After the success of my French focused post How France Has Impacted The Music Industry, I decided to do some research on a culture I actually do belong to (despite everyone thinking I’m instead French due to my extraordinarily French name). Hungary may not have an extensive history of pop music like France or Britain does, but this doesn’t mean it’s current pop music should go unnoticed. Here I present you many reasons why:
Follow The Flow
Founded in 2016, this Hungarian Hip Hop band consisting of members Csaba Molnár, Gergo Szakács and Gergely Vincze made an entrance to the music scene with their 2018 hit Don’t know anyone. Subsequently, they were nominated for ‘Best Hungarian Performer’ at the 2018 MTV Europe Awards and won. More recently their song Old Tale from their 2021 album Heaven And Earth charted at number 2 in the Hungarian Radio Top 40.
You can listen to Old Tale (Régi Mese) here:
Rúzsa Magdolna
Singer songwriter Rúzsa Magdolna, more well known by the name Magdi Rúzsa represented Hungary at the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, winning ‘Newcomer Of The Year’ with the song Unsubstantial Blues. Prior to this she won the Pop Idol inspired Hungarian reality show Megasztár in 2006. Since then Rúzsa has released multiple albums including Tizenegy (2012) and Lélekcirkusz (2019). Her latest album Karma was released in 2021, with the most popular hit Szembeszél amassing over 600,000 streams on Spotify.
You can listen to Szembeszél here:
Rozina Patkai
Rozina Patkai is a woman of many talents, considering she graduated as a Hungarian and English teacher, kickstarted a journalism career and walked right in to the music industry with her 2011 debut album, receiving the ‘People’s Voice Award’ alongside her band at the Independent Music Awards. Her unusual Jazz sound is still prevalent in aspects of her music today, for example in her latest album Tsilos csillagon (Pilinszky János versei).
You can listen to her most popular track from her latest album here:
Gyuris
Gyuris has been apart of the music industry for a good five years, releasing his debut album szellemország in 2017. His latest album revolver gyrus sivatagai kalandjai came out back in 2020, but Gyuris let his fans know that he wasn’t going anywhere in 2021 after releasing his October single messzi világ szerkezete, which generates a relaxed hip hop sound.
You can listen to messzi világ szerkezete here:
Tamaska Gabil
2019 was a fantastic year for R&B Soul singer Tamaska Gabil, who landed herself two top 20 hits on the Hungarian Radio Top 40 in Anywhere and Our Number. It’s not been long, however, since she released her collaboration with DOÓR entitled SZERETEM, which still has time to wander on to the Hungarian charts like it’s predecessors. In a country shrouded in rock music, Tamaska Gabil is a breath of fresh air to the Hungarian music industry.
You can listen to SZERETEM here: