• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 16 May 2009 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Olimpiysky Arena (Olympic Stadium, Олимпийский стадион / Спортивный комплекс «Олимпийский», Olimpiyskiy), Moscow, 🇷🇺 Russia
• Presenter (s): Grand Final: Alsou Abramova (Alsou, Алсу́ Абра́мова; Алсу Абрамова) & Ivan Urgant (Ива́н У́ргант) Ι First Semi-Final: Natalia Vodianova (Наталья Водянова) & Andrey Malakhov (Андре́й Мала́хов) Ι Second Semi-Final: Natalia Vodianova (Наталья Водянова) & Andrey Malakhov (Андре́й Мала́хов)
• Musical Director: —
• Director: Andrei Boltenko
• Executive Producer: Yury Aksyuta
• Executive Supervisor: Svante Stockselius
• Multicamera Director: Andrey Boltenko
• Host broadcaster: Channel One (Первый канал) (C1R)
• Motto: —
• Opening Act: Cirque du Soleil performance (Prodigal Son), Dima Bilan with “Believe”.
• Interval Act: Fuerza  Bruta (Fuerzabruta) performance.
• Participants – Number of entries: 42: Final 25 [🇱🇹 Lithuania (10ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (28ª), 🇫🇷 France (49ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (46ª), 🇭🇷 Croatia (16ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (40ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (22ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (28ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (4ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (12ª), 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (2ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (14ª), Moldova (5ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (21ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (14ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (38ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (49ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (30ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (6ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (45ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (7ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (11ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (48ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (40ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (45ª)]; First Semi-Final 18 [🇲🇪 Montenegro (3ª), 🇨🇿 Czech Republic (3ª), 🇧🇪 Belgium (48ª), 🇧🇾 Belarus (6ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (46ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (4ª), 🇦🇩 Andorra (6ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (48ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (30ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (28ª), 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (5ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (22ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (9ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (11ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (40ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (40ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (21ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (14ª)]; Second Semi-Final 19  [🇭🇷 Croatia (16ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (40ª), 🇱🇻 Latvia (9ª), 🇷🇸 Serbia (4ª), 🇵🇱 Poland (14ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (45ª), 🇨🇾 Cyprus (27ª), 🇸🇰 Slovakia (4ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (38ª), 🇸🇮 Slovenia (14ª), 🇭🇺 Hungary (8ª), 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (2ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (28ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (10ª), 🇲🇩 Moldova (5ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (6ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (7ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (14ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (47ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: 🇸🇰 Slovakia (4ª)
• Non-returning countries: 🇬🇪 Georgia (2ª), 🇸🇲 San Marino (1ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: 🇨🇿 Czech Republic (SF1) (ª)
• Winning song: “Fairytale” – Alexander Rybak (Аляксандр Рыбак, Alyaksandr Rybak) – 🇳🇴 Norway (3ª)

About/Overview. Moscow staged one of the most ambitious productions in the Contest’s history, taking over the capital’s Olympic Indoor Arena.

The stage design made unprecedented use of LED technology, reportedly incorporating a third of the world’s available LED screens, allowing for dynamic, fully digital backdrops and transitions.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) reintroduced national juries in 2009 to balance the influence of televoting and address concerns about regional voting biases, reward musical merit and strengthen credibility.

Jury rankings were combined with televoting, with each accounting for 50% of a country’s final result.

For the first time, the Contest was presented by two different pairs of hosts. Supermodel Natalya Vodyanova and TV host Andrey Malakhov presented both Semi-Finals, while the Grand Final was hosted by singer Alsou, who had competed for Russia at Stockholm 2000, alongside TV personality Ivan Urgant.

Alexander Rybak’s victory for Norway at Moscow 2009 was on a large scale, in terms of both the song’s score and its impact.

His athletic performance of the folk-pop Fairytale, which he sang while playing the violin, remains one of the most famous performances in the Contest’s history. With it, he walked away with 387 points – at the time an all-time high – and he was awarded another 16 sets of 12 points, another record broken by the artist.

Rybak gave Norway its third win after Bobbysocks in 1985 and Secret Garden in 1995. 

The United Kingdom pulled in the talents of two of the world’s most renowned songwriters – Andrew Lloyd Weber and Diane Warren – in an attempt to yield a result closer to the top of the scoreboard, which had eluded them for most of the ‘00s.

