Bror

Banned

Think 'Maybe' is one of the better solo Spice singles for me as well. Another one that I gave a 7 to but possibly the closest to an 8 out of the 7s I gave.

I imagine it can't be that common for the whole top 3 in this to be by male artists? x 'Berghain' re-entering

Only 3 songs from the album are in her current top 10 on Spotify, and the top two of those have their streams downweighted to the average of the rest of the album per UK chart rules. There's a pretty steep dropoff between the 3rd and 4th most popular songs and then again from the 4th most to the rest of the album, so the album's streaming sales per week are being pretty heavily carried just by 'Oscar Winning Tears.' and to a lesser extent 'The Thrill Is Gone.' ('Flip A Switch.' is surprisingly low down the pecking order considering it was a top 40 hit - mind this is based on global numbers but I wouldn't expect the UK numbers to have a significantly different trend). Taking current daily numbers from Kworb: 708k Escapism. 367k Worth It. 224k Oscar Winning Tears. 117k The Thrill Is Gone. 61k Ice Cream Man. 54k Flip A Switch. 42k Hard Out Here. 32k Black Mascara. And the rest are <25k. (Not counting alternate versions of the songs, but the only one of those that's over 25k daily is the sped up version of 'Escapism.' which already doesn't count, so the rest are pretty insignificant. Again rather surprised by how low the Coi Leray remix of 'Flip A Switch.' is, only 6k daily for that!)

I had forgotten how relatively little impact BTS' previous albums had tbf - odd that they didn't release a single ahead of this new album, I'm sure they would have had a stronger showing on streaming with just one new song to focus on, but overall it seems like the years away haven't really translated into that much of an increase in interest in this album compared to the previous one. I guess the fact that the various solo members have continued to release very frequently may have made it feel like a bit less of a huge comeback lol ~ Bella is on 684k today, not 647k. Still, that's a significantly smaller lead than she had over Sam's top version than this time last week (she has gone down and he has gone up) so last week might have been her peak. Sigh.

Surprising that they didn't playlist SIENNA SPIRO immediately but a B-List add in week 2 makes up for it somewhat I guess x Good to see ANOTR and Arlo Parks being added. I didn't care for that MUNA song when I first heard it but it's grown on me a lot now so happy to see it moving up too.

The contest they won was one with 12 DNQs per semi x

59 - no entries from Harmonica and Macromia from last contest (Abeltesfayeton are the only returning nation). No AQ for Hendinia but spoilers: they won't need it, obviously. x

I'm just finishing off the veto research for the last few entries anyway and your new song won't be any bother so fine for you to keep the new one if you want x I did used to but I don't really go searching for unknown songs too often these days so it's rare for me to have more than 1 or 2 potentials in mind at any time oop x (I have still got my glitchy techno instrumental that I originally confirmed a while back before switching to AKRIILA as well so that's my next backup for if there's another contest I can't find anything new for )

I didn't recall that Stacie Orrico song, I am sure I probably have heard it at least once before but wasn't sounding familiar - it was a very good (re-?)discovery from this though, the second song to drop out so far that I gave a score higher than 7 (after Holly Valance).

It may just be bias because it's the version I know better but I prefer the Bananarama version of 'Venus' and it's not particularly close - I honestly feel like it suits sounding like a cheap pop bop more than the more 'serious' sound of the Shocking Blue version. Glad Kelly is out early, that's some real millennialcore slop x

Looking like a pretty muted showing for BTS after all of the hype really, will see if they do any better on Spotify I guess.

He's near enough not even released anything else after that album.

Well I feel like I can relate to dandy* a bit now as I spent the best part of the last 2 hours trying to find a new song to send and just finding nothing that was resonating with me at all - a cautionary tale against leaving it this late to start looking! (as it were I've just fallen back on a song that I wanted to send but initially was reluctant to as I think a few too many people might already know it for my liking - but I don't think it's that well-known so will hopefully be a good discovery to a few of you and tbh it's probably one of the best songs of 2025 for me so)

Greg's (or Matt & Mollie's as they are covering) tune of the week is Mumford & Sons/Gracie Abrams, just heard it being played now x

Ooh we love to see it, welcome back Nate!

