Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

History

Magyar Televízió (MTV) was a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1 January 1993, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest since then. It participated in the contest representing Hungary since its in 1994. Since 2011, after a restructuring that led to the incorporation of MTV into the current Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap (MTVA), it is the latter who has participated representing Hungary. Before becoming a member of the EBU, earlier contests had often been broadcast on MTV.

Hungary's first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest would have been "Árva reggel", performed by Andrea Szulák, in , but a qualification round was held for former Eastern Bloc countries, and the song did not manage to qualify to the final. The first official Hungarian participation was with "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?", performed by Friderika Bayer, in . This proved successful, as Hungary received the maximum score of 12 points from the first three countries to vote. However, as the competition progressed, it attracted fewer votes and ultimately finished in fourth place. This still holds as their best result ever.

The entry was not as successful, garnering only 3 points, narrowly beating last-place Germany. In Hungary again failed to qualify when "Fortuna", performed by Gjon Delhusa did not qualify from the pre-qualification round.

Hungary withdrew after the . It had planned to return in 2004, but ultimately did not take part in the contest. They eventually returned in , where they finished in 12th place in the final with "Forogj, világ!", performed by NOX. However, Hungary withdrew again in , returning in with "Unsubstantial Blues", the first Hungarian entry in English, performed by Magdi Rúzsa, the winner of the 3rd season of the Hungarian talent show Megasztár. The song came 9th in Helsinki, receiving 128 points in the final.

After coming last in the semi-final in the , MTV confirmed Hungary's participation at the in Moscow. After its original choice was revealed to have been released before 1 October 2008, breaking contest rules, it was decided that "Dance with Me", performed by Zoltán Ádok, would be Hungary's entry, after MTV's second choice to represent Hungary declined. The song placed 15th in the second semi-final, failing to qualify for the grand final for the second time since the introduction of the semi-finals in .

In October 2009, MTV confirmed that it would not participate in the due to financial limitations in the company which would prevent it from sending an entry. Duna Televízió broadcast the event live and applied for EBU membership to send a representative to Düsseldorf in . However, during the EBU's 65th conference, Duna's bid to become an active member was rejected. In December 2010, it was confirmed that MTVA had agreed to return to the 2011 edition. MTVA internally selected the song "What About My Dreams?", performed by Kati Wolf. The song placed 7th in the first semi-final with 72 points and was the first entry representing Hungary to qualify for the final since . In the final, the song placed 22nd with 53 points.

In , MTVA organised a national final, A Dal, to select the Hungarian entry for the contest in Baku. The song "Sound of Our Hearts", performed by Compact Disco, was selected. The song placed 10th in the first semi-final with 52 points, and 24th in the final with 19 points. A Dal had been used as the Hungarian selection process annually until 2019.

In , Hungary reached the top 10, when the song "Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)", performed by ByeAlex, placed 10th with 84 points. Hungary reached the top five in , when the song "Running", performed by András Kállay-Saunders, placed fifth with 143 points, achieving the best result for Hungary in the contest since its 1994 debut.

Hungary made it to the top ten once again in , when the song "Origo", performed by Joci Pápai, placed 8th with 200 points, achieving their best result in three years. Pápai represented Hungary again in with the song "Az én apám", but failed to qualify for the final, marking Hungary's first non-qualification since 2009.

Hungary did not appear on the final list of participants for the contest, which was subsequently cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it has been absent from the contest since. MTVA stated that it would continue to organise A Dal to "support the valuable productions created by the talents of Hungarian pop music directly" instead of participating in the contest. The withdrawal came during a rise of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment among the leadership of Hungary and MTVA; while no official reason for the withdrawal was given by the broadcaster, an inside source speaking with the website Index.hu speculated that the contest was considered "too gay" for MTVA to participate.

Participation overview

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Winner by OGAE members

Barbara Dex Award

Related involvement

Conductors

Their first entry was conducted by Péter Wolf

Heads of delegation

Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others.

Commentators and spokespersons

Photo gallery

Image:ESC 2007-Magdi Rusza-IMG 1375.jpg|Magdi Rúzsa in Helsinki () Image:Csézy, Hungary, Eurovision 2008, 2nd semifinal.jpg|Csézy in Belgrade () Image:Hungary at ESC 2011.jpg|Kati Wolf in Düsseldorf () Image:ESC2013 - Hungary 01.jpg|ByeAlex in Malmö () Image:ESC2014 - Hungary 02.jpg|András Kállay-Saunders in Copenhagen () Image:20150515 ESC 2015 Boggie cropped.jpg|Boggie in Vienna () Image:ESC2016 - Hungary 07.jpg|Freddie in Stockholm () image:Eurovision Song Contest 2017, Semi Final 2 Rehearsals. Photo 216.jpg|Joci Pápai in Kyiv () image:ESC2018 - Hungary 10.jpg|AWS in Lisbon () image:ESC2019-Hungary.jpg|Joci Pápai in Tel Aviv ()

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