I won't try to surprise you during the grand reveal with an unexpected entry this time. I'll be up front and confirm that I plan to enter #99 to cap off our first century of contests.

I wanted to pick something special to mark the final contest in our first century, and I think there's one song in my previous portfolio of contest entries that stands out as having established quite a strong legacy in our history. So my choice for #99 has a strong musical vibe that is very reminiscent of that song.

In case you need a pictorial clue:

NICE to see you in #99, my GOOD friend jw.

As this will be my last participation in a regular edition, and it is the final song in the final regular edition of the first century of contests, I wanted us to end on a song of optimism and hope for the future. The song didn't have an official video so for the past few months I've worked on producing my own. As I had full creative jurisdiction over the video, I would like to share the meaning behind the video with you.

If you have read the lyrics of the song, you will have understood by now that it is about love - more specifically, about learning how to love again, particularly at a time when it seems impossible to open your heart and let someone in again. The video strives to relay and reinforce this message, of renewed hope even in the darkest hour of despair, when all seems lost. The protagonists are a young couple, in a somewhat classical boy meets girl scenario. But ever since their first encounter and furtive glances, the lyrics remind us that love means both pleasure and pain - however, the inherent pain should not be a deterrent.

The chorus, which I think is reminiscent of Salvami, is another appeal to let love shine through: charm me, seduce me, teach me. While each of us needs to learn how to trust and hope again, those who love us can help us restore that faith, that willingness to let go and give in. They can save us. It also introduces new characters and their own love stories - an old couple who have found love a long time ago, but who continue to renew it every day; a woman who has had love in her life, and a child was born out of that love. The boy himself, smiling in the bright sunlight, is a symbol of hope: he will grow up, he will find love. Again and again.

The train symbolises the passage of time, and the journey into the future. It is a new beginning, leaving behind loneliness and hurt, and travelling towards a new meaning, a new story, someone new to love. The same concept is represented later by the singers riding carefree in the car in bright sunlight. Get on board. Let the train roll. Love again.

A message that comes through over and over again in the lyrics is "arrenditi", which means "surrender". It corresponds to the old man wiping his brow in the sun, and looking into the horizon. But also, to the young girl walking away, while he, though left behind, gets a new sparkle in his eye. There is a tomorrow. Ever so often, love is right there. Happiness is right there. We just need to let it in.

The bridge of the song also carries an important message, about the importance of loving what (and indeed who) we are - the first step in rebuilding hope and in finding the courage to trust others is, first and foremost, to find love towards oneself again. In the video, I tried to portray this in the scene where, while the boy is trying to impress the girl with his antics, and while her feelings for him start to fade, she finds comfort in listening to music instead (aptly, a Sonohra song). When the world outside fails us, we each have our own ways to cope - and music is a big part of hanging on to hope, and to who we are deep inside.

Anyone can find love again. Whether they've had it before, or are just now learning how to open their hearts. Whether a child, a man, a woman, young, or old. People come together, and they drift apart, but, in time, they will find hope and light again. Even if we turn around to look back, like the girl in the video does, we keep walking, we keep facing the future, knowing that we will love again. That someone new will eventually come along to charm us, to seduce us, to teach us - to be our little star (as the graffiti on the wall behind the young lovers says).

This is the uplifting message at the end of the video. The search for new love is not easy, it's a climb, but it is worth it. There is warmth, and light, and smiling at the end of that climb. There is hope. There is a new beginning. Horizons have no limits. Surrender. And love again.