Megasztár
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Megasztár - Voice of the Year was a Hungarian voice talent television series, running, through three seasons, from 2003 to 2006 on TV2. While outside of Hungary it is thought to be an indirect spin off of the British television show Pop Idol (and sometimes even referred to as Hungarian Idol), it is a distinct format that was created by SBS management member Christoph Buerge.
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[edit] Impact
[edit] Overview
The show is notable for not only stirring up but, in the end, radically changing the pop music world in the Hungary of the 2000's, often criticized to lack original talent that Megasztár set out to find. As Péter Geszti said during the third season finale, "Hungarian pop musicians are afraid of Megasztár singers because the latter are extruding the former from the pop market. Which is quite okay because these singers are much better."
[edit] Impact on record sales
Indeed, three albums from Megasztár singers already finished in Hungary's official top ten sales list [1], and by 2005, five out of the top ten sellers were Megasztár-related albums [2].
[edit] Show Format
[edit] Yearly timeline
[edit] Auditions
Auditions for each season are organized in the summer. In these, entrants (the number of whom reached several tens of thousands by the third season) each introduce themselves in front of the jury (already familiar with their entrance application, consisting of a CV and a number of songs given as favourites) with a song either selected by them or the jury, who may either ask them to stop or continue based on their performance.
[edit] Semi finals
From the auditions altogether fifty people are selected, who, in groups of tens, participate in semi finals in the autumn, singing one song selected by themselves, and with the jury selecting the best two each time to participate in the finals. The jury also had to pick an additional singer each time to participate in a special semi final, where two more singers were also picked up for the finals, but this time the audience voted for the singers via phone calls and text messages (and in the third season, via the internet as well).
[edit] Finals and elimination
The finals are organized in the spring, where finalists are eliminated one by one, based on the audience's calls and text messages. In the first season, the singer with the least votes was eliminated. In the second season, the jury chose one singer to continue from the two with the least votes. In the third season, the jury chose a singer to continue from the three singers with the least votes, the remaining two having to sing a 'duel' for the audience's votes.
[edit] Prizes
The grand prize for the winner of the first season of Megasztár was a contract at a record company. Because of the show's high popularity, however, most singers of all seasons got their own contracts in the end. From the second season, winners were also promised a car and a flat in a newly built apartment block, the latter leading to some controversy as the flat which the second season winner was promised to get by the end of 2005 was still not built in May 2006. [3]
[edit] The Jury
[edit] Lead jury members
Lead jury members were also the show's producers in charge of music.
- Tamás Z. 'Pierrot' Marosi (1st and 2nd seasons)
- Péter Novák (3rd season)
[edit] Other jury members
- Gyöngyi 'Soma' Spitzer, jazz singer Official site
- Gábor Presser, musician, member of legendary 70's Hungarian rock group LGT
- Tibor 'Settenkedő' Bakács, critic
- Barna Pély, jazz musician and singer of the group called United.
[edit] Finalists
[edit] First season
- Veronika Tóth - winner, Official site
- Ibolya Oláh - runner up Official site
- László Gáspár - 3rd place Official site
- Evelyne Kandech - 4th place Official site
- Vera Schmidt - 5th place Official site"Thank You" -Liveshow new music video
- Edmond Géza Nagy - 6th place Official site
- Leslie Szabó - 7th place Official site
- Barbara Schmidt - 8th place
- Henrietta Dér - 9th place
- Zoltán Mujahid - 10th place Official site
- Dorina Galambos - 11th place
- Gergő Aczél - 12th place
[edit] Second season
- Ferenc 'Caramel' Molnár - winner
- Tamás Palcsó - runner up
- Gabriella Tóth - 3rd place, younger sister of first season winner Veronika Tóth Official site
- Dániel Torres - 4th place
- Csaba 'Boogie' Gál - 5th place
- Eszter Bartók - 6th place Official site
- Ádám Bálint - 7th place
- Tamás Pál - 8th place
- Levente Bella - 9th place Official site
- Tímea Kovács - 10th place Official site
- Orsolya Pflum - 11th place Official site
- Ivett Kósa - 12th place
[edit] Third season
- Magdolna Rúzsa - Winner
- Ferenc Varga - Runner-up
- Angéla Póka - 3rd place
- Eszter Szabó - 4th place
- Tamás Kontor - 5th place
- Bíborka Bocskor - 6th place
- Anikó Baktai - 7th place
- Péter Puskás - 8th place
- Mónika Hoffmann - 9th place
- István Varga - 10th place
- Szabolcs Oláh - 11th place
- Izabella Széles - 12th place
