Brer

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)

This is a pretty strong batch of songs tbf but Fountains Of Wayne are gone too soon, nostalgic classic x Voting for Cascada now.

Switching to S Club 7.

I need to catch up properly with the first half of this (have only skimmed it last night) so will probably just wait until the end to comment on everything but happy to see Tokio doing quite well at the (a little over) halfway stage, hopefully looking good to at least be my first top 10 finish in one of these - although I have my sights set on my rival Escala which I just knew was going to be Chez blocking my first choice artist xx