Bror

I guess there is a tie for the last qualifier slot in semi 2 then if I'm counting correctly! All good qualifiers so far, particularly Nelly now they moved on from their pop hoe phase x

My song got a very polarised response on SyncTube (should probably have expected that x) and inconclusive predictions so definitely feel like it could go either way, hopefully I had a few big fans otherwise my beef with the French language will be emphatically renewed xx I think most of my votes should be ok to qualify, a bit of a prayer circle for Cumulonimbia though who I'm not too confident about again.

It is indeed https://sync-tube.de/room/ApAM3t-I From 8pm ish as ever

Excellent to see DARA in the top 20 - an otherwise muted year for Eurovision hits but this could prove to be one of the highest charting winners of recent years (obviously a way off Loreen but still x). It's been pretty obvious since at least Sunday that Drake wasn't going to be #1.

This is a banger and I think it works pretty well despite the length, hope this one will work better for you x (Also, as I mentioned to you on Discord, they have an album called 'But wait.Cats?' so they need to smash for that reason alone)

Electro Velvet still one of our best entries of this century though don't @ me x (I do personally think LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER is one of our better entries too but can understand why it didn't go down well - this particular song is not exactly the best showcase of his talents)

You have a pretty bad memory then... x

https://sync-tube.de/room/ApAM3t-I Semi 1 from 8pm ish

This update is mostly only streams from Friday & Saturday so very unlikely anything would be showing up yet. DARA should chart by the end of the week.

MJ is still doing big numbers so I doubt it, possibly 3 of the top 4/5 though.

I spotted on Wikipedia that 'Bangaranga' was co-produced by Monoir so it's actually a double Dobago victory!

The other two Drake songs were not that far ahead of it on Spotify day 1. That + better premium ratio + multiple versions, makes sense. Assuming 'Rein Me In' will already be back at #1 by Wednesday if not by tomorrow.

There haven't been a lot of songs that I have particularly strong feelings about in this rate really but still going pretty in line with how I rated them myself results wise, I gave every song in the top 12 at least 7/10 (no t.A.T.u.-esque outlier this time x). A bit of a shame that 'Move Ya Body' just missed out on the top 10, that was one of a couple of songs that I'd not heard for a while that it was good to hear again when doing my rate, same with 'Dumb' actually so good that that one made it in at least. A little surprising to see Girls Aloud as low as 10th, would have thought that song might be a bit higher regarded, but not one of my own big GA faves. 'Only U' deserved a spot in the top 10 as well! Both Britney and Christina's offerings on this compilation were pretty mediocre - I am not particularly a fan of either version of 'My Prerogative'.

'Make Them Cry' already falling behind two other Drake songs - early signs of him having a song debut in the top 10 and then get starred out in its second week yet again. The massive second day dropoff is really not that shocking, if anything the shock was him still managing to do so well on day 1. I still think his star power is pretty greatly diminished post-Kendrick beef.

Monday and Wednesday are the best days for me as ever so yes, planning to do semi 1 tomorrow A handful of songs I am already a fan of showing up this month, and most of them are in my semi - some early hype to Bøtanikkä, Cumulonimbia and Ennea + Scotland 2 in the other semi! (I only first heard 'To France' a couple of years ago as I went to a Mike Oldfield tribute concert and it was my standout of the songs performed that I didn't already know - shame it wasn't a bigger UK hit, although I did discover during research for this contest that it still charted higher than 'Man In The Rain' which feels even wilder to me). Boy Harsher's previous couple of BJSC entries both felt like they should have been huge hits but ended up in midtable, hopefully this one can do better than those! I actually missed that Scotland 2 did a sneaky song change at the last minute although their original entry was just a different My New Band Believe song so no harm done - I hadn't heard the one you originally confirmed as I've not listened to the album yet but I do know this song x (Also a handful of other songs I know via PopJustice (RIP) as usual, a couple of which I did give low points on there but that doesn't always translate to me voting for them here too. And I know and am a fan of the original version of 'ENDLESS DEATHLESS' but not heard the remix - it's Daniel Avery though so it's bound to be good I'm sure). GENER8ION/Yung Lean may have been stamped out in the veto process but still one partial Persephonia recycle this month - Helena Deland is one half of Hildegard of car alarm anthem 'Jour 1' fame x A bit surprising it's taken so long for Chalk to be entered to any of the song contests, I haven't heard this song yet but I've loved pretty much every other song I have heard from them so hopefully another goodun and a good shot to continue East Rukahavian's current streak. Also fun facts: 'Moonlight Shadow' was sent to the very first BJSC (in the wild west days of no rules) so Mike Oldfield and Maggie Reilly have a 185 contest appearance span and Greenfroze continue an annual tradition of a new solo member of IZ*ONE showing up each year for a fourth year in a row (KWON EUN BI in 157, YENA in 164, JO YURI in 176 - all but the latter were Greenfroze entries, not sure if they're aware they keep pinching from the same girlgroup's lineup) they had enough members for this to go on until 2034...

Just realised I didn't actually vote in this yet oop! David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto - Forbidden Colours Elvis Costello & The Attractions ["The Imposter"] - Pills And Soap Marillion - Garden Party Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow (feat. Maggie Reilly) 2 and a half discoveries making my votes this week (Elvis and Marillion, plus the David Sylvian parts of 'Forbidden Colours' - I still prefer the instrumental but any version of it is good enough to make my votes). Next best songs I already knew are Irene Cara, Iron Maiden and The Lotus Eaters and other good discoveries from Men At Work, Toto, The Cure and the non-pseudonymous Elvis Costello & The Attractions song. The Police for the tiebreaker.

I'm not going to be able to make any Tuesday and was planning to do the first BJSC listenthrough tomorrow so I'll just have to miss this one unfortunately! I think the Sneaky Sound System song is the only one I know here (I can't remember if that's just from listening back to that BJSC - was before I joined but it had a Re:LOADED edition - or if I knew it before that), but lots of familiar and promising names. Will see if I recognise any other songs when I hear them.

That's a great early showing for DARA considering so many Drake songs are still ahead and that Eurovision songs usually do a lot better on Spotify than Apple - hopefully she should be top 40. (Has a Bulgarian artist ever made the UK chart before? One of those countries that you'd expect to only trouble the chart with Eurovision hits, but even Kristian Kostov didn't chart!)

'Forbidden Colours' is also a 'sample' - the original is the instrumental 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' by Ryuichi Sakamoto solo.

I still don't think he'll get the #1 anyway, might be closer than I expected but I assume he'll fall off pretty quickly (and no doubt he has a lower premium streams ratio).

Compilations are still albums. It'd only not count if it was just a playlist. (It is available to download on iTunes etc. so it definitely is an album release albeit a pretty pointless one, the only mildly shady thing about it was the streams for its first week being backdated to the start of the week).

If 'Baller' could chart without even doing that well in the contest I'd hope 'Bangaranga' can chart as well - although I'd expect the viewing figures were down a bit this year. I thought the JONAS LOVV song sounded very Inbetweeners soundtrack so not too surprised at that being relatively high on UK iTunes compared to its actual result! (Mind, FELICIA is even moreso but Sweden's songs always do well on iTunes x)

'It Began In Afrika' is the weak link (although still good) but the rest are all great - has to be 'Hey Boy Hey Girl' though. Oops no one voting for either of their #1s yet!

I've paid much less attention to Eurovision this year than usual for the obvious reasons and I didn't watch the semis (so the only songs I'd heard were the UK and Australia once each), wasn't sure if I'd watch the final either so decided to just leave it up to if my family put it on or not, and they did. 'Bangaranga' was my 3rd favourite song on first impressions so very happy with it pulling off a surprise landslide, well done Bulgaria for a first win - my favourite winner since 'Stefania'. (Lol at this being the exact opposite of uhsting's post x) The Israel song was by far the worst one in the final even putting aside any politics (will note that I did not rank them last last year, merely 2nd last x). At least their hold over the televote is gradually decreasing - in fact the juries actually caused them to finish one place higher than they did on the televote lol (I was thinking their nefarious calculation this year was that singing in French would make the juries give them high points and it looked for a hot minute like that might actually work :')) - but it's still clear that as long as they're being allowed to enter they're always going to have a good chance of winning for the foreseeable future. Overall the quality was kinda mid at least on first impressions of the finalists. My top 2 were Croatia and Serbia and I think both of those could grow on me more with further listens but I can't say I'm loving them as much as I usually love my favourites. The UK were also in my top 5 along with Romania but I wasn't surprised at it being another public zero, thank you Ukraine jury for saving us from doing the double 0 a second time xo 1 Croatia 2 Serbia 3 Bulgaria 4 United Kingdom 5 Romania 6 Greece 7 Norway 8 Moldova 9 Austria 10 France 11 Australia 12 Sweden 13 Czechia 14 Finland 15 Italy 16 Albania 17 Malta 18 Cyprus 19 Belgium 20 Lithuania 21 Ukraine 22 Denmark 23 Germany 24 Poland 25 Israel I'll relisten to the studio versions and check out the DNQs to make an updated final ranking at some point, probably x