Totallympics Annual International Song Contest 2022

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Get ready everyone, the Opening Ceremony will start in about an hour at 20:00 CEST! While you wait, you can watch the playlist that I just made for the Festival of Music. 

 

 

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Welcome to Hungary

 

 

It's been a long journey since the opening of this thread and the start of the selection process but we are finally here. Welcome to the Opening Ceremony of the 2022 Totallympics Annual International Song Contest! Welcome to Hungary!

 

 

 

 

I know what you are thinking. Mr. DiCaprio did this one for free, I won't have to pay him $10 million dollars. But the fireworks were expensive, so... yep, time to take that second mortgage!

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While a journey ends, another one begins, in the next two hours you will explore Hungary with me. I hope you brought your hiking boots with you! But lets not get ahead of ourselves, there's no ceremony without an opening act. As you may know, for the second consecutive year Canada won the Annual edition in 2021 thanks to the contribution of @intoronto and one of the biggest stars in the world, The Weeknd. His star shines so bright that he promised he will represent 5 nations in 2023 if he wins this year with either Canada or Sweden... or both.

 

Please, give a warm welcome to The Weeknd and his TISC winning song, Blinding Lights and also his biggest single of 2021, Save Your Tears, performed with American superstar Ariana Grande. As the marvelous Daniel Craig once famously said...

 

 

Opening Act

 

 

The Weeknd - Blinding Lights

 

 

The Weeknd & Ariana Grande – Save Your Tears

 

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Anthem / Himnusz

 

 

And now please rise to the national anthem of Hungary, which was written by Ferenc Kölcsey in 1823 and composed by Ferenc Erkel in 1844.

 

 

 

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Parade of Nations I.

 

 

It's that time of the year again when you try to figure out what the alphabetical order of the countries is in a foreign language. Come on, bring those flags out! And it's no fun to march in silence, you will get to enjoy some very fine instrumental music while walk down to your seats. The first group of 9 nations will listen to Romanian Folk Dances, composed by Béla Bartók in 1915, performed by formed TISC participant Muzsikás and the Danubia Orchestra. 

 

Muzsikás & Danubia Orchestra - Romanian Folk Dances

 

 

Argentína / Argentina

Jury Member: @konig

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 5th (Open 2017)

 

Brazília / Brazil

Jury Member: @titicow

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 2nd (Annual 2017)

 

Bulgária / Bulgaria

Jury Member: @Federer91

Total Participations: 17

Best Result: 5th (Open 2018)

 

Csehország / Czech Republic

Jury Member: @Hipooo

Total Participations: 11

Best Result: 1st (Open 2021)

 

Dánia / Denmark

Jury Members: @Agger@Wumo

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 1st (Open 2018)

 

Egyesült Államok / United States

Jury Members: @dezbee2008@Olympian1010

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 2nd (Open 2018)

 

Finnország / Finland

Jury Member: @Finnator123

Total Participations: 11

Best Result: 6th (Annual 2015, Open 2016)

 

Franciaország / France

Jury Members: @Benolympique@Bohemia

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 3rd (Open 2014, Annual 2015, Annual 2020)

 

Görögország / Greece

Jury Members: @maestro@Makedonas@Yannakis

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 12th (Open 2014, Annual 2021)

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Parade of Nations II.

 

 

Let's move on to our next group of countries, this time accompanied by a piece of music you are most likely familiar with. It was part of the medley during the Parade of Nations at the Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony. If we had Romanian folk dances, we must also have the Hungarian Dances, composed by Johannes Brahms in 1879, performed by the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra.

 

Hungarian Symphony Orchestra - Hungarian Dance No. 5

 

 

 

Hollandia / Netherlands

Jury Member: @heywoodu

Total Participations: 16

Best Result: 1st (Open 2019)

 

Horvátország / Croatia

Jury Member: @dcro

Total Participations: 16

Best Result: 11th (Open 2017)

 

India / India

Jury Member: @Fly_like_a_don

Total Participations: 17

Best Result: 6th (Open 2020)

 

Indonézia / Indonesia

Jury Member: @Griff88

Total Participations: 13

Best Result: 6th (Annual 2016)

 

Írország / Ireland

Jury Member: @OlympicIRL

Total Participations: 18

Best Result:1st (Open 2014, Annual 2015, Open 2016, Open 2017, Annual 2019)

 

Izrael / Israel

Jury Member: @Dnl

Total Participations: 5

Best Result: 7th (Annual 2021)

 

Kanada / Canada

Jury Member: @intoronto

Total Participations: 16

Best Result: 1st (Annual 2020, Annual 2021)

 

Kazahsztán / Kazakhstan

Jury Member: @Ruslan

Total Participations: 14

Best Result: 9th (Open 2020)

 

Kína / China

Jury Member: @Vic Liu

Total Participations: 7

Best Result: 2nd (Annual 2020)

 

Kolumbia / Colombia

Jury Member: @Damian

Total Participations: 10

Best Result: 2nd (Open 2014, Open 2017)

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Parade of Nations III.

