Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

An era ended in Hungary last night and hopefully that was a first of many changes to come in also some other parts of the world ! I don't get to politics usually but this one links to Eurovision as well as the new elected prime minister has stated in some interview that he wants to connect Hungary to Europe again in every way including the Eurovision song contest, that he didn't agree with the non participation, so... Welcome back Hungary in 2027? All these years Hungary have been missing from Eurovision they have still continued with their national competition  since 2012 A Dal that provided the entry for Eurovision as well. Below you can hear the entries we missed. However it's worth remembering the line up and therefor also the winner might have been different if there was the ticket to Eurovision in store for the winner. This said, I would have been quite ok with most every entry that won A Dal in between. Maybe not all so Eurovision friendly but then again the songs do...

Joci Papai has won A Dal, the Hungarian national selection for Eurovision song contest 2019 in Tel Aviv with his Az én apám . The song is an ethnic ballad and if it has similarities with his 2017 entry Origo it is still different enough to avoid the idea of repeating the same old. Origo was 2nd in its semi-final and 8th in the Grand Final.  The jury voted four songs to the super final wheree televoters chose the winner. He won both rounds.  Joci Pápai - Az én apám 26 Acoustic Planet - Nyári zápor 22 Bogi Nagy - Holnap 20 Bence Vavra - Szótlanság 16 Gergő Szekér - Madár, repülj! 12 The Middletonz - Roses 8 Fatal Error - Kulcs 8 Gergő Oláh - Hozzád bújnék 0

The long A Dal 2019 in Hungary comes to end tonight. 30 songs have become after 3 heats and 2 semi-finals and one disqualification in the last minute eight. Petruska made it to the final from the first semi-final but was replaced this Monday by Gergö Oláh due plagiarism. Two Eurovision veterans in the line up: Joci Papai and Andras Kallay Saunders in The Middletonz who also bring the only song in English to the final the rest being in Hungarian. Acoustic Planet sings about summer showers, Gergö about hiding you, Bence about blindness, Szekér about flying birds, Bogi about tomorrow, Joci about his dad and Fatal Error about keys and The Middletonz of course about roses. Hungary has once again provided pretty solid final line up. Two rounds of voting. In the first one the jury will vote and the top-4 will enter the second round. My ideal top-4 would be Bence Vavra, The Middletonz, Gergö Szekér and Joci Papai and I wouldn't mind Papai winning again, but either of these four will d...

A Dal is back with its usual formula. Eurovision veteran Joci Pápai is back as is András Kallay-Saunders in his about 15th incarnation, this time as singer in The Middletonz,  and the semifinalists include many names from previous A Dals from Olivé Berkes to Leander Kills, Gergö Oláh and yesyes among others. As usual three heats (six songs going through each, fivee by the jurors, the last one by the televoters from the remaining acts), two semifinals (four songs going through each) and final will follow and a lot of variety in the genres and Hungarians are not shy trying something new - remember  Viszlát_nyár ? Heat one Timi Antal ft. Gergő Demko – Álmos Világ **  39   Olivér Berkes –  Lighthouse  **/ Világitótprony   *** 33 Deniz –  Ide Várlak Vissza  *** 34 (televoters) Barni Hamar –  Wasted   *  29 Konyha –  Szászor Visszajátszott  ***  38 Nomád –  A Remény Hídjai   *  35 Rozin...

Hungary hit success last year in Eurovision with some gypsy music but this year they went for some metal instead. However, this Tamás Horváth's Meggyfa would have continued the theme nicely! Hopefully he comes back to A Dal next year. Great stuff!

As I suspected Hungary chose rock as AWS did win A Dal 2018 with Viszlát nyár. At least they will stick out among all acoustic ballads! The jury didn't quite believe in it as it only barely got into the second round but once there televoters took care of the matter.  First round (jury): Gergely Dánielfy - Azt mondtat 36 Viktor Király - Budapest girl 30 yesyes - I let you run away 28 AWS - Viszlát nyár 8 Leander Kills - Nem szól harang 6 Biga - Good vibez 4 Szolt Sule - Zöld a május 0 Támas Hárvath - Meeggyfa 0

  Hungary's long selection process has come to an end and tonight we will know who gets the ticket to Lisbon 2018 Eurovision song contest and follows hopefully Hungary's rather succesful recent story and maybe becomes Hungary's 8th straight year in the final, including three top-10s.  The jurors will vote this time only after all acts have performed and ranking the entries in order. The top four will go to the superfinal. It's good to see 5 songs out of 8 in Hungarian! yesyes was my istant favorite, but it has lost a bit ground over the weeks and I'm not sure anymore. Horváth has emerged a new favorite, but is it a bit too similar to last year's entry? It also makes me think of Sting.... Király seems to be a favorite (again), but I don't like his song at all (again). Or could Hungary pull out the metal card and send AWS or Leander Kills amongst all those acoustic ballads in Lisbon? Or is it all about good vibez in the end? One thing is sure: It'...

