It has been an exciting six weeks in Budapest as the 2016 edition of A Dal came to an end tonight and Freddie took the victory. He will go on to Stockholm representing Hungary in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Pioneer.

Hungary stepped up their game at this year’s edition of A Dal as the final eight contestants battled it out to represent Hungary at this year’s Eurovision. 30 artists performed in the first 3 heats of the show with 18 qualifying to the semi-finals. From there 8 finalists were picked to compete in tonight’s grand final of A Dal 2016.

The Songs

Mushu – Uncle Tom

Performing in the first heat of A Dal, Mushu scored a respectable 36 points. They tied for fourth place during the first semi-final which was not enough to qualify them automatically, but they managed to get a pass to the final during the second round votes.

Parno Graszt – Már nem szédülök

Parno Graszt are definitely hitting a weak spot for the judges as they have qualified mainly due to their scores. They only managed 5 points from the public in the 3rd heat and 6 points during the semi-finals. Since the judges pick the first round, they could slip in since they truly seem to love this one.

Olivér Berkes & Andi Tóth – Seven Seas

Olivér Berkes & Andi Tóth have been saved twice this year already as they did not manage to qualify from their heat during the first heat nor did they from the semi-finals, but during the public’s second round voting they managed to make it through both times. Now I need to mention their hairstyle… what is happening in Budapest? Have they been attacked by a tornado?

Petruska – Trouble in My Mind

Originally performing in the third heat, Petruska received the most amount of points during their week thanks mainly to the votes from the judges who gave them 35 points. They also managed to get top score of the first semi-final. They decided to make another change to the staging than the previous two performances with a more colourful backdrop. An interesting contrast to the more somber message of the song.

Gergő Oláh – Győz a jó

Gergő Oláh is a personal favorite of mine and possibly an underdog. He managed to finish with 39 points during the second heat and finally second place of the first semi-final with 42 points. The song has been remixed for the final of A Dal as more dancey beats were added during the violin parts. I am not sure it was necessary to add to the song, but it certainly intensified the performance.

Freddie –  Pioneer

This is the clear front runner of A Dal 2016. Scoring top points during the first heat, Freddie also managed to get an 8 from the public, the most of anyone. During the second semi-final, he also managed a 9 from the public, which is the highest from any performances this year. Again giving an even better performance than previous weeks, Freddie is showing us why he deserves to represent Hungary in Stockholm.

Kállay Saunders Band – Who We Are

Having experience with not only A Dal but with the Eurovision Song Contest, Kállay Saunders was definitely a someone to expect big scores for. They managed to top the score board during the second heat but fell to 3rd place during the second semi-final. They still managed to get 8 points from the public votes on each occasion. Tonight however was an incredibly low point for them as Kállay Saunders couldn’t hear through his earpiece and sounded off through most of the performance. You could see how incredibly disappointed he was when the song ended. After the judging, the producers decided to let the band perform one more time and it sounded much better than the first time, but you could still see that Andras Kállay Saunders was feeling down from the previous technical incidents.

André Vásáry – Why

André also managed a good score during the 3rd heat. He tied for second place during the second semi-final but most of his points so far come from the judges as the public gave him 6 each time. Just like his previous times André gave a strong performance of Why.

The Show

The fifth edition of A Dal was held at the MTVA Studios in Budapest Hungary. The show started on January 23rd with three heats of 10 songs each. 6 songs from each heat managed to move forward to the two semi-finals broadcasted on February 13 and 20. From those two semi-finals, 4 finalists were picked from each shows which resulted in 8 Finalists at tonight’s show.

The voting for most of the show was handled the same. Four judges consisting of Pierrot, Zséda, Károly Freinreisz and Miklós Both provided scores to each entries from 1 to 10 for a total possible 40. The public at home also had the power to vote using SMS, Televotes or online voting to pick a score for the act between 1 and 10, so each act had the possibility to score 50 points max.

The final of A Dal was treated differently when it comes to voting. After all the songs were performed, only the judges provided their scores giving 4, 6, 8 and 10 points to their top 4 entries. The four entries with the most points moved on to the second round of voting. This time, only the public voted to pick the winner of A Dal 2016

In addition to the competing artists, performances from Norway’s 2009 Eurovision Song Contest winner, Alexander Rybak as well as last year’s Hungarian entry Boggie were performed.

The Results

Artist	Song	Jury Points	Results
Mushu	Uncle Tom	0	Disqualified
Parno Graszt	Már nem szédülök	4	Disqualified
Olivér Berkes & Andi Tóth	Seven Seas	4	Disqualified
Petruska	Trouble in My Mind	14	2nd round qualified
Gergő Oláh	Győz a jó	28	2nd round qualified
Freddie	Pioneer	34	Winner
Kállay Saunders Band	Who We Are	18	2nd round qualified
André Vásáry	Why	10	Disqualified

Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

Hungary has participated thirteen times since their first entry in 1994. Hungary had tried to enter the 1993 contest, however they were disqualified during the preliminary round show Kvalifikacija za Millstreet. 

Since 2012, the country has been selecting their entries through A Dal, a national selection show which managed to get the country qualified to the final each time as well as giving them two top 10 (2013 and 2014).

Check out below the highlights of Hungary from EuroVisionary.com