Hungary

Here's the 20 finalists for Hungary in what is one of the strongest line ups I've seen in a few years.

The list of the 20 candidates:

1. Anti Fitness Club - Lesz, Ami Lesz
2. Bebe and the Change - Fans Will Be Friends
3. Caramel - Vízió
4. Compact Disco - Sound Of Our Hearts
5. Dancs Annamari - Feel
6. Fábián Juli & Zoohacker - Like A Child
7. Gallusz Niki & Vizy Márton - Európa, Egy A Szívünk
8. Gyurcsik Tibor - Back In Place
9. Heinz Gabi - Learning To Let Go
10. Kállay-Saunders András - I Love You
11. Király Linda & Ben & Viktor - Untried
12. Kiss Gina - Chasing Dreams
13. Kökény Attila & Bencsik Tamara - Állítsd Meg Az IdÅ�t
14. Monsoon - Dance
15. Pély Barna, Pál Eszter & Pál István (“Szalonna”) - Open Your Heart
16. Puskás Péter - Csillagok
17. Sophistic - Yeah OK!
18. Tolvai Renáta - Élek A Szemeidben
19. Tóth Gabi - Nem Kell Végszó
20. Veres Mónika “Nika” - This Love

!

Out of those entries, I've isolated four that I think sound fresh enough to compete strongly at Eurovision.

4. Compact Disco - Sound Of Our Hearts
6. Fábián Juli & Zoohacker - Like A Child
8. Gyurcsik Tibor - Back In Place
19. Tóth Gabi - Nem Kell Végszó

Full break down here: http://www.escbet.com/2012/01/11/20-finalists-for-hungary/

Hard to tell just from the snippets. Their best song was last year with Kati Wolf,but it was badly arranged and she looked worn out on the night. I'm assuming her entry this year didn't make the last 20. I think Like A Child isn't bad;I'd also like to hear more of numbers 8 and 19.

Hungary have chosen Compact Disco - The sound of our Hearts.

I'm not overly enamoured with them.Apart from the lead singer there doesn't seem to be much emotion emanating from their hearts at this stage.

Something a bit untidy about this one - the vocals aren't quite there, the sound is a bit dated, there's nothing going on to hold the attention. Apart from Heston Blumenthal on keyboards.

this is all over the place and they'll have to improve that vocal to have any chance of qualifying. hungary only just scraped through with a much better song last year (albeit badly performed). this is not interesting enough if this is the best they can do - i'm saying non-qualifier atm.

Latest live version.

No personality. Lead vocal is still weak. Sandwiched between the novelty of Russia and Austria. Qualification chances are surely in tatters?

Admittedly it's a tight group,yet I'm still quite hopeful for this one.Walkó has a strong voice,maybe the backing can be turned down a little,they wrote the song themselves so will score with juries,it comes after the tuneless grannies and before the vulgar Shake Your Bum..speaking of vulgar,whatever happened to Alf Poier..

In my opinion Steve, they make better DJs/producers than singers. Writing your own song is great, but it can only count for anything if it's performed well.