In Malmö, Hungary scored its best result since 2007 (Unsubstantial Blues), as ByeAlex recorded a decent top 10 finish with Kedvesem. In the years before, the country was less successful, despite delivering strong entries including fan favourite Kati Wolf.

For the third time, MTV hosted the successful preselection format A Dal. After three heats and two semi-finals, eight entrants remained from the original 30. In the final,  a combination of jury and SMS voting selected the artist for Copenhagen:

András Kállay-Saunders was born in New York as the son of a Hungarian mother and an American father, but came to Hungary in 2009, where he stayed – as the doors towards a music career opened when he participated in a TV talent contest. And the principle of “third time lucky” applied as he won A Dal 2014 after previous attempts in 2012 and 2013.

Running is one of the most modern songs at ESC 2014. The trip-hop earworm varies between ballady and uptempo elements, uses piano sounds, guitar, synthesizers, and an extremely fast beat. And a difficult topic in its lyrics: child abuse. On the one hand, it is to be endorsed that someone brings a serious subject onto the Eurovision stage, in between all the sjubidu’s and LaLaLa’s – or cakes, to stay in the year 2014. On the other hand, it will probably lead to the highly awkward situation where Eurovision fans will dance, jump, have a ball and sing along to a song about a childhood in fear and violence. I am not going to bother with statistics now, but the chance for concerned people who’ll have to witness that in Euroclub exists. Can a topic this serious really hit the dancefloor? Who should be the one to respond to this question? However, we must not forget that dancing to Running is not the worst part of the chain from topic to song to reception. One of the main tasks of the entry is to create awareness, and in this it already succeeded, even if just because I’m writing this (and you’re reading it).

Its other task is to compete at Eurovision, and in my verdict I’m optimistic that this will be a successfully completed task as well. The song is well-written, his vocals solid. This is a strong contender, and finally it’s not about love, unlike hundreds of other songs. If they get the staging right as well (scrap that chair and the dancers), and if András manages to not come across as too over-the-top concerned, then I can see us running to Budapest in May 2015.

Top 10	Victory	Personal