Heat 1 of A Dal 2016 was on tonight and we had the pleasure to watch the first 10 of 30 entries. Five qualified from a first round of voting to pass on to the semi-finals. A second round of voting then determined one more act to move on resulting in 6 songs guaranteed to the semi finals.
Heat 2 and 3 remain to determine the final line up for the two semi-finals. Will one of these qualifiers represent Hungary at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest? Check out the songs and the results below.
The Songs
Odett – Stardust
The first heat started off with Stardust, a typical pop track with a bit of rock influence. The staging was quite cute with the lights on the sticks surrounding Odett who looked very pretty in her glittery dress. A strong pop song but with a slightly awkward singer, if she can work on her stage presence she’ll stand a chance.
Fatima Mohamed – Ott leszek
The Egyptian-born singer brings Ott leszek (I’ll Be There) to the competition. A clear homage to the popularity of retro songs such as All About the Bass from Meghan Trainor. Fatima definitely brings a cool vibe to A Dal with this song, however she doesn’t seem to create a connection with the viewers as she barely ever looked to the cameras. Again, the song itself is a strong pop tune, but it might fall short due to the performer.
ByTheWay – Free to Fly
ByTheWay is composed of three members, two of which comes from the Hungarian series of X-Factor. Their song Free to Fly is a high energy pop rock influenced track that will make you sing “woah-oh-oh-oh” along. Not much happening on stage with this one, but they seem to have much more fun than the previous two competitors so far.
Mushu – Uncle Tom
One of the youngest band in the whole competition, only formed last September. This is one of those tracks that brings something familiar but with a great dose of originality. Mix of country, punk, pop, electronic and alternative sounds.
Jázmin Török – Power of Love
A lot of the songs this year remind me of the 90s somehow, and this one too. A folks-y guitar heavy almost country sounding track with a great pop hook. This worked back in 2013 with ByeAlex. You can tell the performers are now getting more comfortable on stage and it seems to make a difference.
Benji – Kötéltánc
Born in Budapest from Vietnamese parents, Benji finished 3rd on the 2014 Hungarian X-Factor. His song Kötéltánc (Tightrope) showcases his strong vocals starting with mainly guitars strings and building up to an emotional finish. Again, great use of the stage with the light posts and dancers.
Egy Másik Zenekar – Kéne közös kép
Time to slow things down with Kéne közös kép by Egy Másik Zenekar, a cute little ballad in the middle of better songs that unfortunately results in it being kind of forgettable. The drop of the curtain was the highlight.
Pétra Veres-Kovács – Singing Peace
If War for Nothing was able to win last year’s A Dal and even make it to the finals in Vienna, Singing Peace tries the same formula. A slightly depressing (I suppose every songs about war are) tune that will probably move a few people. What really has this one working well is the staging with the ballerina.
Freddie – Pioneer
Here’s one that truly sounds like a strong contender. A true power ballad that will make you head bob by the end. A truly charismatic performer who sings with passion. This is one to watch.
Reni Tolvai – Fire
Now this is something interesting and different than the bunch. A fierce R&B-Dance-Pop track that could probably be performed by the likes of Beyoncé. This takes the stage production to an entire different level, with fire on the stage as well as parachute! The problem is that it’s a little bit too over the place and not well thought of.
The Show
This year, A Dal has a brand new studio including state of the art lights and special effects to add to the thrill of watching. With the backstage connected to the main studio giving the show a true connected experience between the audience and the contestants.
What is also very interesting this year is that votes are open to pretty much anyone in the world who registers on the A Dal website. Yes this means even for someone not European as myself, I got to vote for my favourite song of the night!
The songs were judged the four jury members: Miklós Both, Károly Frenreisz, Pierrot and Zséda each providing a score from 1 to 10 and adding up the public’s score from 1-10 for a possible total of 50 points.
The top 4 artists receiving the most amount of points were automatically qualified for the semi-finals and a fifth entry was then picked from the public’s second round of voting.
The Results
| Artist | Song | Points | Results |
| Odett | Stardust | 34 | Out |
| Fatima Mohamed | Ott leszek | 30 | Out |
| ByTheWay | Free to Fly | 31 | 2nd round qualified |
| Mushu | Uncle Tom | 36 | 1st round qualified |
| Jázmin Török | Power of Love | 35 | Out |
| Benji | Kötéltánc | 39 | 1st round qualified |
| Egy Másik Zenekar | Kéne közös kép | 36 | 1st round qualified |
| Pétra Veres-Kovács | Singing Peace | 32 | Out |
| Freddie | Pioneer | 42 | 1st round qualified |
| Reni Tolvai | Fire | 35 | 1st round qualified |
Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest
Hungary has been participating in the contest since 1994 and have managed to place in the top 5 twice. The first time in 1994 with the song Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet? by Friderika Bayer finishing in 4th place and twenty years later in 2014 with Running by András Kállay-Saunders resulting in 5th place.
Check out our highlights of Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest from 2011-2015- as it includes clips not only from the Eurovision performance itself, you might see something you haven’t seen before.
