Megasztár - Voice of the Year was a Hungarian a music talent show 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, 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
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 due to the 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."
Indeed, three albums from Megasztár singers already finished in Hungary's official top ten sales list, and by 2005, five of the top ten sellers were Megasztár-related albums.
Show format
Auditions
Auditions for each season are organized in the summer. In these, entrants (the number of whom reached several tens of thousands by season 3) each introduce themselves in front of the jury (already familiar with their 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 fifty people are selected, who, in groups of ten, 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 has to pick an additional singer each time to participate in a special semi-final, where two more singers are also picked up for the finals, but this time the audience vote for the singers by phone and text messages (and in season 3, 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 votes. In the inaugural season, the singer with the fewest votes was eliminated. In season 2, the jury chose one singer to continue from the two with the fewest votes. In season 3, the jury chose a singer to continue from the three singers with the fewest votes, the remaining two having to sing a 'duel' for the audience's votes.
Prizes
The grand prize for the winner of the first series of Megasztár was a contract at a record company. Because of the show's high popularity, however, most singers of all editions were given their own contracts in the end. From season 2, 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 season 2 winner was promised to have by the end of 2005 was still not built in May 2006.
The jury
Former jury members
Lead jury members were also the show's producers in charge of music. Tamás Z. 'Pierrot' Marosi (seasons 1–2) Péter Novák (season 3) Gyöngyi 'Soma' Spitzer, jazz singer (seasons 1–3) Gábor Presser, musician, member of legendary 1970s Hungarian rock group LGT (seasons 1-3 and 5) Tibor 'Settenkedő' Bakács, critic (seasons 1–3) Barna Pély, jazz musician and singer of the group called United (seasons 1–3) Enikő Eszenyi, actress (seasons 4–5) Tamás Mester, singer (seasons 4–6) Sándor Friderikusz, TV presenter (seasons 4–5) Miklós Fenyő, singer (seasons 4)
Final jury members
Zoltán Bereczki, actor and singer (season 6) Mariann Falusi, singer (season 6) Tamás Mester, singer (seasons 4–6) Gábor Bochkor, radio personality (season 6)
Finalists
Season 1
Vera Tóth - winner
Ibolya Oláh - runner up
László Gáspár - 3rd place
Evelyne Kandech - 4th place
Vera Schmidt - 5th place
Edmond Géza Nagy - 6th place
Leslie Szabó - 7th place
Barbara Schmidt - 8th place
Henrietta Dér - 9th place
Zoltán Mujahid - 10th place
Dorina Galambos - 11th place
Gergő Aczél - 12th place
Season 2
Ferenc "Caramel" Molnár - winner
Tamás Palcsó - runner-up
Gabi Tóth - 3rd place (younger sister of first series winner Veronika Tóth) Dániel Torres - 4th place Csaba "Boogie" Gál - 5th place Eszter Bartók - 6th place Ádám Bálint - 7th place Tamás Pál - 8th place Levente Bella - 9th place Tímea Kovács - 10th place Orsolya Pflum - 11th place Ivett Kósa - 12th place