Colm

This is Britpop+. The plus part is important. We felt that it would be remiss to exclude some huge bands that weren't strictly Britpop but were appealing to the same audience and really were expanding and adding to the Great British canon at the time. Bands like Radiohead, Manic Street Preachers, The Verve and Teenage Fanclub. Let's get to the music. Anyone born in the late '70s or early '80s on this wet little collection of islands in the North Atlantic really were fortunate. Being a teenager into popular music in the 1990s was a blessing. While there was some amazing music being made around here in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it didn't seem to inspire any sort of excitement. Yes, we'd had the Smiths and The Stone Roses who were idolised by indie kids but that adulation never reached a critical mass or spilled into the mainstream. After all the mopiness and self-pity of grunge and the almost anti-pop nature of shoegaze, there was a discontentedness burgeoning among some new bands who actually wanted to be pop stars; who wanted to be seen and recognised and who wanted to make brilliant, British focused guitar pop music. It's often disputed about whether Britpop started with Blur's Popscene or Suede's The Drowners - released within 6 weeks of each other in 1992. Either way, it was the start of something special. The press were more in love with Suede at the time but by the time 1993 came around, Blur were getting attention for their characterful, terribly English brand of music. These bands seemed to enjoy being famous, and were quite fond of the quotable exclamation. We, as fans of British guitar pop, were enthralled. This was no flash-in-the-pan either. Suede and Blur were evolving at a frightening speed and were soon joined by Pulp and Oasis - both with very quick-witted members who the press loved to interview. There were public fall-outs, spats, sneers, stolen girlfriends and derision all around. There were clear rivals - Blur hated Suede. Oasis hated Blur. Everyone hated Menswear. Soon everywhere, kids were picking up guitars and making songs. Some were great and some were Cast. This went on for three indisputably glorious years. Artistically speaking, it peaked in 1994 when Suede, Blur, Oasis and Manic Street Preachers made their big statement albums. Commercially, it didn't peak until 1995/1996 when Oasis would sell a-million-and-a-half copies of (What's the Story) Morning Glory two years in a row. They also played to a quarter of a million people at Knebworth one weekend in August 1996. The whole thing is now, often looked on very disparagingly as a sort of laddish, lager-spilt mess. This dismisses the indelible mark left on British pop music that we still hear today. There were plenty of distinctly non-laddish bands too - Suede, Pulp, Mansun and the Manics were all given to foppishness and make-up, respectively. Here, we welcome you to explore some of the iconic hits of the era but also to bands you may never have even heard of. We may have left off your favourite Britpop anthem but we're not sorry for that and judge you for your unevolved taste. :music:

Lucky is phenomenal and more than hold its own on OK Computer. Only Happy When It Rains is my favourite Garbage single.

ZGRXRrlIspY Sheep!

I don't know how a performance could actually take place on stage? Is there still a 'live on tape' option for countries who can't/don't want to travel?

I'm getting Justin Timberlake in places and the chorus robs its hook from Rolling in the Deep. The piano sound is one of the cheapest I've heard in a long time.

Semi 1 is shaping up to be the most front loaded semi in history.

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This is going to be a disaster and potentially damaging for the contest in the long term.

Israeli delegation to ChatGPT: ChatGPT, please re-write these lyrics to be less genocide-y so we can get past the EBU's rules.

It reminds me of Embers.

Great 1 Croatia 2 Austria 3 Norway Very good 4 Belgium 5 Ukraine Quite Good 6 Slovenia 7 Lithuania - huge improvement. I love the verses. 8 Czechia 9 Poland 10 Albania 11 Spain 12 Ireland Good 13 United Kingdom 14 Finland Decent 15 France 16 Italy 17 Netherlands What? 18 Switzerland Dull 19 Moldova 20 Latvia 21 Cyprus 22 Denmark 23 Malta 24 Luxembourg 25 Germany 26 Estonia No 27 San Marino (subject to review)

Sorry - I misread your post.

Were there many that you hadn't known about, Last Dreamer?

Brilliant work, gd. I am really enjoying this listening to this. I hadn't really known much about this genre before this week so this really strengthens my knowledge and being a Eurovision fan I really should know about this sort of stuff. Lots of gems to be discovered and right as the peak of Eurovision national selection season is upon us!

This is ok. It may take time to grow.