  Hungary will have its second A Dal semifinal tonight and again 3 songs will qualify thanks to jury-tlevoting, and one more thanks to televote from the leftovers. As long as Támas Horváth, testes and Ceasefire X qualify for the final this blogger is happy. If not, not so much....  AWS - Viszlát nyár (46) Ceasefire X - Satellites (40) Cintia Horváth & Tomi Balogh - Journey (Break Your Chains) (36) Tamás Horváth - Meggyfa (38) wildcard Viktor Király - Budapest Girl (42) Odett - Aranyhal (37) Nikoletta Szőke, Attila Kökény and Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos - Életre kel (37) Tamás Vastag - Ne hagyj reményt (36) yesyes - I Let You Run Away  (45)

  Hungarian A Dal has reached its semifinal stage. As usual the jurors will vote and send three songs to the final, and then televoters have a chance to save one more among the leftovers. As always there are several goodies among the songs, so it's hard to predict who will qualify and my favorites are in the second semi anyways.... Update: Gergely, Sule and Biga were first selected, and then televoters lifted leander Kills to the final, too..... Dánielfy Gergely — Azt mondtad Gulyás Roland — H Y P N O T I Z E D Ham ko Ham — Bármerre jársz Heincz Gábor (BIGA) — Good vibez Knoll Gabi — Nobody to Die For Leander Kills — Not szól harang Maszkura és a tücsökraj — Nagybetűs szavak SativuS — Lusta lány Süle Zsolt — Zöld a május

  Hungary's A Dal has also reached the semifinal stage after three heats. As there have been mainly only jurors so far it's hard to predict the outcome as sometimes when people get to vote things turn around, so instead of feasturing the heat winners in the above picture I chosee some of my favorites instead: Tamás H, Ceasefire X, Roland and yesyes . I also like Ham ko Ham , that could do wonders in televote if they only get that far....  As before the jurors sent their top-5 to semifinals, and public had a chance to vote one more from the rest. Two semifinals will follow with half the entries qualifying for the final.  Here are the semifinalists Tamás Vastag - Ne hagyj reményt  Leander Kills - Nem szól harang  Zsolt Süle - Zöld a május  Gabi Knoll - Nobody to Die For  Ceasefire X - Satellites  Viktor Király - Budapest Girl  Odett - Aranyhal  yesyes - I Let You Run Away  ...

  Hungary has released the entries for A Dal 2018. There's no Origo this year that would really stick out with the first hearing but my 30 second first hearing found a few that could prove worthy in the further hearings and if presented well live on stage. Most of all Yesyes and #yeahla . Otherwise the songs can be easily almost all be put in three categories: 1) Songs that sound off Craig David's debut album Born to do this what comes to sounds and arrangements (and that's a positive thing actually...), 2) semi acoustic simple ones and 3) heavy rock wannabes. Quite strange combo really and this blogger's not quite sure what they have been after this year. Anyways, way better standard than in most countries selections as usual, and luckily most of the songs are in Hungarian. LISTEN TO THE ENTRIES HERE

Also Hungary has sorted their selection out and as usual the 30 songs will be divided in three heats with eliminations, then two semifinals with eliminations and finally the final. Among the artist several already well known names from Viktor Király to Gabi Knoll, from Leander Kills to Benjamin Pál, Peet Project, Odett, Reni Tolvai and Adám Szábo. And as usual you have it all from hard rock to electro swing and acoustic pop and everything in between. Oh, and Freddie will be co-hosting the shows! Andy Roll – Turn the Lights On  (Dutka András )  AWS – Viszlát, nyár (Kökényes Dániel, Brucker Bence, Veress Áron, Schiszler Soma – Siklósi Örs)  Ceasefire X – Satellites  (Vavra Bence András, Szűcs Norbert – Kozma Kata)  Dánielffy Gergely – Azt mondtad (Dánielfy Gergely – Völgyesi Árpád)  Fourtissimo Electride – Kisnyuszi a kalapban (Ferencz-Kuna Valéria, Kuna Márton, Ferencz-Kuna Gyula, Kuna Bence ) Gulyás Roland – Hypnotized (M...

