HUNGARY

The Hungarian Final will be held on February 22nd at the MTV Studios in Budapest, hosted by Gábor Gundel-Takács, Éva Novodomszky, Krisztina Rátonyi & Levente Harsányi. Before the final there were 3 quarter finals and two semi finals. During the final, the jury chose their top 4 from which the televptes chose their winner. Going to Copenhagen is András Kállay-Saunders with the song "Running".

 

I will admit that 'A Dal' has kind of passed me by this year and have really only been able to catch up though recap videos on youtube. As will my Hungarian finals and representatives in the past there was great amount of variety in terms of arts and song style. The Jury's top four were all very different and gave the televoting public a wide choice.

 

Kállay-Saunders is a solo artist although he is not on stage alone. He is backed my 2 female backing singers, 2 secretly hidden dancers and a female pianist who the song seemingly revolves around. The sense of story telling here is quite elements and the staging has been cleverly designed and choreographed to rally emphasize the story of the song. In this way I think this act is really strong from a visual point of view. It is almost like you could pick this up and plop it straight onto Eurovision Island.

 

The song is full of different parts. Although the tempo is quite constant the beat before the tempo runs at different speed which make sit feel like the song is changing pace. The verses are mainly piano lead and emphasise the words in the song. During the bridge parts segue between the beat changes although sometimes it is speeding up sometimes slowing down. The choruses are quite in your face and up-tempo with the quick drum and bass sound and the repetition of the title really fits this change of pace.

 

Out of all the songs chosen for Eurovision, this is the one that feels most ready. It feels like it is almost there, feels like I've seen what's going to be on stage in May. I think that the song has almost nowhere to go and to me that might be the problem. Everybody else has space to grow but I'm not sure how this could be improved. Maybe they will surprise us and come up with a brand new representation but I would be shocked it they did - unless they utilised a feature of the Copenhagen stage.

 

This song is a welcome diversion from the "Of Monsters and Mumford" genre we've seen so much from. It sounds modern, he looks modern but I also think the story telling aspect of this will reel in the views. However, is this song they type of song people will vote for? Strangely I think this will gain more favour from the juries than those at home. Plus the fact that Hungary has no true 'Eurovision friends' means that Kállay-Saunders will have to work doubly hard for his final spot.

Artist - Kállay-Saunders
Song - Running
Music - András Kállay-Saunders, Krisztián Szakos
Lyrics - András Kállay-Saunders, István Tabár