A category for the song contests on Pop Square.
What is a song contest?
It’s a handy way of discovering music you might not know about and also to spotlight music that didn’t get its deserved share of commercial success or forum attention. There are four main song contests, covering different eras and types of music. More information about which song contests are currently running or due to open shortly is available in this thread.
How does it work?
The format is pretty similar to the Eurovision Song Contest, in that a bunch of songs are sent in, and then the competitors being represented also vote for their favourite songs that aren’t their own entry.
Submitting a song
You send a song to the host when the round opens. The host will run your song past a veto panel who will decide if it’s too well-known (either on the forum or in the world at large) to compete. The song contest will usually publish a list of veto criteria that will help you understand what the panel is taking into consideration.
Voting
Once the entry submission period ends, a final list of songs is published. All the people who sent a song in then get to vote. The list of songs will not say who sent what.
During the voting period, you are not allowed to say what your entry is (even implicitly by saying what your entry is not). Even the veto panel does not know who sent which song - it’s only the host who knows.
You then pick your ten favourite songs of the round and send your scores to the host in the following format:
Your favourite song gets 12 points.
Your next favourite song gets 10 points.
Your 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th favourite songs get 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 point respectively.
You cannot vote for your own entry.
You must send in your votes by the deadline specified by the host for that round.
Results
Once the voting period has closed, the host will post a list showing who sent which song. Please do not say what your entry is before that list is posted, as sometimes a host may hold off on posting that list for various reasons, such as going back to a voter to check something in their scores, and we don’t want who sent the song to influence anyone’s votes.
The host will then post the results, revealing each ballot one by one until all ballots have been revealed. If anyone has failed to vote in time, the song that they entered will have its votes halved.
The final leaderboard will look something like this:
FINAL LEADERBOARD:
| Song | Points |
|—|—|
| 1. Within Temptation - Faster // user1 | 101 |
| 2. Lunascape - Surrender // user2 | 98 |
| 3. TR/ST - Dressed For Space // user3 | 97 |
| 4. Zella Day - Hypnotic // user4 | 88 |
| 5. k.d. lang - The Consequences of Falling // user5 | 83 |
| 6. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - Stars // user6 | 81 |
| 7. Dimestars - I’ve Had Enough // user7 | 78 |
| 8. CSS - Alala // user8 | 77 |
| 9. Sepiamusic - Sweet Pollution // user9 | 74 |
| 10. David Lindgren - Rendezvous // user10 | 68 |
| 11. Mohombi - Maraca // user11 | 66 |
| 12. Shock of Pleasure - This Is A Test // user12 | 65 |
| 13. Анжели́ка Вару́м - Оглянись // user13 | 61 |
| 14. Madison Avenue - Do You Like What You See // user14 | 60 |
| 15. Andreea Balan - Trippin // user15 | 59 |
| 16. Higher Self - Ghosts (feat. Lauren Mason) // user16 | 56 |
| 17. Jessi Malay - Here I Am // user17 | 47 |
| 18. Cub Sport - Paradise // user18 | 45 |
| 18. Anniela - Strip-Teaser // user19 | 45 |
| 20. Jotdog - Hasta Contar a Mil // user20 | 42 |
| 21. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues // user21 | 39 |
| 22. of Verona - Dark In My Imagination // user22 | 38 |
| 23. Isabel Soares - Something About You // user23 | 35 |
| 24. Reset! & Lisa Kekaula - Future Madness // user24 | 32 |
| 24. Erika Jayne - Give You Everything // user25 | 32 |
| 24. Aira Mitsuki - GALAXY BOY // user26 | 32 |
| 27. Wanessa Camargo - Stuck on Repeat // user27 | 31 |
| 28. Hadise - A Good Kiss // user28 | 30 |
| 29. Rose Ranger - Fly (Remix) // user29 | 22 |
The winner of that round then gets the option to host the next round. They can choose to pass this up if they wish.
Links to previous entries: