Hungary_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest

Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

Overview of the role of Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

Hungary has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since making its debut in 1994. Hungary attempted to participate in 1993 but failed to qualify from Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, a special qualifying competition set up for seven former Eastern Bloc countries.

For the most recent participation, see Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
Quick Facts Participating broadcaster, Participation summary ...

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 a fifth-place finish by András Kállay-Saunders in 2014. 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

Hungary's first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest would have been "Árva reggel", performed by Andrea Szulák, in 1993, 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 1994. 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.

The 1995 entry was not as successful, garnering only 3 points, narrowly beating last-place Germany. In 1996 Hungary again failed to qualify when "Fortuna", performed by Gjon Delhusa did not qualify from the pre-qualification round.

Hungary withdrew after the 1998 contest. It had planned to return in 2004,[1] but ultimately did not take part in the contest. They eventually returned in 2005, where they finished in 12th place in the final with "Forogj, világ!", performed by NOX. However, Hungary withdrew again in 2006, returning in 2007 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 2008 contest, Magyar Televízió (MTV), the Hungarian broadcaster, confirmed Hungary's participation at the 2009 contest in Moscow. After MTV's 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.[2][3] 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 2004.

In October 2009, MTV confirmed that it would not participate in the 2010 contest due to financial limitations in the company which would prevent it from sending an entry.[4] Duna TV broadcast the event live and applied for EBU membership to send a representative to Düsseldorf in 2011. However, during the EBU's 65th conference, Duna TV's bid to become an active member was rejected. In December 2010, it was confirmed that MTV had agreed to return to the 2011 edition.[5] MTV 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 2007. In the final, the song placed 22nd with 53 points.

In 2012, MTV 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 every year since.

In 2013, Hungary reached the top 10, when the song "Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)", performed by ByeAlex, placed 10th with 84 points. Hungary reached the top 5 in 2014, when the song "Running", performed by András Kállay-Saunders, placed 5th with 143 points, 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 the song "Origo", performed by Joci Pápai, placed 8th with 200 points, achieving their best result in three years. Pápai represented Hungary again in 2019 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 later-cancelled 2020 contest; it has been absent from the contest since.[6][7][8] 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.[9] 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.[10]

Participation overview

Table key
2 Second place
3 Third place
◁ Last place
X Entry selected but did not compete
More information Year, Artist ...

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

More information Year, Category ...

Winner by OGAE members

Further information: OGAE
More information Year, Song ...

Barbara Dex Award

Further information: Barbara Dex Award
More information Year, Performer ...

Conductors

Their first entry was conducted by Péter Wolf

Heads of delegation

The Head of the delegation was Szilvia Püspök between 2008 and 2016, then Lőrinc Bubnó in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Commentators and spokespersons

More information Year, Commentator ...

Notes and references

Notes

  1. A qualifying round was held for new countries looking to make their debut at the 1993 contest. Hungary failed to progress from this round; entries which failed to progress have subsequently been discounted by the EBU and do not feature as part of the countries' list of appearances.
  2. In order to reduce the number of participating countries at the 1996 event a qualifying round was held among all countries except the hosts. Hungary failed to progress from this round; entries which failed to progress have subsequently been discounted by the EBU and do not feature as part of the countries' list of appearances.

References

  1. [1]
    Bakker, Sietse (15 October 2003). "38 countries participate in Eurovision 2004". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 2 April 2018. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
  2. [2]
    Klier, Marcus (10 February 2009). "Hungary: Kátya Tompos withdraws from Eurovision". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  3. [3]
    Jiandani, Sanjay (23 February 2009). "Hungary: Zoli Adok to Eurovision". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  4. [4]
    Hondal, Victor (22 October 2009). "Hungary withdraws from Eurovision Song Contest". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  5. [5]
    Hondal, Victor (27 December 2010). "Hungary returns to the Eurovision Song Contest". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
  6. [6]
    Herbert, Emily (13 November 2019). "41 Countries Will Participate in The Eurovision Song Contest 2020". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  7. [7]
    Juhász, Ervin (11 October 2021). "Despite the rumours, no mention of Eurovision in the rules of Hungary's A Dal 2022!". ESCBubble. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  8. [8]
    "REVEALED: the 41 countries joining Eurovision in Turin 2022". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 20 October 2021. Archived from the original on 20 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  9. [9]
    Jiandani, Sanjay (29 October 2019). "Hungary: MTVA withdraws from Eurovision 2020". esctoday.com. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  10. [10]
    Walker, Shaun; Garamvolgyi, Flora (27 November 2019). "Hungary pulls out of Eurovision amid rise in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric". The Guardian.
  11. [11]
    "Marcel Bezençon Awards". eurovision.tv. July 2019. Archived from the original on 16 July 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  12. [12]
    Cobb, Ryan (21 April 2017). "Analysing ten years of OGAE voting: "Underneath the fan favourite bias is a worthwhile indicator"". escxtra.com. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  13. [13]
    Adams, William Lee (9 July 2015). "Poll: Who was the worst dressed Barbara Dex Award winner?". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  14. [14]
    Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 369–381. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  15. [15]
    Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 25–37. ISBN 978-1-84583-093-9.
  16. [16]
    Roxburgh, Gordon (2016). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Three: The 1980s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 86–103. ISBN 978-1-84583-118-9.
  17. [17]
    Farren, Neil (6 December 2017). "Hungary: A Dal 2018 Participants Announced". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  18. [18]
    ""May we have your votes please?"". eurovision.tv. EBU. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  19. [19]
    "Eurovision 2019 Spokespersons – Who will announce the points?". eurovisionworld.com. 18 May 2019. Archived from the original on 2 June 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Hungary_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.