Brer

+5 Victory Lap +4 Nice To Each Other +3 Sapphire +2 Dior +1 Blessings -1 DAISIES -2 Survive -3 Ordinary -4 Golden -5 Manchild I do think 'DAISIES' might be a grower, only heard it the once so far and it didn't leave too much of an impression but I do generally appreciate the vibe of it. I've heard 'Golden' twice and both times it went directly in one ear and out the other, 'Your Idol' is better. 'Nice To Each Other' is a great addition to the top 10 though, sounded better and better over time and I'm not usually a fan of Olivia. Aside: 8/10 songs in this top 10 having one word titles oh my

Sorry again for not voting (I was going to do so on the final day then realised it wasn't a midnight vote deadline and I didn't have time to), I 100% promise I will vote in the final! So many excellent songs going out at this stage though while Imagine Dragons' 'Believer' gets through? Excuse me? x

Voted

Very close all 3 ways here! Switching to KT Tunstall now.

https://sync-tube.de/room/ApAM3t-I Quick listenthrough for anyone who may be interested from the slightly later time of 8:30

Bow Wow Wow - C·30 C·60 C·90 Go David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes John Foxx - Burning Car Split Enz - I Got You Ultravox - Sleepwalk Bowie aside, mostly songs that are quite new to me getting my votes this week - John Foxx was definitely a first listen (3 for 3 on him getting nominations from me!) and I am not sure I've ever heard the Bow Wow Wow or Ultravox songs in full before either although they did both sound familiar. Split Enz was a recent discovery from BJSC. Next best songs that I already knew well are George Benson and ABBA, and next best discoveries were Hazel O'Connor, Grace Jones and Peter Gabriel. I do have a feeling the Grace Jones one in particular could grow on me a lot more with more listens, very interesting song!

Yes there's no negative reviews if you dismiss all of the negative reviews. Revolutionary

Lol ok x

good thing I didn't read those then xox

Well done @Scene and @King Rollo, an excellent top 2 in the end - and wow Avril actually winning both parts of the final vote, even with the album track. PSB so close to blocking Xtina from a top 2 spot in the first part as well! This has been good fun to take part in and follow along with so thanks @Calum for the concept and hosting :3 Assuming there will be a second edition of this some time (don't see why not when this has been such a success x) I'll try to stick at least a little closer to the 'pop' part of the concept, I did only really jump into this at the last minute on a whim and thought I'd have some fun introducing some James Blake tracks to a potentially unfamiliar audience, but I did genuinely try to make an effort to pick at least a handful of songs from him that I thought might provide some good discoveries for people here if they listen with an open mind (I admittedly fell back on just hoping niche votes would suffice when I sent 'The Wilhelm Scream' lol but all the others were good faith attempts at crossover appeal!! I came very close to sending 'If The Car Beside You Moves Ahead' to troll the pop hoes in the Golden Wagner round so be thankful I didn't do that if the songs I did send were hard to swallow ) and that your option if you're willing to taint your own creation with dodgy AI graphics xx I will spare you my ire as long as I can trust your writeups have actually been your own effort as I have enjoyed reading them x

Love to see 'Illegal' sneaking in - PinkPantheress' first solo Hot 100 entry *.*

PSB would be my preferred winner on the strength of their discography but I think Avril winning would be a good reflection of just how well Scene has been playing the song choices throughout, she has a pretty hit or miss discography for me but I think I've enjoyed all of her songs that have been sent here. Although Christina will probably win because Addy just wins everything in big 2025 etc. ()

Counterpoint from a couple of different Internet bubbles xx (also I seem to remember him being a bit of a dickhead in his TikTok days)

It's cool to see Mk.gee getting a big mainstream hit as a producer - the song isn't massively grabbing me from first listen but might be a grower. (can we belatedly make Mk.gee's 'ROCKMAN' a hit too now x)

Very surprised that Rob saved Pet Shop Boys over The Saturdays but we love to see it (even though it means The Saturdays' best song didn't get to be represented in this x) and I dare say they have a shot to win the whole thing now (actually the Avril song is very good and I do admire the boldness of taking this moment of all times to send an album track - I do actually understand avoiding 'Girlfriend' as much as I like it myself, 'Head Above Water' would have been a good choice though I agree)

We got 'TV' in the spot in the setlist where she's been doing some covers ('Halley's Comet' has also shown up in that spot a few times) - definitely my preferred outcome there as it was a fantastic moment live with the very loud crowd singing along to the Roe v. Wade line and the 'maybe I'm the problem' outro. I knew there was no chance she'd have done 'The 30th' (according to setlist.fm she's only done it live 5 times ever, all in Southeast Asia) so I will take that as the closest we were going to get x Was a fantastic concert, great setlist (was very happy to hear 'Your Power' on there in particular as well) and visuals + Magdalena Bay have to be up there with my favourite support act sets to date <3

