Megasztár

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Megasztár - Voice of the Year is a Hungarian voice talent television series that started in 2003 on TV2. While it is widely considered an unlicensed clone of the British television show Pop Idol (and sometimes even referred to as Hungarian Idol), TV2 maintains that it is a distinct format created by SBS management member Christoph Buerge. The sixth season was the last season, because TV2 bought the license of The Voice. The Hungarian edition of The Voice premiered in Fall 2012; it will be the rival show to X-Faktor.

Impact

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 2000s, 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".

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].

Show format

Yearly timeline

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.

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).

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.

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]

The jury

Former jury members

Lead jury members were also the show's producers in charge of music.

  • Tamás Z. 'Pierrot' Marosi (season 1-2)
  • Péter Novák (season 3)
  • Gyöngyi 'Soma' Spitzer, jazz singer (season 1-3)
  • Gábor Presser, musician, member of legendary 70's Hungarian rock group LGT (season 1-3 and season 5)
  • Tibor 'Settenkedő' Bakács, critic (season 1-3)
  • Barna Pély, jazz musician and singer of the group called United (season 1-3)
  • Enikő Eszenyi, actress (season 4-5)
  • Tamás Mester, singer (season 4-6)
  • Sándor Friderikusz, TV presenter (season 4-5)
  • Miklós Fenyő, singer (season 4)

Current jury members

  • Zoltán Bereczki, actor and singer (since 6th season)
  • Mariann Falusi, singer (since 6th season)
  • Tamás Mester, singer (since 4th season)
  • Gábor Bochkor, radio personality (since 6th season)

Finalists

First season

Second season

Third season

Fourth season

Fifth season

Sixth season

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Megasztár&oldid=4387802"