Megasztár - Voice of the Year is a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 voice talent television series that started in 2003 and is currently in its fifth season, on TV2

TV2 (Hungary)

TV2 is a Hungarian commercial television channel operating since 1997, providing a large variety of programming. It is owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG...

. While it is widely considered an unlicensed clone of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television show Pop Idol

Pop Idol

Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...

 (and sometimes even referred to as Hungarian Idol), TV2 maintains that it is a distinct format created by SBS

SBS Broadcasting Group

SBS Broadcasting Group was a European broadcasting group, operating commercial television, premium pay channels, radio stations and related print businesses in Western and Central and Eastern Europe...

 management member Christoph Buerge.

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."

Impact on record sales

Indeed, three albums from Megasztár singers already finished in Hungary's official top ten sales list http://mahasz.hu/m/hu/toposszchart2004.php, and by 2005, five out of the top ten sellers were Megasztár-related albums http://mahasz.hu/m/hu/albumdb2005.php.

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

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 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. http://index.hu/velvet/celeb/caramel0513/

Former jury members

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

• Tamás Z. 'Pierrot' Marosi
  Pierrot (Tamás Z. Marosi)
  Pierrot, born Tamás Zoltán Marosi is a Hungarian game designer, musician and producer, best known internationally for his video game series AGON and Yoomurjak's Ring. He is also well known in Hungary as a musician, singer-songwriter and producer of several music albums...
  
   (1st and 2nd seasons)
• Péter Novák (3rd season)
• Gyöngyi 'Soma' Spitzer, jazz singer (from 1st to 3rd season)
• Gábor Presser, musician, member of legendary 70's Hungarian rock
  Hungarian rock
  Hungarian rock has been a part of the popular music of Hungary since the early 1960s. The first major bands were Illés, Metró and Omega. At the time, rock was not approved of by the Hungarian Communist authorities. In the 1970s, the Communists cracked down on rock, and Illés was banned from...
  
   group LGT
  Locomotiv GT
  Locomotiv GT is a Hungarian rock band formed in 1971. It has been one of the most influential rock bands in Hungarian rock music. GT in the name of the band refers to Gran Turismo, the long journey that the band was looking forward to when it was formed...
  
   (from 1st to 3rd season)
• Tibor 'Settenkedő' Bakács, critic (from 1st to 3rd season)
• Barna Pély, jazz musician and singer of the group called United (from 1st to 3rd season)

Current jury members

• Enikő Eszenyi, actress (since 4th season)
• Tamás Mester, singer (since 4th season)
• Gábor Presser, singer (since 5th season)
• Sándor Friderikusz, TV presenter (since 4th season)
• Miklós Fenyő, singer (since 4th season)

First season

• Veronika Tóth - winner, Official site
• Ibolya Oláh
  Ibolya Oláh
  Ibolya Oláh is a Hungarian singer. She was the runner-up of the first series of Hungarian Pop Idol, Megasztár.-Albums:-External links:**...
  
   - runner up Official site
• László Gáspár - 3rd place Official site
• Evelyne Kandech - 4th place Official site
• Vera Schmidt
  Vera Schmidt
  Vera Schmidt is a singer-songwriter who rose to popularity after placing fifth in the Hungarian version of Pop Idol Megasztár.She is a student in Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.- Early life :...
  
   - 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
• Dorina Galambos - 11th place
• Gergő Aczél - 12th place

Second season

• Ferenc 'Caramel' Molnár - winner Official site Official Fan Club
• Tamás Palcsó - runner up Official site
• Gabriella Tóth - 3rd place, younger sister of first season winner Veronika Tóth Official site
• Dániel Torres
  Daniel Torres
  Daniel Torres is a Costa Rican footballer. He is currently without a club.-Professional:Torres started his football career with Deportivo Saprissa, where he won several national and international titles between 1996 and 2001. He signed with the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer on September 8,...
  
   - 4th place
• Csaba 'Boogie' Gál - 5th place Official site
• Eszter Bartók - 6th place Official site
• Ádám Bálint - 7th place Official site
• Tamás Pál - 8th place Official site
• Levente Bella - 9th place
• Tímea Kovács - 10th place Official site
• Orsolya Pflum - 11th place Official site
• Ivett Kósa - 12th place

Third season

• Magdolna Rúzsa
  Magdolna Rúzsa
  Magdolna Rúzsa or simply Magdi Rúzsa is a Hungarian singer who won the 2006 title of Megasztár , Hungary's nationwide talent search, closely linked to Pop Idol...
  
   - Winner Official site
• Ferenc Varga - Runner-up Official site
• Angéla Póka - 3rd place Official site
• Eszter Szabó - 4th place Official site
• Tamás Kontor - 5th place
• Bíborka Bocskor - 6th place Official site
• Anikó Baktai - 7th place
• Péter Puskás - 8th place Official site
• Mónika Hoffmann - 9th place Official site
• István Varga - 10th place
• Szabolcs Oláh - 11th place Official site
• Izabella Széles - 12th place Official site

Fourth season

• Viktor Király - Winner
• Dávid Fekete - Runner-up
• Krisztián Lakatos - 3rd place
• Lüszi Tóth - 4th place
• Tamara Bencsik - 5th place
• Nguyen Thanh Hien
  Nguyen Thanh Hien
  Nguyễn Thanh Hiển or simply Hien is a Vietnamese-born Hungarian singer, was a contestant in the Hungarian Megasztár sixth season and was the fifth runner up.-Biography:...
  
   - 6th place
• Károly Szecsődi - 7th place
• Sonia Nkuya - 8th place
• Attila Ásós - 9th place
• Imre Balogh - 10th place

Fifth season

• Renáta Tolvai
  Renáta Tolvai
  Renáta Tímea Tolvai, known professionally as Reni Tolvai is a Romanian singer of Hungarian origin, dancer and model, who won the 5th Megasztár-Hungarian Pop Idol in 2010...
  
   - winner
• Attila Kökény - runner-up
• Melinda Szíj - 3rd place
• András Kállay-Saunders - 4th place
• Djordjevic István "Giorgio" - 5th place
• Yvette Lakatos - 6th place
• Dávid Szeleczki - 7th place
• Anna Patai - 8th place (youngest competitor, age 11)
• Bence Gusztos - 9th place
• Fivérek - 10th place
• Adam's Comedy - 11th place
• Andreas Csonka - 12th place
• Bernadett Varga J. - 13th place