OKAY I CAN TALK NOW:
Firstly, during the first session there was a time when 10/12 of my picks were on the second part of the scoreboard and like 4 of them didn't even have points
@Hipooo - really good pick there, the atmosphere and theme of the song is superb, vocals and supporting vocals mixed very well, was a joy to listen to, I found out about her by accident when Youtube recommended it to me, I think it could have done much better than We Are Domi, gave me Loreen "Statements" vibes.
@OlympicIRL - Gavin James is one of my all time favourite artists and even though this particular song wouldn't even land in my top 10 of his, it was still enough to shine through to take the silver. I was thinking why you didn't pick "I Miss You (Paddy's Song), because I thought it was a recent release, but then saw it was from 2020. "Glow", "Hard To Do", "Cigarette Break", "Nervous" are all my fave picks and absolutely amazing.
@Olympian1010 @dezbee2008 - a nice, easy to listen to folk pop inspired duet, really fell in love with the warmth that they bring to the song with their vocals.
@Ionoutz24 - another very nice and catchy entry from The Motans. I liked "42" better, but this one is nice as well.
@Bohemia @Benolympique - this was the song that defied the odds and was the biggest climber in my ranks, the ohohoh part was just too catchy, a very good earworm indeed.
@Agger @Wumo - the second biggest climber that started out above France, but after France passed them, they climbed together like best friends to the top 6
Nice entry from Bulgaria, Indonesia and Finland.
@Wanderer this didn't feel that you picked Lorde, it felt that Lorde specifically wrote a song that you would pick for TISC. Very very atypical from her previous releases and very far away from a pop standard. Not being my favourite song by her, it still had some mesmerising qualities to it, the piano part was top notch.
@Cinnamon Bun @Quasit - Ed Sheeran is one of my favourite artists, but this new album just didn't do much for me, it was very far away from the Ed that I fell in love with during his first three album releases. All I can add, is that at least it wasn't "Bad Habits"
I don't know if previous contests showed that much, but I'm not the biggest fan of The Weeknd, he has some songs that I enjoy, but Canada and Sweden fought an uphill battle in which only Canada made it
Reserves: Mexico, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland
I lost China, India and Hungary in the third stage
Brazil, Greece, Italy, Kazachstan, Malta and Slovenia lost in the second stage.
The rest didn't survive the first stage, sadly. I'm also very puzzled by Colombia's success only because it would be the very first winner that I wouldn't remember a single note of