7/1: March Sadness 90s in 2026

Suggest a song for the longlist? Get in the lottery!

Hey March Xnessers, it’s July, which means the Official Selection Committee is working hard on the 2026 Longlist. As you know, this coming year for our 10th anniversary we are returning to our original theme, March Sadness. What you don’t know yet unless you are on the bluesky or if you’ve had drinks with us in the last week or so is that we will be focusing on the Sad Songs of the 1990s.

This means that any song commercially released 01/01/90–12/31/1999 is eligible unless it originally appeared in an Xness tournament (sorry Sinead fans, Nothing Compares 2U went down in the Sweet 16 in March Faxness). And previous Xness winners (the artists who’ve won previous tourneys, not the writers, who may put their name back in the lottery if they so choose) will be ineligible (sorry Jeff Buckley).

This time around, though, we’re moving wayyyy beyond college/indie rock and into R&B, country, hip hop, alternative, and really whatever, so this field should be wide open.

If you want to take a look at the developing longlist to get an idea of the direction we’re going in, it’s right here. (Comments enabled if you want to make suggestions, or commenting on this post or on bluesky also does it.)

Let this email be a reminder to get your name in the lottery if you have not yet done so. We will start pulling names in a week or so.

We’re listening to your suggestions. Whoever just suggested Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl,” damn, we see you:

We will have a bit of bonus content yet for you as we work on the longlist. We’re also working on THE MARCH XNESS ANTHOLOGY and we'll have more info for you as that moves forward. It’s so good y’all.

Hope you’re hanging in there. We are. Send us sad songs!

Ander & Megan