Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest

The country's first entry would have been "Árva reggel", performed by Andrea Szulák, in 1993, but a qualification round was installed just for former Eastern Bloc countries, and the song did not manage to qualify to the grand final. The first official participation was of "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 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 they would not participate in the 2010 contest due to financial limitations in the company which would prevent them from sending an entry to the contest in Bærum, Norway.[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. As of 2019, A Dal has 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.

In 2019, Hungary failed to qualify for the final, therefore not appearing in a final for the first time since 2010, when the country did not participate.

Hungary did not appear on the final list of participants for the later-cancelled 2020 contest; they have been absent from the contest since.[6][7][8] MTVA stated that they would "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]

• 
  Magdi Rúzsa in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Csézy in Belgrade (2008)
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  Kati Wolf in Düsseldorf (2011)
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  ByeAlex in Malmö (2013)
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  András Kállay-Saunders in Copenhagen (2014)
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  Boggie in Vienna (2015)
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  Freddie in Stockholm (2016)
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  Joci Pápai in Kyiv (2017)
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  AWS in Lisbon (2018)
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  Joci Pápai in Tel Aviv (2019)

• Points to and from Hungary eurovisioncovers.co.uk