Hungary was represented by Friderika Bayer, with the song "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?", at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 30 April in Dublin. "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" was chosen as the Hungarian entry at a national final called Táncdalfesztiválja on 5 February. This was Hungary's first appearance in a Eurovision final after their debut entry failed to progress from the pre-qualifier Kvalifikacija za Millstreet in 1993.
Before Eurovision
Táncdalfesztivál 1994
Táncdalfesztivál 1994 was the national final organised by broadcaster Magyar Televízió (MTV) to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1994. The contest consisted of three semi-finals and a final held over four weeks which were all hosted by Dorottya Geszler and held in the MTV studios in Budapest.[1]
Competing Entries
MTV received 963 songs from which 45 were chosen to compete in Táncdalfesztivál 1994.[2]
Semi-Finals
The semi-finals were held on 15, 22, and 29 January 1994. Each semi-final had a 20-member jury panel, representing the 19 counties of Hungary and Budapest, who each awarded between 1 and 9 points per song with the top four in each semi-final going to the final. One more finalist was chosen by an audience vote in every semi-final.[3][4][5][6][7]
Artists who are known to have competed but aren't listed below are: Róbert Szikora, Dolly Roll, András Payer, Annamária Sasvári, and Péter Poór.[6][8][9]
Marcellina performed the song "Feltaláltad a fájdalmat című szerzeményt" in either the second or third semi-final.[10]
Jury qualifier Audience vote qualifier
Semi-Final 1 – 15 January 1994
Artist
Song
Points
Place
Kata Janza
"Úgy vártalak"
169
1
Andrea Szulák
"Fenn a szabad ég"
163
2
Grażyna Kowalczyk and Lui
"Úgy gondolj rám"
153
3
Ágnes Bogolin
"A pillanat"
142
4
Boldizsár László
"Vége már"
141
5
Gábor Majsai
Unknown
133
6
Apostol
Unknown
129
7
Andrea Tohai
"Várj még"
121
8
Janula Stefanidu
Unknown
120
9
Magdi Bódy
Unknown
118
10
Martony Klári
"Ennyi volt"
110
11
Kriszta Kránitz
Unknown
103
12
Edit Clapton
Unknown
97
13
Szénási Pál Bertalan
Unknown
86
14
Károly Kadlott
Unknown
77
15
It is known that the winner of the second semi-final received 140 points.[11]
There were 15 songs in the final with the winner being chosen by a 16-member jury who each awarded between 1 and 9 points per song. Votes were given out generously as "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" received only 4 points short of the maximum total possible, and even the last placed song had an average score of 6.1.[1] A non-competitive public vote conducted through televoting was also held and selected "Az élet megy tovább" performed by Rita Pap and Attila Bodnár as the winner with 4,518 votes.[4]
On the night of the final Bayer performed 22nd in the running order, following Spain and preceding Russia. "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" got off to the a strong start in the voting, receiving maximum 12s from the first three juries (Sweden, Finland and Ireland). However the votes received then became more mixed, with only one further 12 (from Poland) and six juries bypassing the song altogether. At the close of voting "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" had received 122 points, placing Hungary 4th of the 25 entries, which remains the country's best Eurovision placement to date.[19][20]