Chez VampireBat

Men At Work - Down Under Eddy Grant - Electric Avenue Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Toto - Africa Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) Ooft, that was painful to leave out 1999 but couldn't quite fit all the big hitters in. Also enjoyed the OMD song which I hadn't heard before.

It's a shame I Swear is likely only going to be remembered for that horrendously overblown BAFTAs controversy, it's a really beautiful, honest and sensitively told film about a really inspirational man and very informative about the condition as well, this controversy is ironic as it definitely has shown there's still a lot that needs to be learned. I saw trailer for Salt Path constantly and I was a bit cynical of that story being true even then, the exposure wasn't too much of a surprise. Actually expected Snow White to be a lot lower than that given the extremely negative response from just about everyone, still a bomb though. One Battle After Another a real highlight of the year, I guess the budget was always going to make it hard to make it all back, but an admirable performance for a 3+ hour film.

Always on My Mind is a wonderful cover, I did use to be annoyed that it beat Fairytale... to number 1, but that has had many, many years of revivals since and this is one of the best Christmas number 1s the UK has had. La Isla Bonita is also a classic, Madonna was quite unbeatable in this era and that's one of her finest Spanish-inspired songs.

I did have a soft spot for Cascada at the time (bar their cover of Truly Madly Deeply), Everytime We Touch is great, and I did enjoy this one at the time, although it is SO of the time it hurts these days, the production is so cheap and recycled and the Eminem copycat rent-a-rapper is quite hilariously pointless. I've got some good memories of it so can't dislike it, but not one I go back to much, a real shame MJ couldn't get a posthumous number 1, although I would say that one isn't really a huge highlight from him, just was very fitting at the time of his death. Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band was the other one that I own on CD, I couldn't not with a video as creative and an ode to the many shows of my childhood as that one, it definitely doesn't really make sense without the video, but I do still think the transitions are quite well done and I love that they got most of the original voice actors back. Probably my favourite charity ensemble single, certainly none that followed were as fun.

Hopefully can get more than me and you (and now Jade yay) on board this contest! She should be so much more well known than she is x The Model/Actriz song is wonderful, hopefully another big hit for them here, I know of Brigitte Calls Me Baby as well but not this song.

White Stripes for the win, I've always really loved this change in style for them.

I think the old man would've been turning in his grave had I chosen that

I'm sure ABBA is Julian, but not 100% with any of the others x David Bowie's songs for the final would've been: Although, I might have also troll-sent The Laughing Gnome instead x

Streaming Playlists: Spotify: Apple Music Apple Music - Web PlayerThe Best Song Contest In The World...Ever! Vol. 13: Retro...Playlist · 32 Songs Unavailable on both: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra YouTube Playlist: Voters: WoW73 Mango Dobbo Paddington_James gooddelta Viper* Lee_J11 DaTilt AH Gold Popchartfreak Chez Wombat Jade Jaz13music matto jimwatts Julian danG King Rollo Nine and 3/4 Scene Jester dandy* AllStarBySmashMouth Herbs Suedehead2 Severin Bror seven Addy!

