Guitars dominate in surprising A Dal quarterfinal

On Saturday night, metalband AWS won the second heat in A Dal in Hungary while Ádam Szabó’s band yesyes also qualified. ESCDaily’s editor Robin Tas followed the show and gives in-depth reviews of all performances.

Missed the action last night? No problem! With this review, you are up-to-date in just a minute.

Hungarians seemed to like guitars a lot in this show. While many songs featured acoustic flavours, there were also two rock bands who banged their guitars successfully. Let’s take a look at each performance individually.

Peet project – Runaround (eliminated)

The evening took off with the song “Runaround” from Peet Project. Peet Project starts badly, vocally out of tone, but as the performance continued the vocal part got better. The saxophone is a nice choice to keep this song interesting to listen. The performance received 36 points from the jury.

Odette – Aranyhal (5th place, qualified)

Odette followed with her song “Aranyhal” (translated: goldfish), a slow tempo song. The video background movies distracted a lot from Odettes performance. Vocals solid, as Odette is dressed in white and pink. The jury gave her 33 points.

Yesyes – I Let You Run Away (3rd place, qualified)

The song “I let you run away” is a different song compared tot he previous ones. It is the first rock ballad of the evening. Ádam Szabó, runner up in 2015 to Boggie, is the lead singer of this band. After his performance, the sweat drept of his forehead. Yesyes received 43 points from the jury.

Maya ‘n’ Peti – Nekem te (eliminated)

Szikszai Pétert (the male performer of Maya ‘n’ Peti) starts with the first couplet of “Nekem te” and Szalma Annamária sings the second one. The tune is a softer acoustic song with a dominant guitar. The two end up dancing together. Together with the street lights on stage, it is a credible performance. Maya ‘n’ Peti receive 24 points from the jury and 6 from app vote, which gives them a total of 30 points.

Singh Viki – Butterfly house (eliminated)

In a shiny blue dress, which makes hert look like a butterfly when she spreads het arms, Viki Singh sings “Butterfly house”. It is a typical dance song that can be placed in the Swedish Eurodance genre. The performance has a lot of fast-changing camerashots (in style of Sacha Jean-Baptiste) and ends with fireworks. Singh Viki receives 28 points from the jury and 6 from app vote (34 in total).

SativuS – Lusta lany (qualified through televoting wildcard)

SativuS clearly enjoys singing his song “Lusta Lany”, since he enters the stage with a big smile on his face. On the podium is also his  band ,including drums, guitar and a violin, and two background singers. He is dressed casually. The song is typical Magyar hiphop. The shapes on the background do not contribute in any way tot he performance. He still has a big smile on his face after his performance. He receives 26 points from the jury and 8 from televoting (34 in total).

Gergely Dánielfy – Azt Mondtad (2nd place, qualified)

Nicely dressed with braces, Gergely Danielfy sings a quiet performance, “Azt Mondtad” (translated: “You said”) in Hungarian. It is a vehement song with a acoustic guitar and a touching violin. The tune sounds and feels as something you’d listen to while having dinner on a terrace on a warm summer night.  Everyone in the hall is quiet and even the jury seems to be touched and impressed by this performance. Gergely gets 37 points from the jury and 8 points from televoting.

Nene – Mese a kiralyrol (eliminated)

Swinging on a swing and in a pink dress, Nene sang “Mese a kiralyrol” (translated: “months of Kiralyrol”), a happy guitar song. The background video shows a snowy surroundings, which makes you think it could have been a scene from Disneys’ Frozen. The song has a warm ending, where the snow has disappeared. Nene is singing out of tune sometimes (especially at the end of the song when she sings higher than before). She received 31 points from the jury and 6 from the televoting, giving her 37 point in total, which is good enough for a fourth place.

Biga – Good Vibez (4th place, qualified)

Biga enters the podium with a guitar to sing “Good Vibez”, an English song. He performs quite well with a strong voice and a catchy song. Colored balls on the podium contribute to the good vibe you get from this song. Also an enormous disco light is present on stage. Heinz Gábor “Biga” receives 35 points from the jury and 43 in total, which puts him in second place.

AWS- Viszlát nyár (1st place, qualified)

The band AWS comes up with a rock/metal song, called “Viszlat nyar”, which means “Goodbye Summer”. The very popular Hungarian band includes a drummer and electronic guitarist. The act is very noisy, with flames on the background screens. The lead singer is almost screaming during the last part of the performance. While he is out of breath after his performance, AWS recieves very positive jury comments and gets 36 points. With 9 points from the televoting, AWS takes the first place (together with Dánielfy Gergely) with 45 points.

SativuS won the televoting and is the sixth act that continues to the semi-finals, together with AWS, Dánielfy Gergely (45), Biga (43), Yesyes (43) and Odett (39).

You can find the full results in this article.