Ahead of the second heat in A Dal this weekend we caught up with another Eurovision hopeful André Vásáry. André talks about how he discovered his talent, his style of music and what we can expect from his performance this Saturday.
You’ve been a singer now for 12 years how was it that you first got into being a singer and how do you feel you have developed over this time?
My affinity towards music has already been discovered already in my childhood, but there was no artist in my family, no one to guide me into that direction. It was a mere chance already in my adult age when I could get to a singing master. In a party I happened to see a TV ad having the background music from Mozart’s Queen of the Night. Just making a joke I repeated the aria. On hearing it a girlfriend took me to her teacher who listened to me, and said that I had an exceptional voice and I have to start training it. That was the very beginning of my later career, although a very hard period came by with learning, going to competitions, auditions. I suffered a lot to make myself accepted. I regularly go to my master even today for singing lessons. However it was not in vain: I won an opera competition in Miskolc, Hungary, I was finalist in an international singing contest in Rome, I was runner up in the Hungary’s Got Talent competition, I had five albums released gaining three gold medals and one Platinum. Moreover I had lots of concerts in Hungary and abroad even overseas appearing on the most prestigious concert sceneries.
You are a classical singer by training having studied in Boston and in 2009 you finished 2nd in Hungary’s Got Talent, what was it that drew you to the classical sound?
My teachers always told me that my voice was fit for singing opera. But for a young man as I am, the light music is still important, so I sing in both genres. I am happy to sing crossover style that is just perfect for me to perform more demanding but still lighter music. I am not able to choose between them. Singing classical music is a fantastic artistic achievement, even a physical one, while light music moves my heart and soul.
Onto present day you are now trying to represent Hungary at Eurovision 2016, what was it that made you enter a song for A Dal?
This is the first time I try to represent Hungary in the Eurovison Song Contest. The musical producer of my 5th album wrote me a song that my producer and my management also regarded as good as to become a Eurovision entry. They all believed that this song and its special sound could make it through into the final.
“Why” is the song you are taking into A Dal, can you tell us more about it?
I think the lyrics of my song is particularly good as everybody can interpret it on an other way round. As for me the events going on in the world in the last months show that we are heading into the wrong direction, so everyone has to ask himself questions and answer them honestly. If done, the problems of the world might become re-evaluated, or at least might be approached otherwise. Let’s accept each other just as we are and don’t hurt each other – that’s the best message of my song, I think.
The song incorporates a classical and modern sound and culminates in a more operatic sound, how challenging is it to perform a song like this?
This is a song that was written especially for me, for my soprano voice. It is almost unsolvable for anyone else to be able to sing it. Even for me it is a great challenge to sing in different styles within the same song. It is not the end of the song that is difficult to sing for me but its beginning.
Did you ever think of performing the song in Hungarian or was it always going to be performed in English?
Originally it was written in English, because of the possibility of the Eurovision participation, but making a Hungarian version of it is also under way. A music video is also planned to be made soon.
What can we expect from your performance in A Dal?
It’s going to be spectacular, with lots of technical and visual effects – and hopefully with good results.
Do you have a message for your fans and the readers of Eurovoix.com?
Keep on watching Eurovision, vote for your favourites and help them to win. And do not forget that music is able to iron out conflicts and can help you making friendships. That is what Eurovision calls for!
We wish André Vásáry the best of luck this Saturday in A Dal, take a listen to his song below:
