They’re the Hungarian musical duo who won A Dal 2020. But while Gergő Rácz & Reni Orsovai would not have represented Hungary at Eurovision 2020, the pair has picked up another honour. Two months on from winning A Dal, their single “Mostantól” is still topping the Top 40 chart on national radio network Magyar Rádió.
Nineteen weeks on from its release, the duo’s song “Mostantól” — Hungarian for “From Now On” — has not been shifted from its number-one position in the weekly top 40. And that’s a record for Hungary.
As well, the song’s official music video has 19.55 million views, narrowing in on the 20 million mark. This makes it the second most popular music video of an A Dal winner, beaten only by Joci Papai’s music video for “Origo”. That song — which was Hungary’s entry at Eurovision 2017 — has over 26.14 million views.
The “Mostantól” music video is also more popular than most music videos for Eurovision 2020 acts, topped only by Russia’s Little Big who have over 108.76 million views for “Uno” and Italy’s Diodati with 35.55 views for “Fai rumore”.
Singer and songwriter Gergő Rácz said after he had written the song, he felt like it was one of his best efforts. Of the chart success, he says, “It feels really good to get such clear feedback.” But he also promises that his future releases won’t be a rehash of “Mostantól”, saying “I’m not the kind of creative person who likes to repeat the same thing.”
His duet partner Reni Orsovai shared the excitement, saying “I never in my dreams would have thought that a song I sing in would achieve such success. I watch in amazement every time and it fills me with great joy.”
Gergő may be familiar to Eurovision fans as being part of the boy band V.I.P. They represented Hungary at Eurovision 1997 — which was recently revisited as part of the #EurovisionAgain series. The boyband placed 12th with the smooth track “Miért kell, hogy element?”
Gergő returned to Eurovision in 2008 where he sang backing vocals on Csézy’s song “Candlelight”.
Hungary turns away from Eurovision
But despite the duo’s A Dal success with a three-minute song, Gergő and Reni wouldn’t have a chance to take it to Eurovision.
In November 2019, Hungary’s MTVA was not on the list of confirmed participating broadcasters for Eurovision 2020. MTVA did not give a reason for its withdrawal from Eurovision, simply saying that it would instead directly support Hungary’s local pop music.
But with Eurovision 2020 now cancelled, Hungary would not have been able to compete at Eurovision even if they had wanted to. MTVA did not screen Eurovision 2020 replacement show Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light.
What do you think? Should Hungary return to Eurovision? Should Gergo and Reni make another attempt? Tell us your thoughts below.
I live in Hungary and everyone says that Orbán Viktor is stupid,but he isn’t,the only stupid thing is that they just leaved ESC this year because its too gay,F
I don’t think the song is that special or outstanding. Maybe a hit in Hungary, but I don’t think it was going to do so well in Eurovision if it had entered the contest.
Well this would have gotten Hungary another spot to the finals and even top 10. It’s a shame that they won’t represent Hungary in Eurovision 2020.
And the sad part is that we may not see Hungary at Eurovision forever, which means Hungary is following Turkey’s footstep.
I’ve been listening to this song ever since it won A Dal. This would probably be my most streamed Eurovision song if this were to compete in Eurovision, maybe beaten by Bulletproof or Andromeda.
Yesssss!!! Same for me??
I’m actually surprised that it’s having the success that it is having. Mostantól is a good song but…I don’t think it’s 20 million views good…
And to ask the questions you put at the end of the news: 1) TOTALLY YES! They should return because they’ve provided good songs a lot of times(also quite often the songs were sung at least partially in Hungarian, what is really nice), but were often underrated :/ (they’re one of my favourite countries at ESC songwise, so that’s why my answer looks like that) 2) Yes, I think they should try as a duo, Mostantol is a really good song and with the fitting performance could get into the final and place well (by the way, here’s their new… Read more »
You forgot that Gergo was also one of the composers for What about my dreams? from 2011…
Hungary are one of the most consistent countries in the contest………and they might not even return next year
Congratulations on the 19 consecutive week at number one! Keep up the good work.
Guess Hungary wont be returning any time soon..sad
As long as Orban is in power, Hungary will not come back. Orban’s policy is squarely against Europe, whereas the aim of ESC is the opposite: Europe coming together. The same goes for Erdogan in Turkey. These politicians want to push their population away from Europe. A song and a dance together goes against their political aims.
We’ll see… I mean maybe they did just have one year of a break u never know… I mean homophobic people usually stand behind their statements (Like that guy from Turkey), but they denied those rumours so u never know.
So will Hungary, right?
and many other great songs as well, IMO Deli (2008) would’ve been a good winner <3