This round, the song is the bossa nova classic, "Chega de Saudade" ("No More Blues"), with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. It’s considered to be the first bossa nova song recorded, in 1957 by Elizete Cardoso, although the most-popular version of it was recorded in 1958 by João Gilberto.

I’ve lined up a couple of young quartets as contestants.

NOVA

NOVA is a Los Angeles based quartet fronted by vocalist Laura Vall, originally from Barcelona, backed by guitarist David Irelan, bassist Thomas Hjorth (since 2018; Simon Huber plays bass here), and drummer Mike Papagni.

Irene Miranda Quartet

The Irene Miranda Quartet is based in Belgium and is fronted by Ms. Miranda, backed by guitarist Lucien Lenaerts, bassist Félix Heymans, and drummer Thomas Vasseur.

There are our contestants. Here’s where you come in, if you wish:

I’ll tally the votes and announce the winner next Friday, October 22, so be sure and cast your vote by then.

The lines are now open. Good luck to NOVA and the Irene Miranda Quartet!

My most recent battle was between two classical guitarists, Paola Hermosín and Lucas Brar, and their respective versions of "Tico-Tico No Fubá," a song by Zequinha de Abreu. I’ve counted the votes, and here are the results.

Paola Hermosín – 6

• Eugenia
• Bernard
• Cathy
• Dan
• Arlee
• Birgit

Lucas Brar – 9

• Ed
• Stephen
• Mary B
• Debbie D
• AJ
• Jack
• Patrick
• K
• Mike

Congratulations to Lucas on his win and a pat on the back to Paola for playing well and looking good doing it.

My next battle will be on October 15, 2021, a week from today. Thanks for voting, and we’ll see you then!

For this battle I’ve chosen two young guitarists playing "Tico-Tico no Fubá," a Brazilian choro written by Zequinha de Abreu in 1917. You might remember it from Ethel Smith’s 1944 version from a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, here are our contestants:

Paola Hermosín

The actual song starts about 58 seconds into the video, and there’s about a minute worth of bloopers at the end.

Lucas Brar

Lucas is new to me, and I think I’ll spend some time getting to know him and his music.

Those are our contestants. Here are the directions:

I’ll tally the votes and announce the winner next Friday, October 8, so be sure and get your vote in to me by then, if you wish.

The lines are now open. Good luck to Paola and Lucas!

You might remember my last battle was between Mike Oldfield with Maggie Reilly and Hall & Oates, the song being "Family Man." First, thanks to everyone who voted: I received 12 votes in total, something I haven’t had in a while. Maybe it’s pinning the Battle post to the top of the posts, maybe it’s the BotB widget on the side bar, maybe I caught everyone on a good day… whatever the reason, thank you for voting.

Here are the results:

Oldfield/Reilly – 5

• Mary B
• Jack
• Stephen
• Willow
• Dan

Hall & Oates – 7

• Lauren
• Eugenia
• Birgit
• Ed
• Arlee
• Janet
• Cathy

Congratulations to Hall & Oates and to Mike and Maggie for making it close.

Our next battle will be next Friday, October 1. See you then!

Pretty standard stuff this week. I was researching singer Maggie Reilly (whose birthday is today; happy birthday to her) and saw where she had sung on a number of Mike Oldfield’s records, including "Family Man," which was released in 1981 and covered by Hall & Oates in 1982. I figured, why not put them back to back and see which people like better? So here we go…

Mike Oldfield featuring Maggie Reilly

Hall & Oates

There are our contestants. Now, here are the instructions, if you’re so inclined to participate:

I’ll tally the votes and announce the winner next Wednesday, September 22, so be sure and cast your vote, if you wish, by then.

The lines are now open. Good luck to Mike and Maggie and Daryl and John!