Welcome to the voting stage for this lottery edition of The Best Song Contest In The World...Ever! A record breaking 33 of you have selected your ticket and submitted a song and we have an impressive range of 58 years here, I appreciate this was quite a bit harder to find something for than in many song contests so I'm really pleased to still see such a big number show up! Below are the yearly entries for your consideration, please listen to and rank the songs from your favourite to least favourite and send me (Chez Wombat) a PM listing your top 10 favourites using the Eurovision voting system: 12 Points; (Your Favourite) 10; 08; 07; 06; 05; 04; 03; 02; 01; Your 10th favourite As this is an anonymous contest, please do not reveal what your entry is or what year you have. This will be revealed in the Final Results show. Anyone can vote in this contest, even if you didn't submit an entry, however if you are taking part, not voting will incur a 33.3% deduction to your entry's final score. The entries are presented in chronological order in order for you to truly experience a musical journey through time, without further ado... 01. The Andrews Sisters - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (1941) 02. Joe Meek - I Hear A New World (1960) 03. Wanda Jackson - Funnel of Love (1961) 04. Bob Dylan - A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (1962) 05. Tina and Ike Turner - It’s Gonna Work Out Fine (1963) 06. Tülay German - Burçak Tarlasi (1964) 07. The Supremes - My World Is Empty Without You (1965) 08. Four Jacks and a Jill - Master Jack (1968) 09. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Onedin Line Theme (Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia) Theme (1971) 10. Nilsson - Spaceman (1972) 11. Marsha Hunt's 22 - (Oh, No! Not!) The Beast Day (1973) 12. Supertramp - School (1974) 13. Caravan - All The Way (1976) 14. Ashra - Blackouts (1977) 15. Buzzcocks - What Do I Get (1978) 16. Goombay Dance Band - Sun Of Jamaica (1979) 17. Miki Matsubara - Rainy Day Woman (1980) 18. The Human League - The Things That Dreams Are Made Of (1981) 19. Tomoko Aran - Midnight Pretenders (1983) 20. T-SQUARE - TRAVELERS (1984) 21. XTC - Dear God (1987) 22. Sarah McLachlan - Vox (1988) 23. The Bangles - I'll Set You Free (1989) 24. Innocence - Natural Thing (1990) 25. Codeine – Cave-In (1991) 26. Screaming Trees - Nearly Lost You (1992) 27. Moby - Move (You Make Me Feel So Good) (1993) 28. POiSON GiRL FRiEND - Slave to the Computer (1994) 29. Mark 'Oh - Tears Don't Lie (1995) 30. Shakira - Dónde Estás Corazón (1996) 31. The Starseeds - Parallel Life (1997) 32. Hooverphonic - Eden (1998) 33. The Lightning Seeds - Life's Too Short (1999) Absent: 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1975, 1982, 1985, 1986 You have 2 weeks to listen and vote, the deadline will be Monday 4th of May at 23:59, results will follow hopefully the day after but I am open to an extension if people need the Bank Holiday weekend, I'm aware we are clashing with BJSC so hopefully this allows everyone enough time in between x See below for playlists and happy listening!

Yeah, ABBA definitely didn't deserve to be out with that one so pleased to see, still got more than enough classics to win this, I'm interested to see which two they choose (I can give a decent guess at one due to the connotations x) Commiserations to Delta Goodrem and Atomic Kitten, Both not hugely my thing but I was glad to have ranked a few of songs from both highly.

Oh I think this might be a first...

Aww, I thought ABBA might defy these bottom three predictions and get most of the alt vote, but you can never be too sure. Was maybe a risk too far. No deadlock this time please!

Just waiting on one resubmission and we'll be good to go x

Just over 24 hours left to submit your entries for this, we are awaiting seven confirmed participants: @awardinary @Bror @Colm @dandy* @dhwe @seven. @Suedehead2 Also, still eight numbers left if anyone may still be interested to sign up at this late stage x

Too good for the rest of this ;-) ...although some great picks here, ABBA does seem a fairly risky choice given what they've got left, but inspired and fantastic to see that get an outing, my favourite Scissor Sisters song as well <3

Have to support my fellow twinks x (he would genuinely be one of my top choices purely based on material sent here, maybe below ABBA and Scissor Sisters)

The Conan one was one of favourites I didn't already know this round so fair play! Win it for the departed twinks x

