Who is the biggest music superstar of all time?
Elvis Presley? Jimi Hendrix? Freddie Mercury?
Some say it's this guy — Franz Liszt, a pianist, seriously a pianist.
Welcome to Budapest Hungary, from this city a star was born — Franz Liszt.
He was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, world-renowned pianist, conductor, music teacher, and of course the first-ever music superstar, and I'm gonna prove it to you.
I'm Gergely Fazekas, and I'm an associate professor of musicology here at the Liszt Academy.
There were no superstars before, so... so the very concept of a superstar was born with Liszt.
And that's why I think he was even bigger star than anyone today.
In the 1800's, listening to music was a quiet buttoned-up serious affair, Liszt changed that.
The old years behaved, you know, really different way compared to anything before in music history.