I bet, dear reader, you don’t know too much about the Hungarian songs or Hungarian pop music.
No wonder. The country was isolated from the western world for decades, and our exotic language is not a big advantage from this point of view either.
Nevertheless, Hungarian pop music has had some great periods, especially from the 60s until the 80s, when playing and listening to pop music was not only a cultural activity, but it also had some political twist.
After the communism collapsed in 1990, everything changed including the songs, but this is such a long story that I don’t want to start it now.
To let you taste a little of Hungarian pop music, here are three examples:
1 Omega: Gyöngyhajú lány (A lady with pearly hair), 1969
Omega was one of the first Hungarian pop bands, interestingly, they are still active giving good-bye concerts.
2. Republic: Szállj el, kismadár (Fly away little bird), 1990
Personally, I am not keen on this band but this song is very popular with Hungarians, and as I heard, it is nice to foreign ears as well.
3. Anima Sound System: Tedd a napfényt be a számba! (Put the sunshine into my mouth), 2010
Quality dance floor music, just to show Hungarian songs are how colourful.
Hungarian Song Day
The Hungarian Song Day has been held since 2008, it always falls on the second Sunday of September, and year by year, more and more towns join the event.
This year, on September 9, Hungarian songs are going to be celebrated on 23 stages, two of which outside the country.
In these places there will be free concerts all day long, in the centre of the programs there will be the songs sung in Hungarian.
Website of the event (Hungarian only)
