MTVA, the Hungarian national broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest, has released the rules of the upcoming Hungarian national selection A Dal.

Earlier today, Hungary confirmed their participation at the 60th Eurovision Song Contest in the host city of Vienna, Austria. With that, MTVA also confirmed that the broadcaster has opted for the national selection, A Dal, in order to decide their 2015 representative. Below you can find the rules of A Dal 2015.

Rules

1. All submitted entries must not have been commercially released (television, radio, internet) and performed in public before the 1 September 2014.
2. Three minutes is the maximum length of each submitted song. Songs which are longer than three minutes may be disqualified by the EBU.
3. Only such artists’ submissions are accepted who have previously released a music album or had national radio airplays and/or television appearances, and who have a valid contract with a record company and/or with a professional management.
4. All competing artists must be aged 16 or over by the 19 May 2015, the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, in order to be eligible to partake in the selection.
5. Artists performing the submitted songs must be a Hungarian citizen or must be able to speak Hungarian as their native language.
6. Artists against whom criminal procedures are initiated or already conducted before the semi-finals in Vienna, or whose behaviour proved to cause a public scandal may be disqualified in any phase of the contest.
7. The applicants acknowledge and agree that the Hungarian National Final (A Dal) is a competition of songs and not of performers. Therefore MTVA has the right to decide upon the performer of a song, if necessary.
8. Songs submitted to A Dal should, preferably, be written in the Hungarian language. Artists are eligible to submit their entries in English and/or in any language recognised nationally or by ethnic minorities living in Hungary, however a Hungarian translation of the lyrics must also be provided. MTVA has the right to decide upon the language in which the winning song of A Dal is submitted for the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.
9. Composers who are foreign citizens and whose native language is not Hungarian can only enter the contest if their song is recorded with an artist who complies with the provision of the call (Refer back to sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 for more details).
10. Artists may only compete for one country at the Eurovision Song Contest in the given year.
11. The lyrics and performance of the songs shall not bring the Eurovision Song Contest into disrepute. No lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be allowed during the ESC. No swearing or other unacceptable language shall be allowed.
12. A maximum of six artists can perform on stage. No live animals shall be allowed on stage.
13. The songs must be performed on stage in half-playback which means that all vocals are sung live, accompanied by a recorded backing track. The use of instruments on stage is allowed but only as props and not played live.
14. Applicants who gained admission to the live shows of A Dal 2015 undertake to participate without receiving an extra fee in up to two events organised or promoted by MTVA until 31 December 2015.
15. The winner of A Dal 2015, Hungary’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest and their team undertake to dedicate exclusive attention to the participation in the contest in the time period between the national final and the grand final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest and will do their best in order to reach the highest possible result, including the compliance with all the deadlines set by MTVA and the EBU and the compulsory participation in promotional events related to the Eurovision Song Contest. All participants of the stage performance undertake to stay in Vienna during the time period determined by MTVA in 2015. Furthermore, the winning artist of A Dal 2015 undertakes to perform without fee at up to five events organised or promoted by MTVA.
16. It is compulsory to sign a licence agreement with the EBU related to the song representing MTVA at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.
17. The performers and composers declare that no other contract or agreement prohibits them to cooperate with MTVA and MTV and acknowledge that the breach of any of the provisions of the call may result in disqualification.

Artists wanting to apply for the 2015 A Dal selection can download the application form here. Each application must include:

• The duly filled in and printed submission form and the signed declaration that the applicant acknowledged and accepted the rules for application and fully complies with them
• The audio material on CD in wav and mp3 file format
• The lyrics of the song and their Hungarian translation (if applicable) on CD
• High-resolution press photos of the artist(s) performing on stage and of composer(s) and their biography in Hungarian and English on CD, including the submission form on CD as well
• The videoclip of the song, if available, on CD (this is not compulsory)

Artists and composers wanting to submit more than one entry must fill in a separate application form for each submitted song.

Once application forms have been completed, the form as well as the items above should be sent to:

[alert-info]EUROVÍZIÓS DALFESZTIVÁL – A DAL 2015
MTVA
1037 Budapest, Kunigunda útja 64 Hungary[/alert-info]

The deadline for submitting entries is Saturday 15 November 2014 at midnight (CET).

Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest news on A Dal, Hungary and the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.