Woah, what happened to the forums and when?
Thanks for the informative post
@balizeg.
My traditional review of the night despite A Dal being irrelevant to this year's ESC, sadly:
So the winner gets 8M forint and a spot on Strand Festival (Sziget?) as far as I understood?
First things first. Freddie not looking good with that long hair. Unless he's auditioning for a Magyar remake of Conan the Barbarian?
Not a fan of his new partner either, Dallos Bogi was far superior.
As for the juries...I don't know the reasons for the departure of Misi and Both. Probably this whole not taking part in ESC this year? Can't blame them if so. But the later is missed at least. His iconic 5 min monologues were already synonym with the show itself.
As for the new guys...no idea. Neutral opinion for now. Understood one of them was some sort of a journalist or something but then when they juries took up the stage they all sang and the guy sang pretty well so no idea about that really. Favorite jury remains that of 2018.
To be fair the ones that remained from last year kinda get on my nerves. Lilla is kind of over the top emotional and she shouldn't even announce her votes - I already know what they're going to be just by reading her body language. Feró is kind of even worse though. I get it that he's the "clown" of the troupe but he kind of overdoes it. Also he doesn't seem very open minded to genres that aren't of his liking. We get it that he's an old school rocker but I think someone with a broader taste in music would perhaps be a better option to judge all these different styles. Just my two cents...
I liked the intro song. Usually these come out well. Nice video concept idea. Lovely to see some 50 egos crammed into the same wagon. Don't know why it works, but it did.
Vavra Bence's input this year was disappointing. Easily his worst. That background band and the forced jolly tune convinced no one. Have no problems seeing him go. He performs best solo and singing about love despair. This style didn't fit him at all.
As for Varga Szabolcs...kind of a mediocre effort there. Sort of surprised he made it through. What was all that hand holding with Nagy Bogi though? Can only assume they're good friends
Horus x Marcus ft. Fekete Bori - This was alright. Could really do without the rappers however. The violin melody is pretty nice. As for Bori vocals...not the strongest, neither the weakest. Room for improvement but not envision this on the final for now.
Ya Ou...couldn't help but being reminded of Robin Bengtsson with that treadmil, lol. Is he from Chinese descent or what? Because I don't get that name otherwise. Doesn't look very Chinese however. Genuinly confused. The song was one of first 3 that did nothing for me. So no problems with not ever seing him perform again. Public chose well tonight for a change.
HolyChicks...well, they could really work on their image. I'm not one for "girl power rock" band but "Pillangóhatás" has its moments. Pretty decent melody and atmosphere for what it's for. Was a bit surprised at the low scoring by some members of the jury. Thought it was the first really energetic performance of the night. Maybe it was too colorful to some of them.
Muriel...must say it was the silliest song of the night. No idea whether they were being serious or not. Language barrier gets in my way to understand this act. Whatever brand of coffee they were selling seems no one was willing to have it anyway. Really no surprise to see them gone already. Putting them side to side with Fatal Error at the end had a more obvious outcome than Vincze's facial expressions. Farewell brewers of dull acoustic songs.
Nagy Bogi was really the only act I enjoyed. "Maradok" is no "Holnap" but it's a very heartwarming solid ballad as well. The melody and arrangements blend perfectly with Bogi's faultless in tune singing. Such a pleasant voice she has. And a really captivating image. Hoping Hungary won't be wasting a solid performer as her in years to come and ends up sending her to ESC (should you guys return) in the coming years. With a ballad ofc. Very touching. I think Feró was in tears again like last year
Easily a finalist and why not win the whole thing this time around, no heavy guns around like last year so has a better chance.
Zaporozsec's song just fell flat. But no difference there to the likes of Ya Ou or Pál Dénes. So I do not understand what was the beef with the jury. When Feró said that öt I could see the vocalist dying inside (or starting to plan Feró's murder
). Can't think of reason for such low scoring. At least they had better image than the other crashing bores. Seems the public followed jury's indication anyway. Bet they regret even taking part at all now - though there's no such thing as bad promotion, so there's that for them, I guess.
Pál Dénes song was another snoozer to me. The enchanted forest background didn't help much. Guy seemed a bit smug. Don't think he'll go too far. Though he has teenage hearthrob image going on for him, I guess.
As for Fatal Error...I loathed their participation last year. This combo of acting like clowns with poorly written metal tunes make me cringe. Really don't like their image, in particular the vocalist who on top of that has a pretty annoying voice. I'm all for good metal acts (still mourning Leander 2017) but they are simply overrated. The juries help with their over the top reactions. Seems like they never listened to real metal music before. I have to say however, "Néma" has its moments. It is better than their song from last year. And it was more entertaining to see their keyboarder nearly doing a fatal split on top of that keyboard rather than the awkward dive to the ground that the vocalist did last year.
All in all this is no longer A Dal as we knew it but it's still A Dal, breathing through life support machines in some way and going on forward. I think if Hungary is to return next year that A Dal will be kept as the selection format.
No idea who performs next week but looking forward to see what Biga brings to the table whenever he goes on stage. Looked quite different from 2 years ago in the intro song videoclip. Other than that I
think I liked Mocsok 1 Kölykök's song last year if memory serves me right and curious to see what iconic established ESC act Kati Wolf will come up with.
Other than that plenty of familiar names (Berkes Olivér, Konyha, Nene, Patikadomb, etc.) but not really excited for any of those. Only Patikadomb for laughs.
Sad to think this is all the result of the injustice of not qualifying Joci to the final last year. Far worse songs went through instead. In return we get this when we could be excited about a real NF to elect the Magyar representative in Rotterdam as per tradition every year. Hopefully just a one-off year, would be awful in Hungary followed the footsteps of Turkey or Slovakia...