He’s Hungary’s first ever returning Eurovision star, having reaching the top ten in 2017 with “Origo”. After winning A Dal 2019, Joci Pápai is back for another bite of the cherry.
He announced exactly two weeks ago that he planned to bring a slightly revamped version of his song “Az Én Apám” to Tel Aviv. And on Thursday evening we got to witness the final product, along with a new music video.
Joci Pápai “Az Én Apám” revamp and official music video
Musically, there isn’t any drastic change. The song is more atmospheric now, backed with some smooth electronic sounds. It is also notable that the whistling parts have been swapped for an emotional violin line, which keeps playing even outside of the chorus.
A soft and distant bass drum is added to the first verse, along with a female backing vocal. Otherwise, the track unwinds pretty much as before, apart from some minor percussion changes. The song finishes with the backing vocalist joining Joci for his signature “na na na” sound (no Serhat pun intended).
Meanwhile, the new music video consists of footage from Joci’s A Dal journey and shots from the original pre-revamp clip
Hungary isn’t known for Eurovision revamps. Typically, the only changes are language switches such as translating Magdi Rúzsa’s “Unsubstantial Blues” into English or turning Kati Wolf’s “What About My Dreams” into a bilingual banger.
The exception was (obviously) ByeAlex, who took Zoohacker’s remixed version of “Kedvesem” to the Malmö stage in 2013.
Do you like the new version of “Az Én Apám”? How far will it go in Tel Aviv? Sound off in the comments below.
I find the drum too loud but overall the song is still pretty good. As I said when he won the selection, this song won’t go anywhere from my top 10, and now it remains on the 5th place. Hungary always brings quality at Eurovision.
I still love it but i feel they could have left the whistling in at the beginning at least and then added the violins from the second chorus
omg does this mean the iconic violin lady will be back
I liked it before I like it now
The whistling made this song for me, now the magic is gone.
The people voting will never have heard the whistling, so it won’t matter. Before the song was too low-key. This is a good revamp.
Song was good enough, I loved the whistling. It’s his vocals that need a revamp, at least in the live performances so far.
It’s a good revamp — I don’t think it needed changing but it’s all good. This version works perfectly for a violinist to be on stage at ESC, which will help make the performance more interactive and dramatic.
I really like Joci Papai, he’s becoming a Eurovision icon and I’m here for him. I don’t think he’ll win this year (he’s also not my favourite to win) but I hope he represents Hungary again in the future.
It’s a good revamp, but I’ll miss the whistling. By now, Hungary would be between my qualifiers, but I fear this song may be forgotten in a semifinal that has much more distinctive acts than expected back when they made the draw.
What an absolute disaster. Messy, overcomplicated, out of place drums and unnecessarily toned down instrumentation during the chorus. Another proof that if you win a national selection, you don’t need a revamp. Sad to see one of the best songs this year collapse like this, but oh well, more place in my top 10.
Oh man. This was perfect the way it was: heartfelt and beautiful. It was my 4th favorite song this year, and I believed that it was going to do better than expected. Now I’m not sure. The whole mood of it has changed.
that genius whistling part makes for me the differenz between a good and a very good song – i prefer that version with whistling.
it was removed bc whistlin needs to be live at esc
really?
than they should search for a good whistler maybe this lady here.
h ttps://youtu.be/KkM71JPHfjk?t=36
Don’t worry. Romania will come next year with ‘Whistle It!’
Not going to compare them side-by-side or anything but strings seem to be a bit more noticeable here. Overall, a bit more impactful. Still like it!
Much better! Seems like hungary will be a certain qualifier again this year. I can’t really see them not qualifying in the more eastern oriented first semi final
Very good revamp 😉