October 23 is Hungarian Republic Day where Hungarians will this year celebrate 32 years as an independent nation.
In honour of the day, we thought we'd take a look at the Top 5 most popular Hungarian Grand Final performances on the Eurovision Song Contest's official YouTube channel.
Let's begin!
5. András Kállay-Saunders - 'Running' (2014) 1,297,644 views
Before his Eurovision performance, András Kallay-Saunders had already experienced success as a chart topping artist in Hungary so it's no surprise to see him in the top 5. Giving Hungary their second best result ever (5th), 'Running' is the most popular Hungarian entry to date based on % of votes, receiving 47.67% of available points. The Grand Final performance has had almost 1.3 million YouTube views in the years since and Kallay-Saunders has gone on to attempt to represent Hungary on three more occasions (2016, 2017, 2019).
4. ByeAlex – 'Kedvesem (Zoohacker Remix)' (2013) 1,896,069 views
Otherwise known as Alex Márta, ByeAlex finished 10th with his Hungarian ballad 'Kedvesem', which has had just under two million YouTube views. The song is a favourite among fans of songs performed in a country's native language which may have led to its YouTube popularity. Alex is also known as a journalist and author and the Hungarian ballad not only reached Number 1 in Hungary but also charted in several European nations. Since his performance, Alex has gone on to form several bands and has also written music and lyrics for other Hungarian artists.
3. AWS – 'Viszlát nyár' (2018) 2,166,981 views
Metalcore band AWS brought something new to the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Viszlát nyár' (Goodbye Summer). Popular with many of Eurovision's younger fans, their Grand Final performance has clocked up over two million YouTube views in the three years since their performance. 'Viszlát nyár' only managed to finish in 21st place but remains popular with fans of the metal genre, who were excited to see such an 'out of the box' performance on the Eurovision stage. Sadly lead singer Örs Siklósi passed away earlier this year from leukaemia at the age of 29.
2. Joci Pápai – 'Origo' (2017) 3,357,255 views
Joci Pápai's popularity with Hungarian music fans may explain the popularity of 'Origo' on YouTube with over three million views. Joci, who is of Romani descent, had already had several top ten singles in Hungary before winning national final 'A Dal' in 2017 and went on to finish eighth at the Eurovision Grand Final. He also became the first Hungarian artist to return to Eurovision in 2019 but on this occasion he failed to qualify for the final.
1. Freddie – 'Pioneer' (2016) 4,548,633 views
You'd expect the most viewed Hungarian entry on YouTube to also be the one with Hungary's best result but not so! Freddie only finished in 19th place in 2016 yet his Grand Final performance of 'Pioneer' has become the most popular of the Hungarian Grand Final entries on YouTube with over four and a half million views. It may help that Freddie is quite easy on the eye and finished fourth on television program 'Rising Star' the year before! 'Pioneer' reached No. 1 on the Hungarian music charts and Freddie also had a follow-up chart-topper in Hungary in 2017 with 'Csodák'.
And what was Hungary's best result at Eurovision? It was in fact their very first entry to make the Grand Final (and their second ever entry), 1994's 'Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?' by Friderika Bayer which finished 4th.
Sadly, Hungary withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2020 and it is now official that we won't be seeing them return to the contest in 2022. Hopefully we can say Üdv újra (welcome back) to Hungary very soon!