The approach paid off and, although Jade Ewen didn’t win with Llyod-Webber/Warren’s My Time, she did finish fifth – the nation’s best result since 2002. 

Georgia ended up withdrawing after it was ruled that its selected song, We Don’t Wanna Put In by Stephane & 3G, violated the Contest’s rules prohibiting political content. The broadcaster declined to replace the entry and chose not to compete. 

Moscow staged one of the most ambitious productions in the Contest’s history, taking over the capital’s Olympic Indoor Arena.

The stage design made unprecedented use of LED technology, reportedly incorporating a third of the world’s available LED screens, allowing for dynamic, fully digital backdrops and transitions.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) reintroduced national juries in 2009 to balance the influence of televoting and address concerns about regional voting biases, reward musical merit and strengthen credibility.

Jury rankings were combined with televoting, with each accounting for 50% of a country’s final result.

For the first time, the Contest was presented by two different pairs of hosts. Supermodel Natalya Vodyanova and TV host Andrey Malakhov presented both Semi-Finals, while the Grand Final was hosted by singer Alsou, who had competed for Russia at Stockholm 2000, alongside TV personality Ivan Urgant.

Alexander Rybak’s victory for Norway at Moscow 2009 was on a large scale, in terms of both the song’s score and its impact.

His athletic performance of the folk-pop Fairytale, which he sang while playing the violin, remains one of the most famous performances in the Contest’s history. With it, he walked away with 387 points – at the time an all-time high – and he was awarded another 16 sets of 12 points, another record broken by the artist.

Rybak gave Norway its third win after Bobbysocks in 1985 and Secret Garden in 1995. 

The United Kingdom pulled in the talents of two of the world’s most renowned songwriters – Andrew Lloyd Weber and Diane Warren – in an attempt to yield a result closer to the top of the scoreboard, which had eluded them for most of the ‘00s.

The approach paid off and, although Jade Ewen didn’t win with Llyod-Webber/Warren’s My Time, she did finish fifth – the nation’s best result since 2002. 

Georgia ended up withdrawing after it was ruled that its selected song, We Don’t Wanna Put In by Stephane & 3G, violated the Contest’s rules prohibiting political content. The broadcaster declined to replace the entry and chose not to compete. 

For the second time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, two Semi-Finals were held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final. The Final of the contest took place on the 16th of May in the Russian capital of Moscow. While it had been the Russian broadcaster RTR who had won the contest the year before, it was decided that Channel One Russia would host the competition instead. They organised one of the biggest contests in the history of the event. The stage consisted of 1/3 of the world’s available LED screens at that time. Vladimir Putin, who was Prime Minister of Russia at the time, visited the Olympic Indoor Arena to see the preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest for himself. National juries were re-introduced alongside televoting, each accounting for 50% of the result. Georgia’s entry was deemed to have broken the rules of the contest and the country chose to withdraw rather than submit a different song. Estonia finished a credible sixth with the song Rändajad, the first song to be performed fully in Estonian since 1998 (their entry in 2004 was performed in a dialect). The United Kingdom scored its best placing since 2002 when Jade Ewen finished in fifth place with the song “My Time”, written by Dianne Warren and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

About the winner. There was no stopping the Norwegian violin-playing star, Alexander Rybak and his entry “Fairytale”. It received a record-breaking 387 points out of a possible 492, the highest total score in Eurovision history at that time.

Facts and figures. For the first time the contest was presented by two different pairs of hosts – one pair in the Semi-Finals and the other pair in the Grand Final. Both Semi-Finals were hosted by the supermodel Natalya Vodyanova and popular TV host Andrey Malakhov. The Grand Final was hosted by the singer (and their 2000 contest participant) Alsou and the TV star Ivan Urgant; Chaira, who achieved two of Malta’s best placings second and third, in 2005 and 1998 respectively, returned to the competition but finished in 22nd place in the Grand Final. 

