Brélican

I was a bit confused at you saying it was a shoegaze song before I looked it up lol (the American Wednesday are great though, no slander xx)

I thought Beth Orton might have been Herbs (but being Rich makes just as much sense).

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party but quickly caught up and should be around for the rest of this, I see my song isn't unveiled yet (and won't be for a while if it's all order of receipt). Christina is not a surprising early leader but does feel like quite a pop heavy contingent of voters so far (which makes me think Modest Mouse could be well placed here). There are a few reveals so far that I had guessed correctly - although there's probably no prizes on offer for insightful predictions like Rollo sending Peter Gabriel or Chez sending the conspicuous former Terra Avium artist. I did think Charlotte Martin felt very Mattias-coded though which is maybe slightly less obvious! All three of those were good discoveries anyway (Cusco deserved a lot better with their BJSC entry x), also really enjoyed Dobbo and Jade's entries. There were a few dance/electronic acts in this who I knew mainly from BJSC and was surprised to discover they'd been around so long, Booka Shade definitely one of those!

Oh I wasn't really paying much attention to the voting in the solo men this round, gah at that actually being the really close bottom 2 and the groups being comfortable by comparison (but no shock of course at Dido being well behind the rest in the women, poor hen). Ultravox had no business being so close to the bottom either...! And although she was obviously in no risk of being out it's a shame to see Sophie in the bottom 3 there, thought this was a really good pick from her. Happy to see Darin doing so well with an inspired pick though!

I've actually sent Frankie Rose to another contest myself before (with 'Sixteen Ways' - just checked and it wasn't a contest that you entered (was in the Pop forum, not BJSC)). The universe wants this to be a strong #lookysephonia month xx

On second thoughts can I just have my AQ please. POPHub can have one too to even things out. xxx (seriously though let me keep the faith, I see at least a few fine people in this semi who can appreciate a good Jersey-club-via-K-Pop-coded vaguely ethnic girly banger. x) I laughed at Addy and uhsting immediately clocking who I sent. Türkiye clearly does not have many girlgroups. x Hehe I did notice this - oddly the word has never appeared in the name of any previous BJSC song (or artist) but now twice at once! ~ Glad that FSR Rontvia have now sent Modern English after swapping away from it the other month (not that HENGE was a bad replacement...!) - I actually know of it via Todd in the Shadows' One Hit Wonderland series, although it's very generous for him to have considered them qualified for that as it was barely a hit (#76 in the US). It does have quite a high streaming tally though so clearly is somewhat of a cult hit, interested to see how many people do recognise it. (Also going for a song with Olivia Rodrigo connections worked well for me last month ) Also Squarepusher finally in a BJSC we love to see (not that I know the song).

I've avoided publicly commenting on whether I'd AQ or not to try and avoid jinxing it but it didn't work - a bit of a rollercoaster as we had 60 confirming nations within the deadline... but one withdrew... but then there was a late entry... but then another person withdrew. So we've ended up with 59 entries. Sadge xx (I think my entry shouldn't be at too much risk of DNQing this time unless me leaning too hard on pop voters severely backfires but I am a little gutted to not get to vote in both semis aw)

As long as you don't inflict 'Dollar Signs' on me again xo (no disrespect to ar Tinasha, I blame Calvin entirely)

Beaverdonia (seriously though, obviously Jadakissnia is the country I have the most taste overlap with and they generally have a better ear for the hits than me so would have to say them too x but I'll also say Trifoski as I respect their variety and consistent quality (not you PWR BTTM))

I don't think it's a surprise at all that Lewis is out so early, if anything I think him lasting 2 rounds was quite an achievement oops. He has a few decent songs but he's hardly a forum favourite (and this website is kinder to him than most of the rest of the Internet)...!

Calvin has more to give ofc but I wouldn't have been mourning him going out in this round, partly because of it heavily bending the spirit of the theme but mainly because that was probably the worst song I have ever heard by him. Yay for the old man still being safe x

(assuming M83 go for the obvious they do have a good shot at the Golden Wagner I'd think anyway - not a song I've ever rated much myself but otherwise pretty universally beloved by the alties x)

Fitting for the best category! (Not sure why this category had one fewer act in it than the other two to begin with though x) ...repeating the same joke for the 100th time aside, that is surprising to see M83 out as I'm sure they got a fair few pretty high rankings, but clearly not enough to save them from also getting a lot of very low rankings I guess. Must be a higher scoring last place than the other rounds so far surely? Relieved to see Fontaines staying in anyway, I definitely thought they were goners there.

