Today has been a busy day for Hungary and also for the fans of A Dal. After confirming the thirty participants taking part in next year’s A Dal, MTVA have now confirmed the date for the grand final of A Dal 2019. The date has been set for February 23.
A Dal to run for six weeks
As in this year’s selection, A Dal will consist of six shows in total. The Hungarian national final will start with three heats, which will run from January 19 until February 2. Ten participants will take part in each heat. Of those ten, the jury and televoting will pick the six best acts to progress to the semifinals. Five acts will be chosen by the jury, with a sixth act being saved by televoters.
The two semi-finals will take place in February 9 and 16. There will be nine participants in each semi-final. The jury and televoters will once again select their favourites. This time, it’s three from the juries and one from televoters.
Finally, the Grand Final will take place on February 23, where eight contenders will fight for the right to represent Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv in May. The jury will then choose their top four candidates to take part in the superfinal. In the superfinal, it’s all down to televoters, who then have a 100% say over the final result.
The Hungarian broadcaster has not yet revealed which act will take part in which heat. In previous years, they only announced that days before the show actually took place. They have also not set a release date for all entries. Eleven entries are already out there on YouTube, with the other nineteen at least having a snippet on the official A Dal website.
Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest
Hungary first appeared at Eurovision back in 1994 with Friderika Bayer’s ”Kinek
In total, Hungary have taken part at the contest sixteen times. Ever since returning to the contest in 2011, they have managed to qualify for the Grand Final. After Kati Wolf was internally selected for Düsseldorf, the broadcaster invented A Dal as their new national final. Their best results in the A Dal era are a fifth place in 2014 with “Running” by András Kállay-Saunders and Joci Pápai’s “Origo” finishing in eight place in 2017. Coincidentally, both acts will now make a return to A Dal in 2019.
In 2018, the band AWS represented the country with their metal entry “Viszlát Nyár“. They also managed to qualify for the Grand Final in Lisbon, but then only finished in 21st with 93 points.
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