Hungary was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The local Media Services and Support Trust Fund (MTVA) and the Hungarian broadcaster Duna Media Service organised the national final A Dal 2018 in order to select the Hungarian entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal.

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, Hungary had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fourteen times since its first entry in . Hungary's best placing in the contest was fourth, which they achieved with their début entry in 1994 with the song "Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?" performed by Friderika Bayer. Hungary had attempted participate in the contest in 1993, however, their entry was eliminated in the preselection show Kvalifikacija za Millstreet. Hungary withdrew from the contest for six years between 1999 and 2004 and also missed the 2006 and 2010 contests. In 2014, Hungary achieved their second best result in the contest since their début, placing fifth with the song "Running" performed by András Kállay-Saunders. In 2016, Hungary placed 19th in the Eurovision final with the song "Pioneer" performed by Freddie. Next year they managed to finish in the top 10 again, now in the 8th place with "Origo" sang by Joci Pápai.

The Hungarian national broadcaster, Media Services and Support Trust Fund (MTVA), broadcasts the event within Hungary and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. MTVA confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 10 October 2017. Since 2012, MTVA has organised A Dal, a national selection show which has managed to, thus far, produce entries that have qualified the nation to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest each year and has resulted in three top 10 placings in 2013, 2014 and 2017.

Before Eurovision

A Dal 2018 A Dal 2018 was the seventh edition of the Hungarian national selection A Dal, which selected Hungary's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition consisted of 30 entries competing in three heats, two semi-finals, and a final. The hosts were Kriszta Rátonyi and Freddie.

Format Judges The jury panel consisted of four people: Judit Schell: actress Misi Mező: the lead singer and guitarist of the Hungarian band Magna Cum Laude Károly Frenreisz: one of the biggest names and composers of the so called Big Generation, band-member of Metro, LGT and Skorpió Miklós Both: two times Fonogram-award winner performer and composer.

Competing entries

On 10 October 2017, MTVA opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 20 November 2017.

Among the qualifiers, there are some artists and bands who made their comeback to A Dal-stage. Ceasefire X and Péter Szikszai (male part of Maya ‘n’ Peti) competed in 2016 as part of the boyband ByTheWay. Viki Eszes is in the running now with #yeahla, and took part in the past two times: in 2013 with the band Background, and in 2017 as part of The Couple. The Fourtissimo participated in A Dal once before; in 2015 they performed Run to You along Gyula Éliás. Gábor Heincz Biga and Viktor Király are no similar names in the national selection as well, they were part of the first ever A Dal-superfinal in 2012; the former with his song Learning to Let Go, and the latter with his siblings, performed Untried. Then in 2014 Viktor went on as a solo artist with Running Out of Time. Gabi Knoll took part in the 2014 national selection with her song Sweet Memories, but did not advance to the next round. Attila Kökény was the very first entrant of A Dal in 2012 with Tamara Bencsik. The lead singer of the band Leander Kills took part in the show before at two occasions: in 2015 with his former band called Leander Rising, and in 2017 with the existing formation, with the song called Élet. Maszkura és a tücsökraj competed in A Dal 2016, and gained the worst ever public score in the heats, scoring only 4 out of the maximum 10. This has since been given twice more in 2018, in the second semifinal for the entries sung by Cintia Horváth & Tomi Balogh and Nikoletta Szőke, Attila Kökény and Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos. The Noémo's lead singer, Noémi Takácsová "BülBüls" sang Minden mosoly in 2014, while Odett was a wildcard entry in the 2013 edition of the contest. Then A Dal 2016 started with her English language song Stardust, but did not advance to the next stage. Benjámin Pál (lead singer of Living Room) and the Peet Project were two of the qualifiers a year before with their entries Father's Eyes and Kill Your Monster.

Ádám Szabó was in the race in several occasions before: after a quick elimination in 2013, he came back in 2015, and placed second in the grand final with Give Me Your Love. In 2017 he sang the song Together, and this time he is back with his electro-rock formation called yesyes. The Matter (under the name Mushu) was a finalist in 2016 with Uncle Tom, and would've take part in the 2018 selection as well, but withdrew due to family issues. The band Patikadomb replaced them with Jó szelet!. Reni Tolvai made her first appearance in A Dal in 2012, and stayed at the first stage of the show with Élek a szemeidben. Later she came back in 2016, and advanced to the semi-finals. Tamás Vastag marked his third presence in the national selection, as he took part in A Dal 2013 with Holnaptól, and a year later with Állj meg villág.

Artist Song Songwriter(s) Andy Roll "Turn the Lights On" András Dutka AWS "Viszlát nyár" Dániel Kökényes, Bence Brucker, Áron Veress, Soma Schiszler, Örs Siklósi Ceasefire X "Satellites" Bence András Vavra, Norbert Szűcs, Kata Kozma "Azt mondtad" Gergely Dánielfy, Árpád Völgyesi Fourtissimo "Kisnyuszi a kalapban" Valéria Ferencz-Kuna, Márton Kuna, Gyula Ferencz-Kuna, Bence Kuna "Hypnotized" ByeAlex Ham ko Ham "Bármerre jársz" G. Zoltán Tóth, Zsolt Kathy "Good vibez" Gábor Heincz, Adrián Méhes and Tomi Balogh "Journey (Break Your Chains)" Tamás Balogh, Cintia Horváth "Meggyfa" Tamás Horváth "Budapest Girl" Viktor Király, Ashley Hicklin, Marcel Závodi, Tamás Kiraly "Nobody to Die For" Gabi Knoll, Krisztián Burai, Stanislav Bendarzsevszkij Leander Kills "Nem szól harang" Leander Köteles Living Room "Kirakat élet" Benjamin Pál, Patrik Prommer Maszkura és a tücsökraj "Nagybetűs szavak" Szabolcs Biró, Gábor Boros, Attila Földesi, Csaba Kertész, Dániel Vikukel The Matter "Broken Palms" Izsák Palmer, Örs Kozák, Joel David Perez García, Kert Antal Maya 'n' Peti "Nekem te" Edvárd Szalma, Péter Szikszai Nemzenekar "Waiting" Gyula Pásztor, Tamás Károly, Gyula Pásztor Nene "Mese a királyról" Milán Erik Vörös, Renáta Katalin Orsovai, József Márkosi, Evelin Boda, Szabolcs Balázs Varga, Péter Ferencz Noémo "Levegőt!" Noémi Takácsová, Dániel Ferenc Szabó, Bálint Artúr Szeifert, István Tóth, Márton Jeszenszky Nova Prospect "Vigyázó" József Kiss, Bálint Schautek Odett "Aranyhal" Miklós Toldi, Odett Polgár, Szabolcs Hujber Patikadomb "Jó szelet!" Gábor Dobos, Tamás Kátai, Gyula Ujvári Peet Project "Runaround" Péter Ferencz, Olivér Magán, Attila Závodi, Martin Gudics, Marcell Gudics SativuS "Lusta lány" Márton Szabó, Gábor Pájer "Butterfly House" John King, Andy Vitolo "Zöld a május" Zsolt Süle, Péter Bodnár , Attila Kökény and Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos "Életre kel" Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos, Péter Müller "Sziámi" "Crack My Code" Máté Bella, Johnny K. Palmer "Ne hagyj reményt" Krisztián Sztevanovity, Dusán Sztevanovity #yeahla feat. Viki Eszes "1 szó mint 100" Péter Jelasity yesyes "I Let You Run Away" Ádám Szabó, Dániel Somogyvári, Flóra Petneházy

Shows Heats Three heats took place on 20 January, 27 January and 3 February 2018. In each heat ten entries competed and six entries qualified to the semi-finals after two rounds of voting. In the first round of voting, five qualifiers were determined by the combination of scores from each judge and an aggregate score from a public SMS and mobile app vote. In the second round of voting, the remaining five entries that were not in the initial top five faced a public vote consisting of votes submitted through SMS in order to determine one additional qualifier.

In addition to the competing entries, other performers featured during the shows. János Kóbor and Balkan Fanatik performed as the interval act in heat 1, James Karácsony and Margaret Island performed in heat 2, and Fecó Balázs and Veca Janicsák performed in heat 3.

