The Battle of the Songs 2015-2016: Only young twice!
Sept 30, 2015 12:12:34 GMT 2
Post by ent on Sept 30, 2015 12:12:34 GMT 2
So, people, the 2nd October is approaching and we don’t want to be taken by surprise, for sure. Here are a few details on what is going to happen. 
As previously said the big rumble will start with all the songs mixed together and sorted in eight groups. Each group will contain 14 or 15 songs. You will be kindly asked to choose eight songs from each group. The eight songs (per group) that will receive more votes will go on to the next phase. Easy? Not really.
This is actually going to be a little harder than in the first battle for two reasons:
1. Since the very beginning you will be asked to compare songs from different eras, with different tempos, different attitude and different production. It will be very hard to maintain a balanced judgment. How to choose, then? My best advice is: try to listen to all the songs of the group with a free mind. There are many reasons that can drive your selection and it doesn´t have to be necessarily a rational choice. Remember that we´re not here to elect the absolute BEST Europe song, but the most important for us. Whatever that means
2. We will face BIG groups. Saving eight songs among 14 or 15 may seem easy but can be very tricky. You might be tempted to fly across the list without really “seeing” a song, maybe because you get attracted from others. Don’t hurry. For every group you will be given four days to decide and during this time you will also be allowed to change your vote. But when the time is up, that’s it. Remember that, differently from the first battle, this time there won’t be any possibility to save a song previously excluded. When it’s gone, it’s gone. So take your time to meditate.
Ok, now. Just to be fair I will publish the eight groups just here. In each group you will find as many songs from the first stage (1983 – 1992) as from the second stage (2003 – 2015). Ok, it can be 8-7 or 7-8, but that’s all. You’ll also find no more than two songs from each album (even if, in some cases with the outtakes you can find three of them). I also used some alchemy to balance the “quality” of the songs (e.g. no more than 2 songs from the final 16 of the first battle per group, I considered the results of the poll made for WOK by martinprahl in this very same forum, tried to distribute equally the singles and so on). Finally I run a random software and formed the group as you see them here:
Group A: Seven doors hotel, Farewell, Wasted time, Broken dreams, Time has come, Let the good times rock, Little bit of lovin’, Halfway to heaven, Spirit of the underdog, Wish I could believe, Prelude+Last look at Eden, Catch that plane, Firebox, Days of rock’n’roll, Nothin’ to ya.
Group B: The king will return, Lyin’ eyes, The final countdown, Ninja, Supertitious, Mr. Government man, Bad blood, Wake up call, Roll with you, The getaway plan, Let the children play, Run with the angels, Bring it all home, Drink and a smile, Praise you.
Group C: Paradize bay, Scream of anger, On broken wings, On the loose, Just the beginning, Tomorrow, All or nothing, Gril from Lebanon, Flames, Reason, Secret society, A mother’s son, Mojito girl, Riches to rags, Children of the mind.
Group D: Memories, Dreamer, Rock the night, Danger on the track, Lights and shadows, Here comes the night, Til my heart beats down your door, Settle for love, Hero, Love is not the enemy, Gonna get ready, Mercy you mercy me, Second day, Rainbow bridge.
Group E: Children of this time, Open your heart, Treated bad again, Carrie, Tower’s calling, A long time comin’, Got your mind in the gutter, I’ll cry for you, Song # 12, Always the pretenders, The beast, Not supposed to sing the blues, Requiem+My woman my friend, Hole in my pocket, California 405.
Group F: In the future to come, Wings of tomorrow, Cherokee, Never say die, Sign of the times, Yesterday’s news, Homeland, Prisoners in Paradise, Sucker, Forever travelling, Brave and beautiful soul, New love in town, Bag of bones, Beautiful disaster, Light it up.
Group G: Boyazont, Stormwind, Heart of stone, Where men won’t dare, More than meets the eye, Coast to coast, Talk to me, Sweet love child, Start from the dark, Human after all, No stone unturned, Only young twice, Doghouse, War of kings, Angels (with broken hearts).
Group H: Words of wisdom, Aphasia, Dance the night away, Love chaser, Ready or not, Break free, Seventh sign, America, Got to have faith, Devil sings the blues, U devil , In my time, Demon head, Vasastan.
As you can see, in spite of all my efforts to keep it balanced there are terrible groups (group D, why, oh why?
) and weaker groups (the last one appears easy to me). I sorted the groups one week ago and all this time I had a little devil 
sitting on my shoulder and whispering: “change it, Enzo! Come on, who will ever know that? Do it for the sake of the game! Do it!” It was tempting but in the end... I decided to leave it like this. Something must be left to the fate, after all, and my opinions or judgment are not better than the others’.
Once again, I listed all the groups here because I think it’s fair to see them altogether before we start but you are NOT required to vote, yet. Hold on until next Friday, at 20:00 CET, when we will start with the group A.
So, I think that’s all for today. Please let me know your feedbacks and especially your advices or suggestions. They are always very welcome and we are still in time to make some things different.
