Julian_

Poor Faithless don’t deserve that. Just went for “American Girls”.

Not a fan of “If I Were A Boy” at all - the lyrics are so silly and stereotypical and musically it doesn’t do a lot for me either. Really good Top 5 left though.

Bravery by a huuuuge margin. ❤️

I’ve voted, also covering all 3 categories. I ended up including 2 lovely unexpected discoveries.

I get that if your act was eliminated weeks ago you might not be keeping up with this so much anymore. However I won’t be voting for any of the random picks myself as I want the 3 passes to go to acts managed by posters who are still invested in the competition.

“Jenny From The Block” has good production which gets it up to around a 5. The lyrics are of course terrible.

“Blue Savannah” would have been a shoo in for my votes and at least a few others I’m sure. But I guess even if that made it they’d then be going to the live shows with their Top 3 all gone.

Yeah I think they must have decided they’ve had enough 😔

Oh The 1975 might have done quite well with the obvious.

Week 11: 1 1 Olivia Dean The Art Of Loving 193,000 470,000 2 - Harry Styles Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. 183,000 3 2 Fleetwood Mac 50 Years: Don't Stop 93,000 1,920,000 4 3 The Weeknd Highlights 79,000 1,660,000 5 4 Sabrina Carpenter Man's Best Friend 76,000 380,000 6 5 Ed Sheeran +-=÷x (Tour Collection) 70,000 580,000 7 6 Taylor Swift The Life Of A Showgirl 66,000 710,000 8 7 Michael Jackson The Essential 66,000 2,160,000 9 8 Alex Warren You'll Be Alright Kid (Chapter 1) 64,000 370,000 10 9 Sabrina Carpenter Short n' Sweet 59,000 950,000 11 10 Noah Kahan Stick Season 58,000 780,000 12 11 Tate McRae So Close To What 57,000 320,000 13 12 Linkin Park Papercuts 56,000 450,000 14 14 Oasis Time Flies... 1994-2009 55,000 2,470,000 15 13 Fleetwood Mac Rumours 55,000 3,610,000 16 15 ABBA Gold 53,000 6,200,000 17 17 Elton John Diamonds 49,000 1,980,000 18 19 Arctic Monkeys AM 48,000 2,370,000 19 20 Oasis (What's The Story) Morning Glory 47,000 5,660,000 20 18 EsDeeKid Rebel 47,000 120,000 21 16 Robbie Williams Britpop 46,000 22 23 Sombr I Barely Know Her 44,000 140,000 23 21 Eminem Curtain Call: The Hits 44,000 3,580,000 24 22 Mumford & Sons Prizefighter 43,000 25 24 50 Cent Best Of 50 Cent 41,000 810,000 26 25 Olivia Rodrigo Sour 40,000 1,290,000 27 27 Lily Allen West End Girl 38,000 120,000 28 26 Zach Bryan With Heaven On Top 37,000 29 30 Olivia Rodrigo Guts 37,000 730,000 30 31 Sam Fender People Watching 36,000 320,000 31 33 Maroon 5 Singles 37,000 1,030,000 32 29 Billie Eilish Hit Me Hard And Soft 36,000 630,000 33 35 Pitbull Greatest Hits 36,000 660,000 34 32 Bad Bunny Debí Tirar Más Fotos 36,000 100,000 35 34 Charli XCX Wuthering Heights (OST) 36,000 36 40 Gorillaz The Mountain 36,000 37 36 Queen Greatest Hits 35,000 3,240,000 38 28 Louis Tomlinson How Did I Get Here? 34,000 39 37 Bruno Mars Doo-Wops & Hooligans 34,000 2,460,000 40 38 Oasis Definitely Maybe 34,000 3,050,000 47 49 Calvin Harris 96 Months 30,000 260,000 52 53 Katy Perry Teenage Dream 29,000 2,060,000 55 57 Don Toliver Octane 29,000 71 - Bruno Mars The Romantic 26,000 94 - Dave The Boy Who Played The Harp 22,000 130,000 - 94 Ed Sheeran Play 21,000 160,000 - 99 Nirvana Nirvana 21,000 1,580,000 - 100 Tame Impala Currents 21,000 480,000

Yeah it’s brutal but I think the big cut in the middle of the contest sort of makes sense. If you had very small eliminations all the way it would go on too long and the quality of the music entered would suffer. You don’t want big cuts early on as you want most people to be able to play a few rounds. You don’t want a big cut near the end as you want good gameplay towards the end among the lucky few who have made it through. Seeded battles based on prior performance is maybe something that could be considered in future. That would give an incentive to try and do really well in the early rounds and not just survive.

