Round 2 is about to begin! 18 states have already been eliminated from contention, and this week we’ll eliminate 16 more. But first, some stats!

The prize for highest upvotes, lowest upvotes, and biggest blow-out all occurred in the same match-up. Martha and the Vandells’ “Dancing in the Streets” earned 32 upvotes, while Perry Como’s “Delaware” got a big ol’ goose-egg, which gave Michigan an easy first round victory over Delaware. The closest match was South Dakota vs Illinois, which actually ended up in a 16-16 tie–just like in the nomination round, I broke the tie with a coin flip, since that seemed like the fairest way to do it, and “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” by Sufjan Stevens will advance over Springsteen’s “Badlands.” There was also a tie for the fewest upvotes to move on to the next round–both Gram Parsons’ “Streets of Baltimore” and The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses” win their way through to the second round with only 12 upvotes a piece. On the other hand, Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” earned the most votes among the losing songs, not including the aforementioned tie breaker, though incidentally it earned the same score as South Dakota and Illinois. Finally, just want to mention that, among the runner-up matches, there were three upsets: for Kansas, “Over the Rainbow” beat “Wichita Lineman” 20-14; for Massachusetts, “Roadrunner” pulled out a victory over “Dirty Water” 13-11; and for New York, “New York Groove” also won over “New York State of Mind” 13-11.

And without further ado, let’s get to Round 2!