HUNGARY – A massive speculation sparked today claiming that the Hungarian national broadcaster is withdrawing from the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest due to a change of rules in the A DAL show.
The recent change in the A DAL show rules though create fair suspicions. The new rules state that songs eligible for entering the music festival of the country can be dated as of March 1st, 2019, a clear breach of the EBU rules.
Of course, MTVA has not given any clarifications. Maybe the A DAL winner will find a new song for Eurovision 2020 or maybe the Hungarian broadcaster is going towards an internal selection for Rotterdam. But unless they make an official statement we cannot see how the rumour about withdrawal from the contest came up.
MTVA is using the show of A DAL since 2011 and so far has somehow good results in the Eurovision Song Contest. But this year MTVA is also very quiet regarding any information about the Eurovision Song Contest, making the Eurofans wondering is there is something wrong.
A DAL’s HISTORY
The contest was introduced by the MTVA, the organisers of the contest, with a different philosophy than 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.
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, five from the jury and public together and one from the public exclusively selected in a second round. Nine songs compete in each semi-final. Four songs from each semi-final move on to the final, three advancing due to the jury and public and one due to the public exclusively. 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.
The first winner of A Dal was the electronic 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.
