András Kállay-Saunders (born January 28, 1985), also known as Kállay Saunders, is a Hungarian-American singer, songwriter and record producer. He represented Hungary in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2014 The Eurovision Song Contest 2014 was the 59th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song "Only Teardrops" by Emmelie de Forest. Organised by the European ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark with the song "

Running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...

Early life

András Kállay-Saunders was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States to Hungarian model Katalin Kállay and American soul-singer and producer

Fernando Saunders Fernando Saunders is an American musician, singer and record producer from Detroit, Michigan. He is perhaps best known for his longtime partnership with musician Lou Reed, from 1982 to 1987 and again from 1996 to 2008. Biography Fernando Saund ...

. He is a descendant of the noble

Kállay family Kállay family is a Hungarian noble family. The family name derived from their estates at Nagy-Kalló, in Szabolcs, and they claimed descent from the Hungarian Balogh-Semjén genus (clan), which colonized the counties of Borsod, Szabolcs, and S ...

from his maternal side. Throughout most of his childhood years Kállay's father was touring the world and playing his music among legends such

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

and many more but every now and then Fernando would bring along his son to observe. His father would take him to Detroit and show him how it all started; the corners he sang on, places he played. By doing so, Fernando planted the Motown roots deep within Kállay's soul. In 2010 Kállay decided to visit Hungary to spend time with his grandmother who was ill at the time. During his visit in Hungary, he noticed a TV commercial urging talented singers to audition for the nations talent competition

Megasztár ''Megasztár - Voice of the Year'' was a Hungarian a music talent show that started in 2003 on TV2. While it is widely considered an unlicensed clone of the British television show ''Pop Idol'' (and sometimes even referred to as ''Hungarian Id ...

Career

Kállay ended up finishing fourth in the contest and shortly after signed to Universal and permanently moved to Hungary. Kállay released two singles under Universal, "Csak Veled" "I Love You" both of which became smash hits in Hungary, peaking respectively No. 7 and No. 2 on the Top 40 Hungarian Billboards. In August 2012 Kállay collaborated with Swedish rapper

Rebstar Rebin Shah (born 4 October 1988), better known by his stage name Rebstar, is a Swedish recording artist and music entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the entertainment company Today Is Vintage and pro-bono Creative Director for World Childho ...

and American producer

DJ Pain 1 Pacal Bayley (born October 21, 1983), better known by his stage name DJ Pain 1, is an American record producer and DJ from Madison, Wisconsin. He has produced for artists including Young Jeezy, 50 Cent, Schoolboy Q, Ludacris, Lil Baby, Sarkodi ...

on Kállays single "

Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...

". "

" peaked No. 4 on the Top 40 Hungarian Billboards, making it Kállay's third hit single to reach the top 10 charts. In November 2012 Kállay announced his departure from Universal and signed a worldwide record deal with Swedish record label

Today Is Vintage Today Is Vintage is an entertainment company founded in 2012 by music mogul Rebstar. As of 2022, the company represents Grammy winners and artists, songwriters and producers accumulating over 10 billion streams worldwide. Spearheading the "Swedis ...

On December 20, 2012 Kállay released his single "My Baby" which also serves as his contribution in the Hungarian "A Dal" Eurovision Song Contest. On February 9 Kállay performed the song in the contest to critical acclaim, garnering 48 out of a maximum of 50 points voted by the jury. Following the performance, My Baby catapulted to #1 on iTunes (Hungary). The music video for My Baby was released on February 8, 2013 and is directed by Los Tiki Pictures. My Baby peaked #1 on the Hungarian iTunes store on March 3, 2013, and charted #1 on the Hungarian Top 40 Radio Charts on April 11, 2013. Kállay's debut album titled ''Delivery Boy'' was released in 2015 on iTunes. Kállay represented Hungary in the

in Copenhagen, Denmark. He came in 5th place with his song "

". Since the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, Kállay has gone on to found his own band, Kállay-Saunders Band. He has since then released multiple singles with the band, and collaborated with

A Dal 2015 Hungary participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Wars for Nothing", written by Áron Sebestyén, Boglárka Csemer and Sára Hélène Bori. The song was performed by Boggie. The Hungarian broadcaster Media Services and Suppo ...

participants, creating acoustic versions of their songs and performing as an interval act in the show. His last album ''Delivery Boy'' was one of the 19 records nominated for the IMPALA Album of the Year Award. He, again, has returned to the 2016 edition of A Dal, this time with his band and vocalist

Antonia Vai Antonia Morvai (born 24 April 1988), known professionally as Antonia Vai, is a Swedish/Hungarian singer, songwriter, music producer, activist and podcaster. She is the co-founder and hostess of the Hungarian podcast MiaFemme, a feminist, anti-rac ...

, performing ''Who We Are''. They made it to be the last four finalists, but didn't win. They were again announced to participate in

A Dal 2017 Hungary participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The local Media Services and Support Trust Fund (MTVA) and the Hungarian broadcaster Duna Media Service organised the national final ''A Dal 2017'' in order to select the Hungarian entry ...

with the song ''Seventeen''. They progressed to the final. In the 2019 edition, he participated again as a member of The Middletonz with Dutch rapper Farshad Alebatool with the song ''Roses''. They made it to the final.

Discography

Singles

References

Sources

External links

Official website

András on Facebook (hungarian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kallay-Saunders, Andras 1985 births Living people Musicians from New York City Hungarian pop musicians American emigrants to Hungary Andras Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2014 American people of Hungarian descent Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Hungary Hungarian people of American descent