Werloc

Yeah, there's not enough of "mass appeal" type of entries to really cause confusion. For the life of me, I could never tell you who's gonna be second or third, or fourth, but for the win, I have a good feeling it's Caro

I think that Caro Emerald will probably win for The Netherlands again. The song is very similar to the song that she won with and there's not really any other "super" contender that would get enough points from many juries to contend as we get later into the day. Would be somewhat surprised if anybody else took it. Unless people didn't vote for Caro on the sheer notion that this artist won before

Thank you for points to the Lithuanian entry @ManuCHIL @Fly_like_a_don and someone from the Brazilian jury @vinipereira @brunamoura @titicow

Hauser and Davidova should look good too, I bet

I thought that it was Algeria, but didn't want to go in on them since I wasn't sure One of the weirdest submissions. It's very unlikely that I score 6 minute songs well, because those that go 6, 7 minutes and more are usually bad in the very first 30 seconds and you can't expect me to listen through the whole thing and do it 5-7 more times until I decide what points it could get. It makes me think that those artists were surrounded by 'yes men' that wouldn't warn them that the song isn't very good, yet they made a 7 minute version from it, when it could've been less painful as three, or not released at all The only way I see 6 minute songs doing really well, it's what's somewhat prominent in the music industry as the album closing track, which usually have a lot of different motives to not get boring, long intros-outros, build-up and very keen on instrumental parts, it's always interchanging to introduce the listener with something new every 15-20 seconds. Some of the best examples that come to mind right now would be Harry Styles "Fine Line", All The Luck In The World "Abhainn", Adele's "Love Is A Game", "Goodnight, Travel Well" by The Killers. It's mostly used as a treat for fans and for artistic expression, but it's at the end of the album, to not disrupt the flow of the album and to weed out the people that don't like you enough to get through a 6-7 minute song from you. If it's your very first time listening/being introduced to an artist, the last thing you want to hear is a 7 minute rendition and it's not the type of song that helps you discover an artist, because no radio, nor playlist will ever pick it up. It's not an album ending track surprisingly, but I'll also use this opportunity to shout-out "Spanish Sahara" by The Foals. Brilliant way to use 6+ minutes, not only the lyrics, but the music tells a story as well. Not surprised it blew up after getting picked up as soundtrack for "Life Is Strange".

I went to my Spotify playlist fully assuming to not find much if any songs above 5 minutes and I was surprised DiHaj "Complain" and Daft Punk's "Instant Crush" both land in the 5:30-6:00 category, which could explain why this time frame looks good on the graph. But you have to take these stats with a grain of salt, both because the sample size of 5+ minutes songs is most certainly massively massively smaller than songs between 3:00-4:00, which probably would make 60% of entries alone. The 0:00-2:30 sample size is probably like three songs and since I remember two of them, I'm not surprised Lastly, if these stats were garnered through the use of Youtube, I'd imagine that 30s+ credit outros were not taken into account and were not substracted from the song length making some songs longer than they were. Nor were the entries that had entire movie scenes in the middle of their songs or that one entry (don't remember if it was approved) that was a full mash up of two completely different songs. To really get ahold of some results based analysis, we'd need a stats connoisseur to take the top 5 from every contest and then see which song length is mostly preferential and accumulated the most success. I'd imagine it probably being the 3:30-4:00 sweet spot, or more likely 3:15-3:40 for Annual and 3:40-4:15 for Open.

