Eurovision Song Contest 2009
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 12 and 14 May presented by Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malakhov, and a final on 16 May 2009 presented by Ivan Urgant and Alsou Abramova, all held at the Olimpiyskiy Arena in Moscow, Russia. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Channel One, which staged the event after the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company won the for with the song "Believe" by Dima Bilan. It was the first and only time that two different sets of presenters had hosted the semi-finals and finals. It was also the first time that the event was hosted in the previous year's winning country by a different broadcaster than the previous year's winning broadcaster.
Broadcasters from forty-two countries participated in the contest, down one from the record forty-three the year before. returned to the contest for the first time since, while did not enter due to financial issues. and originally announced their intention not to participate, but it was later stated by the EBU that both countries would participate. The Georgian Public Broadcaster ultimately decided to withdraw after the EBU rejected its selected song as being a breach of the contest's rules. For the first time since, there were no debuting countries.
The winner was with the song "Fairytale", performed and written by Alexander Rybak. The song won both the jury vote and televote and received 387 points out of a possible 492, at the time the highest total score in the history of the contest.,,, and the rounded out the top five, with the latter achieving its best placing since and Iceland equalling their best result from.
After criticism of the voting system in, changes in the voting procedure were finally made prior to this contest, with the re-introduction of a national jury alongside televoting for the final, while the format of the semi-finals remained the same.
Location
The contest was held in Russia following its victory in the in Belgrade, Serbia, with "Believe" by Dima Bilan. Vladimir Putin, then-Prime Minister of Russia, stated that the contest would be held in Moscow.It was proposed by Channel One that the contest be held in Moscow's Olimpiyskiy Arena, and this proposal was evaluated by the EBU and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin, refuted rumours of an emergency reconstruction of the building, saying: "It will not be required for the Eurovision Song Contest. We now can take up to 25 thousand spectators."
Participants
Following the release of the final participants list by the EBU, 42 countries confirmed their participation in the 2009 contest, including, which returned to the contest after 11 years. originally announced that it was not to participate in the contest due to the Russo-Georgian War in protest of the foreign policies of Russia, but later reversed its decision after its win in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008, where Russia awarded it the maximum score of 12 points. The country eventually withdrew from the contest due to its entry being deemed to contain political references, including in the title a play on words of Russia's prime minister's surname.Rumours arose surrounding the participation and return of and. Télé Monte Carlo, the Monegasque broadcaster, confirmed that there were talks with the EBU over its return to the 2009 contest. At the same time, rumours spread that San Marino's broadcaster, San Marino RTV, would not participate due to poor placing at the 2008 contest. In the end, after originally confirming their intent to participate in Moscow, SMRTV was forced to withdraw from the event due to financial difficulties that prevented a second entry.
The Latvian broadcaster, Latvijas Televīzija, had reportedly withdrawn from the 2009 contest on 17 December 2008, three days after the final participation deadline. This came about due to budget cuts of over 2 million lati from the LTV budget, hindering their ability to pay the participation fee. LTV confirmed that they had informed the EBU of their intent to withdraw based solely on financial difficulties. LTV then went into discussions with the EBU in an attempt to find a solution that would keep them in the contest. On 20 December 2008, LTV announced that it would be withdrawing, and that both the EBU and Channel One had agreed not to force a financial penalty on the late withdrawal of the broadcaster from the 2009 contest. LTV also announced its intent to be at the 2010 contest. However, on 12 January 2009, it was announced that Latvia would participate in the 2009 contest. Each participating broadcaster chose its entry for the contest through its own selection process. Some of them selected their entry through an internal selection, where they chose both the song and artist, while others held national finals where the public chose the song, the artist, or both.
Thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest. The semi-final allocation draw took place on 30 January 2009, while the draw for the running order was held on 16 March 2009.
Several of the performing artists had previously represented the same country in past editions: Chiara had represented and ; Sakis Rouvas had represented and had hosted the ; and Petr Elfimov had provided backing vocals for. In addition, Martina representing Slovenia, had provided backing vocals for,, and ; Alexandros Panayi providing backing vocals for Greece, had represented and as part of Voice, and had provided backing vocals for and, and for ; and Friðrik Ómar providing backing vocals for Iceland, had represented the country as part of Euroband.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter |
| RTSH | Kejsi Tola | "Carry Me in Your Dreams" | English | ||
| RTVA | Susanne Georgi | "La teva decisió " | Catalan, English | ||
| AMPTV | Inga and Anush | "Jan Jan" | English, Armenian | ||
| İTV | Aysel and Arash | "Always" | English | ||
| BTRC | Petr Elfimov | "Eyes That Never Lie" | English | ||
| RTBF | Copycat | "Copycat" | English | ||
| BHRT | Regina | "Bistra voda" | Bosnian | Aleksandar Čović | |
| BNT | Krassimir Avramov | "Illusion" | English | ||
| HRT | Igor Cukrov Andrea | "Lijepa Tena" | Croatian | ||
| CyBC | Christina Metaxa | "Firefly" | English | Nikolas Metaxas | |
| ČT | Gipsy.cz | "Aven Romale" | English, Romani | Radoslav "Gipsy" Banga | |
| DR | Brinck | "Believe Again" | English | ||
| ERR | Urban Symphony | "Rändajad" | Estonian | Sven Lõhmus | |
| YLE | Waldo's People | "Lose Control" | English | ||
| France Télévisions | Patricia Kaas | "Et s'il fallait le faire" | French | ||
| NDR | Alex Swings Oscar Sings! | "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" | English | ||
| ERT | Sakis Rouvas | "This Is Our Night" | English | ||
| MTV | Zoli Ádok | "Dance with Me" | English | ||
| RÚV | Yohanna | "Is It True?" | English | ||
| RTÉ | Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy | "Et Cetera" | English | ||
| IBA | Noa and Mira Awad | "There Must Be Another Way" | English, Hebrew, Arabic | ||
| LTV | Intars Busulis | "Probka" | Russian | ||
| LRT | Sasha Son | "Love" | English, Russian | Dmitrij Šavrov | |
| MRT | Next Time | "Nešto što kje ostane" | Macedonian | ||
| PBS | Chiara | "What If We" | English | ||
| TRM | Nelly Ciobanu | "Hora din Moldova" | Romanian, English | ||
| RTCG | Andrea Demirović | "Just Get Out of My Life" | English | ||
| NOS | The Toppers | "Shine" | English | Gordon Heuckeroth | |
| NRK | Alexander Rybak | "Fairytale" | English | Alexander Rybak | |
| TVP | Lidia Kopania | "I Don't Wanna Leave" | English | ||
| RTP | Flor-de-Lis | "Todas as ruas do amor" | Portuguese | ||
| TVR | Elena | "The Balkan Girls" | English | ||
| C1R | Anastasia Prikhodko | "Mamo" | Russian, Ukrainian | ||
| RTS | Marko Kon and Milaan | "Cipela" | Serbian | ||
| STV | Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková | "Leť tmou" | Slovak | ||
| RTVSLO | Quartissimo feat. Martina | "Love Symphony" | English, Slovene | ||
| RTVE | Soraya Arnelas | "La noche es para mí" | Spanish | ||
| SVT | Malena Ernman | "La Voix " | French, English | ||
| SRG SSR | Lovebugs | "The Highest Heights" | English | ||
| TRT | Hadise | "Düm Tek Tek" | English | ||
| NTU | Svetlana Loboda | "Be My Valentine! " | English | ||
| BBC | Jade Ewen | "It's My Time" | English |