Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998
| Eurovision Song Contest 1998 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Hungary | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Selected artist(s) | Charlie | |||
| Selected song | "A holnap már nem lesz szomorú" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 23rd, 4 points | |||
| Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Hungary was represented by Charlie, with the song "A holnap már nem lesz szomorú", at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 9 May in Birmingham. Hungarian broadcaster MTV chose the entry via internal selection.
Following the 1998 contest MTV took a lengthy hiatus from Eurovision participation, not returning to the contest until 2005.
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Charlie performed 11th in the running order, following Malta and preceding Slovenia. The song was in a blues style which had rarely been heard before at Eurovision, and had not been predicted to go down well with the televoting European public as it lacked any kind of memorable hook. At the close of voting "A holnap már nem lesz szomorú" had picked up only 4 points (2 from Norway and 1 each from France and Romania), placing Hungary 23rd of the 25 entries. The 1998 contest was the first to implement full televoting across Europe; however technical problems meant that the Hungarian televote failed, so the votes of the Hungarian back-up jury had to be used, with the jury awarding its 12 points to the Netherlands.[1]
Voting
Points awarded to Hungary
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
Points awarded by Hungary
| 12 points |  Netherlands
|
| 10 points |  United Kingdom
|
| 8 points |  Sweden
|
| 7 points |  Malta
|
| 6 points |  Ireland
|
| 5 points |  Norway
|
| 4 points |  Estonia
|
| 3 points |  Belgium
|
| 2 points |  Poland
|
| 1 point |  Cyprus
|