Julian_

Well the rest of the Top 5 isn’t great but I’ll take my 2nd favourite winning! I loved “Wasted Love” from the 1st listen. I knew my favourite from Albania was too subtle to be a winning contender so Top 10 for that is great. And I did see the 0 televotes for Remember Monday coming a mile off but what a lovely jury score for them. I didn’t expect the Switzerland 0 but I did think it would be low, and equally I didn’t expect quite so much for them from the jury so c’est la vie. Fancy being a dual national and both one’s nations getting 0 televotes though!

I haven’t tried to work out “Back To Friends” but I’m getting identical figures for “Sorry I’m Here…” and “Tell Me”

I do like Remember Monday but they just missed my Top 10.

Albums full of streaming hits tend to drop away very slowly - look at “Sour” still doing 3.5-4k per week 4 years on. I can’t see “Short n’ Sweet” dropping anywhere near 5k this year.

“Hairdresser” is really strong

“Even In Arcadia” has a really epic feel to it.

I assume both @Brer and @Jade won’t have voted in these semis and Lithuania missed qualifying by 6 points… I demand a re-run! 😜

How did you decide the running order hehe?

I guess I’m quite relaxed about the UK not doing well. It’s only half of my nationality anyway but actually I’ve spent much of my life with both my nations doing badly and Switzerland have only picked up lately. Anyway it doesn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the show if either or both of them don’t do well. What I do like to see is them sending something musically competent even if it flops, which they are this year in both cases. I still think that’s a big step forward from the likes of Josh Dubovie for the UK, and some of the rubbish CH were putting forward a decade or two ago as well.

Lots to enjoy in this bumper group. Very occasionally a pop song captures something utterly magical and “The Ketchup Song” does that, though it’s topped by my favourite Coral song. But there’s also Foos and Manics at their best and a very intriguing Lemon Jelly track that took a few listens to click for me. 9 The Coral Dreaming Of You This is where they really found their sound I think: it has an infectious rhythm and the vocals have a raw hopeless energy 9 Las Ketchup The Ketchup Song (Asereje) 936th #1: the only his for this Spanish group and a stupendously catchy song with a delightful nonsense Spanish chorus 8 Foo Fighters All My Life One of their biggest and most commercial hits: the almost whispered verses and explosive chorus work brilliantly well 8 Lemon Jelly Space Walk 1st hit for this UK electronic duo: a beautifully experimental and other worldly with NASA space mission voice snippets 8 Manic Street Preachers There By The Grace Of God The Rich guitar sound here reminds me of Depeche Mode: the lyrics are great and the chorus is emotionally powerful 7 Richard Ashcroft Check The Meaning The lead from his 2nd solo album and one of my favourites of his: it feels like he's basking in the rich orchestral texture 7 The Vines Outtathaway Their biggest hit to date and it's great: this could almost be early Beatles with its retro feel and slightly scratchy vocals 7 Trinity-X Forever Only hit for this UK DJ act: a very enjoyable trance track and the auto-tuned, slightly tortured female vocals work well 6 PPK Reload Their 2nd and last hit: the style is very similar to "ResuRection" but it's still good, and I like the slightly foreboding strings 6 Badly Drawn Boy You Were Right His only Top 10: the storytelling is beautiful and makes it, but musically it's a little like a washing machine going round 6 S Club Juniors New Direction Their most interesting track for me with elements of Erasure and Kylie "Can't Get You…": I almost forget their age here 5 Doves Caught By The River This has a very nice serene feel, but it passes me by quite easily: it doesn't have the punchy quality of their last 2 hits 5 Big Brovaz Nu Flow 1st hit for this UK RnB group: this is a catchy poppy tune with bouncy production and works well though I don't love it 4 Nelly Featuring Kelly Rowland Dilemma 937th #1: I admire it when someone reads the market perfectly and nails a worldwide smash but it's such a basic chorus 4 LL Cool J Luv U Better He's already on his 9th album; this samples Notorious BIG and is unremarkable but has quite a pleasant chilled out feel 3 Samantha Mumba I'm Right Here Her 6th straight big hit and now she vanishes from the charts forever: another catchy one but it's lacking in substance 3 Faith Hill Cry Her last hit here: she certainly gives the performance plenty of welly but it's quite a beige and charmless power ballad 2 Nakatomi Children Of The Night {2002} Only hit for this Dutch happy hardcore act, originally from 1996, and it's really naff to my ears but fun to see it here 2 Syleena Johnson Tonight I'm Gonna Let Go Only solo hit for this US RnB singer who'll appear on a much bigger Kanye hit: quite dull and bog standard for its genre 2 Nick Carter Help Me Only solo hit for this Backstreet Boys member: it's quite limp pop and feels like something they might have rejected 2002 Week 44: #1551 02/11/2002 Justin Timberlake Like I Love You 2 {2}-5-8-11-15-18-22-28-31-31-28-39-49-61-60-57->16 #1552 02/11/2002 Blue One Love 3 {3}-6-11-15-20-22-24-37-39-40-49-67->12 #1553 02/11/2002 U2 Electrical Storm 5 {5}-12-23-36-52-59-54-47-48-61-57-63-74->13 #1554 02/11/2002 Red Hot Chili Peppers The Zephyr Song 11 {11}-25-34-40-48-56-53-57-74-74->10 #1555 02/11/2002 Rosie Ribbons Blink 12 {12}-27-42-69->4 #1556 02/11/2002 Who Da Funk Featuring Jessica Eve Shiny Disco Balls 15 {15}-23-33-49-66->5 #1557 02/11/2002 The Calling Adrienne 18 {18}-35-57->3 #1558 02/11/2002 The Streets Don't Mug Yourself 21 {21}-42-64->3 #1559 02/11/2002 Turin Brakes Long Distance 22 {22}-66->2 #1560 02/11/2002 Idlewild Live In A Hiding Place 26 {26}-65->2 #1561 02/11/2002 DJ Shadow Six Days 28 {28}-55->2 #1562 02/11/2002 Paul Masterson Presents Sushi The Earthshaker 35 {35}-52->2 #1563 02/11/2002 Groove Armada Purple Haze 36 {36}-67->2 #1564 02/11/2002 Hell Is For Heroes Night Vision 38 {38}->1 #1565 02/11/2002 The Polyphonic Spree Hanging Around 39 {39}->1

Outside the obvious qualifiers I’d really like the Baltic states, Latvia and Lithuania, to make it. Hoping the Remember Monday performance goes off OK, and generally for a good atmosphere.

1 Sleep Token - that’s 3 out of 4 singles that have been great 2 Garbage 3 Royal Otis

My goodness if I ever hear the Guetta or van Buuren track again it will be too soon. 1 Orbital 2 Shouse 3 Calvin

1 PinkPantheress 2 Calum Hood 3 Sophie Ellis-Bextor Mø

Moving to Abs: a pretty rubbish reinvention of a reggae classic.