The second heat of the Hungarian national selection A Dal is behind us, which means that we have another six semi-finalists. So now it’s time for the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — to review them all to see who — if any! — deserve to follow in Freddie’s footsteps at Eurovision. First up are the Kállay Saunders Band with “17” and Ádám Szabó with “Together”.

Kállay Saunders Band – “17”

“17” reviews

Robyn: While this is credited to the Kállay Saunders Band, it’s presented more like a solo effort from András himself. “17” is a decent modern pop song, but it lacks the magic that made “Running” such a strong entry in 2014. This would be an ok entry for Hungary in Kyiv, but there are better songs in A Dal 2017.

Score: 7/10

William: Contemporary and on-trend, this marks a huge improvement over his 2016 effort. The production has a sleek finish and it all feels very authentic to him. However, the melody doesn’t stir much in me, the overall tune sounds somewhat familiar and the repetition of “fake IDs” comes off as a slightly awkward. It may not be my cup of tea, but I could see some Europeans having a real thirst for it. Well done.

Score: 6/10

Chris: I’m sorry, but this is so blatant a take on “Sorry” that it’s almost untrue. Except, of course, it’s not as good. Kallay Saunders is a good performer, but he’s not on Bieber’s level. The faux-vulnerability at the end also clashes with the ironic-cool vibe he’s pushing for at the start. It’s awkward.

Score: 5/10

Mikhail:  For me it sounds like a Justin Bieber reject… I get the “Sorry” vibes in it, but it’s more a “Sorry” with a huuuge lack of energy. The song is depressing — there’s too much wailing about love. Some instrumental hooks make you think that it’s cool for a second, but then it goes nowhere. You could make a remarkable arrangement for the song, but if the melody is bad it’s not gonna help.

Score: 5/10

Jason: “17” sounds like everything in the charts today, which will appeal to a certain (younger) demographic. However, to win Eurovision, a song needs to wow everybody, and I can’t see the older generation getting behind this. My main issue is that not much happens in the song. It really doesn’t go anywhere. However, the production is super slick, so overall this wouldn’t be a terrible choice for Hungary.

Score: 6/10

Erdi: I really like this song. It sounds very new for me. The tune and lyrics are pretty good, and I must say I really love Andras’ voice. But will he win? I don’t think so.

Score: 8/10

In the Hungary Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for six reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Antranig: 7.5/10

Bernardo: 7.5/10

Dayana: 7/10

Forrest: 4.5/10

Jordi: 6/10

Josh: 4.5/10

Jovana: 8/10

Luis: 6.5/10

Natalie: 7/10

Sami: 6/10

Sinan: 5.5/10

Zakaria: 7/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 4.5 and a high of 8.

Wiwi Jury verdict: 6.34/10

Ádám Szabó – “Together”

“Together” reviews

William: Lyrically Adam cuts straight to the point: “The woman in black is being attacked for what she’s wearing on her head.” It’s a timely message — especially in a country with a notoriously conservative government. The staging captures notions of conflict extremely well, and the various cages are beautiful even if they symbolise captivity. Despite all of the positives — which include production, vocals and choreography — I can’t help but find this awkward. Pop songs with messages are fine, but this feels heavy-handed and awkward. Singing about anti-immigrant sentiment in a pop contest just doesn’t work.

Score: 6.5/10

Sami: The message of “Together” is very important and it’s well put in the song. It’s not too in-your-face, but it does make you think about the world we live in. Sadly, Adam doesn’t have enough power to perform this live. The studio version is one of my favourites of this year’s A Dal, but with those live vocals, I’m not ready to send this to Eurovision.

Score: 8/10

Robyn: “Together” reminds me of “Pioneer”, but with much clearer, more specific lyrics. And I don’t think it really works all that well. It comes across as quite preachy and serious and it makes it all seem like a massive chore. The intent of the song is great, but the way it’s presented isn’t very successful.

Score: 5/10

Chris: Given that I find Adam unintelligible for half of the song, the staging is key here. From what I can gather, Adam has a human aviary and needs to be stopped at all cost. Okay, let’s be fair: the chorus is good and Adam’s vocal performance is strong, if not his diction.

Score: 5.5/10

Antranig: After a very lacklustre opening, “Together” has a powerful chorus. I need a lot of caffeine to survive those verses, but it does become very interesting when the chorus hits. This is a good effort from a talented performer but too much of the song is uninspiring and boring. Those verses need a complete overhaul if Ádám is to do well at Eurovision.

Score: 6.5/10

Luis: Throw “Running” and “Pioneer” into a bowl, add a meaningful message and a cliché title and BAM! “Together” is a very decent entry, but it’s no more than decent. Adam has a powerful voice, but I’m not really feeling this. I struggle to connect with this song, and I can’t find a particular reason why. It’s like he’s trying too hard to make an anthem and not quite getting there.

Score: 5/10

In the Hungary Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for six reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Bernardo: 8/10

Dayana: 7.5/10

Erdi: 6.5/10

Forrest: 6/10

Jordi: 6.5/10

Jason: 4/10

Josh: 6/10

Jovana: 7/10

Mikhail: 5/10

Natalie: 6/10

Sinan: 6/10

Zakaria: 4.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 8.

Wiwi Jury verdict: 6.09/10

See our list of A Dal rankings here

Read more Hungary Eurovision news here

9 Comments
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Colin
Colin
7 years ago

”I can get why people would think such a message doesn’t fit in Eurovision, but let’s not forget last year’s winner was singing about ethnic cleansing in an obscure Ukrainian dialect.”

True that. Singing about peace is actually the second most popular theme of ESC (listen to Mans and Petra 😉 ). That’s not what’s the issue with Adam’s song. The issue is, as Chris pointed out, that his pronounciation is really hard to understand.

And KSB, well, I can’t say yet… It’s certainly a very different song than Running… I loved Running from the first listening, not sure here…

AurelianTamisan
AurelianTamisan
7 years ago

“Singing about anti-immigrant sentiment in a pop contest just doesn’t work.”

What pop contest?!

mocosuburbian
mocosuburbian
7 years ago

‘together’ is way too blunt for me (okay kind of hypocritical as a 1944 stan but)

17 has this perfect opening for like 30 seconds and then things go downhill… i want to love it but that chorus is so annoying like fake ids realllllllly

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
7 years ago

KSB’s song is good and he definitely has the stage presence to pull this off. Not my favourite song in A Dal but alot of the good studio songs have not been performed well live so far whereas Kallay was on-point. Would be perfectly happy if it was chosen.
Adam’s song is seriously awful and exploitive. But I could see Hungary going for it and that would be a shame.

Racal
Racal
7 years ago

“Singing about anti-immigrant sentiment in a pop contest just doesn’t work.”

I can get why people would think such a message doesn’t fit in Eurovision, but let’s not forget last year’s winner was singing about ethnic cleansing in an obscure Ukrainian dialect. 🙂

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
7 years ago

András has truly lost it with “17”. Truly Justin Bieber with no charisma, as Mikhail states – and Bieber has very little charisma himself. I hope he doesn’t win just because it’s him *rolleyes emoji*

AngieP
AngieP
7 years ago

“Together for me is better than “17”. “17” it’s like I’m listening to Justin Bieber! I don’t say it’s not modern but not dor Eurovision instead of “Together”. Really like it!
Fortunately for Hungary, it’s in the 2nd semi. Just pick the right song!

#Over17
#Over17
7 years ago

17 is much worse than Who We Are. That’s for sure.

an esc fan
an esc fan
7 years ago

Nothing is darker than ”Running”, so Adam Szabo is a piece of cake, maybe even opportunistic, I like that KSB is singing about love.