In regards to Eurovision, I started writing songs since 11 y.o. and they used to drag on for a very long time, lots of 4-5 minute songs early on. I grew up in the day & age where 4 minutes were the standard, especially in the indie, rock, alternative scene that had one of its peak popularities in late 90s, early 2000s As I grew older and gained more experience as a songwriter, I was able to cut down on the time for the songs that I wrote, but I still remember questioning the Eurovision 3 minute rule, because it was impossible to tell a good story in three minutes, right? Many Eurovision songs have to cut second verses, perhaps they skip the pre-chorus, not many of them tend to have a bridge and double-chorus at the end has become less and less popular over time, to give yourself time for more creative decisions in the first half of the song. Cut to 2020 when I had to write 24 songs for Eurovision 2021, I found myself so comfortable in a three minute format that I had trouble writing longer songs after Eurovision was done All in all, we've selected the tracks for my album a couple of months ago and only two songs extend over 4 minutes if there are no unsuspected changes. So it really feels that I had to evolve with the times, because I honestly remember my younger self with a mindset that four minutes is the best length for a song if you want to tell a compelling story. Nowadays there's less & less of a necessity for a compelling story as it's mostly important how it flows musically and you having a very good 8-20 second hook that will get you places on TikTok & Instagram stories.

I'd assume though that for the Annual contest separately, it's closer to three minutes for everyone? Very rare nowadays to see a 4 minute + song in the pop scene, even alternative music doesn't tend to drag on as long. People don't have the attention span anymore, so the music industry is trying to get you hooked quick before you press the skip button. If you don't reach the first chorus by 30-45 seconds, it's already somewhat of a danger zone. I'm in a bit of a dilemma, where I went to my Spotify liked tracks a couple of months ago and most of them were 4 minutes and longer, but when I'm focusing on my writing (for myself and other artists), the sweet spot has become 2:30-3:30, edging ever so closer to the under 3 minute mark. Some good examples would be some recent pop releases like: Harry's House by Harry Styles, clocking in at 41m:59s with thirteen songs - two songs over four minutes, the rest close to three. CHARLIE by Charlie Puth, clocking in at a very low 33m02s with 12 songs - only five songs are over three minutes, Charlie has been spending most of his days on TikTok, so he really knows how to tap into the younger audience. Midnights by Taylor Swift, clocking in at 44m08s with thirteen songs - only two song over four minutes as well. And before Taylor breaking the Billboard Top 100, the top 10 songs were: "Unholy" by Sam Smith and Kim Petras at 2:36 "Bad Habit" by Steve Lacy at 3:52 "As It Was" by Harry Styles at 2:47 "California Breeze" by Lil Baby at 2:57 "I Like You" by Post Malone and Doja Cat at 3:12 "I Ain't Worried" by One Republic at 2:28 "You Proof" by Morgan Wallen at 2:37 "Forever" by Lil Baby and Fridayy at 2:47 "Super Freaky Girl" by Nicki Minaj at 2:50 "Real Spill" by Lil Baby at 3:18 Adele is really one of the A-list pop stars that can still transcend any trends, clocking in a 58m18s album with only twelve songs, five of them over 6 minutes, but her first two singles from the album were under 4 minute tracks anyways.

Well, I've met Mamontovas (lead vocalist) on a few occasions, haven't really spoken to him though. I don't know if it's our age gap, but he's not a super approachable fellow Probably doesn't help that I have social anxiety either

I believe that I didn't, she's not the kind of person that'd be easy to explain to But me and our entire team are going to her place on Thursday for a dinner party, she's 8 months pregnant right now and wanted to see us again before becoming a mother. It's actually crazy when I think about it, 10 years ago when TISC started I was an absolute nobody in our music industry, now it's only this year's Beatrich and 2017 FOJE that I haven't had the chance to talk to in person. 7 years of performing with Jazzu, 3 years with GJan, chatting with Baumila from time to time, talked to Jauti and The Roop on Thursday and the same evening we randomly met Erica Jennings' niece at a bar. Nobody from my friend group had any idea that the entire Jennings family were secretly living in Lithuania, we only thought it was Erica.

