Ezra told '' The Daily Telegraph '' that " Budapest " was " his first attempt to write a love song , and it uses the first three guitar chords he ever learned . There 's a lot to be said for that simplicity . " Ezra has also insisted that , despite its title , the lyrics of " Budapest " do not have anything to do with the city in Hungary and that he had never even been there before . He said , " I was in Malmö in Sweden and the Eurovision Song Contest was being held in Malmö on that night , and I did n't have a clue about it but everyone there seemed to be really excited about it and having parties . But I did n't know you could n't buy alcohol after 10 o'clock at night . So I ended up buying a bottle of like , rum , or something like that from a guy in a park so I could have something to drink at this party . Anyway , I was meant to be getting a train to Budapest the next day , and I never got it because I was too hungover and did n't fancy it . So I wrote the song about being miles from Budapest . " " Budapest " was originally released as part of Ezra 's EP '' Did You Hear the Rain ? '' , which contains the song of the same name . When asked about how the song became popular , Ezra revealed , " At first we gave it away as a free track off the/my EP for like a month , and then in Italy it just kicked off for some reason . I 've never even been over there , but the song was just huge on the radio . It kind of happened overnight . Then it went over to Germany and when we released it in the UK , it took off there as well . " With a tempo of 128 bpm , the song " Budapest " is composed in the key of F major
Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 2013
Budapest (song)