Final:

o/r	Country	participant(s)	SONG – TRANSLATE – LANGUAGE	Points	rank
01	🇱🇹 Lithuania LRT	Sasha Son (Sasha Song)	Love (Meilė / Pasiklydęs žmogus, The Lost Man) English, Russian	023	23
02	🇮🇱 Israel IBA	Noa & Mira Awad (אחינועם ניניו מירה עווד)	There must be another way (Einaiych, עינייך, Your Eyes) English, Hebrew, Arabic	053	16
03	🇫🇷 France  France 3	Patricia Kaas	Et s’il fallait le faire French	107	08
04	🇸🇪 Sweden SVT	Malena Ernman	La voix (Rösten, The voice) English, French	033	21
05	🇭🇷 Croatia HRT	Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea  (Игор Цукров feat.  Andrea Šušnjara )	Liepa tena (Лијепа Тена, Beautiful Tena) Croatian	045	18
06	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	Flor-de-Lis	Todas as ruas do amor (All the streets of love) Portuguese	057	15
07	🇮🇸 Iceland RÚV	Yohanna (Jóhanna, Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir)	Is it true? (Er það satt?) English	218	02
08	🇬🇷 Greece ERT	Sakis Rouvas (Σάκη Ρουβά)	This is our night (Αυτή είναι η βραδιά μας) Englsih	120	07
09	🇦🇲 Armenia AMPTV	Inga & Anush (Ինգա և Անուշ, Ինգա և Անուշ Արշակյաններ, Inga and Anush Arshakyan)	Jan Jan (Ջան Ջան, Nor par (Jan jan),  Նոր պար (Ջան ջան), My dear) English, Armenian	092	10
10	🇷🇺 Russia C1R	Anastasiya Prikhodko (Анастасія Приходько, Анастасия Приходько, Анастаси́я Прихо́дько, Anastasia Prykhodko)	Mamo (Мамо, Мама, Mum) Russian, Ukrainian	091	11
11	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan İctimai	AySel & Arash (Aysel & Arəş)	Always (Həmişə) English	207	03
12	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT	Regina (Регина)	Bistra voda (Бистра вода, Clear water) Bosnian	106	09
13	🇲🇩 Moldova TRM	Nelly Ciobanu	Hora din Moldova (Hora from Moldova, Dance From Moldova) Romanian, English	069	14
14	🇲🇹 Malta PBS	Chiara	What if we (Li Kieku Aħna) English	031	22
15	🇪🇪 Estonia ERR	Urban Symphony	Rändajad (Passenger / Nomads / Travellers) Estonian	129	06
16	🇩🇰 Denmark DR	Brinck (Niels Brinck)	Believe again English	074	13
17	🇩🇪 Germany NDR	Alex Swings Oscar Sings!	Miss kiss kiss bang (Ջան Ջան)	035	20
18	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT	Hadise	Düm tek tek English[b]	177	04
19	🇦🇱 Albania RTSH	Kejsi Tola	Carry me in your dreams (Më merr në ëndërr, Take me into your dreams) English	048	17
20	🇳🇴 Norway NRK winner	Alexander Rybak (Аляксандра Рыбака)	Fairytale (Eventyr) English	387	01
21	🇺🇦 Ukraine NTU	Svetlana Loboda (Світлана Лобода)	Be my Valentine! (Anti-crisis girl) [Be My Valentine, Будь моїм Валентином! (Антикризисна дівчина)] English	076	12
22	🇷🇴 Romania TVR	Elena (Elena Gheorghe)	The Balkan girls (Fetele din Balcani) English	040	19
23	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Jade Ewen	It’s my time English	173	05
24	🇫🇮 Finland YLE	Waldo’s People	Lose Control (Menettää hallinta) English	022	25
25	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	Soraya (Soraya Arnelas)	La noche es para mí (The Night Is For Me) Spanish, English	023	24

