Brélican

Huh I saw 'In Love With Myself' when scrolling through the top 100 earlier and had no idea what it was - as ever the OCC's stupid restriction on the length of artist credits concealing that it's a chart return for Petite Meller over a decade on from her only previous chart appearance with 'Baby Love', #30 in 2015. (I do not like that song oops, hopefully this one is better if it's going to become a hit x) Fabulous to see 'The Black Parade' finally being a #1 album and a first for My Chemical Romance - I'm sure they'll quite easily get a second if they ever get around to releasing a new album, but in the mean time their recent run of re-releases has made their chart history look a whole lot better (their debut album still hasn't ever charted, but the peaks of albums two to four have improved from 34-2-14 to 9-1-2). Oh my at 'Teenagers' getting a play on the chart show as well *.* would be cool if they did that more often. Also great that Fontaines D.C.'s album got a second week in the top 2, top 3 never looked in doubt but thought they might just be pipped by Olivia! A solid return for 'Angel Of My Dreams', doesn't look like it'll quite have as strong a second wind as 'Training Season' but still not too far off its original peak. 'My Body Isn't Ready' really monopolising the #10 spot! Shame that 'Lies' has fallen out of the top 10 in its second week but hopefully it's the kind of song that will hang around for a while and maybe re-enter the top 10 later (in an alternate universe this is the start of a 'Rein Me In' chart run that I can actually support...)

Queens Of The Stone Age should have a good chance of #1 I'd think - their last album did 14.8k first week. The Snuts' last one did 12.7k so they could also do it. Failing either of those it'll probably be O-Rod returning to #1 I guess. (Maybe Michael Jackson if Halloween gives his catalogue as a whole enough of a boost...)

Just caught up now - quite a reversal of fortunes after it was all alt bloc faves being dumped out in the last round, with 2 of the 3 being right back and the other returning act being even more of an alt bloc fave. All 3 of the returning acts placed in my top 2 of their categories so happy with that! My rankings (iirc, I should really save these things x): 1 Gary 2 Bladee 3 Calvin 4 Lewis 5 Roosevelt 6 Damien 7 HRVY 8 Mackenzy 1 Kate 2 Dido 3 Agnes 4 Tove 5 Milica 6 Leona 7 Jessie 1 Ultravox 2 Depeche 3 iamamiwhoami 4 wejustdon'tknow.gif 5 Vengaboys 6 DOA 7 Sade 8 Y&Y The Bladee song was a great discovery and more what I'd have hoped to hear from him than the odd pick for the first round - obviously it's still BuzzJack poison but we could have had two songs of that calibre from him at least!! And shoutout again to his Cold Visions album/mixtape which is all bangers x I also thought this was one of the best picks from iamamiwhoami so pavita finishing on a high for me <3 + the Dead Or Alive song was quite good too so the randomiser didn't do them too much of a disservice for me, mind I was one of the few defenders of 'Misty Circles' in the first place. I do think playing 'We Found Love' at this stage was a bit of a blunder and Calvin could have got through with 'I'm Not Alone' (I'd have ranked that 1st myself... fwiw I didn't penalise 'We Found Love' for the Rihanna thing, it would never have beaten 'Cars' for me and the Bladee song was a good enough discovery to nudge ahead of it, it's comfortably better than the rest of the solo men field even though that is another one of Lewis Capaldi's better songs) but alas! We love to see a mild upset for the old man *.* Numan making it quite far in the early stages but still having to burn through 'Cars' in the Wagner to make it into the live shows may not bode well for him to last a lot longer as he's a bit bereft of obvious choices now so intrigued to see how his mentor plays him now. I really couldn't call it between Kate and Agnes, wouldn't be surprised if it was very close between them (this is the first time there hasn't been a tie for first place in the Wagner round so I half wondered if they might end up also tying and we ended up with a 16 act live shows ) - it did go the way I wanted obvz but 'Release Me' is a legit great song so Scene gave her the best shot she had there. Wondering if Tove could also have been in the mix if she went with 'Stay High' (would have ranked 2nd for me I think), it's super unfortunate that she only got to play 2 songs. I thought Ultravox would have put up more of a fight in the groups but nevermind - yay that the voters still collectively decided to advance 80s faves across the board xo (not a fan of 'King' I'm afraid). Respect to @Juan Carlos, @Henessy Lake and @disguhsting going with such leftfield artist choices and all picking at least one good discovery for me along the way. Not me making it to the live shows for a second edition in a row (unless I didn't submit an artist etc. x)

Excited to be unveiled

I don't think they're aiming for radio play based on the 2 songs I have heard by them.

