It’s Budapest calling. After a long period of silence, Hungary’s MTVA has launched its search for A Dal 2020 entries, along with the rules, but with a major twist. There is NO mention of the show serving as Hungary’s national selection for Eurovision 2020. Curiously, a few hours after MTVA uploaded the rules, they abruptly took them down, prompting still further speculation among Hungarian Eurofans. At the time of publishing this article they had not been put back online.
In any case, this is what we know so far.
A Dal is back for another season, with an even longer show, which will be aired from the 18th of January to the 7th of March. That means 8 weeks of live shows (hello, Lithuania!). The main rules are as follows.
- The songs cannot have been released before the 1st of March 2019
- The length of each song can be a maximum of 3 minutes
- The competing artists must have a record deal and/or a contract with a professional manager
- The age minimum is 16, as of January 18, 2020
- The artists have to be Hungarian citizens or Hungarian speakers
- The songs will have to be in Hungarian, though foreign composers and songwriters are accepted
- There can be a maximum of 10 people on stage
- The performances will be half-playback
- The competing artists will have to be available for MTVA until the end of March
- A Dal’s acoustic competition will be held this year too, together with awards for “Best Lyrics” and “Best Newcomer”
- The prize that the winner will get consists of the Petőfi Musical Award, opportunities to perform on the main stages of the VOLT and STRAND festivals, promotion in Radio Petőfi worth of 25 million forints (75 thousand euros), and 25 million forints in cash (another 75K euros) that has to be spent on their musical career (recording, gigs, music video shooting etc)
- The song submission deadline is November 15, 24:00 CET
Eurovision 2020 participation under threat?
As many of you might have noticed, Eurovision 2020 is not mentioned at all in the rules nor the call for entries. And since MTVA hasn’t confirmed their participation at next year’s contest, all that we can deduce so far is that even if Hungary will compete, A Dal won’t be used as a selection method this time.
The first fact that supports this is the earliest release date being set on the 1st of March 2019, which goes against the 1st of September rule for Eurovision. The second fact supporting this is that MTVA is asking the artists to be available until the end of March, instead of the beginning of May. On the other hand, songs do fit the required Eurovision length of three minutes and half of the performances (aka the song backing) are playback.
So, unless MTVA comes up with more information regarding Hungary’s participation, there are four possible outcomes:
- Hungary takes part at Eurovision 2020 with an internally selected artist and song
- Hungary takes part and MTVA offers one of the A Dal 2020 acts the chance to represent the country in Rotterdam
- Hungary takes part with MTVA selecting the competing artist with a new and unknown method
- Hungary withdraws from Eurovision 2020.
So what will their decision be? We all have to wait and see.
Do you think Hungary will participate in next year’s Eurovision despite the changes made to A Dal? And if yes, do you have any ideas on how MTVA might select their artist and song? Or are you rather skeptical about this and predict the first Hungarian withdrawal since 2009? Tell us in the comments below!
I am very hungry for Hungary (see what I did there) to compete in 2020. I love their original songs, and the fact they bring something different every year. Vizlat YAAAAHHH
Hungary is my favorite at ESC so I’m gonna be so mad
Same
I love you Hungary <3
Please participate.
So, either Hungary is going to pursue an internal selection or they might be withdrawing. Why have a national selection if you’re not going to using it for Eurovision?
As a festival of Hungarian music. Maybe they want to send somenthing in English to Eurovision…
They have a local music competition on their televisions – you call it a ‘National selection’ – they don’t!
I wouldn’t like to get political, but I firmly believe that if Hungary eventually withdraws from Eurovision, it will not be a matter of economical issues, but rather a matter of political differences (huge differences, I’d say) with Western Europe. Let’s be honest, Hungary is facing a far-right wave nowadays, and Eurovision doesn’t really fit Viktor Orbán’s agenda since he is all but LGBT-inclusive and a person who celebrates diversity.
Agree 100%
I am so freaking sad & mad. A Dal was my favourite National Selection BY FAR! It has always been serving so much quality!
Earlier this year, Lithuanian Atranka, my second favourite selection (because of songs’ quality as well), shortened the number of participating acts. Now Hungary is no more using A Dal as a national selection 🙁 What’s next?
Hungary is one of my favourite countries in Eurovision as well. I love their absolutely every entry in 21st century, except 2009. So if they will decide to withdraw, they would be really missed. :((
Sanremo too are not declareted like the eurovision contest for select thAT
No I don’t want Hungary to withdraw 🙁
I do. 2014 was the only good song they ever had
All but a withdraw! Please!
When I read “1st of March 2019”. I started to get worried because Hungary better not withdraw from the contest. Eurovision without Hungary would be so wrong. But my gut feeling says Hungary may internally select an artist.
C’mon, they’ve only missed the finals once since 2011, which is a great success and in doing so they placed 12th.
They come with great entries, so I really hope they don’t withdraw. If they withdraw just because they’ve failed to qualify once, that would be ridiculous.
I hope that’s not the case and they internally select the artist.
Btw, what about Moldova and Bulgaria?
And Armenia, but I think Moldova and Armenia will confirm, about Bulgaria nothing has been decided yet, but they may participate.
Bulgaria doesn´t have the funds, Moldovva always confirms on the last day and Armenia who knows.
Why would they do that? “Thanks to this format we qualified 7/8 times we used it, and got 3 top 10 finishes, but we finished twelfth in the SF this year, and that’s enough of a reason to abandon A Dal as the NF – it certainly didn’t have anything to do with the Middletonz’s and Gergo Szeker’s songs getting eliminated by the jury or the ineffective and bland staging”. That’s crazy. I really hope they know what they’re doing. Plus, I seriously doubt this move would help them improve the constantly dropping viewership.
Hoping for an internal selection, unpopular opinion; but I was not much of a fan of A Dal, perhaps it was too “Hungarian” for me hahah. But yeah hope they won’t withdraw after one NQ, I mean look at N.Macedonia..
I would much rather they internally select than withdraw, that’s for sure! I’ve been praying for a Hungarian win for years and would probably have a breakdown if they bowed out. Going in a different direction might not be the worst thing if they’re not willing to change some of the A Dal rules, but for the overall musical quality I’ll still watch whether the end goal is a Eurovision entry or not.
they better not withdraw… they only failed to qualify one year out of nine, and it was mostly bc of their incompetent jurors eliminating all the better a dal songs.
Honestly, I feel like they all have been thinking: “Oh, I know this dude. He was on ESC some time ago and did somewhat well, so let’s just send him again”
On the one hand, not marketing a national selection as one isn’t new (FdC, FiK, and Sanremo all come to mind), but that deadline thing could be a problem unless the plan is to select a new song for the festival winner like Italy did back in the day. I dunno. I really hope they don’t pull out, because Hungary have been pretty consistently strong since their comeback and I always look forward to the diverse entries they send every year. But if they need a year to recharge like 2010, I won’t blame them, unless the withdrawal is longer,… Read more »
an internal selection like 2011 most likely.
It’s probably an internal selection like 2011
It’s probably an internal selection like 2011