• Dates – First Semi-Final: Tuesday, 12 May 2009 – 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Olimpiysky Arena (Olympic Stadium, Олимпийский стадион / Спортивный комплекс «Олимпийский», Olimpiyskiy), Moscow, 🇷🇺 Russia
• Presenter (s): Grand Final: Alsou Abramova (Alsou, Алсу́ Абра́мова; Алсу Абрамова) & Ivan Urgant (Ива́н У́ргант) Ι First Semi-Final: Natalia Vodianova (Наталья Водянова) & Andrey Malakhov (Андре́й Мала́хов) Ι Second Semi-Final: Natalia Vodianova (Наталья Водянова) & Andrey Malakhov (Андре́й Мала́хов)
• Musical Director: —
• Director: Andrei Boltenko
• Executive Producer: Yury Aksyuta
• Executive Supervisor: Svante Stockselius
• Multicamera Director: Andrey Boltenko
• Host broadcaster: Channel One (Первый канал) (C1R)
• Motto: —
• Opening Act: The Tolmachevy Twins.
• Interval Act: Alexandrov Ensemble feat. t.A.T.u. with “Not Gonna Get Us”.
• Participants – Number of entries: 42: Final 25 [🇱🇹 Lithuania (10ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (28ª), 🇫🇷 France (49ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (46ª), 🇭🇷 Croatia (16ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (40ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (22ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (28ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (4ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (12ª), 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (2ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (14ª), Moldova (5ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (21ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (14ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (38ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (49ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (30ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (6ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (45ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (7ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (11ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (48ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (40ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (45ª)]; First Semi-Final 18 [🇲🇪 Montenegro (3ª), 🇨🇿 Czech Republic (3ª), 🇧🇪 Belgium (48ª), 🇧🇾 Belarus (6ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (46ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (4ª), 🇦🇩 Andorra (6ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (48ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (30ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (28ª), 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (5ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (22ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (9ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (11ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (40ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (40ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (21ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (14ª)]; Second Semi-Final 19  [🇭🇷 Croatia (16ª), 🇮🇪Ireland (40ª), 🇱🇻 Latvia (9ª), 🇷🇸 Serbia (4ª), 🇵🇱 Poland (14ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (45ª), 🇨🇾 Cyprus (27ª), 🇸🇰 Slovakia (4ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (38ª), 🇸🇮 Slovenia (14ª), 🇭🇺 Hungary (8ª), 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (2ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (28ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (10ª), 🇲🇩 Moldova (5ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (6ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (7ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (14ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (47ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: 🇸🇰 Slovakia (4ª)
• Non-returning countries: 🇬🇪 Georgia (2ª), 🇸🇲 San Marino (1ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: 🇨🇿 Czech Republic (SF1) (ª)
• Winning song: “Is it true?” – Yohanna – 🇮🇸 Iceland (1ª)

About/Overview. For the second time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, two Semi-Finals were held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final. The Final of the contest took place on the 16th of May in the Russian capital of Moscow. While it had been the Russian broadcaster RTR who had won the contest the year before, it was decided that Channel One Russia would host the competition instead. They organised one of the biggest contests in the history of the event. The stage consisted of 1/3 of the world’s available LED screens at that time. Vladimir Putin, who was Prime Minister of Russia at the time, visited the Olympic Indoor Arena to see the preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest for himself. National juries were re-introduced alongside televoting, each accounting for 50% of the result. Georgia’s entry was deemed to have broken the rules of the contest and the country chose to withdraw rather than submit a different song. Estonia finished a credible sixth with the song Rändajad, the first song to be performed fully in Estonian since 1998 (their entry in 2004 was performed in a dialect). The United Kingdom scored its best placing since 2002 when Jade Ewen finished in fifth place with the song “My Time”, written by Dianne Warren and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

About the winner. There was no stopping the Norwegian violin-playing star, Alexander Rybak and his entry “Fairytale”. It received a record-breaking 387 points out of a possible 492, the highest total score in Eurovision history at that time.

Facts and figures. For the first time the contest was presented by two different pairs of hosts – one pair in the Semi-Finals and the other pair in the Grand Final. Both Semi-Finals were hosted by the supermodel Natalya Vodyanova and popular TV host Andrey Malakhov. The Grand Final was hosted by the singer (and their 2000 contest participant) Alsou and the TV star Ivan Urgant; Chaira, who achieved two of Malta’s best placings second and third, in 2005 and 1998 respectively, returned to the competition but finished in 22nd place in the Grand Final. 