So yes, Bowie was I, the old man, Katie Waissel, Twink master and the one that most of you were dreading to hear every round ;D This does feel the right time for me to go - Quite frankly, I'm not sure there's any way I could've survived this round, I was sure that one of his all time classics, Starman would mean I was OK last round but when even that landed bottom 3, it was pointless trying to pick a song that would appeal best (honestly could only think of Changes that was the most well known of his flops and I doubt that would've done any better) I just threw caution to the wind and send what I'd really wanted to send all the way through but was too scared to do so, and it feels very in time with the man himself of course given it was his own swan song. But I'm really pleased with how this went, especially given I very nearly didn't take part, it was only when Calum opened up the extra slots and that Female and Group were filled and I would've denied others the chance to take part. I was limited to Male so my options were Bowie, Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake, I felt like the former was one I was probably the biggest fan of and dare I say, the least problematic! The only issue was I had only listened to one album (Ziggy Stardust...) and I feel I should probably know a bit more than that! So I have been listening to albums alongside this competition, Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, the Berlin trilogy as well as his two early 80s studios and Blackstar (I'm open to more suggestions if I've missed any!) and it's really helped me get so engaged with this process and appreciate the wonderful, diverse musician he was an, I'm not sure we'll ever get another one like him </3 I think my goal was just to showcase his diversity and give a well rounded view of him as well as highlight my own favourites, I knew I'd be at a disadvantage in the Pop Forum with so many big Buzzjack favourites, but I hoped to at least introduce a few sides to him and that may not have worked for everyone, but I at least wasn't ranked last consistently by the same people (for the most part!). If you wouldn't mind indulging me... Life on Mars (One of my ultimate favourites so had to send it, but was a real mistake sending that so early, I somehow thought more would go that round, at least I wasn't the only one that made that error!) Young Americans (I haven't actually got that invested in his soul era, but was pleased this got some fans) Modern Love (Had to send his poppy 80s era to fit the theme here, admittedly I didn't make much use of this era of his mainly as it's just not to my tastes as much, I could've also sent Let's Dance here, but that's never been a big favourite of mine) Warszawa (This was probably my proudest moment here, it was a rollercoaster seeing so many last placers but also it appealed to a lot of people I didn't expect, I genuinely didn't know of Bowie's instrumental periods in the Berlin era and I loved this one the most, it's a desolate harrowing track based on his mood he felt when visiting Warsaw, I'd highly recommend this trilogy if you don't know it as it was my favourites easily <3) Lazarus (Bowie turning his own death into a project is so incredible and I really wanted to showcase that even if it was rather niche in this form, it was a shame it didn't connect with a lot but glad I got to send both of his swan songs) Heroes (My favourite song from his and my trump card given the Stranger Things use/top 40 resurgence, I felt bad for dandy* as one of my contant supporters, that was a classic song too and a coin toss that just happened to go my way) Ashes to Ashes (I was sort of just making use of his big hits to go through the live shows whenever I got the opportunity, and I'd really been quite neglectful of his 80s work so far) Five Years (whew, this was tense, I had fully resigned myself to going out here, but I didn't want to use Space Oddity already (in retrospect, I probably should have), I'd already used Life on Mars and my only other choice I really liked was his 2013 comeback, Where Are We Now, I just thought this would connect better, it's a real epic opening track and I hadn't sent anything from Ziggy Stardust... yet, it was a perhaps foolish move but I was thankfully granted a lifeline!) Starman (Given that lifeline, I just wanted to get all the songs I really wanted to send out there, and Starman was in my top 3 favourites with Life on Mars and Heroes, so very pleased I got to send all three. I was kinda sad that both Ziggy picks got me in the bottom three, but it did make my next choice clear to me) Blackstar (While the reactions were indeed very funny, I do genuinely love this one. It's a real awe-inspiring, epic exploration on mortality and his own life both visually and audially. As above, it felt the perfect time to go) My semi choice would've been Space Oddity, it would've been a nice Major Tom full circle moment from the first live show, had I made it past then, I did still have Let's Dance, Under Pressure, Rebel Rebel and Ziggy Stardust, but I almost would've just wanted to go with some more under the radar moments as I would've achieved my goal and more at that point. Some others that I would've liked to send had I been able/some other good discoveries I made from his discography: Sound & Vision, The Man Who Sold The World, Station to Station (another ten minute moment x), Absolute Beginners, Suffragette City, I'm Afraid of Americans (I didn't admittedly check out his deeper cuts in the 90s, but this one was fabulous with it's Trent Rezor production) Sorry for the ramble, keeping all that to myself for the last few weeks has been hard! Thank you all for allowing me to infiltrate this game, some of you definitely need taste transplants (looking at you, Lee x), but I have had a real blast and wish the rest of you, including my twink protege, the best of luck x (I'm not 100% I'll take part in the next one as the ~drama~ was a bit real sometimes, but I have a few artists in mind so you never know!)

</3 Not a great night for alt-pop, such a shame to see them go, I was hoping they may be able to dark horse to the final if Dog Days Are Over was next round, but it's been wonderful reminding myself of some of their best album tracks at least!

I quite agree x

Florence's choice wasn't the best this time sadly, never been a favourite of mine, I do hope they can survive though as there's still some wonderful songs they haven't sent.

And like a Blackstar he goes out </3

Orban has conceded to the opposition, and it's looking like a landslide win! Great news, a real blow to Trump and Putin and hopefully can start to rehabilitate Hungary's image on the world stage.

My sister was a big JLS fan growing up so unfortunately I would not stop hearing them day after day which made me intensely dislike them. Looking back on it now, they only did one truly horrible song, The Club is Alive, the rest were just average really, nothing that really holds up. Their other number 1 here is probably their best, Everybody in Love is just very average. Was also not a fan of Bad Boys, I think Alex was a bit like Leona in that she had real talent but not good material and going by what she's said since, it wasn't the music she wanted to make anyway. I quite like both Never Leave You and Boys & Girls, both are very of their time but pleasant enough and I do prefer them to both their respective number 1s to come. My brother's friend is pretty much Pixie Lott's only remaining stan and is on meeting terms with her and her family! I used to dislike Right Round heavily as I love the original, but it's...fine I guess if you take it as it is as typical of Flo Rida. Both fairly average 80s callbacks in that top 2.