A to Z in April 2018

A to Z in April Blogging Challenge 2018 Masterpost

Another April has gone by and that’s another A-Z in April challenge completed. This year, my theme was my favourite songs – I featured a lot of different artists from different genres and decades, and here they are if you missed any.

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A – Acadia by Marianas Trench
B – Before It’s Too Late by The Goo Goo Dolls
C – Can’t Hold Us Down by Christina Aguilera ft. Lil’ Kim
D – Dancing Queen by ABBA
E – Everywhere by Michelle Branch
F – Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
G – Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones
H – Hold On! I’m Comin’ by Sam & Dave
I – Independent Woman Pt. 1 by Destiny’s Child
J – Jack Sparrow by The Lonely Island ft. Michael Bolton
K – Kings and Queens by Thirty Seconds to Mars
L – Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble by Ant & Dec
M – Mr. Brightside by The Killers
N – No Man’s Land by Rupert Gregson-Williams
O – The Other Side from The Greatest Showman
P – Praying by Kesha
Q – Qué Caro Es el Tiempo by El Canto del Loco
R – Revolution by The Veronicas
S – See You Again by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth
T – Take a Hint from Victorious
U – Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie
V – Val Kilmer by Bowling for Soup
W – Wakka Wakka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira ft. Freshlyground
X – X-Training by Henry Jackman
Y – You are Unstoppable by Conchita Wurst
Z – Zero to Hero from Hercules
Reflections Post

Reflections on the A-Z Challenge – 2018 Edition

It’s been just over a week since the April A-Z Challenge ended for another year and I’m very happy to say I completed it for the fifth year in a row! Can’t quite believe I’ve been taking part in this challenge for five years now, and that means I’ve been blogging for over five years! Time flies when you’re having fun.

My theme this years was My Favourite Songs. I was quite lucky in the sense that I found it pretty easy to find songs for every letter, the difficulty came when I would have about five great songs that I loved for one letter and had to figure out which one would be the chosen one. I found it easy to write each post and I had them all scheduled before the end of the month. I do wonder if because each post was made up of a music video, whether my actual written content wasn’t as good compared to my content generally. The reason I say that is because if I’m honest I sometimes wrote the posts without much real thought, and sometimes I found it difficult to say more than “this is a song I love a lot” and that’s it.

I think my content had an effect on how people interreacted with my blog this year. Compared to last year, I received more visitors but less views and comments which I found interesting. My top three most popular posts of the challenge were Take a Hint, Under Pressure and Mr. Brightside which I think shows off both my eclectic taste in music and the people who came to my blog.

I also did a terrible job at visiting other people’s blogs. I would always try and respond to comments left on my blog (they may be about a week late, but I generally responded to them all – sorry if I missed yours) but I rarely visited peoples blog either via comments left on my posts or by finding blogs through the Master List. April was a bit of a hectic month for me and my mind wasn’t really on blogging in general never mind focusing on the challenge itself. It’s a shame because reading other people’s A-Z posts is always such a joy but I missed out on it this time round.

I think for next year, the best way for me (and potential readers) to get the most out of this challenge is to think ahead and start writing posts for the challenge months in advance. This year’s challenge kind of crept up on me and I didn’t sign up till a week before the challenge started – leaving me with a lot of work to do.

That being said, as I was kind of apathetic to the challenge this year I am considering I might take a break from it next year. We shall see how I feel in early 2019.

I hope all those of you who took part in the challenge had a great time and you achieved what you set out to do. For more information on the challenge and to find many other blogs who participated, check out the blog.

Z is for Zero to Hero from Hercules

Hercules isn’t my favourite Disney film, in fact it’s one I didn’t really watch that much when I was younger, but it’s got some great songs.

Zero to Hero is my favourite from Hercules and one of my favourite Disney songs in general. I love how up beat it is and the voices of the Muses – Lillias White, LaChanze, Roz Ryan, Cheryl Freeman and Vanéese Y. Thomas – are phenomenal. I’ve always had a soft spot for gospel music and having a gospel style song in a Disney film is inspired.

I love the lyrics in Zero to Hero too. They’re really fun and have a lot of jokes and references that I definitely didn’t get when I was a kid. The lyrics and the big energy choir phrases, combined with a fast-paced tempo and a rhythm you just want to clap your hands to, makes Zero to Hero a great and memorable song.

This is a song I can never get tired of listening to – I’ve even learnt all the words!

Y is for You Are Unstoppable by Conchita Wurst

I am a big fan of Eurovision (and Graham Norton’s commentary of it) and Conchita Wurst winning for Austria in 2014 was one of my favourite moments of the past few years.

I love her voice and how unique she was, especially in a competition that’s so big and bold and out there.

I bought Conchita’s debut album as soon as it was released and it’s an album I listened to on repeat for quite a few months. You Are Unstoppable is my favourite song from that album and definitely the one song of hers I’ve listened to the most. It’s an empowering song, about not letting people get in your way and just being yourself. I love how it combines orchestral elements to more pop, upbeat music and it makes this big, powerful ballad.

I’d definitely recommend checking out Conchita Wurst’s music. She’s a brilliant artist.