Heads up, people, on the 2nd October we will start with group A. Be prepared.
As previously said the big rumble will start with all the songs mixed together and sorted in eight groups. Each group will contain 14 or 15 songs. You will be kindly asked to choose eight songs from each group. The eight songs (per group) that will receive more votes will go on to the next phase. Easy? Not really.
This is actually going to be a little harder than in the first battle for two reasons:
1. Since the very beginning you will be asked to compare songs from different eras, with different tempos, different attitude and different production. It will be very hard to maintain a balanced judgment. How to choose, then? My best advice is: try to listen to all the songs of the group with a free mind. There are many reasons that can drive your selection and it doesn´t have to be necessarily a rational choice. Remember that we´re not here to elect the absolute BEST Europe song, but the most important for us. Whatever that means
2. We will face BIG groups. Saving eight songs among 14 or 15 may seem easy but can be very tricky. You might be tempted to fly across the list without really “seeing” a song, maybe because you get attracted from others. Don’t hurry. For every group you will be given four days to decide and during this time you will also be allowed to change your vote. But when the time is up, that’s it. Remember that, differently from the first battle, this time there won’t be any possibility to save a song previously excluded. When it’s gone, it’s gone. So take your time to meditate.
Ok, now. Just to be fair I will publish the eight groups just here. In each group you will find as many songs from the first stage (1983 – 1992) as from the second stage (2003 – 2015). Ok, it can be 8-7 or 7-8, but that’s all. You’ll also find no more than two songs from each album (even if, in some cases with the outtakes you can find three of them). I also used some alchemy to balance the “quality” of the songs (e.g. no more than 2 songs from the final 16 of the first battle per group, I considered the results of the poll made for WOK by martinprahl in this very same forum, tried to distribute equally the singles and so on). Finally I run a random software and formed the group as you see them here:
Group A: Seven doors hotel, Farewell, Wasted time, Broken dreams, Time has come, Let the good times rock, Little bit of lovin’, Halfway to heaven, Spirit of the underdog, Wish I could believe, Prelude+Last look at Eden, Catch that plane, Firebox, Days of rock’n’roll, Nothin’ to ya.
Group B: The king will return, Lyin’ eyes, The final countdown, Ninja, Supertitious, Mr. Government man, Bad blood, Wake up call, Roll with you, The getaway plan, Let the children play, Run with the angels, Bring it all home, Drink and a smile, Praise you.
Group C: Paradize bay, Scream of anger, On broken wings, On the loose, Just the beginning, Tomorrow, All or nothing, Gril from Lebanon, Flames, Reason, Secret society, A mother’s son, Mojito girl, Riches to rags, Children of the mind.
Group D: Memories, Dreamer, Rock the night, Danger on the track, Lights and shadows, Here comes the night, Til my heart beats down your door, Settle for love, Hero, Love is not the enemy, Gonna get ready, Mercy you mercy me, Second day, Rainbow bridge.
Group E: Children of this time, Open your heart, Treated bad again, Carrie, Tower’s calling, A long time comin’, Got your mind in the gutter, I’ll cry for you, Song # 12, Always the pretenders, The beast, Not supposed to sing the blues, Requiem+My woman my friend, Hole in my pocket, California 405.
Group F: In the future to come, Wings of tomorrow, Cherokee, Never say die, Sign of the times, Yesterday’s news, Homeland, Prisoners in Paradise, Sucker, Forever travelling, Brave and beautiful soul, New love in town, Bag of bones, Beautiful disaster, Light it up.
Group G: Boyazont, Stormwind, Heart of stone, Where men won’t dare, More than meets the eye, Coast to coast, Talk to me, Sweet love child, Start from the dark, Human after all, No stone unturned, Only young twice, Doghouse, War of kings, Angels (with broken hearts).
Group H: Words of wisdom, Aphasia, Dance the night away, Love chaser, Ready or not, Break free, Seventh sign, America, Got to have faith, Devil sings the blues, U devil , In my time, Demon head, Vasastan.
As you can see, in spite of all my efforts to keep it balanced there are terrible groups (group D, why, oh why?
) and weaker groups (the last one appears easy to me). I sorted the groups one week ago and all this time I had a little devil 
sitting on my shoulder and whispering: “change it, Enzo! Come on, who will ever know that? Do it for the sake of the game! Do it!” It was tempting but in the end... I decided to leave it like this. Something must be left to the fate, after all, and my opinions or judgment are not better than the others’.Once again, I listed all the groups here because I think it’s fair to see them altogether before we start but you are NOT required to vote, yet. Hold on until next Friday, at 20:00 CET, when we will start with the group A.
So, I think that’s all for today. Please let me know your feedbacks and especially your advices or suggestions. They are always very welcome and we are still in time to make some things different.
Heads up, people, on the 2nd October we will start with group A. Be prepared.
we have to choose between songs of different stages, 
?? 
and we're ready ! 
Welcome back 
(uncle Ben in the film SPIDERMAN 
You're all have VIP pass in our battle, involving 
,