Hungary at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

1993

Last participation so far

2019

Number of participations

19 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

4 ( 1994 )

Highest Score

200 ( 2017 )

Lowest Score

3 ( 1995 )

Points average (since first post)

72.35 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

1.59 (as of 2019)

This article deals with the history of Hungary as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

András Kállay-Saunders achieved 5th place in Copenhagen in 2014, the second best result in the country

As early as 1993 Hungary took part in the Eastern European preliminary decision in Ljubljana, but the singer Andrea reached sixth place out of seven participants with her song Árva reggel and did not qualify for Millstreet. So the country was only able to make its debut in the competition in 1994. There the singer Friderika reached with her song Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet? 4th place with 122 points, which is Hungary's best result in the competition to date. This success could not be continued in 1995, because the singer Csaba Szigeti only landed on the penultimate place in the competition. He received only three points, which is the lowest score for Hungary in the competition to date. Nevertheless, the country also sent a participant in 1996, but failed in the internal preliminary round, which meant that Hungary was not allowed to participate. In 1997, the country returned to the competition and achieved a placement in the midfield with 12th place. In 1998, on the other hand, Hungary only ended up third from last with four points, which meant that the country had to sit out in 1999. In 2000 the country withdrew from the competition for financial reasons and did not return until seven years later.

In 2005, however, the country had to take part in the semi-finals. After reaching 5th place there, Hungary successfully qualified for the final. With 12th place, the best result since 1997 was achieved. In 2006 the country had to suspend again due to financial difficulties. In 2007 Hungary returned, but first had to participate in the semi-finals again. There the singer Magdi Rúzsa reached 2nd place, which she successfully qualified for the final. There she reached 9th place and thus the second-best result to date after 4th place in 1994. With 128 points, she also achieved a new maximum number of points for the country. After this success, however, the low point followed in 2008. Hungary entered the semi-finals again, but ended up in 19th place and thus in last place. It was the first time that Hungary was eliminated in the semi-finals. The singer Csézy received only six points, which is the worst result in the country to date. Despite this failure, the country also participated in 2009, but was just as unsuccessful there. The singer Zoltán Ádok landed 15th in the semifinals, which meant that Hungary was eliminated again in the semifinals. After these failures and also due to the difficult financial situation, the country withdrew from the competition in 2010. The country did not return until 2011 and from then on was represented much more successfully and regularly.

In 2011, the singer Kati Wolf should then with her track What About My Dreams? bring the country back to the finals. After finishing 7th in the semi-finals, Hungary was able to take part in the final for the first time in four years. There, the country only ended up in 22nd place. The Hungarian contribution made it to the final in 2012, even if it was close, as the band Compact Disco only reached 10th place in the semifinals. But here too the entry in the final was not very successful, because it only finished 24th in 2013, however, the surprising success followed. The singer ByeAlex took 7th place in the semifinals and reached the final. With 10th place, he achieved the best result in six years and the third best result in the country to date. In 2014, the Hungarian contribution took third place in the semi-finals, which means that the country reached the final again. There the singer András Kállay-Saunders landed in 5th place, which is Hungary's second best result in the competition to date. With 143 points he also achieved a new high point number. After these two successful years, the Hungarian entries in 2015 and 2016 only took 20th place and 19th place in the final. In 2017, however, the singer Joci Pápai already achieved second place in the semi-finals. In the final he reached 8th place with 200 points, which is still Hungary's highest number of points in the competition. In 2018, Hungary just reached the finals after the band AWS only finished 10th in the semi-finals. In the final, the song Viszlát nyár took 21st place. In 2019, the singer Joci Pápai, who had reached 8th place in the final two years earlier, again represented the country and was the first interpreter of the country to represent Hungary more than once. However, disappointment followed. Hungary only finished 12th in the semifinals and was eliminated in the semifinals for the first time in ten years. Previously, the country was able to qualify for the final eight times in a row, which is a record together with Greece , who also qualified for the final eight times in a row between 2008 and 2015. For 2020 Hungary canceled its participation for unknown reasons.

A total of 7 of the 19 entries ended up in the left half of the table. Overall, Hungary was eliminated only three times in the semifinals and only finished last once. Without a place in the top three, but with a fourth place and a fifth place, Hungary is one of the average successful countries in the competition.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified.     