First Semi-Final: [Q] – Qualifiers

o/r	Country	participant(s)	SONG – TRANSLATE – LANGUAGE	Points	rank
01	🇲🇪 Montenegro RTCG	Andrea Demirović  (Андреа Демировић)	Just get out of my life (Само изађи из мог живота) English	044	11
02	🇨🇿 Czech Republic ČT	Gipsy.cz	Aven romale (Come in gypsies) English, Romani	000	18
03	🇧🇪 Belgium RTBF	Copycat (Patrick Ouchène)	Copycat English	001	17
04	🇧🇾 Belarus BTRC	Petr Elfimov (Пётр Ялфімаў, Pyotr Yalfimaw, Пётр Елфимов, Pyotr Yelfimov,Пятро Ялфімаў)	Eyes that never lie (Вочы, якія ніколі ня маняць) English	025	13
05	🇸🇪 Sweden SVT qualifier	Malena Ernman	La voix (Rösten, The voice) French, English	105	04
06	🇦🇲 Armenia AMPTV qualifier	Inga & Anush (Ինգա և Անուշ, Ինգա և Անուշ Արշակյաններ, Inga and Anush Arshakyan)	Jan Jan (Ջան Ջան, Nor par (Jan jan),  Նոր պար (Ջան ջան), My dear) English, Armenian	099	05
07	🇦🇩 Andorra RTVA	Susanne Georgi	La teva decisió (Get a life) [Your decision (Get a Life), Tú decisión (Búscate una vida)] Catalan, English	008	15
08	🇨🇭 Switzerland SRG SSR idée suisse	Lovebugs	The highest heights English	015	14
09	🇹🇷 Turkey TRT qualifier	Hadise	Düm tek tek English[b]	172	02
10	🇮🇱 Israel IBA qualifier	Noa & Mira Awad (אחינועם ניניו מירה עווד)	There must be another way (Einaiych, עינייך, Your Eyes) English, Hebrew, Arabic	075	07
11	🇧🇬 Bulgaria BNT	Krassimir Avramov (Красимир Аврамов)	Illusion (Илюзия) English	007	16
12	🇮🇸 Iceland RÚV qualifier	Yohanna (Jóhanna, Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir)	Is It True? (Er það satt?) English	174	01
13	🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia MKRTV	Next Time (Некст Тајм)	Nešto što kje ostane (Нешто што ќе остане, Something that will remain) Macedonian	045	10
14	🇷🇴 Romania TVR qualifier	Elena (Elena Gheorghe)	The Balkan girls (Fetele din Balcani) English	067	09
15	🇫🇮 Finland YLE qualifier	Waldo’s People	Lose control (Menettää hallinta) English	042	12
16	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP qualifier	Flor-de-Lis	Todas as ruas do amor (All the streets of love) Portuguese	070	08
17	🇲🇹 Malta PBS qualifier	Chiara	What if we (Li Kieku Aħna) English	086	06
18	🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina BHRT qualifier	Regina (Регина)	Bistra voda (Бистра вода, Clear water) Bosnian	125	03

