Мегазвезда: Возвращение венгерского вокального шоу

Hungarian television series

Megasztár Voice of the Year was a Hungarian 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. In 2024, on 21 February, TV2 announced that after 12 years, Megasztár would return to the screen with a new season.

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 of 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.

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 favorites) with a song either selected by them or the jury, who may either ask them to stop or continue based on their performance.

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).

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.

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.