^ this latest crashout from her seems to have stemmed from a tweet by Punch (CEO of Top Dawg Entertainment) just saying 'Broken Barbies'... which had nothing to do with her at all and was just promoting a song of that title by a new TDE artist lmao

Oh wow another album so soon after 'CHROMAKOPIA', perched! Getting back on schedule after that album threw him off from his usual pattern of releasing an album in every odd numbered year lol ~ (the tracklist above is fake, he never announces features ahead of time)

This was so stressful to watch lmao (but worth it for the result x)

Happy to do a quick SyncTube for the final on Monday evening

[/late] as in my own semi-final I voted for all the songs that progressed and in fact it was nearly my exact top 4 so no complaints to be made here! 12 Q 10 Q 8 Q 6 Aesthetica 4 Q 2 Aeroche 7th Rolloland 8th Cheiron 9th Pestolia 10th Greenfroze 11th Altyr Muunilinst 12th POPHub I am surprised at Aeroche not making it, think that is one of the ones I'd have been most confident predicting through alongside Bøtanikkä! Aesthetica missing out is less of a surprise but good that they at least got to AC x

The points for Tokio dried up a bit on the second night whoops but had enough of a cushion to hold onto the top 10 hooray, a first for me in Bop Idol! Thank you to @uhsting for the gold medal (classical bloc coming through x), @Chez Wombat, @Dobbo and @Jade for further medal positions and @awardinary, @CowTzy, @Julian_, @King Rollo and @AllStarBySmashMouth for the remainder of my points. I decided not to disclose that Escala was the artist I originally tried as I thought that might make it pretty obvious, if it wasn't already, that Tokio was mine haha - as it were I see I stayed pretty well hidden with iirc only Dobbo (half) suspecting I was behind Tokio out of those who posted guesses! I had to laugh a bit at Calum thinking I sent Cher Lloyd, that was an iconic throwback though so I had to throw it a few points, it's dated rubbish but in a fun way. I wonder what Mercury Prize nominated Ghetts would now think about his participation on that trainwreck xx Ruti and Equador were both fine guesses though since both were in my medal positions! Grr at rival Chez ending up finishing ahead of me after stealing my artist but at least it was close x (a large part of me honestly thinks 'Aerodynamic' would have done even better as it feels like more of a standout reinvention but we shall never know!) The whole top 4 of my votes finished in the top 5 so taste has been on display! Well done @Addy! on yet another contest win (sorry that we are giving you so much work to do with upcoming song contest hostings ), may have been the 'obvious' winner in the end after all but I never thought it sounded like a landslide winner and indeed it was as far as you could get from that with it going to a 2-level tiebreak, it is a great song so no complaints. Plus I'm unfortunately not really a fan of 'Borderline' so I was very much rooting for it to take that tiebreak - not least because after my second listen I actually moved it down 1 point so would have been gutted if that had cost it the win! Equador is a really inspired podium finisher and a brilliant discovery here from an artist I would otherwise not have paid any mind to. The Diana Vickers song was a throwback which I loved at the time and still holds up well now, some rare big points going @Tafty's way from me! And then of course it was my 12 pointer rounding out the top 5 and it wasn't really close for me, sounds like it could have been plucked straight off a London Grammar album, I suppose Ruti did very well for herself by The Voice winner standards to even get 2 charting songs but if she's capable of making a song this good it's a shame she didn't have a bigger career (and oooops at the song's untimely greying out on Spotify, hoping that will only be temporary, very odd that the rest of its titular EP is still available). I think I may have heard it once or twice before but certainly not for a long time so I'll count it as effectively a discovery anyway, nice one @jimwatts x Also just about voted for 6th place. Aw at Clara Van Wel losing the tiebreak for 10th, would have been another very inspired top 10 entry on top of maintaining Julian's streak, I had it down as my 1 pointer on first listen but bumped it up a few after the second, a really lovely ballad there. Liberty X deserved a bit better as did Dannii Minogue, really not sure how she ended up doing so poorly! Thanks Julian for the hosting, I will hold my tongue on my thoughts on the AI usage in this thread (apart from this sentence) as I think I have to concede I'm fighting a losing battle there (please tell me I'm not the only one who realised it was AI), it was a mixed bag quality wise for me as this theme was always likely to be but enough solid discoveries and throwbacks that I had a fun time listening on the whole, eagerly anticipating another Addy theme choice x

Two more great #1 picks, 'New Amsterdam' was a fab rediscovery (wish it were a bit longer but still!) and 'No Self Control' is one of my best new discoveries from the series so far even if I did think the instrumental sounded a bit like a Nokia ringtone Poor brave Cockney Rejects x

Wu-Tang Clan won one of these?! (Voting for Robbie, not one of his more memorable songs)