+ Heat 120 January 2018 Artist Song Total Result 1 Living Room "Kirakat élet" 7 7 8 7 7 36 2 "Ne hagyj reményt" 7 7 7 7 8 36 Advanced 3 Noémo "Levegőt!" 9 8 7 8 7 39 4 Leander Kills "Nem szól harang" 9 9 9 9 8 44 Advanced 5 "Zöld a május" 10 10 8 9 7 44 Advanced 6 "Nobody to Die For" 9 9 8 8 6 40 Advanced 7 Fourtissimo "Kisnyuszi a kalapban" 6 6 7 6 8 33 8 Ceasefire X "Satellites" 9 8 8 8 8 41 Advanced 9 "Budapest Girl" 9 8 9 8 9 43 Advanced 10 Patikadomb "Jó szelet!" 7 6 7 6 7 33

+ Heat 227 January 2018 Artist Song Total Result 1 Peet Project "Runaround" 7 7 8 7 7 36 2 Odett "Aranyhal" 8 9 8 8 6 39 Advanced 3 yesyes "I Let You Run Away" 10 8 8 8 9 43 Advanced 4 Maya 'n' Peti "Nekem te" 6 6 6 6 6 30 5 "Butterfly House" 7 7 7 7 6 34 6 SativuS "Lusta lány" 6 7 7 6 8 34 Advanced 7 "Azt mondtad" 10 10 8 9 8 45 Advanced 8 Nene "Mese a királyról" 7 8 8 8 6 37 9 "Good Vibez" 9 9 9 8 8 43 Advanced 10 AWS "Viszlát nyár" 9 9 9 9 9 45 Advanced

+ Heat 33 February 2018 Artist Song Total Result 1 Nova Prospect "Vigyázó" 7 7 8 7 8 37 2 and Tomi Balogh "Journey (Break Your Chains)" 8 8 7 8 6 37 Advanced 3 Maszkura és a tücsökraj "Nagybetűs szavak" 8 8 8 8 6 38 Advanced 4 "Hypnotized" 7 7 7 6 8 35 Advanced 5 "Crack My Code" 8 7 8 7 7 37 6 Ham ko Ham "Bármerre jársz" 7 8 7 8 8 38 Advanced 7 #yeahla feat. Viki Eszes "1 szó mint 100" 6 7 7 8 7 35 8 Andy Roll "Turn the Lights On" 7 6 7 6 7 33 9 "Meggyfa" 9 8 8 8 9 42 Advanced 10 , Attila Kökény and Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos "Életre kel" 10 9 9 9 7 44 Advanced

Semi-finals Two semi-finals took place on 10 and 17 February 2018. In each semi-final nine entries competed and four entries qualified to the final after two rounds of voting. In the first round of voting, three qualifiers were determined by the combination of scores from each judge and an aggregate score from a public SMS and mobile app vote. In the second round of voting, the remaining six entries that were not in the initial top three faced a public vote consisting of votes submitted through SMS in order to determine one additional qualifier.

In addition to the competing entries, other performers featured during the shows. Kimnowak and János Kardos-Horváth performed as the interval act in semi-final 1, and Adrien Szekeres and Charlie Horváth performed as the interval act for the show.

+ Semi-final 110 February 2018 Artist Song Total Result 1 Ham ko Ham "Bármerre jársz" 7 8 7 8 6 36 2 "Good Vibez" 9 9 9 8 7 42 Advanced 3 SativuS "Lusta lány" 6 7 8 7 5 33 4 "Nobody to Die For" 9 8 7 8 5 37 5 Maszkura és a tücsökraj "Nagybetűs szavak" 8 8 8 8 5 37 6 "Zöld a május" 10 10 9 10 6 45 Advanced 7 "Hypnotized" 7 7 8 6 7 35 8 "Azt mondtad" 10 10 9 10 8 47 Advanced 9 Leander Kills "Nem szól harang" 8 8 8 9 8 41 Advanced

+ Semi-final 217 February 2018 Artist Song Total Result 1 and Tomi Balogh "Journey (Break Your Chains)" 8 8 8 8 4 36 2 AWS "Viszlát nyár" 10 10 9 10 7 46 Advanced 3 Odett "Aranyhal" 8 8 8 8 5 37 4 "Budapest Girl" 9 8 10 8 7 42 Advanced 5 , Attila Kökény and Róbert Szakcsi Lakatos "Életre kel" 9 8 8 8 4 37 6 "Meggyfa" 8 7 7 8 8 38 Advanced 7 "Ne hagyj reményt" 8 7 8 7 6 36 8 Ceasefire X "Satellites" 9 9 8 8 6 40 9 yesyes "I Let You Run Away" 10 9 9 9 8 45 Advanced

Final