1 Fontaines D.C. 2 Depeche Mode 3 Ultravox 4 New Order 5 Sade 6 iamamiwhoami 7 Bananarama 8 Texas 9 M8 I forgot who the other act on the list was lol! 10 Years & Years This continues to be by far the best category don't @ me. Great picks again from Fontaines and all of the new wave trio, lovely discovery from Sade and I liked all of 6-8 a good amount too, they'd all have ranked higher among either of the solo categories. Last 2 are also not bad. x

Yes, that was just a typo oop

I missed the session last week and didn't find time to listen to the songs in the week since unforch, defo would have voted for The Smiths as well though, can't imagine it's likely any discoveries would be better than that for me so correct winner x Was back this week though so: Billy Bragg - Between The Wars Philip Bailey and Phil Collins - Easy Lover The Smiths - Shakespeare's Sister Tam-Tam Pour L'Éthiopie - Tam-Tam Pour L'Éthiopie Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World 2 obvious classics, one I also know well via my mum and expect I might be the only one voting for it (Billy Bragg), I think this The Smiths song was new to me but great as ever from them, and a real shame that Tam-Tam Pour L'Éthiopie song isn't on Spotify as it's one of my favourite discoveries from these in a little while. Not many other noteworthy songs this week really (had a healthy enough 19 playlist adds, 20 including Tam-Tam Pour L'Éthiopie, but a lot that are just 7.5/10 level songs) but the next best I already knew were The Dream Academy and Frankie Goes To Hollywood and next best discoveries were The RAH Band and The Damned.

1 Jessie Ware 2 Zara Larsson 3 Sophie Ellis-Bextor 4 Kate Bush 5 Adele 6 Leona Lewis 7 Robyn 8 Dido 9 Agnes 10 MARINA There was no way anyone was coming close to touching 'The Kill' here for me <3 I had heard the Zara song once before and forgotten how much of a banger it is, not quite on 'Midnight Sun' level but another goodun from this era and way better than her first two song picks. Nice to be getting a bit more behind one of the Sophie picks in this round too, the repeated 'do it, feel it' etc. refrain was pretty cool, a strong discovery there. Good if not outstanding picks from Kate and Adele as well. The Leona song definitely sounds a bit dated to me and not in as flattering a way as 'Come Alive' but I can certainly see why it's such a fan fave, it's not bad for what it is. Robyn and Dido's songs were fine but not enthusing me much (sorry to the latter who's struggling for the support oop x). Didn't really like the last two sorry - the lyrics on 'Teen Idle' are really clunky. MARINA has plenty of great stuff to pick from but she's now been last for me twice in a row oops! Obviously they're doing more for others though x

Voted - I'll try my best to do a second listenthrough of the songs at some point even though it'll be too late to be reflected in my votes as I've been consistent in always listening to song contests twice before voting for quite a while but just ran out of time on this occasion oops ~ Had 14 songs I wanted to vote for here anyway so not bad going. (thanks AllStar for the YT playlist btw!)

"Arguably"

Late vetoes are probably still gonna be coming (sawree) so anyone who's been knowingly cheap, please don't assume yet that you've got away with it xo (think the list is mostly not looking too bad tbf)

Haven't found the time to listen to this yet oops (sorry I ended up missing the SyncTube listenthrough) - will do this evening and will just have to vote based on the one listen so apologies to any growers x

I think it's in the rules somewhere that the artist has to be either the lead artist or the only featured artist iirc so I don't think so. (Banger tho x)

Both of the Sams bending the rules

Unless I am misunderstanding you - there has always been more than one New Music Friday playlist (the main one I think is meant for the whole world but is effectively the US version, and there are a bunch of other regional versions that focus more on specific markets, not only the UK/Ireland one).

1 Gary Numan 2 Sam Fender 3 Roosevelt 4 Darin 5 Sam Smith 6 Damien Rice 7 Lewis Capaldi 8 HRVY 9 Tom Grennan 10 Calvin Harris Numan continues to clear everyone else with ease, the Sam F song as I said already is one of his better songs for me and Roosevelt was a pretty good discovery, best from him so far in this. Not that keen on anything below that - bonus points to Darin for going with a non-English song which does help it stand out among the rest (also think it is the best song from him in this so far too). I do like the strings on the Damien song but the song as a whole was a little bit of a slog unfortunately. The HRVY song was less actively irritating than his previous 2 and instead just serving mid which is enough for him to escape last place for once really not keen on Tom's vocal performance on this song and sorry to Tinashe but Calvin gave you an absolute headache of an instrumental to work with there oops (and it's not exactly one of Tinashe's most compelling performances anyway). (also the concept of there being a song in the solo male Pop Factor European artists round that is sung entirely by an American woman and is not a pop song)