The Ninth Annual Teenage Song Competition and Festival took place in Temerin, Vojvodina, on November 11 at the town Sports Center. A total of 24 contestants competed in the “teenager” (ages 13-17) and “young adult” (ages 18-25) categories, performing popular songs in Hungarian before an audience of 1800, including a jury. The competition aims to identify and support talented young Hungarians in the field of pop music.
The contestants came from small towns throughout Vojvodina and passed local auditions before gaining a spot in the Temerin competition, whose main criterion is that performers sing in the Hungarian language.
Angela Kokai of Temerin won in the teenager category, while Robert Csonka of Becse took the prize for the adults. The competitive program was followed by non-juried gala performance, which included a number by Sanja Basic, a young woman of Serbian nationality who sang in Hungarian.
The Hungarian American Coalition was a major sponsor of the Festival, thanks to the fundraising efforts of Coalition Member Max Teleki of Washington, D.C., and Hungarian Americans for Human Rights in Delvidek (HAHRD), the Chicago-based organization, also a Coalition member. Coalition Treasurer Zsolt Szekeres attended the Festival, whose organizers stressed that without the Coalition’s sponsorship, the Festival would not have taken place because of the upheaval following Yugoslavia’s change of government.
The Hungarian American Coalition is proud to support this event, which provides an uplifting, fun forum for young people whose youth has been overshadowed by war, privation and discrimination.
The Hungarian American Coalition is a nationwide non-profit organization that promotes public understanding and awareness of Hungarian American issues.