After their come-back in 2011 with an internal selection, Hungary’s MTVA came up with a new selection method – A Dal. The public broadcaster announced today that A Dal is going to be organized in 2020 as well, but due to various changes in the rules, it is clear that this will no longer be Hungary’s selection method for Eurovision. MTVA has been in complete silence regarding Eurovision, and the Contest is not mentioned a single time in the call for songs for A Dal 2020, which triggers the question – is Hungary withdrawing?
A Dal proved to be their most successful TV programme, and it traditionally has more viewers than the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The final of A Dal 2019 was seen by over 337,000 people, whilst the Grand Final of Eurovision 2019 was only seen by 145,000 people (the first semi final, where Joci competed was seen by 226,000 people). However, multiple changes are being introduced – one of the major ones is that the competing songs can not be released before the 1st of March 2019, which is then clearly in breach with the Eurovision rules, thus A Dal is separating itself from the Eurovision Song Contest.
Additionally, the released rules state that the winner of A Dal 2020 is going to receive a prize worth 75 million Forints (approximately 227,000 EUR), which they can spend on their music career. This sum is well over the Eurovision participation fee.
Whether this means that Hungary is back to an internal selection, or is once again withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest, is yet to be confirmed. We reached out to MTVA for confirmation, so stay tuned to ESCBubble for all the news from Hungary.
Hungary competed a total of 17 times in the Eurovision Song Contest so far. Their best result came in their debut, when Friderika sang Hungary to fourth place with “Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet”, whilst their worst result came in 2008 when Csézy represented her country with “Candlelight”. Joci Pápai represented Hungary in Tel Aviv with “Az én apám”, and failed to qualify for the final, finishing 12th in the semi.
