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, MTV confirmed Hungary's participation at the 2009 contest 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.[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 Televízió 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'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.[5] 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 2007. In the final, the song placed 22nd with 53 points.
In 2012, 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 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]
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.[14]
^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.
^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.
^"TV – szombat IV.6" [TV – Saturday IV.6]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 1 April 1968. p. 13. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szombat III.29" [TV – saturday III.29]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 24 March 1969. p. 13. Archived from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szombat III.21". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 16 March 1970. p. 13. Archived from the original on 4 January 2023. Retrieved 4 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szerda IV.21". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 19 April 1971. p. 7. Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 21 April 2024 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szerda IV.5". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 3 April 1972. p. 7. Archived from the original on 5 January 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – kedd május 8" [TV – Tuesday May 8]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 7 May 1973. p. 12. Archived from the original on 6 January 2023. Retrieved 6 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – kedd május 8" [TV – Tuesday 8 May]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 20 May 1974. p. 20. Archived from the original on 7 January 2023. Retrieved 7 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – vasárnap április 20" [TV – Sunday 20 April]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 14 April 1975. p. 22. Archived from the original on 8 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – kedd május 23" [TV - Tuesday May 23]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 22 May 1978. p. 12. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szombat május 2". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 27 April 1981. p. 27. Archived from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szombat május 15". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 10 May 1982. p. 26. Archived from the original on 12 January 2023. Retrieved 12 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Szombat május 3" [Saturday 3 May]. Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 28 April 1986. p. 18. Archived from the original on 14 January 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Vazárnap május 10". Rádió- és Televízió-újság (in Hungarian). 4 May 1987. p. 19. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2023 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV1 – szombat május 4" [TV1 – Saturday 4 May]. Rádió és Televízióújság (in Hungarian). 29 April 1991. p. 24. Archived from the original on 28 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Televízió – szombat május 9" [Television – Saturday 15 May]. Rádió és TeleVízió újság (in Hungarian). 4 May 1992. p. 50. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"TV – szombat május 15" [TV – Saturday 15 May]. Rádió és TeleVízió újság (in Hungarian). 10 May 1993. p. 46. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Televízió – szombat április 30" [Television – Saturday 30 April]. Rádió és TeleVízió újság (in Hungarian). 25 April 1994. p. 47. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Televízió – szombat május 13" [Television – Saturday 13 May]. Rádió és TeleVízió újság (in Hungarian). 8 May 1995. pp. 42–43. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Televízió – szombat május 18" [Television – Saturday 18 May]. Rádió és TeleVízió újság (in Hungarian). 13 May 1996. pp. 42–43. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Televízió – szombat május 3" [Television – Saturday 3 May]. Rádió és TeleVízió újság (in Hungarian). 28 April 1997. p. 44. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022 – via MTVA Archívum.
^"Téléműsor" [TV program]. Magyar Szó (in Hungarian). Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia. 9 May 1998. p. 15. Retrieved 17 June 2024 – via Vajdasági Magyar Digitális Adattár.
^ ab"56 éves lett Gundel Takács Gábor" [Gábor Gundel Takács turns 56 years old] (in Hungarian). Ridikül. 27 August 2020. Archived from the original on 23 June 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
^Klész, Imre (6 January 2015). "Eurovízió 2015: Magyar közvetítés a Duna TV-n!" [Eurovision 2015: Hungarian broadcast on Duna TV!]. eschungary.hu (in Hungarian). ESC Hungary. Archived from the original on 8 January 2015. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
^"Pályázati Felhívás 2017" [Call for Proposals 2017] (in Hungarian). mediaklikk.hu. 10 October 2016. Archived from the original on 11 January 2017. Retrieved 10 October 2016.