Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Overview of participants and national selections.

#	Country		Performer	Song	National selection
Finalists, 16th of May
3	France		Patricia Kaas	"Et s'il fallait le faire" (If it had to be done) (Anse Lazio - Fred Blondin)	Internal preselection, candidates are proposed by major record labels. Song is to be performed in French.
10	Russia		Anastasiya Prikhodko	"Mamo" ("Mama") (Mother) (Konstantin Meladze - Konstantin Meladze - Diana Golde)	Russian broadcaster has started preselection airing the advertisements inviting to submit entries. Originally it was scheduled to have separate selection for the song and singer, but later it was decided that one day national final will be held in early March with jury and televoting selecting the winner. Around 1500 entries received, from which approximately half is ineligible.
17	Germany		Alex Swings Oscar Sings!	"Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" (Alex Christensen)	Internal preselection, deadline is 22nd of January
23	United Kingdom		Jade Ewen	"My Time" (Andrew Lloyd Webber - Diane Warren)	Famous Andrew Lloyd Webber will pen the Eurovision entry 2009 for the UK, which will be represented by winner of the new show "Your Country Needs You". The program will involve 6 finalists, selected by Lloyd Webber from a public submission. Deadline to enter is November 21. There will be 5 weekly shows starting January 3rd, hosted by Graham Norton, final is scheduled for 31st of January. The winner will be selected by televoting.
25	Spain		Soraya Arnelas	"La noche es para mi" (The night is for me) (Irini Michas, Dimitri Stassos, Jason Gill and Felipe Pedroso)	As last year, Spain will select it's entry via myspace preselection "Eurovision 2009: el retorno". Submission period is set for November 24 - December 17, all artists should be Spanish residents for at least 2 years. The voting will take place from 19th of December till 19th of January on RTVE portal, 50 entries will be selected by jury and public voting. There will be 3 televised semifinals and final, all of 10 entries, where mixed voting will select winner. Singers Soraya, Coral, Rebeca, Mirela and others are among the participants
1st semifinal, 12th of May
1	Montenegro		Andrea Demirovic	"Just Get Out Of My Life" (Peter Match (Ralph Siegel) - Gunter Johansen (Bernd Meinunger), Jose Juan Santana)	Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG has made a call for songwriters and artists to submit their interest in taking part in Eurovision 2009. Deadline to enter is 20th of January 2009. Song representing Montenegro will be selected internally by selection committee, and it is specially noted that a new performer may be assigned to it if found more suitable. 22 entries from 13 songwriters received.
2	Czech Republic		Gipsy.cz	"Aven Romale" (Radoslav 'Gipsy' Banga)	This year broadcaster has decided to nominate a performer directly and not to hold a national final. Based on the last two years selections, broadcaster has decided to give this opportunity to the band Gipsy.cz.
3	Belgium		Copycat (Patrick Ouchène)	"Copycat" (Benjamin Schoos - Jacques Duvall)	Belgian broadcaster RTBF has conducted internal selection again. Entry will be announced in early March.
4	Belarus		Petr Elfimov	"Eyes that never lie" (Petr Elfimov - Valery Prohozhiy)	Submission period in Belarus Eurofest will run from 5th of October till 20th of November. There are minor changes: Semifinal of 15 entries will take place on 15th of December, jury will select up to 5 finalists. Final will take place on 19th of January and winner will be selected by televoting. Update: 118 entries submitted (101 performers with songs and 17 songs without performers), 109 have been included in preselection.
5	Sweden		Malena Ernman	"La Voix" (The Voice) (Fredrik Kempe - Fredrik Kempe, Malena Ernman)	Number of changes in Swedish Melodifestivalen this year: 8 persons on stage and prerecorded backing vocals now allowed. International jury will be introduced selecting 11th finalist and voting in the final along with 11 regional juries and televoting. "Play-off" system will be introduced for the second round of semis: 1st vs 4th, 2nd vs 3rd. Winners will pass to finals, loosers to second chance round. Semifinals: 7, 14, 21, 28 of February. Second chance: 7th of March, Final: 14th of March. 3440 entries received.
