Song Contest - BOTB 8 (Results posted!)

[Porochaz]

That modding list on the wiki is very wrong.

[Porochaz]

My advice is as it was before - as long as it's not the bad kind of false or otherwise getting out of hand, let people have fun.

Things I don't really care about:
*Greenland - Technically a holding of Denmark but geographically and culturally distinct
*French Polynesia - Despite very blatantly being a holding of France, still geographically and culturally distinct (I think I would disallow "Tahiti" though)
*Guam, Sint Maarten, Australia - as above, also pls do not support colonialism
*Antarctica, The Moon - obviously not countries but culturally distinct and more gimmicky than anything

Things I would downvote:
*Paris - obviously not a country and superseded by an eligible entry "France"
*Ceres - someone is trying to flex their nerd cred but it comes across as douchey. like. humans have never been there
*The Independent Republic of PranaDevil's Flat - not cool unless PraDe enters it, and still not cool because it's not a recognized micronation, defeats the purpose of anonymization, and defeats the purpose of identifying as a country
*Earth - unless you're submitting something from Live Aid or smth, attempting to supersede the whole "countries" idea is really dumb

What about what I wanted to enter waaay back when we were like... single digits in the Song Contests, when I wanted to enter Lovely as a country? it was merely created for a TV show (How to start your own country) and was more a joke... but it had its own flag and national anthem still.

Also... as long as they don't go for offensive stuff... does it matter? In my contest elsewhere we had/have the following countries:
Bearville
Parts Unknown
8-bitland
Disneyland
Germanyland
The Kennel
Luna
Rawronotion
The Gap In The Map
Theatreland
Mechanus
Peoples Democratic Republic of Jupiter
Utopia
Equestria
Isle of Wight
MikeFest 2019

I see no issue with any of those. It's purely there to distinguish entries, and serves no other purpose beyond giving someone something to vote. I could maybe see an argument against the Jupiter one for being so long... except then someone could submit St. Vincent & The Grenadines, (as did in mine) and it's still super long. The rest... well they serve no different purpose to me using Germany as a name.

That happened once and we at the time (JDodge and I) refused it a second go round and refused similar names after that.

ETA: The rest were outwith my time, but the only one I'd think about is The Isle of Wight and even then I'd probably have turned it down. There was a definite reason why we did it that way, beyond us both being control freaks. (a clear way to define them, I think JD was doing results by flags at that point. Either way it was long ago and I can't remember.

[Porochaz]

(Though... Lovely has a flag dammit)

Might have been why it was ultimately allowed. I remember having a conversation about it, although it might have just been me bitching about it.

[Porochaz]

It was anonymity for those that wanted it. Ultimately though it was because it's Eurovision and that's done by countries.

[Porochaz]

(Though... Lovely has a flag dammit)

Might have been why it was ultimately allowed. I remember having a conversation about it, although it might have just been me bitching about it.

It wasn't allowed though... I entered the national anthem for it and everything.

Ah k, it was long ago and I couldn't remember. Then I guess its because it opens the door to other things and the hassle wasn't worth it. I could probably look to be fair. That sounds like very JD reasoning.

[Porochaz]

Also I would like to propose a rule to prevent identity-guessing: Players may not choose the same country they applied as in the previous 5 contests.

Nah, some people like to stay as the same country for long periods of time.

Taking away things people like is a bad idea.

Anything that doesn't add to the contest is bad.

This. Song Contest 4 really sucked for me. PEG can go suck it.

In all serious though, this is a bad idea. I don't care if people know that I exclusively enter Scotland. Im usually unlikely to win regardless just from a "I listen to shitty mainstream songs" and depending on who else enters some shitty screamo thing will win or a girl with a guitar and a breathy voice will.

I also think there was a point early on when the country was going to represent the artist but we never got anywhere with that.

[Porochaz]

I was going to do this quickly but I liked most of the first 10 or so songs I listened to so...

[Porochaz]

Doing this differently, I used to watch the videos as well. But wanted to listen without being influenced with them. (also I was doing the first half of this whilst out for my designated walk so couldn't watch them)

Am doing a general grading system
A - Yes
B - Maybe
C - Liked it, but not enough to consider giving it points
D - Didn't think it was terrible but didn't like it.
F - Hated it

So far, no F's (Edit, one F)
Djibouti - This is yet another one of these screamy teenage angst bands with nothing special about them. They all sound the same and I have no idea and had no idea when I was doing this on the regular how to score it. Usually would get between 10 and 20 out of 50 on my old scoring system and thats where I'd put it now. It's not horrific, but it's just the same sounding song with the same sounding singer.

D's -
Central African Republic - The instruments don't gel for me, it sounds a bit of a mess. Not a fan of the singers voice either
Egypt - Breathy unoriginal singer would get a C, turned into that horrible whiny kind of singer, which is worse.

C's -
Argentina - Sigh, I had a lot of hope for this, I was hoping for something that featured the violins prominently all the way through. Instead I got this, which felt very generic. It was a better example of this kind of music, but urgh could have been a lot better
Nicaragua - The drums took this down a grade.
Sudan - I like a lot of this, but it devolves into repetitiveness and shouting
Azerbaijan - Again not bad, but not my kind of music, would have been miles better without the male singer or the screaming?
Hungary - Spoken work except not, it doesn't really work I feel unless you know what the lyrics mean
USA - Didn't mind this, but it's not my kind of music
Australia - Like the band, but this felt like a retread of other songs, just not as good (I realise the irony)
Cote d'Ivoire - Felt like it was missing a punch
Armenia - Took too long to go anywhere.
Italy - Urgh this might still get points. But it really should be a C. I really like this song but it's such a famous song that it feels against the spirit of the contest to give it points.
Gabon - I don't mind it. But I've heard it too much and I just meh it.
Bhutan - I like it, but there is too much going on.