X is for X-Training by Henry Jackman

X is always the hardest letter when it comes to the A-Z Challenge but luckily, I had a couple of songs on my iTunes that began with the letter X. I’m pretty sure the majority of X posts over the year for this challenge have been X-Men related and who am I to break that tradition!

X-Training is from X-Men: First Class and is featured in this sequence, where Xavier attempts to train the young mutants how to use their powers.

X-Training is my favourite piece of music from the film. It’s upbeat and builds through the song but at it’s heart is these strings which sound amazing. I think I like this piece of music the most from the entire score is because it’s more of a fun, light piece than the rest of the soundtrack, but it’s still got echoes of the main theme from X-Men: First Class.

W is for Wakka Wakka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira ft. Freshlyground

Wakka Wakka (This Time for Africa) was the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cupp and featured Afro-Colombian rhythms and instrumentation with South African guitars. It’s a celebration of going for your dreams and it’s a great World Cup song. In fact, it’s my favourite World Cup song.

I have such found memories of the 2010 World Cup, I was in a bar in Span watching the final when Spain won, so the atmosphere was electric, and this song is wrapped up in those memories. It was everywhere both in Spain and when I was in Malta shortly before the World Cup final.

Maybe it’s because it’s a World Cup song, but Wakka Wakka (This Time for Africa) just feels like a happy summer song. It’s a song that’s been played at friends’ BBQ’s and it makes me feel warm and happy every time I hear it.

It’s also seriously catchy, perhaps almost annoyingly so? It’s definitely an ear-worm but as it makes me feel upbeat and joyful every time I hear it, I can’t get mad if it lingers in my head for a while.

V is for Val Kilmer by Bowling for Soup

Bowling for Soup is an artist I discovered through a potentially unusual route – fan videos, specifically Harry Potter and Teen Titans ones. I remember liking the music that went really well with these fan videos so went and downloaded a couple of their albums and they’ve been sitting on my iPod ever since.

I love the vast majority of Bowling for Soup’s music, but Val Kilmer is one of my favourites. It’s a love song, or rather a song about a guy with a broken heart, but it’s told with a lot of movie references which makes it a lot of fun and different to your typical love song. I’m a cinephile so spotting the different references to actors and films (some of them I still haven’t seen) puts a smile on my face.

I saw Bowling for Soup live in London about eight years ago with friends and it was one of the most fun concerts I’ve ever been to. It was a great atmosphere, and everyone was jumping around and singing along.

Val Kilmer is a fun and catchy song and I love it.

U is for Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie

I grew up listening to Queen and David Bowie thanks to my mum – I have an eclectic taste in music and my mum’s favourite music was definitely a formative influence on my own taste.

Under Pressure is so great because you get two incredible vocalists in one song. Freddie Mercury’s voice is iconic and with Bowie’s unique voice as well you’ve got an amazing duet.

The scat singing that’s present throughout the song makes it feel like these two artists are just jamming together, improvising and having fun. The baseline in Under Pressure has become one of the most easily recognisable baseline’s in music. It’s used in Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby and I’m sure there’s people of a certain age that know it from Vanilla Ice’s song rather than the original – but that’s the power of music I suppose.

I think I like Under Pressure so much because it brings together two brilliant artists in one catchy and memorable song. The combination of artists is probably why I like Dancing in the Street by David Bowie and Mick Jagger so much too.

T is for Take a Hint from Victorious

Victorious was one of those shows I’d end up watching on Nickleodeon when I was home from Uni for the holidays and my mum was at work. I was so lazy when I returned home for the holidays.

I remember watching this episode and being like “Wow!” I’d not seen anything like it in a kids/teen show before. A couple of girls getting fed up with boys who won’t leave them alone, who kept flirting with them and not taking no for an answer, and then these girls called them out on it and showed everyone, the boys, other characters and the viewers that these boys were harassing them, and it was not ok.

Take a Hint is such a catchy, yet powerful song and I love how Victoria Justice’s and Elizabeth Giles’ voices work together. This is another song that features on my Kick-Ass Inspirational Songs playlist and it well deserves a place there as it’s a song that unconsciously gets me to stand taller and be more confident in myself. As I’ve mentioned this playlist so much during this challenge, it’s here on Spotify if you’re interested.

“You asked me what my sign is, and I told you it was stop!” is a fantastic line and it’s my favourite from a song with so many great moments.

S is for See You Again by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth

This song gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. It’s an emotional song that combines a ballad with rap and it’s incredible.

I cried in the cinema when I first heard See You Again as it played at the end of Fast & Furious 7, giving Paul Walker (and his character Brian O’Connor) an unexpectedly wonderful send off. I adore the Fast and Furious films (they have my favourite trope, family of choice) and Paul Walker’s death hit me hard so to have this song that’s so heartfelt and well suited to the franchise, but is also universal, is just perfect.

I’m not someone who gets too into the Oscars but if there’s one song that should’ve at least been nominated, it’s See You Again. Basically I just wanted to get all the accolades it deserved, and for everyone else to love it as much as I did.

I love See You Again but it’s a song I can’t listen to repeatedly. I love it but the emotion in it gets to me and if I listen to it too many times in a short space of time I know I’ll end up crying.