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
1993	Andrea Szulák	Árva reggel M: László Pásztor; T: György Jakab, Emese Hatvani	Hungarian	Lonely morning	Not qualified Eastern European preliminary decision		6/7	44	internal selection
1994	Friderika	Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet? M / T: Szilveszter Jenei	Hungarian	Who should I tell my sins to?	4/25	122	Qualified directly for the final		National preliminary decision
1995	Csaba Szigeti	Új név egy régi ház falán M: Ferenc Balázs; T: Attila Horváth	Hungarian	A new name on the wall of an old house	22/23	3			internal selection
1996	Gjon Delhusa	Fortuna M / T: Gjon Delhusa	Hungarian	-	Not qualified qualifying round		23/29	26th	A cél: Oslo
1997	VIP	Miért kell, hogy elmenj? M: Viktor Rakonczai; T: Krisztina Bokor Fekete	Hungarian	Why do you have to go?	12/25	39	Qualified directly for the final		National preliminary decision
1998	Charlie	A holnap már nem lesz szomorú M: István Lerch; T: Attila Horváth	Hungarian	Tomorrow will not be sad anymore	23/25	4th			internal selection
1999 to 2004	No participation
2005	Nox	Forogj világ M: Szabolcs Harmath; T: Atilla Valla	Hungarian	Turn around, earth	12/24	97	5/25	167	National preliminary decision
2006	No participation
2007	Magdi Ruzsa	Unsubstantial Blues M: Magdi Rúzsa; T: Imre Mózsik	English	Half-hearted blues	9/24	128	2/28	224	Fonogram 2007
2008	Csézy	Candlelight M: Viktor Rakonczai; T: Imre Mózsik & Jánosi	English, Hungarian	candlelight	Eliminated		19/19	6th	Eurovíziós Dalverseny 2008: Magyarországi döntő
2009	Zoltán Ádok	Dance with Me M: Zé Szabó; T: Jnoffin Kasai	English	dance with Me	Eliminated		15/19	15th	internal selection
2010	No participation
2011	Kati Wolf	What About My Dreams? M: Viktor Rakonczai, Gergő Rácz; T: Péter Geszti, Johnny K. Palmer	English, Hungarian	What about my dreams?	22/25	53	7/19	72	internal selection
2012	Compact disco	Sound of Our Hearts M / T: Gábor Pál, Attila Sándor, Csaba Walkó, Behnam Lotfi	English	Sound of our hearts	24/26	19th	10/18	52	A Dal 2012
2013	ByeAlex	Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix) M: Alex Márta, Zoltán Palásti Kovács, Zoohacker; T: Alex Márta	Hungarian	My love	10/26	84	8/17	66	A Dal 2013
2014	András Kállay-Saunders	Running M: András Kallay-Saunders, Krisztián Szakos; T: András Kallay-Saunders	English	run	5/26	143	3/16	127	A Dal 2014
2015	Boggie	Wars for Nothing M / T: Boglárka Csemer, Áron Sebestyén, Sára Hélène Bori	English	Get for nothing	20/27	19th	8/16	67	A Dal 2015
2016	Freddie	Pioneer M / T: Zé Szabó, Borbála Csarnai	English	pioneer	19/26	108	4/18	197	A Dal 2016
2017	Joci Pápai	Origo M / T: József Pápai	Hungarian	origin	8/26	200	2/18	231	A Dal 2017
2018	AWS	Viszlát nyár M: Dániel Kökényes, Bence Brucker, Áron Veress, Soma Schiszler; T: Örs Siklósi	Hungarian	Goodbye summer	21/26	93	10/18	111	A Dal 2018
2019	Joci Pápai	Az én apám M: Joci Pápai , Molnár Ferenc Caramel ; T: Molnár Ferenc Caramel	Hungarian	My father	Eliminated		12/17	97	A Dal 2019
2020	No participation

languages

The majority of the Hungarian contributions were presented entirely in Hungarian, namely from 1994 to 2006, 2013 and from 2017 to 2019. The first four Hungarian entries took place at the time when each country had to sing in its respective language. Despite the freedom of speech from 1999, the song on the return was also presented completely in Hungarian in 2005. In 2007, Unsubstantial Blues was the first contribution in English, even if the original text - written by the singer - was in Hungarian. The same applies to 2008 and (although a few lines were sung in Hungarian in the version at the Song Contest) and 2009. When the song came back in 2011, the song was performed entirely in English except for the bridge in Hungarian. In 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016, the Hungarian contributions were then presented entirely in English. The contributions from 1994, 1997, 1998 and 2005 were also recorded in English. The English version of Forogj, világ was created about a year after the competition.

National preliminary decisions

The majority of the Hungarian contributions were determined through a national preliminary decision. An internal selection took place only in 1995, 1998, 2009 and 2011. The preliminary decision A Dal took place annually from 2012 to 2019 . Since 2013, this has included two semi-finals as well as three quarter-finals. Different formats were used in previous years.