Hungarian  Joci Papai  follows Origo with  Özönviz . If you loved Origo you will love this one, too. It's made with the same recipe: modern beat, gypsy violin, female dancer, catchy frase repeated so often that you go yodeling long before the song's over..... Love it Slovenian runner ups and elevote winners  BQL  have got around releasing a video for their  Heart of gold  only now. One can only wonder how they would have done in Kyiv.... Finland's runner up  Zühlke  with  Perfect villain  released  Closer  already in April but it's a great track and deserves another change.  Estonia's finest  Ott Lepland  has released  Siin me kokku saime  and here we get it all togerher: his great voice, nice summery rhythm and catchy feel good song. Perfect for lazy summer late afternoons or early evenings.....

Pictured is Hungary's national flower tulip Hungary continued with the highly succesful A Dal concept for the 6th time and once again managed to gather a very high class and variable lot of artists and songs. This year the process was made even more professional as all the artists had to have already a recording contract and a label, at least one album alreayd released or their music being played on Hungarian radio and television. 30 entries made the cut and through three heats and two semifinal we were down to eight finalists. Joci Pápai won the final round with televotes, having qualified on each step purely thanks to juries. His Origo is written by himself. József "Joci" Pápai (35) is Hungarian singer, rapper and guitarist of Romani descent, and for the first time Hungary will bring their gipsy minority into spotlight in Eurovision, a fact that these times and days isn't so obvious. Joci interested in music at young age thanks to his brother and came...

Another busy weekend ahead: three national finals (Hungary, Malta and Poland), Slovenia has its two semifinals, Latvia its semifinal, Portugal starts, Estonia, Ukraine, Sweden and Lithuania continue.... I will update  all the results here once they happen so check in here for easy access.... To be updated... Friday February 17, 2017 Slovenia Saturday February 18, 2017 MALTA FINAL POLAND FINAL HUNGARY FINAL Slovenia Estonia Ukraine Sweden Lithuania Sunday February 19, 2017 Latvia Portugal

Hungary's A Dal 2017 came to an end this Saturday and Pápai Joci won with Origo . Hungary will be bringing into contest a heavily ethnic, gipsy flavored entry sung in Hungarian. This blogger is loving it! Joci (35), who is of Romani descent, interested in music already at early age thanks to his brother. He first tried his luck in 2005 with the local Idols Megaztar but didn't get that far. The year after he was enjoying his first hits with rapper Majka but then he had another quiet period until 2015-206 when he scored a couple of hits in collaboration with Caramel and again with Majka.  But now it's all about himself and Origo!

Hungary's A Dal 2017 comes to an end tonight and we will know who will travel to Kyiv and try to bring the trophy to Budapest for the first time. First the juror will rank the songs and send four to the next round, where televoters will have the final say. The field is very much open here. My guilty pleasure is Joci and I wouldn't mind if Kállay Saunders wins again. I can't not think about ByeAlex when I hear Soulwave.... Let's see what the Hungarians end up with.... Watch here 19.30 CET Gigi Radics - See it through Joci Pápai - Origo  WINNER Gina Kanizsa - Fall like rain Soulwave - Kalandor Gabi Tóth & Freddie Shuman feat Begi Lotfi - Hosszú idök Leander Kills - Élet Zävodi & Olivér Berkes - #háttérzaj Kállay Saunders band - Seventeen

Now this is a busy weekend! Selections with heats and semifinals in Hungary, Estonia, Ukraine, Sweden, Lithuania and Latvia, and finals in Spain and Italy. Even if for Italy we may have to wait a few days or weeks for confirmation who goes in the end, and with which song..... And it's not over yet. Monday we will have the Israeli final! I will update the relative posts once they happen - but I will be following Sanremo closely - so this post is for easy access for the results Friday  February10 Hungary - A Dal - semifinal 1 Saturday February 11 Hungary - A Dal - semifinal 2 Estonia - Eesti laul - semifinal 1 Ukraine - semifinal 2 Lithuania - Eurovizijos - heat 6 Sweden - Melodifestivalen - semifinal 2 SPAIN - OBJETIVO EUROVISION - FINAL ITALY - SANREMO - FINAL   Here Sunday  February 12 Latvia - Supernova - Heat 2