dolly having quite a big impact - would love to see '9 To 5' get a more deserving peak even if unfortunate it had to be this way. RIP </3

Scotland 2 won BJFestivalen but not the main contest!

I thought it'd have been a bit closer than that between Paul and Brandon! RIP to Brandon's perfect record of #1 studio albums then and he might well miss the top 2 this time (although you'd think it's still pretty unlikely The Killers would miss #1 with a new album unless it was very poorly timed).

Yes please @ 'Marlene On The Wall' as a warmup x

Sam was very popular with the general public, I'm not sure they ever really had that strong of a dedicated fanbase.

(That goes to everyone btw xo Between multiple confirmations and vetoes I think she's been confirmed about 8 times in the span of the last year)

Not Valencia to save mods a headache pls xx

We've had 4 spinoffs based on re-sending old entries, 2 editions of 'Your Best of' which was unrestricted (I sent a DNQ to one of them x), one 'Your Best of - Rejects' which was DNQs only and 'Andra Chansen' where you could send a past entry from anyone, not just yourself (and that was restricted to lower finishing finalists and DNQs iirc). Has been a while since we did one of them so wouldn't be opposed to a new one if someone wants to host x (I saw Pavi posted in the spinoff forum about something along these lines as well).

For what it's worth I do not know any of these songs so I didn't vote in the poll despite being tagged to do so xo (soz Meekul)

Rollo did say at the 80s top 40 hits session today that he's still planning to do the listenthrough tomorrow! (don't mind me answering on his behalf x)

'Hey QT' is the only song here that I know I've heard before (it was vetoed from BJSC way back when so taken a while for it to finally actually get to appear in a song contest x) although a few of the other song titles are vaguely ringing a bell. (@WoW73 were any of these used on PopJustice before? I could just check myself but I'm being lazy xx) I sent a dazegxd song to Club Bizarre last year, of all the contests to see him making another appearance in I would not have guessed it'd be the Pop Forum Song Contest! Though I'll assume this song is probably quite different to the one I sent (and he's not the lead artist on this one anyway so I guess he's just got a credit as a producer).

Quickly caught up on the 7 songs I missed now to get some votes out of the way just a little earlier this week x (I still need to catch up on the one week I missed entirely oops, muuust make sure to find a few hours to do that in the next few weeks before we move onto the next year) Depeche Mode - Blasphemous Rumours Gary Numan - Berserker Iron Maiden - Aces High Nik Kershaw - The Riddle Tears For Fears - Shout Only 2 songs that I knew already this time! Depeche Mode and Gary Numan providing great discoveries as usual and this is one of the best I've heard from Iron Maiden too. (Gary and Iron Maiden were both before I joined today so not sure what others made of them, based on the votes so far I may or may not be the only one voting for them x). Next best ones I already knew are Band Aid, Alison Moyet, Duran Duran and Kool & The Gang and next best discoveries are Smiley Culture, The Stranglers and Bronski Beat.

Everything you've posted so far was before I joined but I have heard a few of them anyway - 'Unfinished Sympathy' obviously an all time classic (backlash against cheapness or not that coming second from last in a semi-final is utterly outrageous x) and I know the Ladytron and Röyksopp songs too.

I just looked this up and it looks like it's just a limited CD release (at least for now?) - in any case it's just a bonus song and not a proper single, I doubt it'd be challenging for #1.

Not at all a bore! (I'll stop baiting now x)

HUGEL has been around for a while with songs of less questionable origin tbf. (I'm not personally too bothered about songs having AI origins if the versions that are charting are re-recorded properly)