[1] 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?"

In 2007, Hungary achieved their second best result in the contest since their début, placing ninth with the song "Unsubstantial Blues" performed by Magdi Rúzsa.

[4] On 3 February 2009, MTV announced during a press conference held in Budapest that Márk Zentai would represent Hungary in Moscow with the song "If You Wanna Party".

The song was written by Figge Boström, George Németh, Johan Lindman, Lasse Anderson and Zé Szabó, and was part of Zentai's latest album Nem elég.

[7][8][9] The song "Magányos csónak", written by Gábor Duba and Géza Pálvölgyi and performed by Kátya Tompos was announced as the replacement on the same day, however the singer announced her withdrawal on 10 February 2009 in order to dedicate herself to her theatre career instead, having to take part in eight plays of three different theatres meaning she had no time to prepare her Eurovision participation properly.

[10][11] The jury subsequently shortlisted three entries that meet the contest requirements from the remaining 103 submissions, with their artists confirming their acceptance to represent Hungary before the final decision was made.

On 23 February 2009, "Dance with Me" written by Zé Szabó and Kasai and performed by Zoli Ádok was announced by MTV as the second and final replacement during a press conference held in Budapest.

They also expressed dissatisfaction that a majority of the initially selected song was written by foreign songwriters and that only a jury decided on the entry instead of the public as it was at Eurovision.

MTV later published a reply stating that the jury, being professionals from the television and music industry, had enough time to make the right decision as they chose the song all day long.

[13] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.