Leaderboard

Maybe calm down with the polls now Daredevil, this isn’t fucking YouGov.

Thank you all for your discoveries! The game now hopefully includes all of them (so far). The scoreboard will be updated completely tomorrow (but it has begun!). For the people who want to assist with the photos, it's coming soon!

Mr Reptile has earned himself a beer.

Panteleimon of Belgium dead at 87.

Shantabai Kamble died this morning according to several tributes posted on Facebook. Just under 5 weeks shy of her centenary.

42 George Michael — Careless Whisper 38 Nena – 99 Red Balloons 37 Madonna – Into The Groove 34 Feargal Sharkey – A Good Heart +4 27 Frankie goes to Hollywood – Relax 27 Philip Bailey & Phil Collins – Easy Lover 26 Eurythmics – There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) 26 Phyllis Nelson – Move Closer 23 Midge Ure – If I Was 23 Dead or Alive – You spin me round (like a record) 21 Frankie goes to Hollywood – The power of love 21 Duran Duran – The Reflex 21 Chaka Khan – I feel for you 21 Foreigner – I want to know what love is 21 Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes 19 Shakin´ Stevens – Merry Christmas everyone 18 Sister Sledge – Frankie 18 Jim Diamond – I should have known better 18 Wham – I`m your man 17 Wham – Freedom 16 Wham – Wake me up before you go go 15 UB40 & Chrissie Hynde – I got you babe 11 Lionel Richie – Hello 11 Whitney Houston – Saving all my love for you 11 Paul Hardcastle – 19 9 Jennifer Rush – The power of love 7 David Bowie & Mick Jagger – Dancing in the street 00 Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace -6 (Peace off).

Leigh Taylor-Young, the attractive and notable American film, radio, stage, and television actress, who started her versatile career in the mid-1960s, and probably remembered for her roles in the primetime ABC serial "Peyton Place", and as the wife of one of J.R. Ewing's nemeses in "Dallas", is 78 today. Leigh Taylor-Young has been married four times, including to actors Ryan O'Neal and Craig Sheffer. Volodymyr Zelensky, the important Ukrainian politician, probably the most popular leader on Earth at the moment, an actor by profession, who was elected President of Ukraine on April 21, 2019, is 45 today.

@ladyfiona and @diego have scored points as Paris Hilton has become a mum.

For the Best Animated Features this year: A teenager transforms into a '70s singer whenever she feels a strong emotion- Turning Rod. Puss and Kitty Softpaws fight over dinner- Puss in Boots: The Last Fish. A couple discover a talking seashell covered in farm tools- Marcel the Shell with Hoes On. A monster hunter and an orphan find one such creature in a bowl- The Pea Beast. The story of Pinocchio is reimagined with Boris Johnson (or Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, or any of their cabinet members) as the lead- Guillermo Del Tory's Pinocchio.

Canadian actor Michael Ontkean, probably best known for playing Sheriff Harry Truman in hit american cult drama series Twin Peaks, celebrates his 77th birthday today.

Looks like he's going to be fine.

42 George Michael — Careless Whisper +4 38 Nena – 99 Red Balloons 37 Madonna – Into The Groove 30 Feargal Sharkey – A Good Heart 27 Frankie goes to Hollywood – Relax 27 Philip Bailey & Phil Collins – Easy Lover 26 Eurythmics – There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) 26 Phyllis Nelson – Move Closer 23 Midge Ure – If I Was 23 Dead or Alive – You spin me round (like a record) 21 Frankie goes to Hollywood – The power of love 21 Duran Duran – The Reflex 21 Chaka Khan – I feel for you 21 Foreigner – I want to know what love is 21 Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes 19 Shakin´ Stevens – Merry Christmas everyone 18 Sister Sledge – Frankie 18 Jim Diamond – I should have known better 18 Wham – I`m your man 17 Wham – Freedom 16 Wham – Wake me up before you go go 15 UB40 & Chrissie Hynde – I got you babe 11 Lionel Richie – Hello 11 Whitney Houston – Saving all my love for you 11 Paul Hardcastle – 19 9 Jennifer Rush – The power of love 7 David Bowie & Mick Jagger – Dancing in the street 6 Paul McCartney – Pipes of Peace -1 0 Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – I know him so well -5 Quote

Movie about a Welsh verson of Facebook in the early years - The Wale.

Not sure if this is Singles Chart, Old Folkies or Dead Pop Stars fodder but... 78 year old Strawb Dave Cousins (two big hits though he didn't write their biggest) was too ill to attend an honourary degree ceremony on Friday. He has - frankly - looked very rough in a few candid recent pictures that have shown up on social media. Link to official site: https://www.strawbsweb.co.uk/

