Michael Bubré

Sorry this slipped my mind again yesterday whoops and then pulled my classic move of falling asleep as soon as I got home from work today - I still definitely want to do another relisten before voting so thank you for allowing slightly late votes, I will get on that in just a minute

Oh no, I did think it was a bit surprising we didn't have an entry from you Leww </3 hope you can still vote at least x I momentarily forgot about the queer half of the theme when I was looking through the entries and thought I had somehow forgotten about there being a black member of Pet Shop Boys lmao. Of course they show up again as soon as there's another opportunity though xx I do recognise the majority of the artists in the list this time (I was finding it a little difficult to find less obvious names myself!) but I think I have only heard a couple of the songs before.

And you just know I couldn't leave that hanging and had to go do this anyway. There are indeed none that got 4 12s. I can't think of a way to cleverly search Excel to spit out the list so I have just manually clicked through and glanced over all the semi-final spreadsheets, so there's some chance I may have accidentally missed some. But here is what I hope is an exhaustive list of DNQs which got 3 12s, give or take the handful of early contests for which detailed spreadsheets were either never posted or were lost to time before I could archive them thus preventing any semi-final stats ever being fully complete (edit: after already tediously searching through everything manually I did think of a way to quickly double check so can confirm there's none missing): (The first two on the list could have had the potential to be DNQs with 4 12s, as the BJSC 5 semi was its own unique thing that doesn't follow any of the rules and the disqualified entry could theoretically have got any number of 12s and technically been on this list though as it happens it also got exactly 3. Also Lisa Lougheed and Plus-Tech Squeeze Box could have got a whole extra 18/12 points and both still DNQed without a deduction! So it could happen one day...) Holidannii 5 (ayumi hamasaki - Mirrorcle World) OMR Fortunia 16 (Kristinia DeBarge - Goodbye) (disqualified) Quintessa 36 (Julie Atherton - Portrait Of A Princess) Ojnoj 42 (Desire - Under Your Spell) Vülkyria 58 (Night Drive - Drones) * π 77 (Omar Souleyman - Enssa El Aaatab) * Tartford 89 (BLKMGK - You Don't Deserve Me (feat. Amina Mine and Jayy Starr)) Cumulonimbia 100 (Lisa Lougheed - Run With Us) (3 18s) Umiiruka 100 (Pixx - Waterslides) (3 18s) * Ojnoj 111 (Jillian Jacqueline - Priorities) * Scherzland 117 (Molly Hammar - Show Me (feat. Kim Cesarion)) Séyetana 134 (FAKE TYPE. - FAKE LAND) Quintessa 145 (Simon Goff - Vale) Kyriatine 152 (Raissa - I Will Wait) Trifoski 157 (Plus-Tech Squeeze Box - Dough-Nuts Town's map) Cadelicia 173 (BENNETT and Timmy Trumpet - Diamond Heart) * Altyr Muunilinst 180 (Metteson - Hunger) * would have qualified without a deduction Ojnoj 111 actually got 2 10s as well as 3 12s! (But then only 1 more point aside from that). Them and Quintessa appearing on this list twice with the latter having done it without the deduction both times, poor hen. 'Under Your Spell', 'Vale' and especially 'Enssa El Aatab' were all robbed. Pavita why did you not vote that one month xx Regularly scheduled stats dump (i.e. qualification streak update) will come a bit later

Have checked now and indeed the last two times it happened were Trifoski and then Cadelicia post-deduction (they'd have qualified reasonably comfortably without it) so your memory is on point. Specifically it was Trifoski 157 (Plus-Tech Squeeze Box - Dough-Nuts Town's map) - which got only 1 other point outside of its 3 12s and only came 26th in the semi! - and Cadelicia 173 (BENNETT and Timmy Trumpet - Diamond Heart). Another recent-ish one that hasn't already been alluded to was Kyriatine 152 (Raissa - I Will Wait). I'd need to dig through every spreadsheet to confirm but think it's very unlikely there's ever been a song with 4 12s that DNQed, 48 points is enough to qualify most of the time after all.

Me when I am yet again a single digit number of points away Just realising I lied about this being 3 years in a row with 8/10 qualifiers, I only got 7/10 last year, still an improvement then! But yes, all of my DNQs both last year and this year were very close - 21st and out on a tiebreak, 21st 1 point behind the lowest qualifier, 23rd 2 points behind, 22nd 3 points behind and now 22nd 5 points behind, so I come away with only a 75% qualification rate for 2024-25 but just the tiniest changes in fate would have made it 100%. Woe is me. (My last truly uncompetitive entry remaining Slauson Malone 1 in BJSC 159 which was 29th and a whopping 32 points behind the lowest qualifier x). tbf it would probably have been further off if everyone voted as there's no chance I'd have got points from either Lex or Jafet x (to say nothing of Bøtanikkä's withdrawal) Well thank you to Pavi and RFC for the medals and Savan, Jacob, Doctor B, Harve and uhsting for the other points - that's not toooo bad of a hit rate of the people in the semi that I hoped would be fans (I recall uhsting declaring this song to be 'decent' on SyncTube so the 2 points there are somewhat of a pleasant surprise) but some others there are still dead to me. x (also thanks to Cow for the moral points from the other semi, I am living vicariously through your entry in the final now!)