6	Armenia		Inga & Anush Arshakyan	"Jan Jan (Nor Par)" (New dance) (Mane Hakobyan - Avet Barseghyan, Vardan Zadoyan)	Armenia goes back to the open national preselection procedure, as confirmed by new head of delegation Narek Adonts in November. NF date has been set on 14th of February, 20 singers will take part, jury and televoting will be applied. Entries are accepted by February 7th.
7	Andorra		Susanne Georgi	"La teva decisió" ("Get A Life") (Rune Braager, Marcus Winther-John, Lene Dissing, Susanne Georgi, Pernilla Georgi, Josep Roca Vila (каталанская адаптация)	Andorra - entries are accepted till 1st of December, up to 3 songs can be submitted by the contenders, with at least one song in Catalan. A national final of 3 entries will take place on January 30th with song previewed one by one in preceeding weeks. 107 entries have been received in Andorra, from them 64 without singer attached, and 15 of performers without song. Only 28 applications came from singers with songs. Entries came from Andorra, Spain, France, Lithuania, Sweden, Greece, Malta, Belgium, Iceland, Israel, Ireland, UK.
8	Switzerland		Lovebugs	"The Highest Heights" (Adrian Sieber, Thomas Rechberger, Florian Senn, Lovebugs)	Swiss broadcaster is accepting entries till October, 20. Usual conditions apply. No restriction on citizenship, but all artists should be experienced: having at least 1 videoclip and 1 album in top 50 of national charts. 55 entries were received, representative will be revealed in mid-February.
9	Turkey		Hadise	"Düm Tek Tek" ("Crazy For You") (Sinan Akçıl- Hadise Açıkgöz, Stefan Fernande)	TRT published on it's official site confirmation that Hadise will represent Turkey at the ESC 2009. Channel has granted singer herself rights to chose song and preparation methods for Eurovision, however insisted that national instruments should be featured in the songs. Hadise will present 3 songs for the consideration of the TRT jury and the one will be selected internally. Presentation of song has taken place on 31st of December.
10	Israel		Noa and Mira Awad	"There Must Be Another Way" (Achinoam Nini, Gil Dor, Mira Awad)	Israel is going back to one artist preselection. According to Eurovil, IBA Eurovision website, an internal internal committee will select Israeli representative for Eurovision 2009, and public (40%) together with professional jury (60%) will choose a song through a 4 song national final, mini Kdam-Eurovision.
11	Bulgaria		Krasimir Avramov	"Illusion" (Krasimir Avramov, William Tabanou - Krasimir Avramov, William Tabanou, Casie Tabanou)	Bulgarian entry for ESC 2009 will be selected in two stages. Entries for a talents show "Be a Star" are accepted by 19th of September. 9 of them will be selected by TV viewers for semifinal of "BG song for Eurovision", through series of heats. 9 more will be added by jury, selected both from unqualified entries from quaterfinals and additional submission of entries received from October 1st to December 19th. 9 best songs of semifinal (according to different jury decision) will qualify to the final, where they will be joined by 3 more entries specially comissioned by the broadcaster. Winner will be selected by televoting. 54 entries submitted, 9 disqualified.
12	Iceland		Yohanna	"Is It True" (Óskar Páll Sveinsson, Christopher Neil, Tinatin Japaridze)	Iceland: Submission deadline for Songvakeppnin is set on October 20. Semifinals will take place on 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st January. From 4 songs in each semi 2 will qualify to the final on 14th of February. 217 entries received.
13	FYR Macedonia		Next Time	"Nesto sto ke ostane" (Something that will remain) (Damjan Lazarov, Jovan Jovanov - Elvir Mekić)	Skopje 2009 will be made of 2 semifinals (19th and 20th of February) and final on 21st of February. 16 songs will take part in each semifinal and final. Winner will be selected by mix of televoting and jury. Submission deadlines: 26/11 - 25/12. All entries have to be performed in Macedonian. 142 entries received.
14	Romania		Elena Gheorghe	"The Balkan Girls" (Laurenţiu Duţă, Ovidiu Bistriceanu, Daris Mangal - Laurenţiu Duţă, Alexandru Pelin)	Romania is yet another country closing door for foreign songwriters this year. The entry submission will be run from 15th of November till 22nd of December. On 8th of December, jury will choose the entries which will take part in semifinals to be held January 27th and 29th. National final is scheduled for January 31st. Winner will be selected by mix of jury and televoting. 209 entries received, 32 disqualified.