36 George Michael – Careless Whisper 35 Nena – 99 Red Balloons 31 Madonna – Into The Groove 28 Feargal Sharkey – A Good Heart 26 Eurythmics – There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) 26 Phyllis Nelson – Move Closer 26 Midge Ure – If I Was 23 Frankie goes to Hollywood – Relax 23 Dead or Alive – You spin me round (like a record) 22 Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes + 4 21 Duran Duran – The Reflex 21 Philip Bailey & Phil Collins – Easy Lover 21 Chaka Khan – I feel for you 21 Foreigner – I want to know what love is 20 Wham – I`m your man 19 Paul Hardcastle – 19 19 Shakin´ Stevens – Merry Christmas everyone 18 Sister Sledge – Frankie 18 Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peace 18 Jim Diamond – I should have known better 17 Wham – Freedom 17 Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson – I know him so well 17 Frankie goes to Hollywood – The power of love - 6 16 Wham – Wake me up before you go go 15 UB40 & Chrissie Hynde – I got you babe 15 Jennifer Rush – The power of love 13 Whitney Houston – Saving all my love for you 11 Lionel Richie – Hello 9 David Bowie & Mick Jagger – Dancing in the street

The letters of the day are Q and O: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11671923/Sesame-Street-creator-Sesame-Workshop-founder-Lloyd-Morrisett-dead-93.html

After the 80s would there be any interest in going back to do the sixties before we very nervously step foot into the land of horrors which will be 90s No.1s?

If only you could use your eyes before making a condescending post. You’re on form tonight.

We're up. Teams, celebs picked, Drop 40 all posted (I previously alluded to there being a joint tie at 40th, but two of these names had an inflated total due to a few duplicate teams - it's just 40 names). Obits posted for the first two weeks - Crosby and co will wait until next weekend. 2022 archived. List of the Missed up, as is a (currently blank) List of the Lost. TTL waits until later in the month. There's obviously still kinks to be sorted out but that will be handled in due time. But for now, we're here. I said it on the DDP site itself and I'll reiterate here: In addition to the 2023 committee of @gcreptile, @Banana, and I, @Grim Up North was also invaluable in helping during the entry period and first couple of weeks of the year, in both teaching Banana all the ins-and-outs of the team entry process and the many quirks of our system, as well as assisting the committee with new celeb data entry. Additionally @Whitehouse contributed to the new celebs in a voluntary capacity. Having that task divided between five people indubitably made it far less daunting than last year, and we thank the assistance.

As with last year, keeping in with interests of transparency, here are names we DQed from the 2023 DDP, including names that were queried about but not actually submitted: Elena Huelva - Mentioned upthread, although her social media following was sufficient, too much of that following was based on her illness Natalie Fornasier - We already discussed her before as well, given multiple teams picked her. Does not meet our social media criteria Roger Kliger - Doctor in a Massachusetts right-to-die case. There are a few too many right-to-die court cases now, that not every single plaintiff should count, especially when it's at the state level Nicola Waters - Similar to above, an MND campaigner but without any extraordinarily high profile Lubov Mihailivna - "Elderly Ukrainian woman who collects wood in Cherson". Not even Google could easily find this red carpet-er Colette Soulages - Pierre's widow, with no real media profile or any claims to fame of her own Nadja Seipel - Another that falls afoul of our social media rules Eric Coulam - Young lad planning assisted suicide, not even a court case or activist Georgie Allyn Barrett - Aspiring showjumper but with no recorded notability as a showjumper, and does not pass social media criteria Sam Watson - Andy Murray's stepmother, that's about it Grandma Joy Ryan - Grandmother crisscrossing the US to visit many of its national parks. A harmless pick, but another that doesn't pass social media rules Marianne Simard - Terminally ill woman who published a few songs after her illness. But the attention the music received is near nonexistent Past DQ Laura Nuttall was submitted on one team, which was also brought up in this thread. Also, one deadpooler submitted themselves as a pick! If you yourself are not at least vaguely notable, please do not do so.

I think we might go live this weekend. Jeff Beck Shimon Baadani Ronald Blythe Bill Campbell Constantine II Carole Cook Walter Cunningham Roberto Dinamite Bessie Hendricks Bernard Kalb Gina Lollobrigida Frank McGarvey Dick Savitt Gianluca Vialli Fay Weldon David Sutherland David Crosby Lucile Randon Arthur Duncan Yoon Jeong-Hee Lin Brehmer And we await QOs for . . . Abdelsalam Majali Mark Stokes Marcel Zanini List of the Missed: Gino Odjick Lisa Marie Presley Sgt. Stan Pepper Karl Alexander Müller (?) Paul Johnson (?) Jim Molan (?) Lise Norgaard (?) ...probably like 20 more names...

Bit of behind-the-scenes trivia: in my previous life as a music writer, Mr London threatened to kill me in a diss track.

1922 - Chen Ning-Yang/Juli Lynne Charlot 1923 - William P. Murphy/Diana Kennedy 1924 - Juan Ponce Enrile/Anne Vernon 1925 - Alexandre do Nascimento/Lee Grant 1926 - Paul Berg/Betsy Jolas 1927 - Benedict XVI/Jeanette Charles 1928 - Arnold Rüütel/Line Renaud 1929 - Jürgen Habermas/Queen Ida 1930 - Armin Mueller-Stahl/Peggy King 1931 - Klaus Hasselmann/Eva Queler

Can't remember whether there's a separate thread for rally drivers, but... China's leading rally driver Xu Lang has been killed during a rally in Russia. Unfortunate way to go: "hit on the head by the tow hook of a trailer which was trying to recover his car".