A Dal

A Dal (English: The Song) is the national selection process in Hungary for the Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was introduced in 2012.

The contest was introduced by the Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap, the organisers of the contest, with a different philosophy on the contest used previously. A Dal was introduced to produce a Hungarian contest, with Hungarian musical tastes being presented to a European audience. The contest is also an open one, with all information of the songs being revealed in the selection process.

Format

The selected songs in the contest are shown to the Hungarian public through a number of special shows. It includes three heats, two semi-finals, and then a final.

Ten songs compete in each heat, with six moving on to the semi-finals, three from the jury and three from the public. Nine songs compete in each semi-final. Four songs from each semi-final move on to the final, two advancing due to the jury and two due to the public. The final winner is selected through two rounds of voting: the first round selects the top four songs out of the eight finalists; the second round selects the winner from the four remaining songs. The first round uses only the jury and the second round uses only the public.

Winners

The first winner of A Dal was the band Compact Disco with the song "Sound of Our Hearts". At the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, the group qualified to the final (10th place in the semi-final with 52 points), and placing 24th in the final with 19 points.

The most successful A Dal winner is András Kállay-Saunders and his song "Running". At the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Kállay-Saunders qualified for the final (placed 3rd in the semi-final with 127 points) and later placed 5th with 143 points, earning Hungary's second best placement ever and only top five finish since 1994.

See also

• Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

References