• Dates – Second Semi-Final: Thursday, 14 May, 2009, 21:00 CEST
• Host – Venue & Location: Olimpiysky Arena (Olympic Stadium, Олимпийский стадион / Спортивный комплекс «Олимпийский», Olimpiyskiy), Moscow, 🇷🇺 Russia
• Presenter (s): Grand Final: Alsou Abramova (Alsou, Алсу́ Абра́мова; Алсу Абрамова) & Ivan Urgant (Ива́н У́ргант) Ι First Semi-Final: Natalia Vodianova (Наталья Водянова) & Andrey Malakhov (Андре́й Мала́хов) Ι Second Semi-Final: Natalia Vodianova (Наталья Водянова) & Andrey Malakhov (Андре́й Мала́хов)
• Musical Director: —
• Director: Andrei Boltenko
• Executive Producer: Yury Aksyuta
• Executive Supervisor: Svante Stockselius
• Multicamera Director: Andrey Boltenko
• Host broadcaster: Channel One (Первый канал) (C1R)
• Motto: —
• Opening Act: “Eurovision Winners Songs Mix” by Terem Quartet (Терем Квартет), Russian national ballet “Kostroma”, Ensemble of Russian Airforce, Show-ballet “Art Dogs”.
• Interval Act: Igor Moiseyev Ensemble – “Folk Dances from Different Countries”.
• Participants – Number of entries: 42: Final 25 [🇱🇹 Lithuania (10ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (28ª), 🇫🇷 France (49ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (46ª), 🇭🇷 Croatia (16ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (40ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (22ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (28ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (4ª), 🇷🇺 Russia (12ª), 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (2ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (14ª), Moldova (5ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (21ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (14ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (38ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (49ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (30ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (6ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (45ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (7ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (11ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (48ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (40ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (45ª)]; First Semi-Final 18 [🇲🇪 Montenegro (3ª), 🇨🇿 Czech Republic (3ª), 🇧🇪 Belgium (48ª), 🇧🇾 Belarus (6ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (46ª), 🇦🇲 Armenia (4ª), 🇦🇩 Andorra (6ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (48ª), 🇹🇷 Turkey (30ª), 🇮🇱 Israel (28ª), 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (5ª), 🇮🇸 Iceland (22ª), 🇲🇰 FYRO Macedonia (9ª), 🇷🇴 Romania (11ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (40ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (40ª), 🇲🇹 Malta (21ª), 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina (14ª)]; Second Semi-Final 19  [🇭🇷 Croatia (16ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (40ª), 🇱🇻 Latvia (9ª), 🇷🇸 Serbia (4ª), 🇵🇱 Poland (14ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (45ª), 🇨🇾 Cyprus (27ª), 🇸🇰 Slovakia (4ª), 🇩🇰 Denmark (38ª), 🇸🇮 Slovenia (14ª), 🇭🇺 Hungary (8ª), 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (2ª), 🇬🇷 Greece (28ª), 🇱🇹 Lithuania (10ª), 🇲🇩 Moldova (5ª), 🇦🇱 Albania (6ª), 🇺🇦 Ukraine (7ª), 🇪🇪 Estonia (14ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (47ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: 🇸🇰 Slovakia (4ª)
• Non-returning countries: 🇬🇪 Georgia (2ª), 🇸🇲 San Marino (1ª)
• Vote – Voting system: Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
• Nil Points: 🇨🇿 Czech Republic (SF1) (ª)
• Winning song: “Fairytale” – Alexander Rybak – 🇳🇴 Norway (1ª)

About/Overview. For the second time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, two Semi-Finals were held to decide which 25 countries will be represented in the Final. The Final of the contest took place on the 16th of May in the Russian capital of Moscow. While it had been the Russian broadcaster RTR who had won the contest the year before, it was decided that Channel One Russia would host the competition instead. They organised one of the biggest contests in the history of the event. The stage consisted of 1/3 of the world’s available LED screens at that time. Vladimir Putin, who was Prime Minister of Russia at the time, visited the Olympic Indoor Arena to see the preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest for himself. National juries were re-introduced alongside televoting, each accounting for 50% of the result. Georgia’s entry was deemed to have broken the rules of the contest and the country chose to withdraw rather than submit a different song. Estonia finished a credible sixth with the song Rändajad, the first song to be performed fully in Estonian since 1998 (their entry in 2004 was performed in a dialect). The United Kingdom scored its best placing since 2002 when Jade Ewen finished in fifth place with the song “My Time”, written by Dianne Warren and composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

About the winner. There was no stopping the Norwegian violin-playing star, Alexander Rybak and his entry “Fairytale”. It received a record-breaking 387 points out of a possible 492, the highest total score in Eurovision history at that time.

Facts and figures. For the first time the contest was presented by two different pairs of hosts – one pair in the Semi-Finals and the other pair in the Grand Final. Both Semi-Finals were hosted by the supermodel Natalya Vodyanova and popular TV host Andrey Malakhov. The Grand Final was hosted by the singer (and their 2000 contest participant) Alsou and the TV star Ivan Urgant; Chaira, who achieved two of Malta’s best placings second and third, in 2005 and 1998 respectively, returned to the competition but finished in 22nd place in the Grand Final. 

