Hungary always manage to surprise us when it comes to Eurovision, with a history full of such diverse entries. They’re not always the most successful, but it always feels like they’re putting their best foot forward, even if that doesn’t give them a great Eurovision result. We saw such a beautiful entry from Hungary last year, which was in fact one of our favourites not only of 2017, but all time from Hungary, so the bar was set high for this year’s competition.
After what felt like a slightly underwhelming national selection, the winner of A Dal was metal band AWS with their song Viszlát nyár, which couldn’t be any further from their previous entries. It was an unexpected winner for us, but upon first listen, I can’t say I was disappointed.
I have to preface this review by stating that I’m not the biggest metal fan. It takes something pretty special to catch my attention, especially once we’ve pushed the boundaries of rock and entered into metal territory. Saying that, this song is gold. There are so many good things about this entry, but what I really love is that it has such passion and soul. Sure, I have no idea what they’re singing about, but you just know that they’re telling a story. Not only that, but the story they are telling is in the form of a catchy melody – not catchy in a pop song way, but in the way that you can actually follow along with the song.
I think this song is the song that viewers who aren’t convinced by the pop entries of this year will vote for, as in a sense it represents the ‘different’ of this year’s contest. It’s certainly not like anything else this year, and for that reason alone it will stand out tremendously. This song already has so much support behind it, and all the rock fans of Eurovision will certainly gravitate towards this daring entry from Hungary. It could have been a risky move to choose something like this, but I absolutely think that this song was the right choice for the nation. It’s daring, but this is such an organic song that doesn’t at all feel forced, and it doesn’t feel like it was written just with Eurovision mind, but written just to be a good song.
In terms of staging, this has the potential to be absolutely mind-blowing. Think Softengine or MaNga on steroids. Using the light and darkness in a clever way could make this look incredible, and I think their national final staging was on the right track, but if that could be amped up, Hungary will be one of the most memorable of the second semi-final.
All aboard… the AWS train!
This song is incomparable to anything else this year, and I truly think this has huge potential this year, even despite the fact that not everyone is a metal fan. It’s good to see stylistically something different, but also good to see that Hungary is once again supporting national language, and that’s a huge box ticked for us. I think this is a pretty safe qualifier, and I truly would be surprised to see this stay in the semi-final.
Our rating: 8/10
If you support Hungary at Eurovision, make sure to vote for AWS in our poll! Watch their official video below, and follow our Eurovision 2018 playlist on Spotify.
