Hungarian hipster

Hungary has been a fairly interesting country on the ESC stage the past couple of years. We even thought they might win in Düsseldorf. This was of course before Kati Wolf turned up in a frightful frock and sang like a drowning cat on the rehearsals, mind you. Last year’s synthpop was rather daring and different and gave way to an entry even further out on the alternative scale. Quirky indie pop features rarely in the ESC line-up. We suppose it’s entries like this one that pushes the boundaries of what is considered to be suitable in Eurovision terms. However how modest and peripheral it might seem it ever so softly forces the competition to evolve and develop.

So is this cute little ditty what we need in order to secure the survival of our beloved song contest for yet another good 50 years or so? Perhaps not, but still we salute this laidback and likable artist for giving Eurovision a go and the Hungarians for letting him go to Malmö. We’ve always had a soft spot for those who travel off the main road genre wise. It’s out there on the fringes where creativity tends to thrive even though we do understand that the whole not in it to win it attitude might put people off. After all this is a competition, and it’s not about who has the weirdest hipster facial hair and ugliest trailer cap.

And with such an atypical Eurovision song, it’s all about the presentation and the attitude if ByeAlex is even remotely interested in achieving a decent result in May. Ironic distance just won’t cut it. People don’t vote for phonies. Or artists unable to work the camera and connect with the viewers out there. Supposedly ByeAlex wanted to sing the last chorus in Swedish as a gesture to the host country, but failed to hand in this version of the song within the EBU deadline. We can’t quite make up our minds if this was a blatant cynical attempt to score a few points, or genuinely polite and original. We choose to believe the latter and rate this entry as one of the most interesting in this year’s running.

6 comments

  1. I LOVE this song to bits. It’s in my top 3 easy, even though I’m not usually attracted to quirky, indie sort of stuff. Fingers crossed it at least qualifies. I wonder if the fact that it’s sandwiched between two big songs in the running order will be to its benefit or detriment? That could help it to stand out.

    1. We’re pleasantly surprised that so many fans seem to like this song. And with regards to the running order one should think that anyone singing after Armenia would benefit from that…

      1. True. When I said ‘two big songs’, I really should have said ‘one big song and one screamfest’. Hopefully Armenia’s wailing doesn’t completely overshadow ByeAlex, and makes him sound better instead.

  2. After Armenia, yes… but hopefully Margaret will erase any tiny shred of memory of it that might have persisted in a more stubborn mind here and there.
    Not crazy about Hungary myself, i’m afraid. I like the litle colourful naive monsters though.

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