The Hungarian broadcaster MTVA held a press conference today to present the artists that will compete in the first heat of A Dal 2016 which will take place on Saturday 23rd January. 10 acts will be competing for the six places in the semi finals.
The Hungarian broadcaster is ready to kick off one of the most popular and best organised national finals across Europe, A Dal. A Dal (The Song) is the national selection process in Hungary for the Eurovision Song Contest, introduced for the first time in 2012. The contest was introduced by MTVA, when they decided to change the format of the national final they used before. Since A Dal has been used as their national final to Eurovision, Hungary has never failed to qualify to the final, achieving 2 top-10 places in those years.
On 23rd January A Dal starts with the first quarter final. On 30th January and 6th February, the other two quarter finals will take place. The following two Saturdays, 13th February and 20th February, Hungary will host the the semi-finals of A Dal 2016. The final will be broadcast live on 27th February. Five songs from each quarter final will be chosen by a jury consisting of four members. The song from the non-qualifiers with the most votes from the televoting will also qualify to the semi-finals. The jury consists of Pierrot, Zséda, Károly Freinreisz and Miklós Both.
The 10 songs that will fight for the 6 places in the first quarter final are:
- Benji – Kötéltánc
- ByTheWay – Free To Fly
- Egy Másik Zenekar – Kéne közös kép
- Freddie – Pioneer
- Fatima Mohamed – Ott leszek
- Mushu – Uncle Tom
- Odett – Stardust
- Reni Tolvai – Fire
- Jázmin Török – Power Of Love
- Petra Veres Kovács – Singing Peace
There will also be a couple of changes in the show compared to last year, especially in the voting. The green-room will be next to the stage, so that the artists can see each other’s reactions on the performances, and the audience can also watch the artists during the entire show. During each of the performances, the audience will be able to vote for the song, by scoring it from 1 to 10 in the A Dal app, which is available for IOS, Android and Windows phones. Also, the visitors of the A Dal website will be able to cast their scores online. The voting will be free in Hungary, and in every other country in the world, and you just need to register for using the app (the registration is also for free). A professional team from the broadcaster is already working the performances of the contestants.
The first heat of A Dal will take place this coming Saturday, 23rd of January, at 19.40 CET and you can watch it online from the official site of the Hungarian Broadcaster.
Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest
Hungary tried to compete in 1993 but failed to qualify from a special preliminary round set up for seven former Eastern bloc countries wishing to debut in Eurovision that year. The country got the chance to compete the following year however when, with Friderika Bayer singing Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet? (To Whom Can I Tell My Sins?), reaching a 4th place, their best Eurovision placing to date. Hungary has since missed eight contests, in 1999-2004, 2006 and 2010 and, since its return to the contest in 2011, has never failed to qualify for the grand final. Last year in Vienna, the country finished 20th (out of a record 27 countries performing in the grand final) with Boggie and Wars For Nothing.
In our video below, you can watch András Kállay-Saunders performing his top ten finisher entry Running on the 2014 Eurovision stage of Copenhagen’s B&W Hallerne.
