Hungary has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times since making its debut in . Hungary attempted to participate in but failed to qualify from Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, a special qualifying competition set up for seven former Eastern Bloc countries. The most recent Hungarian participating broadcaster in the contest was (MTVA).

Hungary's first contest in 1994 remains its most successful, with "" performed by Friderika Bayer finishing in fourth place. The country's only other top five result is a fifth-place finish with "Running" by András Kállay-Saunders in . Other top ten results are "Unsubstantial Blues" by Magdi Rúzsa finishing ninth in , "" by ByeAlex tenth in , and "" by Joci Pápai eighth in , giving Hungary a total of five top ten placements.

Participation (MTV) was a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1 January 1993, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest since then. It participated in the contest representing Hungary since its in 1994. From 2011 to 2019, after a restructuring that led to the incorporation of MTV into (MTVA), it was the latter who participated representing Hungary. Before becoming a member of the EBU, earlier contests had often been broadcast on MTV.

History 1990s Hungary's first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest would have been "Árva reggel", performed by Andrea Szulák, in , 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 . This proved successful, as 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. This still holds as their best result ever.

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

Following a poor placement in the 1998 contest, Hungary was relegated from participating in . However, after Latvia, who was originally set to debut, withdrew its participation at a late stage, its place in the contest was subsequently offered to Hungary as the excluded country with the highest average points total. However, Hungary decided against participation, and continued to be absent from the contest for the next six years.

2000s Having been absent since 1999, Hungary had planned to return in 2004, but ultimately did not take part in the contest. They eventually returned in , where they finished in 12th place in the final with "Forogj, világ!", performed by NOX. However, Hungary withdrew again in , returning in 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 , MTV confirmed Hungary's participation at the 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. 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 .

2010s In October 2009, MTV confirmed that it would not participate in the due to financial limitations in the company which would prevent it from sending an entry. broadcast the event live and applied for EBU membership to send a representative to Düsseldorf in . 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. 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 . In the final, the song placed 22nd with 53 points.

In , 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 annually until 2019.

In , Hungary reached the top 10, when the song "Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)", performed by ByeAlex, placed 10th with 84 points. Hungary reached the top five in , when the song "Running", performed by András Kállay-Saunders, placed fifth with 143 points, achieving the best result for Hungary in the contest since its 1994 debut.

Hungary made it to the top ten once again in , 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 with the song "", but failed to qualify for the final, marking Hungary's first non-qualification since 2009.

2020s: Absence Hungary did not appear on the final list of participants for the contest, which was subsequently cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it has been absent from the contest since. 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. 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.

At a forum in Győr in August 2025, when asked about Hungary's absence from the contest, the chairman of the Tisza Party, Péter Magyar, stated that if his party is able to form a government after the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election, he would consider initiating the country's return to the event. In May 2026, Magyar, who had been elected prime minister after his party won the election, revealed during an interview on Austrian broadcaster ORF's news program Zeit im Bild that he had instructed the Minister or State Secretary for Culture to examine the possibility of a return. On 23 June, the Hungarian parliament passed an amendment to the National Media Act, which dissolved MTVA and established a new broadcaster, Hungarian Radio and Television (MRTV). The amendment was enacted on 27 June.

Participation overview + Table key 2 Second place 3 Third place ◁ Last place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete

Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points Andrea Szulák ◇ "" ◇ Hungarian ◇ colspan="2" 6 44 Friderika "" Hungarian 4 122 colspan="2" rowspan="2" Csaba Szigeti "" Hungarian 22 3 Gjon Delhusa ◇ "" ◇ Hungarian ◇ colspan="2" 23 26 V.I.P. "" Hungarian 12 39 colspan="2" rowspan="2" Charlie "" Hungarian 23 4 Nox "" Hungarian 12 97 5 167 Magdi Rúzsa "Unsubstantial Blues" English 9 128 2 224 Csézy "Candlelight" English, Hungarian colspan="2" rowspan="2" 19 ◁ 6 Zoli Ádok "Dance with Me" English 15 16 Kati Wolf "What About My Dreams?" English, Hungarian 22 53 7 72 Compact Disco "Sound of Our Hearts" English 24 19 10 52 ByeAlex "" (Zoohacker Remix) Hungarian 10 84 8 66 András Kállay-Saunders "Running" English 5 143 3 127 Boggie "Wars for Nothing" English 20 19 8 67 Freddie "Pioneer" English 19 108 4 197 Joci Pápai "" Hungarian 8 200 2 231 AWS "" Hungarian 21 93 10 111 Joci Pápai "" Hungarian colspan="2" 12 97

Awards Marcel Bezençon Awards YearCategorySongComposer(s)PerformerFinalPointsHost cityComposer Award"Unsubstantial Blues"Magdi Rúzsa (m) and Imre Mózsik (l)Magdi Rúzsa9128 Helsinki

Winner by OGAE members

YearSongPerformerPlacePointsHost city"What About My Dreams?"Kati Wolf2253 Düsseldorf

Barbara Dex Award

YearPerformerHost cityZoli Ádok Moscow

Related involvement

Conductors Their first entry was conducted by Péter Wolf

Heads of delegation 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. YearHead of delegation–Szilvia Püspök–Lőrinc Bubnó

Commentators and spokespersons

Year Channel Commentator(s) Spokesperson MTV rowspan="14" rowspan="26" MTV1 Petőfi Rádió MTV2 – colspan="2" MTV2 MTV1 – colspan="2" MTV1 MTV2 István Vágó MTV1 MTV2 Katalin Bogyay MTV1 Györgyi Albert – colspan="2" m1 , András Fáber and Dávid Szántó Zsuzsa Demcsák colspan="2" m1 Gábor Gundel Takács Éva Novodomszky m1 (SF2, Final) m1 Duna TV Zsolt Jeszenszky m1 Gábor Gundel Takács Éva Novodomszky Duna Csilla Tatár Krisztina Rátonyi and Freddie Bence Forró – colspan="2"

Photo gallery

Notes and references Notes

References