Week 11: 1 1 Olivia Dean Man I Need 618,000 1,720,000 2 2 Dave featuring Tems Raindance 452,000 690,000 3 3 Raye Where Is My Husband! 439,000 1,050,000 4 6 Sam Fender and Olivia Dean Rein Me In 426,000 1,110,000 5 4 Taylor Swift The Fate Of Ophelia 396,000 1,140,000 6 5 Djo End Of Beginning 394,000 1,580,000 7 7 Huntr/x, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast Golden 385,000 1,720,000 8 8 Alex Warren Ordinary 373,000 2,550,000 9 9 Olivia Dean So Easy (To Fall In Love) 367,000 740,000 10 10 Zara Larsson Lush Life 321,000 3,360,000 11 11 Olivia Dean Nice To Each Other 287,000 1,060,000 12 12 Bruno Mars I Just Might 278,000 13 13 Sienna Spiro Die On This Hill 270,000 440,000 14 16 PinkPantheress Stateside 267,000 400,000 15 15 Sombr 12 To 12 257,000 780,000 16 14 Taylor Swift Opalite 255,000 660,000 17 19 Harry Styles Aperture 243,000 18 17 Disco Lines and Tinashe No Broke Boys 221,000 940,000 19 18 Sombr Back To Friends 220,000 1,130,000 20 20 Haven featuring Kaitlin Aragon I Run 207,000 310,000 21 21 Sabrina Carpenter Manchild 184,000 990,000 22 22 Olivia Dean A Couple Minutes 178,000 360,000 23 23 Chappell Roan Pink Pony Club 175,000 1,990,000 24 50 Bella Kay Iloveitiloveitiloveit 174,000 25 24 Ravyn Lenae Love Me Not 173,000 1,310,000 26 25 Olivia Dean The Hardest Part 172,000 890,000 27 26 The Killers Mr Brightside 171,000 6,970,000 28 27 Olivia Dean Dive 165,000 830,000 29 28 Goo Goo Dolls Iris 162,000 4,720,000 30 31 Sombr Undressed 161,000 1,040,000 31 30 Benson Boone Beautiful Things 161,000 3,090,000 32 29 Saja Boys, Andrew Choi Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast Soda Pop 158,000 870,000 33 32 Fleetwood Mac Dreams 156,000 4,090,000 34 33 Olivia Dean Baby Steps 154,000 330,000 35 37 Olivia Dean OK Love You Bye 151,000 650,000 36 34 Sonny Fodera, D.O.D. and Poppy Baskcomb Think About Us 149,000 240,000 37 35 Olivia Dean Let Alone The One You Love 149,000 330,000 38 36 The Police Every Breath You Take 147,000 2,940,000 39 55 Sombr Homewrecker 146,000 40 39 Teddy Swims Lose Control 145,000 2,950,000 44 48 Zara Larsson Midnight Sun 138,000 240,000 56 57 Noah Kahan Stick Season 125,000 3,380,000 57 76 Milky Just The Way You Are 124,000 230,000 59 65 Noah Kahan The Great Divide 123,000 63 82 Dominic Fike Babydoll 122,000 66 79 Tame Impala Dracula 119,000 250,000 85 89 Vance Joy Riptide 105,000 4,850,000 90 91 Sam Fender Seventeen Going Under 104,000 2,760,000 91 93 Kings Of Leon Sex On Fire 103,000 4,530,000

I make it 12, 9 of which are this year.

19/3: 1 - American girls (1) 2 2 Rein me in (2) 3 1 Man I need (1) 4 3 Iloveitiloveitiloveit (3) 5 18 Aperture (1) 6 - Ready, steady, go! (6) 7 5 Stateside (5) 8 8 Raindance (2) 9 - Taste back (9) 10 - Are you listening yet? (10) 11 7 So easy (5) 12 - Coming up roses (12) 13 6 Where is my husband! (3) 14 - Dance no more (14) 15 9 Ordinary (1) 16 - Pop (16) 17 - The waiting game (17) 18 4 Fever dream (4) 19 - Season 2 weight loss (19) 20 11 Homewrecker (11) 21 - Carla’s song (21) 22 12 Lush life (3) 23 13 Golden (1) 24 10 I just might (7) 25 15 Nice to each other (5) 26 14 The fate of Ophelia (1) 27 - Paint by numbers (27) 28 17 12 to 12 (8) 29 16 End of beginning (2) 30 20 Die on this hill (12) 31 23 Babydoll (23) 32 22 Back to friends (7) 33 21 Just the way you are (8) 34 19 Opalite (2) 35 40 Dracula (35) 36 25 No broke boys (3) 37 - Into the groove (37) 38 47 White keys (38) 39 43 Midnight sun (33) 40 27 The hardest part (23) 41 32 Mr Brightside (10) 42 28 A couple minutes (20) 43 34 Undressed (4) 44 24 Risk it all (24) 45 38 Beautiful things (1) 46 29 OK love you bye (29) 47 30 Manchild (1) 48 39 Love me not (2) 49 31 Dive (28) 50 35 Pink pony club (2)

I like “Jack Your Body” - I think I first heard it on “Pick Of The Pops” and couldn’t believe something like that existed in 1986/7. It is quite rudimentary for its genre of course, but more like a 7/10 for me.

Think “Rein Me In” must be on SCR. The week before it did 4.7k paid for sales, and last week Harry knocked it off the sales #1 with 2.7k. So its paid for sales dropped by at least 2k but its combined chart sales only dropped by 1k, meaning its streaming increased.

At the moment I’d put Lily, Blondie and The Weeknd as the favourites to come back, but obviously will depend on what everybody chooses.

Well done Harry!

I do enjoy the Girls Aloud version of “Jump” but I don’t feel I can rate it very highly when the original did all the heavy lifting.

Yes given how brutal and random the battles were I think an open competition with 3 winners is the fairest. So Option A.

Everybody has a conflict of interest one way or the other with this question. 😝

Guessing “Whole Again” vs “Fastlove” was the 51-49. “Whole Again” is absolutely beautiful but for me it’s Atomic Kitten’s best by miles whereas Heorge had much more to give. Only 2 groups going but they’re 2 of my favourites. 😢 Pleased for Bowie though.

Blondie 💔 hope they can come for that wild card. “Maneater” a classic of course.

Poor Nik - he’s done incredibly well though for an ‘80s act who isn’t exactly top tier fame.

“Eusexua” is glorious! So is “Shake It Out” though.