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 (EBU) and host broadcaster Channel One (C1R), which staged the event after the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR) won the for with the song "Believe" by Dima Bilan.
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 (GPB) 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 (TMC), 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, (SMRTV), 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, (LTV), 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 (2.8 million euros) 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.
+ Eurovision Song Contest 2009 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Kejsi Tola "Carry Me in Your Dreams" English RTVA Susanne Georgi " (Get a Life)" 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 "" Bosnian Aleksandar Čović BNT Krassimir Avramov "Illusion" English HRT Igor Cukrov Andrea "" Croatian CyBC Christina Metaxa "Firefly" English Nikolas Metaxas ČT Gipsy.cz "" English, Romani Radoslav "Gipsy" Banga DR Brinck "Believe Again" English ERR Urban Symphony "" Estonian Sven Lõhmus YLE Waldo's People "Lose Control" English Patricia Kaas "" 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 "" () Russian LRT Sasha Son "Love" English, Russian Dmitrij Šavrov MRT Next Time "" () Macedonian PBS Chiara "What If We" English TRM Nelly Ciobanu "" 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 "" Portuguese TVR Elena "The Balkan Girls" English C1R Anastasia Prikhodko "" () Russian, Ukrainian RTS Marko Kon and Milaan "" () Serbian STV Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková "" Slovak RTVSLO Quartissimo feat. Martina "Love Symphony" English, Slovene RTVE Soraya Arnelas "" Spanish SVT Malena Ernman "" French, English SRG SSR Lovebugs "The Highest Heights" English TRT Hadise "Düm Tek Tek" English NTU Svetlana Loboda "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)" English BBC Jade Ewen "It's My Time" English
Format Thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest, with the "Big Four" countries (, , , and the ) and the host () pre-qualified for the final. In addition to those pre-qualified, the final also included the ten selected countries from each semi-final, making a total of twenty-five participants.
A discussion on changes to the format of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest had taken place at an EBU meeting in Athens, Greece, in June 2008 where a proposal was made that could have resulted in the "Big Four" losing their automatic place in the final of the contest. However, it was confirmed that the "Big Four" countries would continue to automatically qualify for the final at the 2009 contest.
Graphic design
Host broadcaster Channel One presented the sub-logo and theme for the 2009 contest on 30 January 2009. The sub-logo is based upon a "Fantasy Bird", which can be used with many colours. As in previous years, the sub-logo was presented alongside the generic logo. 2009 is the only year since the introduction of slogans in not to have one.
The stage was designed by New York-based set designer John Casey, and was based around the theme of contemporary Russian avant-garde. Casey, who had previously designed the stage for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 in Dublin, was also involved in design teams for the 1994 and 1995 contests. He explained that "even before [he] worked with the Russians on the TEFI Awards in Moscow in 1998, [he] was inspired by and drawn to art from the Russian Avant Garde period, especially the constructivists... [He] tried to come up with a theatrical design for the contest that incorporates Russian avant-garde art into a contemporary setting, almost entirely made up of different types of LED screens." Casey explained that together, the various LED shapes form the finished product. Furthermore, large sections of the stage can move, including the circular central portion of curved LED screens, which can be moved to effect and allow each song to have a different feel.
Postcards The music accompanying the postcards used to introduce each participating country was written and produced by British electronic musician Matthew Herbert.
The postcards opened with the words "Moskva 2009" (Москва 2009), the transliterated Russian way to say "Moscow 2009". It continued with the appearance of Miss World 2008, Ksenia Sukhinova of Russia, and then a group of famous landmarks from the participating country were shown in computer animation. The animation would simulate a pop-up book, with each "page turn" showing different landmarks. Then Sukhinova reappeared again, wearing a hat comprising all of the landmarks shown (as well as having different hairstyle & make-up each time) and a T-shirt with the colours of the respective country's flag. The Russian video had the exact appearance of Sukhinova shown in the first part of every video, and no different hairstyle was shown for the Russian entry.
Then, on the right, the 2009 contest logo appeared with the name and the flag of the country. Finally a phrase in transliterated Russian word and its English translation were shown. The words shown were as were as following, listed in alphabetical order:
Ikra (Caviar) Potselui (Kiss) Sibir (Siberia) Valenki (Winter boots) Karavai (Round loaf of bread) Veselo (Cheerfully) Bud zdorov (Bless you!) Krasota (Beauty) Matryoshka (Russian doll) Druzhba (Friendship) Privet! (Hi!) Ded Moroz (Santa Claus) Gagarin () Na zdarovie! (Cheers!) Lublu (Love) Poehali! (Let's go!) Vsego dobrogo (Good luck) Mir (Peace/World) Sneg (Snow) Balalaika (Music instrument) Horosho (Good/OK) Borsch (Beetroot soup) Kosmos (Space) Klassno (Great/Cool) Skazka (Fairytale) Chudo (Miracle) Dobro pojalovat! (Welcome!) Zima (Winter) Babushka (Grandmother) Vecherinka (Party) Pozhalusta (Please) Tantsui (Dance) Davai-davai (Come on!) Schastie (Happiness) Medved (Bear) Vmeste (Together) Spasibo (Thank you) Muzika (Music) Vesna (Spring) Kak dela (How are you?) Shick! (Glamour) Zazhigai! (Let's rock!)
Semi-final allocation draw