It was released as the album's second single on 13 December in Italy, and on 13 June in the United Kingdom. It was the 10th-best-selling single of in the UK. 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. But I didn't know you couldn'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 didn't fancy it. So I wrote the song about being miles from Budapest. 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 bpm, the song "Budapest" is composed in the key of F major. Chris Willman of Billboard called it an "acoustically inclined, eminently hummable single". In , "Budapest" became a sleeper hit in the United States. It debuted at number 81 on the Billboard Hot in February , [ 9 ] and peaked at number 32 in May. It charted for 30 weeks on Adult Alternative Airplay , 10 of which were spent at the pole position; [ 10 ] in February , for the chart's 25th anniversary, Billboard ranked "Budapest" at number 12 on its list of the most successful songs in the chart's history.
