The end of an era: No Top 300 this year

Back in 1999 I was eagerly listening to the Top 2000 on the Dutch Radio 2 with the best music of all time. It even inspired me to make such a list myself. I started off in December 1999 making a top 50 of my all-time favourite songs with, I had to look it up in a 12 years old notebook, "De Bestemming" by Marco Borsato on the number 1 spot. In the years after that I added 50 more songs every year to my list until I reached the magic number of 300. It took me 2 days to put together the list (not including the preparations, that usually started in August already), but it was worth it. It became a real tradition for me to make such a list in the period between Christmas and New Year.

The past few years however it got harder and harder for me to make such a list, as I like so many different kinds of music and it's almost impossible to compare and rank them. This year I was also lacking the time and will power to make the necessary preparations and therefore I had to decide, with a heavy heart, not to make a top 300 this year.

I realize that this is (obviously) a huge disappointment for many of you. I also realize that I must give a compensation to the people that were relying on me to help them find new music to start the new year with. So I retrieved a top 30 of the music that I listened to the most during the past year from last.fm. You can find the list below. I put links to YouTube for my top 10 favourite songs in 2011, for those that want to check out what kind of music I am listening to on a daily basis.

1. Sunrise Avenue – Hollywood Hills (Can't wait to see them live in Prague in 2012)
2. Ryan Star – Right Now
3. The Story So Far – I Didn't Slap You (Not suitable for parents; make sure your sound is not too loud when the video starts)
4. Sunrise Avenue – Fairytale Gone Bad
5. My Chemical Romance – Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) (Again: not suitable for parents...)
6. The Pretty Reckless – Just Tonight (Can you believe that the girl was just 17 when this video was made?)
7. Neon Trees – Animal
8. The Script – For The First Time
9. Bryan Rice – No Promises (The Danish original, much better than the cover version by Shayne Ward)
10. Every Avenue – Tell Me I'm A Wreck (My favourite song at the moment)
11. Handsome Poets – Dance (The War Is Over)
12. Weezer – Perfect Situation
13. Scouting For Girls – This Ain't A Love Song
14. Idool 2011 Finalisten – More To Me
15. Handsome Poets – Silence Is Sexy
16. Donkeyboy – Sometimes
17. Ryan Star – Start A Fire
18. The Bigger Lights – Hey Summer
19. Ryan Star – Breathe
20. The Downtown Fiction – I Just Wanna Run
21. Secondhand Serenade – Fall For You
22. Something Corporate – Watch the Sky
23. Two Door Cinema Club – What You Know
24. Sherwood – Ground Beneath My Feet
25. Carolina Liar – Last Night
26. Negative – Won't Let Go
27. Reamonn – Supergirl
28. The Moog – When I See You
29. Alexander Rybak – Funny Little World
30. Volumia! – Afscheid

Finally, I'd like to wish you all the best for 2012 and I hope to see you again next year!

The results of ISC #2...

Hi all,

Thanks a lot to those of you that were willing to vote in my song contest. It's really appreciated. So, as promised, below you can find a link to the results.

Click here to see the full voting process. (Recommended, as the voting was quite exciting)

Click here for a direct link to the full results.

I hope you enjoyed the contest as much as I did! Congratulatons to the winning country. :)

International Song Contest #2

It's December now and even though the weather is not as cold as one year ago, I reckon that most of you will now spend more time inside than 6 months ago. Such moments may be boring, but hey, with good music on the background those days will be a bit happier.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, most people stick to the same old (usually American) music all the time. Those people miss out on a lot of good music. I know that most people don't have the time to search new music themselves, and that's what this blog is for. Below you will find a video I made with 22 songs that I discovered in the past year either in one of the online song contests I participate in or by myself. Just click on "play" and listen to those wonderful songs.

And because I just love making lists and rankings out of everything, of course I made a contest out of this as well, just like I did in spring, in which you can vote for the best song. So if you feel like being a judge and/or want to make me a happy boy, please send in your top 10 in the form below. The deadline to do this is 20 December at 23:59 and this time there are no voting restrictions: you can also vote for your own country. Thank you very much if you participate in this!

And don't feel pressured to vote if you don't want to, of course it's also fine if you just listen to the songs and don't vote at all. I understand that not everybody is as enthousiastic about this kind of things as I am. :)

Recap video:




Playlist and links to YouTube:

1.	Norway	Aleksander With	A Little Too Perfect
2.	Belgium	Yevgueni	Manzijn
3.	Estonia	Maarja	Shine It On
4.	Great Britain	Young Rebel Set	If I Was
5.	Poland	Sylwia Grzeszczak	Małe Rzeczy
6.	Italy	Modà	La Notte
7.	South Africa	Nádine	This Time I Know It's For Real
8.	Romania	Zero	Lay Me Down
9.	Iceland	Yohanna	Beautiful Silence
10.	France	Sofia Essaïdi	J'croque La Vie
11.	Switzerland	Lunatica	Who You Are
12.	Netherlands	Only Seven Left	Wake Up Call
13.	Austria	Christina Stürmer	Wir Leben Den Moment
14.	Finland	Negative	Won't Let Go
15.	Germany	Unheilig	Geboren Um Zu Leben
16.	Malta	Claudia Faniello	I Hate This Song
17.	Russia	Lena Katina	Never Forget
18.	South Korea	Song Ji Eun ft. Bang Yong Guk	Going Crazy
19.	Bosnia & Herzegovina	Hari Mata Hari & Ivana Banfic	Navodno
20.	Spain	La Oreja de Van Gogh	La Niña Que Llora En Tus Fiestas

21.	Latvia	Lauris Reiniks	Banjo Laura
22.	Czech Republic	Tomáš Klus	Marie

VOTING DISABLED