Quite surprised at how high 'Misfit' is here (definitely would not have expected it to be ahead of the last two songs in particular) - was an ok song but I don't think it's particularly memorable! Maybe it's just down to me not paying attention to the lyrics as per given replies about both songs but I am surprised at how (relatively) middling the reception is for both JLo and Sugababes (pun not intended for the latter x). Both got a 7 from me but I thought they'd have been more popular here.

Have just reached the 50 entry mark with a day and a bit to go Currently no entry received yet from the following who entered last month: Aelandor @Jacob- FARC @jakee Harmonica @Riser Lotunia @NocheLuna Macromia @Miri Persephonia @Bror (will find something somewhere tomorrow x) The Spodic Empire @Colm Summericia @Roba. Trifoski @seven. Zanmatony @awardinary

Admins please ban this man x

Still wrong xx

1 John Summit 2 Chase & Status 3 Kungs 4 Kenya Grace 5 Chris Lorenzo 6 Martin Garrix 7 KSHMR 8 Topic Very good week, lots of bangers on offer. That John Summit song is going to be stuck in my head all day tomorrow I fear x The Martin Garrix song was pretty nice and KSHMR was solid too, Topic was the only one I wasn't really feeling at all from this list. What song is the drop in the Kungs track sampling / sounding very similar to? I cannot place it for some reason. (I did try Googling and I see the vocals are a sample of a Shannon song but that's definitely not what I'm thinking of).

1 James Blake 2 Noah Kahan 3 beabadoobee 4 Arlo Parks 5 Thundercat 6 Lykke Li 7 Modest Mouse 8 Bruce Springsteen 9 The Pretty Reckless 10 Bleachers Ok I was a little worried at how much I didn't really care for the last James Blake single but this song is back on form <3 need to check out the album soon ~ 'Porch Light' is up there with Noah's best songs to date for me, sounding a lot less like a commercial rehash than 'The Great Divide' did (as much as I did grow to like that song too). The beabadoobee song is a bit angstier than I expected from a collab between her and The Marías, think their styles come together quite nicely. Another good track from Arlo continuing in the vibe of the first 2 singles, think I like this one a little more than 'Heaven'. Also a really cool vibe from this Thundercat song and Lykke's is a lot better than her lead single for me too. The Modest Mouse song is cool but too short. A very nice cover version from Bruce. The Pretty Reckless song is decent, and after being surprisingly a lot more into the last Bleachers single than I expected the follow-up has not landed anywhere near as well for me, didn't really like this one unforch.

Sam Fender possibly following Dave in finally making a Hot 100 debut soon then... (I don't think Sam has ever even made Bubbling Under before?) Good to see Julia Wolf now making it onto the main chart, scraping in the low 90s the same week she's done the same in the UK!

1 SIENNA SPIRO 2 Melanie C 3 Charlotte Cardin 4 The Pussycat Dolls 5 Holly Humberstone 6 Freya Ridings 7 Charlie Puth 8 Kacey Musgraves 9 Charlotte MacInnes 10 Charley 11 Robyn 12 Luke Combs SIENNA's whole career so far kind of feels like she's just trying to fill an Adele-shaped gap in the music industry but she is continuing to be pretty consistently enjoyable in this lane so I won't complain, I expect this song will also grow on me with more listens like all of her other hits so far have. Pretty good songs from Melanie, Charlotte C, PCD and Holly. Freya's and Charlie's are both nice. The Kacey song is musically solid but the lyrics are a bit on the cringy side for me, it's like a (more) countryfied Sabrina Carpenter song, I'll hope for songs that are more up my street to come from this era as I do find her to generally be one of the better artists in country. Charlotte M was ok, found the vocals on the Charley song a little annoying at points, not really sure what's going on with this Robyn era as now 2 out of the 4 songs we've heard have been a bit of a mess (at least 'Dopamine' was a bop), Luke Combs continues to be Luke Combs.

Well it didn't chart at all in the UK so yeah a 17 week #1 in Ireland would feel a lot bigger...