We love to see Fontaines getting another top 40 hit - very interesting that 'Mimesis' was initially in the First Look last week (which was just the first 3 tracks from the album), kicked out over the week by 2 tracks from later in the tracklist, yet it's got back ahead of one of those to make its debut in the final chart for the second week. 'Demolition' having oddly short-lived momentum. Shame as that is still my favourite album track although 'Mimesis' is great too and has grown on me each time I've heard it.

I was thinking the same about the contrast between 'Snap' and 'Senegal' for me in these contests haha.

...and another one I had no memory of oops! It was in the same contest as Dido I see so that whole contest is apparently just wiped from my memory.

'Melatonin' is just too much of a banger to ignore x

I see all of the top 3 in this contest got more points than the winner of the previous one! (there were a couple more total votes but still)

I have major questions if this isn't a unanimous vote

I vaguely recall that Rui Da Silva is actually the only Portuguese artist who's ever charted at all in the UK, nevermind at #1. (Apart from Salvador Sobral's Eurovision winner $ma$hing in at #97).

Lol I reverted to form and was sleeping through part 3 of the results as well. At least I was here for the longest part x Most of my main faves had already been unveiled at the time I last commented but since then: a pretty good Grimes-alike from Cody, Harve's song very nearly snatched my 1 point after being a big grower on second listen, good pick from Wardy though I had already heard it (nice to see Twin Tribes with another song contest appearance anyway), dhwe bringing another noisy banger (dare I say again it's better than Bleary Eyed although perhaps not as good as Eldritch Anisette x), really enjoyed the mix of math rock and hardcore from Whoddy's entry so quite sad to see it doing so poorly, and a lovely debut song contest entry from maggotsforbrains which also only just missed out for me (hope to see you entering other contests in the future as well). The PISS landslide coming to fruition as expected - amazing that it not only got the most high scores but also just the most votes in total, snuck into the low end of votes from a few people who I'd have expected it not to appeal much to. It in some ways felt like it was playing a different game to all the other songs as indeed it's rare that we get a song with such visceral emotions in any of the song contests but I'm really glad that you shared it as it is a fantastic piece of art, very well deserved first win here Chez <3 (I continue to wait for my first x). And with otay:onii also delivering on the hype the top 2 are the 2 best songs here (I had them ranked the other way around but they feel like joint 20s for me) so well done Jade as well and well done for you all collectively displaying impeccable taste ❤️ My whole top 3 finished in the top 4, I would have been a lot less confident in Maria & The Mirrors doing this well than the other 2 but we absolutely love to see that as well! And also gave medium high points to Twin Tribes in 5th, and lene 3000 had been my 1 pointer after my initial listen although fell behind a few other songs after my relisten, still making for a very strong top 5 overall. 2 more that I voted for in the top 10 as well (Cocanha and CLARAGUILAR) and a few more just missing out. Total Wife was the only one of my major faves that finished a bit lower down the scoreboard but 21st still feels respectable for that. I did vote for 2 of the bottom 5 though - as above really disappointing that Love Rarely came last and also sad that grad_u was the lowest finishing of the electronic entries. 'Senegal' ends my recent run of consistent good song contest results but I knew it would as it's certainly less accessible than my other recent offerings so it's all good, I still think it was worthwhile sharing it (if anyone wants to pinch 'All Hail' to send to another contest and hopefully get a better result be my guest x). Didn't quite make anyone's podium but 11 votes is probably more than I'd have expected and yay for not being bottom 5! Thanks to @Severin and @disguhsting for the 10s (not surprised to see the former being its joint biggest fan), @The Addyms Family and @seven. for 8s, @Jadaver for a 6, @maggotsforbrains for a 5 (I accept this as penance for your wrong take on that Beyoncé song, your taste is still mostly on good track x), @vampavi for the 4 and @Chez VampireBat, @nine¾, @Pting Rollo and @WhoOdyssey for a smattering of 2s. Almost got only even numbered points And thanks @matto for the hosting and pushing through the less than ideal conditions, manifesting peace for you ❤️ x

I may or may not be taking advantage of the slight extension due to the fact I fell asleep again when I was going to be relistening lel (doing it now so spoopy vyiats will be with you in a couple of hours )

Oh! Scenes when Democrats/indies flip North Carolina, Alaska, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, South Carolina and Montana (I've put those in about the order of likelihood from my perception, I won't go further as much as the idea of Blorida or Blississippi is fun) and yet Susan Collins still hangs on.