Through our Best of the Bunch series, we gave a recap on the Eurovision entries from 2006 to 2015 and gave you the opportunity to choose your Best of the Bunch. As you may remember, the current Best of the Bunch winners were put into our ‘Ultimate Eurovision’ but it’s time to see which of the latest three entries have remained as your favourites! In our Best of the Bunch: The Trials series, we are going to recap the entries from a certain nation starting with 2016 and continuing through to the latest Eurovision season of 2018. Your job is to simply enjoy the music, and vote for your Best of the Bunch winner!
Hungary first appeared at Eurovision in 1994 and have had a mixed history at the contest. The nation have had a few non-qualifications, but overall, we see them in the final more often than not. Occasionally, we will even see them crack the Top 10, including one of the entries we are covering today in our Best of the Bunch! Today we will be starting at 2016 and recapping the entries through to 2018, then it will be up to you to vote for your Best of the Bunch!
Hungary 2016
We start our journey in 2016, where through the usual national final method, Freddie was chosen to represent Hungary with his song Pioneer. It received positive feedback from the Eurovision fans, but throughout the lead up to the contest remained fairly under the radar. Hungary had qualified for the final each year since their return to the contest in 2011, so the pressure was on to continue this successful run, and come Eurovision time, Freddie breezed through the semi-final in 4th place. In the final, Freddie gave another confident performance, however finished in 19th place with 108 points.
Hungary 2017
Fast forward a year, and once again Hungary opted for a national selection to choose their act. As we have come to expect from Hungary, the selection featured some incredibly diverse entries, and thankfully we got to see one of those take to the Eurovision stage! Joci Pápai was selected with this very ethnic inspired song titled Origo, which immediately captured the hearts of many fans (myself included!). Easily one of the most charming performers of the contest, Joci qualified into the final in 2nd place, and in the final finished in a very respectable 8th place with 200 points!
Hungary 2018
That brings us to this year’s contest, where we saw a very big change in style from Hungary! In true style, the national selection featured a range of musical styles, and out of all the acts, the nation decided on a hard rock band! AWS were selected to perform their entry Viszlát nyár at Eurovision, and if you have listened to the song before, you’ll know why it divided viewers. We don’t often hear songs like this at Eurovision with the contest based more primarily around pop music, however it could have been the dark horse that Lordi once was! At Eurovision, the band only just scraped through to the final, and in the final finished in 21st place with 93 points.
So now you’ve seen all three performances, it’s time to vote for your Best of the Bunch!
If you want more Best of the Bunch from Hungary, check out our original series:
If you want to check out who made our Ultimate Eurovision, check it out here: