Hungary in The Eurovision Song Contest

Hungary In The Eurovision Song Contest

Hungary has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times. The first participation would have been Andrea Szulák's in 1993 but a qualification round was just installed 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 well ahead, however, afterwards the song got weaker votes and in the end it ended up in a credible fourth place. It 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. 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. Ádok eventually finished 15th in the second semi-final, failing to qualify Hungary to the grand final for the second time.

On 22 October MTV confirmed that they will 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.

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 and active member.

On the 27th of December it was confirmed that MTV had agreed to return to the 2011 edition, and on the 22nd of May, 2011, MTV confirmed their 2012 participation.