 

 

You must know the drill by now: next group of 10 countries with some classical music! I would be crucified if I wouldn't include something from Liszt, so let's hear Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, composed by Ferenc Liszt in 1847, performed by Ádám György.

 

Ádám György - Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

 

 

 

Lengyelország / Poland

Jury Member: @rybak

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 4th (Open 2014)

 

Litvánia / Lithuania

Jury Member: @Werloc

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 1st (Open 2015)

 

Málta / Malta

Jury Member: @Glen

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 3rd (Annual 2020)

 

Mexikó / Mexico

Jury Member: @mrv86

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 2nd (Open 2016)

 

Moldova / Moldova

Jury Member: @Ionoutz24

Total Participations: 11

Best Result: 15th (Open 2020)

 

Nagy-Britannia / Great Britain

Jury Members: @Cinnamon Bun @Quasit

Total Participations: 17

Best Result: 1st (Annual 2016, Annual 2017)

 

Németország / Germany

Jury Member: @catgamer

Total Participations: 13

Best Result: 1st (Annual 2014)

 

Olaszország / Italy

Jury Members: @Henry_Leon @Pablita @SteveParker

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 1st (Annual 2018)

 

Portugália / Portugal

Jury Member: @kungshamra71

Total Participations: 14

Best Result: 7th (Annual 2018)

 

Románia / Romania

Jury Member: @IoNuTzZ

Total Participations: 16

Best Result: 3rd (Open 2015)

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Parade of Nations IV.

 

 

We are reaching the end of the Parade of Nations with our final 10 nations. We are ending this segment with a slightly more modern music from Academy Award winner Miklós Rózsa. He won 3 Oscars for his original scores in Spellbound, A Double Life and Ben-Hur and got 17 Oscar nominations over his long career in Hollywood. So let's hear the theme of Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound, performed by Katica Illényi on the theremin.

 

Katica Illényi - Spellbound

 

 

 

Spanyolország / Spain

Jury Member: @Cobi

Total Participations: 13

Best Result: 4th (Open 2017)

 

Svédország / Sweden

Jury Member: @Belle

Total Participations: 10

Best Result: 1st (Open 2013)

 

Szerbia / Serbia

Jury Member: @NikolaB

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 1st (Open 2020)

 

Szlovákia / Slovakia

Jury Member: @hckošice

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 2nd (Annual 2014)

 

Szlovénia / Slovenia

Jury Member: @justony

Total Participations: 18

Best Result: 9th (Annual 2016)

 

Törökország / Turkey

Jury Member: @Memo

Total Participations: 9

Best Result: 10th (Open 2014)

 

Tunézia / Tunisia

Jury Member: @amen09

Total Participations: 16

Best Result: 4th (Annual 2016)

 

Új-Zéland / New Zealand

Jury Member: @Wanderer

Total Participations: 16

Best Result: 2nd (Open 2021)

 

Ukrajna / Ukraine

Jury Member: @Illya

Total Participations: 4

Best Result: 7th (Open 2021)

 

Magyarország / Hungary

Jury Member: @Vektor

Total Participations: 9

Best Result: 4th (Open 2019)

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Where Is Antarctica?

 

 

Honestly, I was waiting for them to show up for the Parade of Nations. I even prepared an Antarctica flag for them! So where are they? They always appear at these contests in some form. 

 

Well, the truth is that I did get a suspicious call before the Opening Ceremony. It came from a phonebooth in Bucharest. They only said two unintelligible words and it sounded angry. I think I have a pretty good idea what happened.

 

 

 

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The Hungarian National Blue Trail

 

 

I have promised a journey for you, didn't I? In the last few days you got to know some of our cities and now you will explore the other side of Hungary. We got countless hiking trails all over the country and the main trail is called Blue Trail (Kéktúra). It's 1173 kilometers long, starts on the Western border at Írottkő and ends in Eastern Hungary at Hollóháza. There are two other main hiking trails, the South Transdanubian trail and the Great Plain trail. The three of them combined form the complete circle around the county and it's 2586 kilometers in its entirety. Currently close to 8 thousand hikers have officially completed the Hungarian National Blue Trail. Because of its massive length you can see the white-blue-white hiking sign everywhere in the country. 

 

 

In this segment we will travel trough the trail and visit its most famous locations. Obviously I can't show everything because we would be here all night, but I will try my best to give you a taste of the sights. We start at Írott-kő, go East and then at some point hopefully we will reach Szeged. Don't worry, I usually don't get lost during a hike. Just, you know, once or twice per hike. Shhh, it will all be fine. 

 

 

But before we start, I want to mention that we had a Hungarian Non-fiction TV series in the 70s that traveled through this hiking trail, it became one of the most popular TV series of the Soviet era in my country. This show used the Hungarian folk song "Indulj el" as its intro tune, it was performed by Muzsikás, the Hungarian folk band which participated in last year's open contest. The song is associated with Hungarian hiking, it's part of the Hungarian culture. A new modern take was released by popular Hungarian singer Gergő Szakács in 2021. "Indulj el" means "set off [on a journey]", so let's start our journey with this performance.

 

Gergő Szakács - Indulj el