Welcome to The Xtra Files, our new series which will give you an insight into what the team at escXtra think of your favourite entries into this year’s contest! Today, we review Hungary.
Now that all the songs have been released, we are able to review each and every one of them. Our honest and brutal reviews will keep you entertained until the rehearsals start in May! We will also each give a score out of 10 for every entry, and create an escXtra leaderboard of the entries!
Today, it is the turn of the Hungarian entry, ‘Origo’ by Joci Pápai, to be ripped to shreds by Hlynur, Matteo, Nathan, Nick, Sagheer, and Sophie. Let’s get started!
The Reviews
Hlynur:
When I first heard the song… I thought “Ugh, this is awful, didn’t they have anything better at the final?” But after a few more listens, I find myself enjoying a lot. Now the song is one of my top favorites of this year. I even catch myself trying to singing parts of it out loud.
Matteo:
I really love this song and it’s one of my favourites from this year. I like the vibe and I like the sound, plus I find the lyrics quite endearing even though highly religious. One of the few folk sounding songs from this year!
Nathan:
Representing Hungary with something traditional isn’t easy and yet this comes across with ease. I like this and would like to see it do well.
Nick:
I was so thrilled when the ethnic trend seemed to be over. And I should really hate this: Rap, ethnic rambling. And let’s not forget the man bun…another trend I had hoped would disappear soon. But I like the song a lot, actually. Lose the rap and the bun and I’m happy.
Sagheer:
Origo is exactly the song that I’ve been longing to see at Eurovision. It is a beautiful song that brings some ethnic middle eastern flavour which has been lacking in recent years. Plus the fact that it is sung in its native language is a definite plus for me and I can see it surprising many when the rehearsals and live shows take place.
Sophie:
When I first listened to this, at the very first note I thought I was gonna hate it – basically because of the yowling sound of his voice. But then the rhythm started and kind of enchanted me. If it wasn’t for the rapping part, which is almost always a killer for me, I would really like this a lot.
Scores
| Dimitris | 5.5 | Rodrigo | 5 |
| Hlynur | 8.5 | Ryan | 6.5 |
| Katarina | 9.5 | Sagheer | 9 |
| Luke | 1.5 | Simon | 8 |
| Matteo | 10 | Sophie | 7 |
| Nathan | 6.5 | Wivian | 4.5 |
| Nick | 8.5 | Yassia | 3 |
When the top score of 10 and the lowest score of 1.5 are removed, the average score for Hungary is 6.79.
(Removing the top score and the lowest score helps to make the average score more reliable and less affected by outliers.)
Leaderboard
Hungary reaches first place in our leaderboard with a score of 6.79.
- Hungary – 6.79
- Moldova – 6.58
Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Norway to be reviewed.
Do you agree with our reviews of Hungary? What are your thoughts on ‘Origo’? Let us know in the comments!
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