HOUSE ARREST- Krush is the first dance song I ever loved. I got it on double vinyl in a second hand record shop in Belfast a few years ago. :wub:

Needed 9 points from the televote. Got 247 :D

Shame that Hardcore Uproar didn't qualify. It's one of my favourite dance songs of all time. It's rare that a dance song can excel at two different things - the bleep riff and the most soulful piano anywhere in rave.

:sadface: Jade

the graphics!

This was my first year of loving pop music so this period was an exciting for me. And I thought that fact may have caused me to see this period through rose tinted glasses but it appears that there's huge support here for a lot of the songs that charted and were top 3 from September until the end of 1987. What Have I Done To Deserve this? I was sure this would overtake Never Gonna Give You Up at some point but it wasn't to be. Still one of my favourite duets of all time (there will be others later in the year). Call Me Always loved this even though it doesn't sound great now. Girlfriend in a Coma I didn't really know who or what The Smiths were back then but the song did register with me. I remember being confused when I started getting into indie music in the 90s and found out they were hailed as the greatest indie band ever, because I only had this song to go on and it never seemed the work of a guitar genius but more along the lines of The Housemartins - Morrissey does sound like Paul Heaton on Girlfriend in a Coma. Wonderful Life Similarly dark was this wonderful song. That baritone, the melancholy, the hooks. Some People Really good follow up to My Pretty One, which is also great. Pump Up the Volume The new ground being broken here passed me by at the time because of how recently I had got into pop music but this must have seemed exciting and revolutionary to others, at the time. Crockett's Theme Beautiful synthpop classic You Win Again Delighted to see the support for this song here. I've said in other places on BuzzJack but it's so light and fresh and full of hooks - the intro and the brass. One of my favourite songs of the 1980s. Love in the First Degree My favourite Bananarama song. The intro guitar always struck me as similar to that of Spagna's Call Me - I wonder if there was any "inspiration" involved here. The verses are stronger than the chorus. Rent One of the most compelling lyrics of all time and Neil's best - which is quite the achievement. China in Your Hand Also slightly surprised by the love for this in this thread. Unusual lyrics for a power ballad. Magnificent and seemingly timeless - even the sax solo. Got My Mind Set On You What a song! The impact of those drums and the unexpected lift of the post-chorus. The harmonies of "set on you". Barcelona I overuse this word but "magnificent" was made for this song. So Emotional She made it look so easy - didn't she. She may not have been the equal of Madonna and Michael Jackson in 1987 but she was on their tails. Always on My Mind Loved it at the time but got bored of it for a few years for some reason. Now I love it again. They also make it look so easy in 1987. Fairytale of New York Offensive or not this taps into a strange sort of love that rarely gets mentioned in song.

What about a mashup spin off? Each song entered as to consist of at least 2 songs overlapping in a mashup style. Maybe we would need a maximum number of songs in the mashup also. There would need to be a way of veto-ing out the well known mashups. Most unofficial mashups are not on Spotify, however. If would be primarily a YouTube contest.

I heard from someone who watched the press conference that BL was quite nervous and wasn't paying attention to his mic some of the time. The same person said that the tv sound mixing is always poor.

A lot of average stuff released recently Winner material 1 Norway Still the only really special song since Ukraine started to fade 2 Belgium The last 40 seconds really needs a revamp with him doing lots of vocally impressive stuff Very Good 3 Ukraine Still quite good and will obviously be great when they work on staging. Quite Good 4 Poland A cute song that I love right now but not the sort of stuff that has staying power in my affections. 5 Albania This has shot up in my estimation to take the Balkan ballad of the year title. I am hopeful about the revamp. 6 Slovenia No obvious hooks but lots of subtle ones. 7 Czechia Quite obviously this is not for everyone but I really love the verses and pre-chorus. 8 Spain Magnificent disco in a Denmark 2021 style. Good 9 Ireland Possibly a shock-non-qualifier given the strength of the first half of semi 1. 10 Finland Will be trounced if Croatia go with Baby Lasagna. Not nearly as bad as some people are making out, though. Decent 11 France 12 Italy 13 Latvia 14 Denmark Dull 15 Malta Midbop 16 Moldova Average and Moldova deserves better. 17 Luxembourg Midbop 18 Lithuania This is possibly the first time since 2017 that a song that I get nothing from has people talking about "winner vibes". 19 Germany Now that Ireland has woke up from its slumber, Germany is now the only country left that needs a renaissance. But we'll have to wait until 2025 for that. 20 Estonia There's really nothing here to enjoy for me.

I'm getting nothing from this