Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

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

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!

  Joci Papai is ready and looking awesome and even send a message!

Joci is sporting the gipsy look we already know from the national final, and the dancing girl goes around him while he's pretty static behind him microphone and then playing his milk drum and the lonely violinist on the island. The colors are warm orange. But then he engages with the dancer into a dance while fireworks erupt all around before the rap and everything turns blue. The desperate girl throws away her scarf and falls to the floor in despair - of love I hope, not for his rapping that I like - but it's all good for the final. All turns lovely red and love is all around when he takes her hand and she dances around happily and in the end they are united. Love conquers all. I love the song, This is one of my top favorites but I have an impression something is missing. The sparkle? Hopefully he finds it in time. 

A bit mixed reviews all around for Hungary that is one of my top favorites. Like Finland and Malta they have kept basicly the same staging as in the national final all the way to the outfits. Well, almost. Joci is in black with some gipsy vibe, and the dancer does her scarf dancing around him and with him in a white dress. A violinist is on the stage's island among audience. Colors change from yellow and orange to blue during the rap, and then finally red. Joci apparently has some issues connecting with the cameras and finding his confidence on this huge stage. Well, I wouldn't write this off yet, another rehearsals are on the way and all can still be fixed and found from camera angles to confidence. 

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...

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!