Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

A Dal 2019 was the eighth edition of the Hungarian national selection A Dal, which selected Hungary's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The competition consisted of 30 entries competing in three heats, two semi-finals, and a final. The hosts are Bogi Dallos and Freddie. At the first press conference on 3 December 2018, MTVA announced the hosts, the jury, the 30 competing songs, and introduced the new logo of the show. The former symbol was in use since the inauguration of the contest, and every year they added the current year in the logo. The new one looks like a play button, or a plectrum, written in the inside A DAL 2019.

A jury panel consisted of four people:

• Feró Nagy: the lead singer of the Hungarian band Beatrice
• Lilla Vincze: the lead singer of the Hungarian band Napoleon Boulevard, was part of the Hungarian jury in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018
• Misi Mező: the lead singer and guitarist of the Hungarian band Magna Cum Laude
• Miklós Both: two times Fonogram-award winner performer and composer.

The A Dal 2019 judges

Feró Nagy

Lilla Vincze

Misi Mező

Miklós Both

The top 30 entries of A Dal 2019

On 1 October 2018, MTVA opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 15 November 2018.[2][3][4][5][6] One of the finalists, Petruska, was disqualified after MTVA alleged that his song was plagiarized.[7]

Three heats took place on 19 January, 26 January and 2 February 2019. In each heat ten entries competed and six entries qualified to the semi-finals after two rounds of voting. In the first round of voting, five qualifiers were determined by the combination of scores from each judge and an aggregate score from a public SMS and mobile app vote. In the second round of voting, the remaining five entries that were not in the initial top five faced a public vote consisting of votes submitted through SMS in order to determine one additional qualifier.

In addition to the competing entries, other performers featured during the shows. Skorpió performed their song "Azt beszéli már az egész város" as the interval act in heat 1, Bill Deák Blues Band performed in heat 2, and Fecó Balázs performed in heat 3.

Two semi-finals took place on 9 and 16 February 2019. In each semi-final nine entries competed and four entries qualified to the final after two rounds of voting. In the first round of voting, three qualifiers were determined by the combination of scores from each judge and an aggregate score from a public SMS and mobile app vote. In the second round of voting, the remaining six entries that were not in the initial top three faced a public vote consisting of votes submitted through SMS in order to determine one additional qualifier. Following the semi-final, Petruska was disqualified after MTVA alleged that his song was plagiarised. He was replaced in the final by Gergő Oláh, who had originally been eliminated but who was awarded a wildcard.

In addition to the competing entries, other performers featured during the shows. Miklós Varga and his children performed as the interval act in semi-final 1, and Republic performed in semi-final 2.

The final took place on 23 February 2019 where the eight entries that qualified from the semi-finals competed. The winner of the competition was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the jury determined the top four entries that would advance to the second round. The voting system for the four jurors was different from the method used in the heats and semi-finals. Each juror announced their scores after all songs had been performed rather than assigning scores following each performance and the jurors ranked their preferred top four entries and assigned points in the following manner: 4 (lowest), 6, 8 and 10 (highest). The four entries with the highest total scores proceeded to the second round. In the second round, "Az én apám" performed by Joci Pápai was selected as the winner via a public vote consisting of votes submitted through SMS, mobile app and online voting. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included AWS, the winner of A Dal 2018 and representative of Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.

Hungary performed seventh in the first semi-final, following the entry from Czech Republic and preceding the entry from Belarus. At the end of the show, Hungary was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Hungary placed twelfth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 97 points: 32 points from the televoting and 65 points from the juries, therefore missing out the final for the first time since 2010 when the country did not participate. With the old voting system, Hungary would have ranked 12th with 49 points.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[10]

The following members comprised the Hungarian jury:[10]

• Attila Borcsik (Izil; jury chairperson) – head of music, DJ, music curator
• Béla Patkó (Kiki) – performer, singer
• Mátyás Szepesi – singer, songwriter, lyricist, lead singer of the band Konyha
• Judit Korsós (Lola) – singer, presenter
• Alexandra Iván – singer, songwriter, lyricist, lead singer of Ruby Harlem

Detailed voting results from Hungary (Semi-final 1)[11]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Izil	Kiki	M. Szepesi	Lola	A. Iván	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	9	10	14	14	11	15		8	3
02	Montenegro	16	4	16	13	7	13		14
03	Finland	15	5	15	12	14	14		16
04	Poland	1	3	7	9	4	3	8	5	6
05	Slovenia	3	16	12	7	6	8	3	4	7
06	Czech Republic	6	1	11	2	1	2	10	7	4
07	Hungary
08	Belarus	10	2	1	1	2	1	12	11
09	Serbia	8	6	3	11	5	4	7	9	2
10	Belgium	7	15	8	6	12	12		12
11	Georgia	11	14	5	15	3	9	2	15
12	Australia	5	9	6	5	8	6	5	6	5
13	Iceland	2	11	10	10	15	10	1	2	10
14	Estonia	12	13	2	4	9	5	6	3	8
15	Portugal	4	7	13	8	13	11		13
16	Greece	13	12	4	3	10	7	4	10	1
17	San Marino	14	8	9	16	16	16		1	12

Detailed voting results from Hungary (Final)[12]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Izil	Kiki	M. Szepesi	Lola	A. Iván	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	15	7	26	16	10	17		20
02	Albania	20	20	24	24	24	25		22
03	Czech Republic	6	3	18	3	1	1	12	17
04	Germany	21	15	20	10	9	19		25
05	Russia	16	14	21	21	14	22		4	7
06	Denmark	5	10	7	14	3	5	6	19
07	San Marino	23	26	11	26	26	23		5	6
08	North Macedonia	14	9	1	1	5	2	10	12
09	Sweden	18	1	14	6	13	7	4	13
10	Slovenia	3	21	22	15	15	14		8	3
11	Cyprus	11	23	16	20	19	21		18
12	Netherlands	9	13	5	8	8	10	1	3	8
13	Greece	8	22	3	18	21	13		24
14	Israel	7	25	15	19	7	15		11
15	Norway	2	12	9	22	17	11		2	10
16	United Kingdom	12	8	13	9	2	9	2	26
17	Iceland	1	24	19	17	25	12		1	12
18	Estonia	13	16	6	11	23	16		15
19	Belarus	4	6	8	2	4	3	8	23
20	Azerbaijan	17	5	2	7	18	6	5	9	2
21	France	26	18	10	13	12	20		10	1
22	Italy	10	2	4	5	20	4	7	7	4
23	Serbia	19	11	12	12	11	18		21
24	Switzerland	25	4	23	4	6	8	3	6	5
25	Australia	24	17	17	23	16	24		14
26	Spain	22	19	25	25	22	26		16