Oh my at the polarisation there. Will have a search for the last DNQ with 3 12s, I can definitely recall it happening at least once before. Yay for Cumulonimbia though - with that I got a full house of qualifiers and only lost 3 more in my top 20 so that's quite a result minus my own DNQ! (will post where I ranked all the DNQs after I re-rank semi 1 x)

Altyr seems on paper like the kind of song that should qualify fine but from this semi draw I wouldn't bet against Cumulonimbia.

^ yes I'm not saying it deserved special treatment or anything, was just unfortunate timing xx (I think discussion of the post was still dominating while Aelandor played and that one still qualified so I'm sure it didn't actually affect my result, I'm just being salty )

Kathaldazia

Trifoski another of the ones that just missed out for me unforch (I did give it 12 points when it was in PJSC but I dug back to my votes from that month and I did mention at the time that it was a very weak contest with that being pretty much the only worthwhile discovery whoops - sadly that not quite cutting it in this strong semi but still some good Spanish Magdalena Bay vibes x)

And another great one there - Terra Avium joining Mothertopia in managing a new national record Q streak (in consecutive contests) hooray x Assuming Kathaldazia aren't a shock DNQ this is turning out to be a very good outcome minus my own result.

And Skall and Aelandor both essentials as well! The draw trying to make me feel better by following the bad news for me with lots of my faves qualifying xx Also happened after the last time we both DNQed in BJSC 163... as far as omens go I pray this is an unbreakable one xx -cue me finally DNQing twice in a row instead- x

Utopia and Sovarasma both essentials <3 ((I am willing to accept some level of my song having been crowded out by other alt entries but you're still all wrong sorry xx))

Disappointing as I didn't expect this one to be a DNQ going into the contest and then thought the semi draw was quite good for it again but then it got a bit of a non-reaction on SyncTube which wasn't exactly reassuring, it was playing literally right as Addy posted about withdrawing which didn't help, I hope that didn't affect it. Ah well, I take solace in the fact that you're actually just all wrong (except Pavi <3 and anyone else who voted for it xx). Just waiting now to see if this is my first proper flop for a while or yet another one that missed out very narrowly ~ Might be a struggle to stay top 30 in the EOY now then but we'll see x (also 3 years in a row of 8 out of 10 qualifiers). Hope Dobago weren't only just missing out as that was one of a few that just got squeezed out of my votes D:

Yay for Bronzil <3 and did not think N DNTN would be in danger but who knows x (can I be announced soon as well pls xo Chris asking worked)

This contest not being kind to potential new Q streak records between this and Deandria oop (although Mothertopia have managed it and Terra Avium still could too!)

As you were with the EOY #1 battle x I have a feeling both songs could do quite similarly so really can't call it yet.

No difference made with any of the deductions (or lack thereof) for non-voters this month then.

Yass Elëdan <3 bringing the LUX vibes Good to see Zanmatony through too, not on the level of 'Routine' and 'Pariah' for me but still another good tune from Steven.

Scurred Didn't think Tori Amos would have any problem qualifying, good to see. I think this is a stronger entry from her than the one FLJ sent before.

Omg poor Sandénia. (well... I'll have to double check but I think coming last in the semi three times in a row is a first which would be something at least? but cmon y'all it deserved better than that, none of these recent entries of theirs have deserved to come last unlike some of their past entries xo). Tbf like I said I can imagine it's the kind of song that might blend in a bit and I'm sure it will have been close to points from a few other people but that working out to it being stranded way behind the rest of the field is just cruel x That's disappointing that Macromia were so far off as well, semi 2 voters might have been a bit more favourable to it (although it also would have had more competition from similar entries there so maybe it's a wash and it was just a bit doomed either way). edit: 3 semi wooden spoons in a row is a first indeed (2 in a row had been done 13 times before not counting this current Sandénia run). Flopping in style

Some of my bribes haven't cleared yet

That's a third of my top 10 of the semi out now in Scotland 2, back to normal service after losing very few of my faves in the last couple of contests (the bigger semi not helping I guess). Cool entry from them. Mothertopia through we love to see though. I'm not even normally much of a fan of City Girls but this one slaps x

Excellent for A-Konohagakure *.* easily their best entry to date for me.

Yay for Séyetana <3 more loud guitars we love to see. Greenfroze's entry is proving to be a bit of a grower for me again, not as strong as their last one for me (needs more fruit in the artist name x) but still glad to see it keeping up the streak for them.