The rest have A's and B's so far. Will leave them for now as they might get points.

[Porochaz]

Will give the A's and B's a second pass, I liked a lot of this, but I don't feel there is anything truly outstanding there. Don't get me wrong, a lot to like but there was also a lot of fairly famous faces there. Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Ray, Sia, Kasabian (cough), My Chemical Romance, Demi Lovato, Bastille etc. I guess thats the failing of BOTB but it seems a bit of a shame. Some of them will get points though.

[Porochaz]

OK decided, I scored them out of 50 then ordered them. But not to reveal scores too much (the comments will probably give you a general idea) Ill leave them out. I did have an originality category but seeing my top 5 it didn't matter much.

One last C
Spain - This was a song I listened to at school, but it was on a compilation album where I'd have skipped it if I could. I think that's where Im at, it's inoffensive but annoying. Not sure why I gave it a B, initially, because I didn't realise how strong this was going to be

B's -
Belarus - The man has an easy voice to listen to but along with the subject matter, it's quite powerful

Mexico - There are bits I don't like about this, it's a bit long, it also threatens to go into my hate territory, but it never does, it gets the balance right for me. The hook I like as well

Greece - It's a good song. It would be wrong to say I like the lyrics but it's simple and sung well.

South Korea - So I probably shouldn't have watched the video for this. I'm confused. The voices don't match the person singing and I mean the dancing is simultaneously really good and very 90's-boyband esque. K-Pop is not something I've ever listened to/watched really, I think my research stopped at the contracts these people have to sign... I wish the blue haired guy would stop beckoning at me. I don't know it's addictive, I enjoyed it immensely but also felt deeply uncomfortable by it.

Portugal - Its jaunty enough that Im dancing along to it, without it being anything special

Panama - Is MCR too popular to consider? I guess Depeche Mode is getting points and Mumford and Sons is in the running so… meh it's fun.

Taiwan - I don't know why I like this, it was short and felt more unusual than most of the other songs on this list.

Iran - Its easy to listen to (but considering I listened to this after Belarus I got a wee bit of whiplash), I relate to it a bit. Im not sure it's going to get points but I liked it

Denmark - This is definitely a maybe, for me the tune is the strongest part of this, the lyrics not so much. It doesn't go anywhere for me, which is a shame.

eSwatini - This video also didn't work. The problem with this is it's like every other mumford and sons song I've heard. But they do it so well.

The A's

Iceland - The video didn't work. I like the fun. It’s the kind of music I'm into right now. Also I have a soft spot for trumpety flairs.

Belgium - Bastille is another one I possibly shouldn't give points to but I do like this song. I really like the video as well. I mean once again this is the music I listen to anyway. I think this benefits (like Depeche Mode) that I haven't heard this song very much.

Norway - Again Lana Del Rey is someone I shouldn't give points to but I love her voice, it can be so haunting, which I think fits the song beautifully, it's emotive, the hint of desperation during "I know you will", it's just an incredibly sad song, sang and acted really well. I don't think you get that kind of performance in many modern songs these days. It helps that I actually haven't heard this song before. I loved it.

Germany - Man I love this, okay so Depche Mode is not original, but I loved the sound and made up for the slight repetitiveness of the song. The video was awesome.

Canada - Ok so I didn't say there was anything outstanding, but this spoke to me. It was beautiful and simple. From a personal viewpoint, it made me think about where I am in my own life at the moment.



Conclusion - I really enjoyed listening to most of those. Fair enough there were some well known songs in there, but enough that I felt that it was a good contest. Nothing I really loathed, looking through the comments I guess Im missing something about Djibouti, but even then it wouldn't go in my hall of shame. (it's a shame, my original song contest scores are on my old broken laptop) But yeah, happy not to enter really anymore, I love Kasabian (I won with Empire, I think) and I love that song, but I can understand why it wouldn't score, its similar to a number of songs on the list and the band isn't exactly unknown, might enter the odd song here and there, but not looking to get back into SC regularly but might score some songs if I have time, from time to time.

[Porochaz]

I am going to try and update some of the stats pages.

For the record in terms of no. of entries per contest, its usually capped at 26, however Song Contest 100 lifted that restriction and they had 41 entries in. In terms of BOTB, this one has the most with 32, but BOTB 5 had 31.

[Porochaz]

Im going to presume I put my votes in correctly, not sure why I wouldn't have but meh.

Also I have been working out stats all afternoon. If there is a particular stat anyone is interested in, Ill have it/try to work it out.

Edited to add:

This is rough but I used to have the most contests under my belt (this is not including this one) with 90.

I am now 4th with
Panzer 3rd (101)
Parama 2nd (114)
Pickem 1st (124)

All the P's

CDB I think is 5th with 83. (Hito has 82 though, so that might have changed) They are rough figures though so I may have missed someone. (Jdodge had 78)

[Porochaz]

Ah right, well that explains a couple of things, but yeah I didn't include BOTB's initially because I wanted to try and use JD's stat tracker that was overly convoluted. I also struggle to go with the name changes, I know Mathias had one at some point, as did BA.

[Porochaz]

These are cool. Thanks for the stats.

I have updated the records. Taken out a lot of the outdated ones (I will put most of them back, when I work them out) at the moment I have put most firsts, 2nds and 3rd, top 3's and top 5's (excluding BOTB's)

Sigh, just deleted all my 4ths and 5ths data. Okay... the stats are there though...