Chez Wombat

California Gurls was I think the first song I was around on Buzzjack for where it felt like a real event release, I remember how it was in everyone's signatures and everyone cheering it on as it went to number 1 on iTunes (those were the days x). It was quite fun at the time, but it's a complete gimmick now and has aged pretty poorly. I remember It felt huge at the time but it's vastly overshadowed these days by what came after it, Teenage Dream is definitely up there with her very best and indeed definitely deserved number 1. Please Don't Let Me Go and Start Without You were again fine at the time, but have aged very poorly and were sub-standard X Factor singles (although I'm glad you've picked the one remaining as the highest as it's easily the best of them), of course, Olly would go on to do much better but Alex really was shafted a bit. Most of the rest of these are quite forgettable one-week wonders which barely raise a reaction these days.

01; Setting Sun 02; Hey Boy Hey Girl 03; Block Rockin' Beats 04; Let Forever Be 05; Galvanize 06; Star Guitar 07; Go 08; It Began in Afrika Very close between the top 2, all are absolutely fantastic except for the last one which I'm not that familiar with. (Although how has no one voted for their number 1s yet?! I mean I know they're all good, but Setting Sun is still absolute peak Chem Bros)

Depeche Mode - Everything Counts Herbie Hancock - Rockit Spandau Ballet - Gold Kraftwerk - Tour De France Genesis - Mama A lot of the classics today weren't big favourites of mine (I'm Still Standing aside which just missed out), Herbie Hancock and Genesis were really good discoveries though. Also enjoyed Asia, New Order, Style Council and Paul Young. Tiebreak: Irene Cara

Well thank God, the contest survives another year at least x Actually very pleased with that winner, was in my top 3 and stood out for miles in a very weak year, Not even close in the televote either and almost 100 ahead of the nearest competitor! It's a joke that Israel are just going to continually do this well though regardless of quality, the juries really should've seen this coming. Voting on the song alone feels pointlessly noble given if they host it in their current state, it will be the end of the contest. Elsewhere, great to see Romania and Greece in the top 10, would've been nice to see Serbia and Croatia a bit higher but not bad considering. And lol oops at the UK, I can't say I'm surprised at all, I still think it's quite fun but a hit it is not.

Bulgaria literally look like the only hope at the moment if they have a good enough televote score, we'll have to pray x

Israel is quite worryingly high with the juries so far given we know how the public vote will go :x

My ranking for tonight: 01. Croatia 02. Serbia 03. Bulgaria 04. Romania 05. Norway 06. France 07. Greece 08. Finland 09. Sweden 10. United Kingdom 11. Austria 12. Moldova 13. Albania 14. Australia 15. Italy 16. Poland 17. Lithuania 18. Ukraine 19. Cyprus 20. Belgium 21. Denmark 22. Germany 23. Malta 24. Czechia 25. Israel Even with my reduced interest, it did feel quite an underwhelming set of songs, think it was only my top 4 that I could say I really liked, you all need to grow some new ears with all this hate for Serbia x Australia, like most of Delta's material, isn't really my thing, but she gave an excellent performance so if it can beat Israel, I'm all for it x Finland feels more of an odd choice of favourite, but I did really like the violin part in the second half. Israel's song at least sounded more distinctive than the last few years and quite inoffensive, but I can't really distinguish any of the bottom songs with how bland they were so they get it just because default x Particularly groan-inducing hosting this year, I know this isn't new but still x

Oh my, I was between two songs here and I see someone else has entered the other one I was considering *.* I won't say which one but it was a great discovery so I guess I'll see what happened had I gone the other way here. And I was considering The Knife too, but I'd already sent them to Club Bizarre last time so held off here but lovely to see that (and I mean who would stoop so low as to recycle themselves across song contests? xx)

A Labour MP stepping down to let the most popular Labour member with the public become an MP and challenge for the PM role only for them to potentially give Reform another MP is beyond ill-judged, it's the stuff of parody, and they promised an end to the chaos...!

Rayner I feel is the only one that could maybe change the narrative at least in terms of being more popular with the public, but given Starmer's treatment by the press, she will get that and tenfold so it won't feel all that different. I'd struggle to find even a muster of enthusiasm in the public for Wes Streeting, and the support from cabinet seems pretty muted, This feels a bit risky and I don't think he'll get the numbers required. Certainly won't get remotely close to solving Labour's issues even if he does manage it.

I didn't even know Eurovision was this week to be honest, advertising has seemed a lot more limited and especially given it's the landmark 70th contest, I do think the boycott has had an effect and even though I'm sure it will still get decent ratings, I think this is going to be hard to shake. I may watch it out of habit, but it'll be a passive one and I won't be voting. If Israel do win, then I'm not even approaching it next year though I will be amused from afar to see how they handle that shitshow x

I think even with all the X Factor/Reality show crap (plus The Time, arguably a bit of a career killer looking back even if it reached number 1), OMG still stands out as a particularly bad number 1. I couldn't believe such a generic and boring song did so well, especially from the man who was a forerunner of his style with Confessions. I guess will.i.am's influence was big at the time. Although he did recover slightly next era with the glorious Climax. Was never that interested in Ne-Yo and Beautiful Monster feels like autopilot, I don't dislike it but it's hard to feel anything towards it.

Well a belated appreciation of Introspective is better than never! That has one of the best visuals I've sent to a contest with it's beautiful Reykjavik setting and it's become one of my favourite entries to return to, a wonderful moody, atmospheric piano piece. Great write-up for Fractal Dreamers, it's a shame they haven't come out with anything since as everything they produced was epic, cinematic dance music (or 'artcore' as it is branded) at its finest, I would recommend the EP Kingdom of Silence and the parent album for Azure on the Horizon. BAYAREA.BMP is a Dobago highlight, a wonderful, frantic instrumental, I think it was my 18 (the perils of not saving my votes x) and that was a nice swap given the contest before x

Irene Cara - Flashdance... What A Feeling Michael Jackson - Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow Iron Maiden - The Trooper Bananarama - Cruel Summer Heaven 17 for tiebreak Impostor (a lot better than the Elvia Costello song under his own name), Marillion and The Cure were good discoveries.

I am going to choose to interpret this as a piss-take given the rock music speculation, in that it works very well. I seriously hope so because taken as a lead single it's....not great x