Tonight the first heat of the Hungarian national selection A Dal took place in Budapest. Ten songs were competing for six spots in the semi-finals. The qualifiers have been determined by a joint decision of the four-member jury and the televoters.
The final will take place on February 24
The songs
01 Living Room – Kirakat élet: The band Living Room is performing a modern acoustic mid-tempo pop song. It’s a real earworm, should do well in the charts. The LED backdrop is very colourful for this show opener. The jury is quite happy about the performance.
02 Tamás Vastag – Ne hagyj reményt: Tamás was one of the superfinalists of A Dal 2013, but lost against ByeAlex in the final televoting round. His current entry Ne hagyj reményt is a nice mid-tempo pop song and Tamás is perfect vocally as usual. The lyrics of the song are appearing in the background but the jury thinks it’s not fitting to the song at all.
03 Noémo – Levegőt!: The band Noémo is next on stage with a calm and relaxing but still very modern underground ballad which they call a „levander pop song”. There are some vocal issues that need to be fixed according to the jury members.
04 Leander Kills – Nem szól harang: A very powerful and dramatic rock song with a strong message about the importance of patriotism. Leander – dressed like a priest – is bringing us excellent vocals again, like at his previous attempts in A Dal. The jury is very enthusiastic about the performance, also the televoters give high points to the band.
05 Zsolt Süle – Zöld a május: It’s Zsolt’s first appearance on the stage of A Dal. He is performing a very simple and old fashioned acoustic ballad. It would be excellent for a movie soundtrack too. Jury members like this very much, Judit and Misi both giving the highest possible 10 points for it.
06 Gabi Knoll – Nobody To Die For: Gabi is performing a modern and mystical electro-pop entry. On the stage we see an LED disco ball, a plastic bull and a unique instrument Gabi is playing on. The jury is highlighting Gabi’s perfect vocals.
07 Fourtissimo feat. Markanera – Kisnyuszi a kalapban: The only electroswing song in the field this year is full of fun. Already the song title (’Little rabbit in the hat’ in English) makes us smile, so does the whole performance. However the jury is very unhappy about the band’s unprofessional dance routine.
08 Ceasefire X – Satellites: This song is a simple, emotional and catchy pop ballad. Bence, the singer is delivering us some great vocals. Also the background dancers did a great job according to the jury.
09 Viktor Király – Budapest Girl: It’s already Viktor’s third attempt at A Dal. This time he is performing a radio friendly modern pop ballad dedicated to the vibrating nightlife of Budapest and the beauty of Hungarian girls. It is getting the highest televoting scores of the night.
10 Patikadomb – Jó szelet!: Three-member boyband Patikadomb is one of the newcomers of this year’s A Dal. They perform a mid-tempo pop-rock song with a classic band staging and some spectacular camera tricks. The jury has some words about the lead singer’s vocal problems.
The show
For the first time in A Dal’s history a former Eurovision participant, Freddie hosted the show alongside with Krisztina Rátonyi. The jury consisted of four members: Károly Frenreisz (rock musician), Judit Schell (actress), Misi Mező (singer) and Miklós Both (songwriter). In the first round each jury member awarded scores from 1 to 10 points to the songs. The televoters were the “fifth member of the jury”, the average score of their votes from 1 to 10 points have been added to the jury points. The five songs with the highest number of points in this round have directly qualified to the semi-finals, In the second round the remaining five acts were fighting for one last ticket in the semis, awarded by only the televoters. During the final televoting period an interval act has been performed by Hungarian rock legend János Kóbor and the band Balkan Fanatik.
The results
- Leander Kills – 44 points
- Zsolt Süle – 44 points
- Viktor Király – 43 points
- Ceasefire X – 41 points
- Gabi Knoll – 40 points
- Noémo – 39 points
- Tamás Vastag – 36 points
- Living Room – 36 points
- Fourtissimo feat. Markanera – 33 points
- Patikadomb – 33 points
The Top 5 automatically qualified to the semi-finals. In the second televoting round Tamás Vastag has been saved by the viewers at home.
Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest
Hungary debuted at Eurovision in 1994 in Dublin. Friderika Bayer’s 4th position from that year is still the country’s best ever result at the contest. After a longer period of withdrawals and returns, since 2011 Hungary is participating at Eurovision every year. In 2012 broadcaster MTVA has launched the new national selection format A Dal which has become quickly popular and also successful. Since their 2011 return, Hungary has qualified to the Grand Final every single time, that means a series of seven qualifications in a row, three times (2013, 2014 and 2017) they finished even in the Top 10 of the Grand Final. Last year Joci Pápai got the honour to fly the Hungarian flag in Kyiv. He finished in 8th position with 200 points in the Grand Final. You can watch his performance of Origo right below!
