Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

Hungary
Member station	Duna Media Service Provider
National selection events	National final 1994 1997 2005 2007–2008 A Dal 2012–2019 Internal Selection 1995 1998 2009 2011
Participation summary
Appearances	16 (14 finals)
First appearance	1994
Best result	4th: 1994
Worst result	Last: 2008 SF
External links
MTV page
Hungary's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Hungary has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 16 times since making its debut in 1994. Hungary attempted to participate in 1993 but failed to qualify from a special qualifying competition set up for seven former eastern bloc countries.

Hungary's first contest in 1994 remains its most successful, with Friderika Bayer finishing in fourth place. The country's only other top five result is András Kállay-Saunders' fifth-place in 2014. Their other top ten results are Magdi Rúzsa finishing ninth in 2007, ByeAlex tenth in 2013, and Joci Pápai eighth in 2017, giving Hungary a total of five top ten placements.

History[edit]

The country's first entry would have been Andrea Szulák's in 1993 but a qualification round was installed just for former Eastern Bloc countries and she did not manage to qualify to the Grand Final. The first real participation was of Friderika Bayer in 1994. After three rounds of voting the Hungarian entry had taken the top marks each time and was in contention to win. However, as the competition progressed it attracted fewer votes, though it still ended up in a credible fourth place. This made Hungary the only debuting nation to lead the voting.

The 1995 entry was not as successful, garnering only 3 points, narrowly beating last placed Germany. In 1996 Hungary suffered another qualification lost when Gjon Delhusa's song didn't make it through the pre-qualification round.

Hungary began a hiatus from the competition after the 1998 contest, returning in 2005 when they reached a 12th place in the final with NOX. Hungary however announced not to participate again in 2006, although it returned to the contest in 2007 with Magdi Rúzsa, the winner of the 3rd season of the Hungarian talent show Megasztár. She came 9th in Helsinki with her song "Unsubstantial Blues", the first Hungarian entry in English, receiving 128 points in the final.

After coming last in the semi-final in the 2008 contest, Magyar Televízió (MTV), the Hungarian broadcaster, confirmed Hungary's participation at the 2009 contest in Russia.^[1] After MTV's original choice was revealed to have been released before 1 October 2008, breaking contest rules, it was decided that Zoltán Ádok would be Hungary's next Eurovision entrant, performing "Dance with Me", after MTV's second choice to represent Hungary declined.^[2][3] Ádok eventually finished 15th in the second semi-final, failing to qualify Hungary to the grand final for the second time.

On 22 October 2009, MTV confirmed that they would withdraw from the 2010 Eurovision due to financial limitations in the company which prevent them from sending a Hungarian entry to the contest in Bærum, Norway.^[4] Duna TV broadcast the event live in 2010 and applied for EBU membership to send a representative to Germany in 2011, however during the EBU's 65th conference they rejected Duna TV's bid to become an active member.

On 27 December 2010, it was confirmed that MTV had agreed to return to the 2011 edition.^[5] On 22 May 2011, MTV confirmed their 2012 participation.^[6]

In 2013, Hungary made it to the Top 10, when ByeAlex reached the 10th place with "Kedvesem". They achieved even more success in 2014, when András Kállay-Saunders reached the 5th place with his song "Running", achieving the best result Hungary has had since their first participation in 1994.

Hungary made it to the top ten once again in 2017, when Joci Pápai reached the 8th place with "Origo", achieving their best result in three years.

Contestants[edit]

Table key

NOTES:

a. ^ Hungary attempted to qualify in 1993 when there was a pre-qualifying round for seven countries hoping to make their debut in the contest and in 1996 when there was an audio-only pre-qualifier for all countries (excluding hosts Norway). Hungary is one of only two countries (along with Romania) to have unsuccessfully attempted to participate in both 1993 and 1996. The official Eurovision site does not count either year in Hungary's list of appearances.

Voting history[edit]

As of 2018, Hungary's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Sweden 67 2  Denmark 53  Netherlands 53 4  Azerbaijan 52 5  Norway 51 Most points received in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Serbia 68 2  Romania 67 3  Finland 61 4  Croatia 53 5  Poland 50

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Netherlands 110 2  Denmark 106 3  Azerbaijan 103 4  Norway 96  Russia 96 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Serbia 138 2  Romania 136 3  Croatia 112 4  Finland 111 5  Estonia 99

Marcel Bezençon Awards[edit]

Composer Award

Winner by OGAE members[edit]

Commentators and spokespersons[edit]

Conductors[edit]

All conductors are Hungarian except with a flag.

• Petar Ugrin (1993 pre-selection)
• Péter Wolf (1994, 1997)
• Miklós Malek (1995, 1998)^[7]

Photogallery[edit]

• 

  Magdi Rúzsa at Helsinki (2007)

• 

  Csézy at Belgrade (2008)

• 

  Kati Wolf at Düsseldorf (2011)

• 

  ByeAlex at Malmo (2013)

• 

  András Kállay-Saunders at Copenhagen (2014)

• 

  Boggie at Vienna (2015)

• 

  Freddie at Stockholm (2016)

• 

  Joci Pápai at Kyiv (2017)

• 

  AWS at Lisbon (2018)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Points to and from Hungary eurovisioncovers.co.uk