Second Semi-Final: [Q] – Qualifiers

o/r	Country	participant(s)	SONG – TRANSLATE – LANGUAGE	Points	rank
01	🇭🇷 Croatia HRT qualifier	Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea (Игор Цукров feat.  Andrea Šušnjara)	Lijepa tena (Лијепа Тена, Beautiful Tena)  Croatian	033	13
02	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy	Et cetera (Agus araile) English	052	11
03	🇱🇻 Latvia LTV	Intars Busulis	Probka (Пробка, Traffic jam, Sastrēgums) Russian	007	19
04	🇷🇸 Serbia RTS	Marko Kon & Milaan (Марко Кон и Милан Николић)	Cipela (Ципела, Shoe) Serbian	060	10
05	🇵🇱 Poland  TVP	Lidia Kopania	I don’t wanna leave English	043	12
06	🇳🇴 Norway NRK qualifier	Alexander Rybak (Аляксандра Рыбака)	Fairytale (Eventyr)  English	201	01
07	🇨🇾 Cyprus CyBC	Christina Metaxa (Χριστίνα Μεταξά)	Firefly (Πυγολαμπίδα)  English	032	14
08	🇸🇰 Slovakia STV	Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková (Nela & Kamil)	Let’ tmou (Fly through the darkness) Slovak	008	18
09	🇩🇰 Denmark DR qualifier	Brinck (Niels Brinck)	Believe again English	069	08
10	🇸🇮 Slovenia RTVSLO	Quartissimo feat. Martina (Квартисимо, Quartissimo feat. Martina Majerle)	Love symphony English, Slovene	014	16
11	🇭🇺 Hungary MTV	Zoli Ádok	Dance with me (Táncolj velem / Tánclépés) English	016	15
12	🇦🇿 Azerbaijan İctimai qualifier	AySel & Arash (Aysel & Arəş)	Always (Həmişə) English	180	02
13	🇬🇷 Greece ERT qualifier	Sakis Rouvas (Σάκη Ρουβά)	This is our night (Αυτή είναι η βραδιά μας) English	110	04
14	🇱🇹 Lithuania LRT qualifier	Sasha Son (Sasha Song)	Love (Meilė / Pasiklydęs žmogus, The Lost Man) English, Russian	66	09
15	🇲🇩 Moldova TRM qualifier	Nelly Ciobanu	Hora din Moldova (Hora from Moldova, Dance From Moldova) Romanian, English	106	05
16	🇦🇱 Albania RTSH qualifier	Kejsi Tola	Carry me in your dreams (Më merr në ëndërr, Take me into your dreams) English	073	07
17	🇺🇦 Ukraine NTU qualifier	Svetlana Loboda (Світлана Лобода)	Be my Valentine! (Anti-crisis girl) [Be My Valentine, Будь моїм Валентином! (Антикризисна дівчина)] English	080	06
18	🇪🇪 Estonia ERR qualifier	Urban Symphony	Rändajad (Passenger / Nomads / Travellers) Estonian	115	03
19	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NOS	The Toppers (De Toppers)	Shine English	011	17

Missed participation

• 🇬🇪 Georgia: “We Don’t Wanna Put In” (English) – Stephane & 3G (სტეფანე და 3G). Georgia originally announced their intention to withdraw, but it was later stated by the EBU-UER that the country would indeed participate (after being placed to compete in the first semi-final on 12 May). However, Georgia later decided to withdraw after the EBU-UER rejected its song as being a breach of contest rules (Section 4 Rule 9 of the Rules of the 54th Eurovision Song Contest). Just months after the war in South Ossetia, Georgia in a public final chose to send to Moscow a retro disco number Stefane & 3G with “We Don’t Wanna Put In” gained coverage and controversy due to perceived political connotations within its lyrics relating to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “Put in” sounded alike with Putin. The words “put in” are sung with accented pronunciation as “poot een”, which is how the Russian prime minister’s name is pronounced. The EBU-UER rejected the song due to these political connotations, calling it a clear breach of the contest’s rules. The EBU-UER then asked the Georgian broadcaster GPB on 10 March to change either the lyrics of the song or to select a new song to compete for the country. In the face of the pressure to make alterations to the lyrics from some of Russia’s and Georgia’s cultural and political figures (including Diana Gurtskaya, 2008 competitor from Georgia, and David Gamkrelidze, leader of the New Rights Party of Georgia), but GPB refused to change the lyrics or the song, claiming that the song contained no political references, and that the rejection by the EBU-UER was due to political pressure from Russia. As such, GPB withdrew Georgia from the contest on 11 March. The EBU-UER never made a comment on the country’s withdrawal. On 11 May the band admitted the political content of the song and their intention was just to embarrass Putin in Moscow. As a result of refusing to change the song lyrics and decision to withdraw the song developed in an idea to start an AlterVision Open Air Song Contest. First Open Air AlterVision Song Contest was held in Tbilisi (Georgia) on May 15–17, 2009.