Classic preliminary decision

In 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997 and 2005 there was a national preliminary round on television, each with between twelve and nineteen participants. A jury determined the winner in each case.

Fonogram (2007)

In 2007 Magdi Rúzsa was chosen as the favorite from seven artists during a music award ceremony by telephone, the song was chosen internally by Hungarian television.

Eurovíziós Dalverseny: Magyarországi döntő (2008)

In 2008 there was a preliminary decision with 15 participants. Each song had to be performed in Hungarian, and each performer had to submit an English version of the song. At the end of the day, the winner was determined with 50% televoting and 50% jury voting. Since in the end both the singer Adrien Szekeres and the singer Csézy both got 29 points, the interpreter received the victory, which did better in the televoting. Since Szekeres only received 14 points from the televoting, while Csézy received 15 points, the latter won the preliminary decision.

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to Hungary (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Sweden 71 2  Netherlands 62 3  Norway 61 4th  Azerbaijan 59  Denmark 59

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  Serbia 68 2  Romania 67 3  Finland 61 4th  Croatia 53 5  Poland 50

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Netherlands 119 2  Denmark 112 3  Azerbaijan 110 4th  Iceland 109 5  Norway 106

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Serbia 156 2  Romania 136 3  Finland 114 4th  Croatia 112 5  Estonia 107

Award of the highest rating

Since 1994, Hungary has awarded the maximum number of points to 18 different countries, two of them each to Azerbaijan, Denmark, Iceland and the Netherlands. In the semifinals, Hungary gave the highest number of points to 13 different countries, three of them to Azerbaijan.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 1993 Not qualified 1994  Germany 3 1995  Cyprus 9 1996 Not qualified 1997  United Kingdom 1 1998  Netherlands 4th 1999 Not qualified 2000 to 2004 No participation 2005  Greece 1 2006 No participation 2007  Serbia 1 2008  Azerbaijan 8th 2009  Norway 1 2010 No participation 2011  Iceland 20th 2012  Sweden 1 2013  Azerbaijan 2 2014  Netherlands 2 2015  Belgium 4th 2016  Australia (J) 2  Ukraine (T) 1 2017  Portugal (J) 1  Bulgaria (T) 2 2018  Denmark (J&T) 9 2019  Czech Republic (J) 11  Iceland (T) 10 2020 No participation

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2005  Romania 1 2006 No participation 2007  Serbia 1 2008  Denmark 3 2009  Azerbaijan 2 2010 No participation 2011  Iceland 4th 2012  Finland 12 2013  Azerbaijan 1 2014  Netherlands 1 2015  Russia 1 2016  Malta (J) 3  Azerbaijan (T) 6th 2017  Bulgaria (J&T) 1 2018  Romania (J) 11  Denmark (T) 5 2019  Belarus (J) 10  San Marino (T) 8th 2020 No participation

various

• In 1994, Hungary was the first country to receive the highest number of points directly from the first country when it first took part - in fact even from the first three countries.
• Magdi Rúzsa was the first woman to compose a Hungarian entry for the competition. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 she received the prize as best composer for Unsubstantial Blues .
• In terms of semifinals and finals, Hungary received the most points on average from Serbia (9.3). Hungary also awarded the most points to Serbia (10.3).
• In 2009, it took three attempts to find the participating song. First of all, the singer Márk Zentai with If You Wanna Party was selected. Since the song was released under the title We Became Friends in 2004, it was replaced by Magányos csónak by Kátya Tompos. However, she voluntarily withdrew her participation because there were scheduling difficulties due to her theater career. Eventually, Zoli Ádok was selected with Dance with Me .
• In 2013 ByeAlex received 12 points from Germany for Kedvesem , it was the only maximum number of points for Hungary that evening.
• In 2014 Hungary achieved the best result since the introduction of the semi-finals: they achieved 143 points and 5th place.
• Hungary qualified for the final eight times in a row, which is a record together with Greece , who also qualified for the final eight times in a row between 2008 and 2015.
• Joci Pápai is the only candidate to date to have represented Hungary twice at the ESC ( 2017 and 2019 ).

Impressions

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  Magdi Rúzsa 2007

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  Csézy 2008

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  Kati Wolf 2011

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  ByeAlex 2013

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  András Kállay-Saunders 2014

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  Boggie 2015

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  Freddie 2016

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  Joci Pápai 2017

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  AWS 2018

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  Joci Pápai 2019