Indira Paganotto Laps the Field in Spain as Nine Rivals Sit Within 606 Votes

There are two races in Spain's fan-voted Top 10, and only one of them is close.

Indira Paganotto takes #1 with 13,502 votes. DJ Sammy, in second, has 6,978. The 6,524-vote gap between them is larger than John Talabot's entire tally at #10 (6,372). In a ranking decided by fans, that is less a lead than a different weight class.

The result is hard to argue with because votes aren't the only column she tops. Her credit score of 933 is the highest on the list by a wide margin. The next best, Talabot's, is 841. She also has the most Spotify followers in the group (220,773), plus a festival count of 291 and 14,255 Resident Advisor followers. Her lead holds across several columns instead of resting on one platform, so the fan vote confirms it more than it surprises.

Below the top spot, the ranking gets very crowded. From DJ Sammy at #2 to Talabot at #10, nine acts are separated by just 606 votes.

DJ Sammy's trance edges HVME's deep house by 32 votes (6,978 to 6,946). The narrowest gap in the countdown is between #4 and #5: Fatima Hajji has 6,748 and Mind Enterprises has 6,733, a margin of 15. With spreads like these, a small swing in turnout could reshuffle most of the list.

Hajji's position adds to the techno weight at the top. She and Paganotto are the only techno acts in the ten and the only two women on it. Hajji's credit score of 836 is the third-highest in the group, and her festival count of 277 sits just behind Paganotto's 291.

The most revealing thing here is how loosely fan enthusiasm tracks the credit score. DJ Sammy holds #2 with the lowest credit score of the ten (794). Meanwhile the two acts at the bottom of the countdown, Wally Lopez at #9 and Talabot at #10, have the fourth- and second-highest scores (823 and 841).

Talabot's case is the clearest. He is filed under nu-disco and indie dance. Of the seven acts with RA figures here, he has the largest Resident Advisor following (24,722). Of the acts with SoundCloud figures, he has the biggest following (145,074). He also has 258,387 Last.fm listeners and a festival count of 219. Committed club audiences tend to follow artists on these platforms, but that depth didn't turn into a higher fan-vote finish this time.

By genre family, house is the backbone. Five of the ten fall under it: Mind Enterprises, Schwarz & Funk, G Jones, Wally Lopez with tech house, and Talabot. Count HVME's deep house and it's six. Mind Enterprises brings the second-largest Spotify following on the list (158,839) to the #5 slot. Schwarz & Funk (6,578) and G Jones (6,539) are 39 votes apart at #7 and #8.

The genre outlier is Alizzz at #6, the only bass-family act, listed under dubstep with 6,640 votes and a credit score of 812. House and techno make up eight of the ten, but this result shows the list has room for something else.

As the fans voted it, Spain's list is one runaway leader and a crowded pack. On these numbers, Paganotto's lead looks secure. Everyone below her could be rearranged by a few hundred votes, so positions two through ten are the ones to watch.