• 🇭🇺 Hungary: “If You Wanna Party” (Vigyen a szél) (English) – Márk Zentai. After an internal selection, with both the performer and song being selected internally. On February 3, after receiving a total of 105 entries, MTV revealed that they had selected Márk Zentai to represent Hungary at the contest in Moscow, Russia, with the song “If You Wanna Party”. However, shortly after the announcement of the proposed Hungarian entry, it came to light that the song selected had been released in 2004 under the title “We Became Friends”, which acted as the Swedish Big Brother theme song. Zentai withdrew his song from the selection shortly after this news became apparent, and MTV set about finding a new entrant for the contest.

• 🇭🇺 Hungary: “Magányos Csónak” (Lonely boat) (Hungarian) – Katya Tompos. After an internal selection, with both the performer and song being selected internally. On February 4, MTV announced that actress Kátya Tompos would replace Zentai as the Hungarian representative, competing with the song “Magányos csónak” (Lonely boat). However the Alliance of Hungarian Popular Music Composers and Songwriters protested that they did not feel as if the jury had long enough to make a correct decision on 3 February, and were dissatisfied with the internal selection instead of a national final where the public could vote for the winner. Other claims were made as well, such as that the songwriters have to be from his or her motherland and that the jury was not professional. MTV, however, stood by their decision of selecting the song internally, as well as revealing that the jury of television and music industry professionals chose the song all day long on 3 February, and that they were satisfied with the jury’s decision. On 10 February, Tompos announced her withdrawal from the contest, alleging she wanted to focus on her theatre career and that she had no time to prepare her participation in Eurovision properly, because she takes part in 8 plays of 3 different theatres. The MTV jury had to convene once again to select another artist to represent Hungary at Eurovision. On 23 February, MTV held a press conference about this year’s entrant. They mentioned that the jury chose three songs before the final decision was made to be sure one of them will not withdraw and completely meet the requirements. Then they announced the official entrant, which was Zoli Ádok with the song “Dance With Me”. Rather than select another singer to interpret the song, the TV station chose a completely different third entry.  

Participation map

Participating countries Did not qualify from the semi final  Countries that participated in the past but not in 2009

ESC 2009 Scoreboard Grand Final Ι Detailed voting results:

Final:

ESC 2009 Scoreboard First Semi-Final Ι Detailed voting results:

First Semi-Final:

ESC 2009 Scoreboard Second Semi-Final Ι Detailed voting results:

Second Semi-Final:

The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following the country’s victory at the 2008 contest with the song “Believe” by Dima Bilan. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Channel One (C1R), the contest was held at the Olimpiysky Arena, and consisted of two semi-finals on 12 and 14 May, and a final on 16 May 2009. The semi-finals were presented by Russian model Natalia Vodianova and television presenter Andrey Malahov, while the final was presented by Russian television presenter Ivan Urgant and former Russian contestant Alsou Abramova, becoming the first and as of 2022 only time that two different sets of presenters had hosted the semi-finals and finals.

Forty-two countries participated in the contest – down one from the record forty-three the year before. Slovakia returned to the contest for the first time since 1998, while San Marino did not enter due to financial issues. Latvia and Georgia originally announced their intention not to participate, but it was later stated by the EBU that both countries would indeed participate. However, Georgia later decided to withdraw after the EBU rejected its selected song as being a breach of the contest rules.

The winner was Norway with the song “Fairytale”, performed and written by Alexander Rybak. The song received a record-breaking 387 points out of a possible 492, at the time the highest total score in the history of the contest. Iceland, Azerbaijan, Turkey and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five, with the latter achieving their best placing since 2002. Iceland’s second-place finish was the country’s best placing in a decade.

After criticism of the voting system in 2007, 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.