Luckily for me, 33 is my favourite number

Montenegro comeback would probably be among those things that would definitely shock me I remember the exit 9 years ago to this day

We probably won't ever have a contest that was as easy and fun to follow as the one that you've hosted. You having experience in coding pretty much explains that When I hosted, I had barely any time to prepare at all, because I had huge workloads as well as uni at the time, so I literally live-counted every scoreboard after every individual country voted I'm proud that I only made a 1 point mistake during the entire day, which I caught during a break. I had 12 minute windows to copy/paste and count, whilst also updating the top 5 score card regularly, thank goodness Mr. Internet was not breaking down on that faithful day Edit: forgot to mention that in those 12 minute windows I also had to post like 75% of the countries' votes, it was a long day

Unironically, the toughest TISC I ever had to judge in. It's a lot lot simpler when you identify yourself with and love the selection, it also reminded me why I'm more of TAISC guy opposed to a TOISC guy My top 2 were generally very solid songs with barely nothing to fault them with, on an island of their own whilst I had hunger games between positions 3 and 16. One song I really enjoy, but the badly mixed drums are not letting me have a good time. One song has a very engaging melody, but it goes downhill later on. One song has a good chorus, but I wouldn't recall a single note from the verse and I listened to these songs a whole lot. One song is nice, but hard to get hyped to, because it was recorded in a well. One song is fun, but hard to vibe to, because it sounds recorded a hundred years ago. So many little details that would've been avoided in this day and age. Many songs really lacked that technical quality that we're spoiled with what sound engineers can provide today. Sadly, the level of production is very important for me when engaging with music, so this year there's been very many unexpected results in my camp Should be a very interesting contest though and I can't wait to see how the top 5 will look. Seeing as I've never missed a TISC, this time I have a fairly good hunch on who I think will probably win, but I've been wrong many times before Best of luck to everyone and hopefully we don't lose anyone during the voting phase.

Rūta Meilutytė was the biggest "what could have been" story from Lithuanian sports, it's really nice she decided to give it another go. Can't say I really believed she would be close to WR times, but it just shows how much of a 50m expert she was, the 100m is going to remain somewhat a question mark probably.

Meilutytė continues to be in fabulous form, with a 1:03.07 100m Breaststroke win. Less than 1 second off from her shared world record with Atkinson

Lol, so I thought I would do another listen after a while, just to check if everything remains somewhat in place and send my final votes. So, everybody between 3 and 12 switched places with only top 2 staying where they were. Save me

Oh, I'm actually thankful for the history lesson, especially with the nepotism part, it's good to know and remember that such things happened. I'm not extremely familiar with our sport pre-2004 and earlier, so the fact that we had a competitive men's pursuit team is actually news to me, I just always thought it was mostly women like Krupeckaitė, Sereikaitė and some lone men on the side, like Bagdonas, that used to start in track occasionally.

They were practising with Baleišytė as their third, so we would've managed if only Simona was younger :/

The only one in Panevėžys, Cido arena. That's why cycling is mostly cultivated there.

Definitely not planning any medals. Lithuania has strong traditions in track cycling, especially in the women's field. With all of the legends retiring, I'm just glad that we can still be seen and be somewhat competitive from time to time. After Krupeckaitė's retirement, the women's team sprint team fell apart, so it's good to see that our coach (Simona's husband) decided to form a men's team as we didn't have enough competitive women to field a team on the women's side.

Chmm, 13th place for our very rookie Lithuanian men's sprint team is fairly okay. The very first time for Lithuanian men in a team event on a World Championship stage, previously only started in the European Championships once. Lots and lots of work left to be done if they want to contend for the Olympics, but I wouldn't completely write them off just yet.

Second listening done just now, feeling a bit more optimistic with some songs, still want to see the potential if some songs grow over time, but already down to 19 songs only. I think I have my twelve points after today (and it was not from the top 2 that I had after round 1) , but not really sure about anything else

Love your positivity, but truth of the matter is that as @kungshamra71 said, the selection of songs doesn't really align that well with my musical taste this time I'm really hoping that these are growers and going to have my second listening this evening. I've ranked two songs 4/5 in stage 1 and I picked another 22 to listen to again with a ranking of 3/5. I'd say I average like 5-8 songs after the first listen that I'm already confident with that'll get points, this time only two songs are safe for now and not even safe, but probably my 12 and 11 points as well, if nothing drastically changes

So, how is everybody feeling about the songs in this edition? I've ran through all of them once earlier today, and of course waiting for Australia if they select their song. For the first time ever in how many years that we're doing this, I don't have a favourite yet