Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Hungary participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The Hungarian broadcaster, Magyar Televízió (MTV), confirmed their participation in November 2008.[1]

Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Country Hungary
National selection
Selection processInternal Selection
Selection date(s)23 February 2009
Selected entrantZoli Ádok
Selected song"Dance With Me"
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (15th)
Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2008 • 2009 • 2011►

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

MTV confirmed in January 2009 that an internal selection would be held to select the Hungarian entry for the 2009 contest.

MTV opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries until 2 February 2009.[2][3] A jury reviewed all 105 submissions submitted during the submission period, and announced on 3 February 2009 that Márk Zentai with the song "If You Wanna Party" as the selected entrant for the 2009 contest.[4][5] However, shortly after the announcement, it came to light that the song selected had been released in 2004 under the title "We Became Friends", which acted as the Swedish Big Brother theme song.[6][7] Zentai therefore withdrew his song from the selection shortly after this news became apparent, and MTV was set for finding a new entrant for the contest.[7][8]

On 4 February 2009, MTV announced that actress Kátya Tompos with the song "Magányos csónak" (Lonely boat) would replace Zentai as the Hungarian representative.[9][10] However, the Alliance of Hungarian Popular Music Composers and Songwriters protested that they did not feel as if the jury had long enough to make a correct decision on 3 February 2009, and were dissatisfied with the internal selection instead of a national final where the public could vote for the winner. Other claims were made as well, such as that the songwriters have to be from his or her motherland and that the jury was not professional.[11] MTV, however, stood by their decision of selecting the song internally, as well as revealing that the jury of television and music industry professionals chose the song all day long on 3 February 2009, and that they were satisfied with the jury's decision.[11] On 10 February 2009, Tompos announced her withdrawal from the contest, alleging she wanted to focus on her theatre career and that she had no time to prepare her participation in Eurovision properly, because she takes part in 8 plays of 3 different theatres. As a result of this, the MTV jury had to convene once again to select another artist to represent Hungary at Eurovision.[12]

On 23 February 2009, after shortlisting three songs from the remaining submissions (to be sure one of them will not withdraw and completely meet the requirements), MTV announced during a press conference that Zoli Ádok with the song "Dance With Me" was selected as the Hungarian entrant for the 2009 contest.

Internal Selection
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Place Result
Márk Zentai "If You Wanna Party" G. Németh, Zé Szabó 1 Disqualified
Kátya Tompos "Magányos csónak" Duba Gábor, Pálvölgyi Géza 2 Withdrawn
Zoli Ádok "Dance With Me" Zé Szabó, Kasai 3 Selected

At Eurovision

Since Hungary is not one of the "Big Four" nor was it the host of the 2009 contest, it had to compete in one of the two semi-finals. At the semi-final allocation draw on 30 January, it was decided that the country would compete in the second semi-final on 14 May 2009.[13][14][15]

Zoli performed for Hungary in position 11 in the running order, following Slovenia and preceding Azerbaijan. He failed to qualify Hungary to the final for a second successive year.

On stage, Zoli was joined by three female dancers and two backing vocalists Gábor Heincz and Jnoffin Kasai. In the beginning of the performance, Zoli and his three female dancers wore black and white costumes. Then, the dancers removed Zoli's costume before undressing themselves, with only skimpy dresses remaining on the girls and a skin-tight shirt on the singer. The LED projections during the performance have floating shapes in the verses, and expanding white lines and the words Dance With Me written across them during the chorus.

In Hungary, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on M1 with commentary by Gábor Gundel Takács. The Hungarian spokesperson revealing the result of the Hungarian vote in the final was Éva Novodomszky.

Points awarded by Hungary[16]
Split voting results from Hungary (final)
Draw Country Jury points Televoting points Scoreboard (Points)
01  Lithuania
02  Israel
03  France
04  Sweden
05  Croatia
06  Portugal
07  Iceland 10 3 7
08  Greece 6 4
09  Armenia
10  Russia
11  Azerbaijan 8 12 10
12  Bosnia and Herzegovina
13  Moldova 1 1
14  Malta 4
15  Estonia 7 5 6
16  Denmark 6 3
17  Germany 3
18  Turkey 7 5
19  Albania 4 2
20  Norway 12 10 12
21  Ukraine 5 8 8
22  Romania
23  United Kingdom 2 2 1
24  Finland
25  Spain
Points awarded to Hungary (Semi-final 2)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
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See also

References
  1. Fisher, Luke (18 November 2008). "MTV confirms 2009 participation to oikotimes.com". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 18 November 2008.
  2. Klier, Marcus (14 January 2009). "Hungary starts searching a song for Moscow". ESCToday. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  3. "Hungary: MTV begins Eurovision 2009 quest". Oikotimes. 14 January 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  4. "Gyorshír! Megvan az Eurovíziós Dalverseny magyar indulója". Zene.hu. 3 February 2009. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
  5. Hondal, Victor (3 February 2009). "Hungary: Mark Zentai to Eurovision". ESCToday. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
  6. Yalcinkaya, Hakan (4 February 2009). "Confusion over Hungary Eurovision entry". ESCToday. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  7. Konstantopoulos, Fotis (4 February 2009). "Hungary: MTV to change its decision for Moscow". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  8. Viniker, Barry (4 February 2009). "Hungary: New entrant to be selected for Eurovision". ESCToday. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  9. Konstantopoulos, Fotis (4 February 2009). "MTV to change its decision for Moscow". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  10. Konstantopoulos, Fotis (4 February 2009). "Kátya Tokmpos replaces Mark". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  11. "Eurovision in high peaks in Hungary". Oikotimes. 6 February 2009. Archived from the original on 9 February 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2009.
  12. Klier, Marcus (10 February 2009). "Hungary: Kátya Tompos withdraws from Eurovision". ESCToday. Retrieved 10 February 2009.
  13. Bakker, Sietse (30 January 2009). "LIVE: The Semi-Final Allocation Draw". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  14. Konstantopolus, Fotis (30 January 2009). "LIVE FROM MOSCOW, THE ALLOCATION DRAW". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  15. Floras, Stella (30 January 2009). "Live: The Eurovision Semi Final draw". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 30 January 2009.
  16. Eurovision Song Contest 2008
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