A Dal: Wiwi Jury reviews Roma Soul and Dávid Henderson

The first heat of the Hungarian national selection A Dal is behind us, which means that we have the first six semi-finalists. So now it’s time for the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — to review them and see who should follow in Freddie’s footsteps at Eurovision. First up are Roma Soul with “Nyitva a ház” and David Henderson with “White Shadows”.

Roma Soul – “Nyitva a ház”

“Nyitva a ház” reviews

Robyn: I’m vexed. I love Gergö Oláh (the outstanding “Gyöz a jó” should have won A Dal last year) and I’d be very happy to see him represent Hungary at Eurovision. But not with this song. “Nyitva a ház” is so much fun, but as soon as Gergö starts singing, he instantly outclasses everyone else on stage. I’ll take this as a fun interlude while Gergö plots an even mightier return as a solo artist in A Dal 2018.

Score: 7/10

William: While I love and adore upbeat folk songs with a strong ethnic identity, this reads more ‘carnival’ than ‘cultural.’ What’s worse: the song loses steam quickly and feels more irritating than uplifting. PS: Their outfits are giving me a headache.

Score: 2.5/10

Chris: I’m not the only one who gets a real “Bamboleo” feel here, right? Except these aren’t the Gipsy Kings: they’re just pretenders. It just feels like the song never ends, perhaps because they’ve foregone a standard song structure — or just perhaps because it’s that bad. By the time the beatboxing starts, I’m pretty much done.

Score: 3.5/10

Mikhail: It is a really nice song and you can feel the “Roma soul” in it. But nothing strikes me with awe. It would be good as the theme of a dramatic TV series which grandmas watch, but for the current pop scene? I doubt it. I doesn’t have the magical appeal that “Gyöz a jó” had last year. And that rap part… It could’ve been nice, but it is not. Unfortunately.

Score: 5.5/10

Jason: Oh wow. I don’t get the appeal of “Nyitva a ház” at all, I’m afraid. This song seems super disjointed and messy. It leaves me confused and if I am being honest, slightly agitated. Roma Soul reminds me of a group of drunken men at a wedding: fun for a second but mostly annoying. Sorry but Hungary can do better.

Score: 1/10

Erdi: The song is really not original and the different vocal styles don’t work together. The song is memorable and it has some good portions (but they only make up like 10% of the song). I’m sure Hungary won’t choose this — but if they do, they’re out of the Eurovision final.

Score: 3/10

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

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 0 and a high of 7.5.

Wiwi Jury verdict: 4.19/10

Dávid Henderson – “White Shadows”

“White Shadows” reviews

William: The opening bars are so promising, so Melodifestivalen — and then the dodgy acoustics and harmonies come in and the song falls off a (pop-drop) cliff. There was light but David walked straight into a shadow.

Score: 3.5/10

Sami: I really love the studio version and while the live performance isn’t as good, it’s still good enough. The chorus is a bit flat, but everything else works. The song is modern, interesting and Dávid sounds great. He is also nice to look at, but he seems to be bit lost on the stage. The song might not do well at Eurovision, but it’s something I would like to hear on the radio.

Score: 8/10

Robyn: “White Shadows” has the most modern sound of the qualifiers from the first heat, but it’s such a boring song. While David Henderson is — we assume — meant to be the star of the performance, the attention keeps drifting to his DJ, a guy hunched over a laptop. When the chorus is just Dave singing “white shadows” over and over, it makes him sound more like an anonymous guest vocalist at the service of the DJ than a star in his own right.

Score: 4/10

Chris: I’m incredibly confused by “White Shadows”, because it achieves neither a high nor a “pop drop” when it hits the chorus. Instead, it’s some weird mish-mash that just doesn’t work. It’s jarring against a backdrop of good verses and a pre-chorus. David also seems to not be sure what to do with himself on stage. I want to sit him back on that chair and tell him to stop fidgeting, because right now, his moves are seriously lacking.

Score: 5/10

Antranig: “White Shadows” has a very promising start. It sounds haunting and enchanting until it hits the chorus. After that, it sounds like a completely different song and it just doesn’t make sense. The instrumental is weak and derivative and the song should have remained a ballad for three minutes. It’s like he had two songs and couldn’t decide which one to sing so he sang both.

Score: 5/10

Luis: “White Shadows” works until the first chorus. Then David loses the performance. He seems lost and it’s as if the stage has eaten him. The song loops for two minutes, and David doesn’t even bother to add different notes. It could have been a very good dance track, but ends up a snoozefest.

Score: 3.5/10

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

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 3 and a high of 8.

Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.19/10

See our list of A Dal rankings here

Read more Hungary Eurovision news here