15	Finland		Waldo's People	"Lose Control" (Ari Lehtonen, Karima, Marko 'Waldo' Reijosen, Annie Kratz Guta)	Finland stick to the same formula in their Euroviisut. 12 artists will be invited and revealed on September 25th, each one will perform 1 song. There will be 3 semis, starting at January 9th. There will be 2nd chance round and national final on January 31th in Tampere.
16	Portugal		Flor-de-lis	"Todas as Ruas do Amor" (All the streets of love) (Pedro Marques, Paolo Pereira - Pedro Marques)	Submission deadline set for 12th of January. 24 songs will be put for online voting, conducted in period 19-30th of January. Final of Festival da Cancao 2009 will consist of 12 entries. Winner will be selected by 50-50 mix of jury and televoting. 393 entries received.
17	Malta		Chiara	"What if we" (Marc Paelinck - Gregory Bilsen)	In Malta entries are accepted on 13-14 of October, foreign songwriters allowed on equal opportunities basis. By 2nd of November 56 songs will be chosen, which will be be presented in series of shows, between 8th November and 10th January. Jury will choose 15 entries and 5 will be added by televoting. 20 songs will compete in the national final. Jury will choose 3 songs for super-final, where winner will be selected by jury and televoting. 182 entries received.
18	Bosnia- Herzegovina		Regina	"Bistra voda" (Clear water) (Aleksandar 'Aco' Čović)	Bosnian broadcaster has published preselection rules. Again internal selection is conducted, with deadline to submit entries set on 20th of December. Entries are accepted both from performers (Bosnian citizen) and from songwriters. Preselection jury will make their choice on 12th of January. The song will be presented on March 1st in show BH Eurosong Show 2009. Around 70 entries received.
dq	Georgia		Stephane and "3G"	"We Don't Wanna Put In" (Stephane Mgebrishvili - Bibi Kvachadze)	Georgian 1TV has announced launch of submission period to take part in the national preselection for Eurovision Song Contest. Deadline to enter is February 5th, and national final is planned to take place on February 18th. In general, system stays similar to last year, but the venue will be smaller - 1TV studios. Winner will be deci 25 entries received.
2nd semifinal, 14th of May
1	Croatia		Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea	"Liepa Tena" (Beautiful Tena) (Tonči Huljić - Vjekoslava Huljić)	Dates for Croatian Dora confirmed - it will take place on 27th and 28th of February in Opatija. Entries can be submitted till 12th of December. Same procedure is kept - 14 songs in semifinal, 6 proceed to the final, where they will be joined by 10 more songs from the invited composers. 199 entries received. 74 entries received.
2	Ireland		Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy	"Et Cetera" (И т.д.) (Niall Mooney, Jonas Gladnikoff, Daniele Moretti & Christina Schilling)	Open preselection has been launched in Ireland. Entries are accepted till 2nd of February. 6 acts will take part in Eurosong 2009 on 20th of February. Almost 300 entries received.
3	Latvia		Intars Busulis	"Пробка" ("Sastregums") (Karlis Lacis - Sergey Timofejevs, Latvian - Janis Elsbergs)	Latvia accepts entries by 30th of November. There is limitation on the participation of foreign songwriters, there will be no more than 1/3 of foreign songs in the contest. Songs already entered in other countries are not allowed. Performers should only be Latvian citizen or residents. Only one semifinal will be held, on 27th of February in Olympic center in Ventspils, it will feature all the songs, whose authors will confirm participation. 10 best songs selected by televoting will qualify to the final. Final will be held on the next day, 28th of February, in Ventspils as well. Televoting and jury will select 3 superfinalists, and among them televiewers will make final choice. 108 songs received, 30 of them from international songwriters.
4	Serbia		Marko Kon & Milan Nikolić	"Cipela" (The Shoe) (Aleksandar Kobac, M.Kon, M.Nikolić - A.Kobac, M. Kon)	This year’s Beovizija will be held at the Sava Center on the 7th of March (semi-final) and the 8th of March (final) and a jury will choose 20 compositions which will compete in the semi-final, out of which we will hear only ten compositions in the final. Just like before, the decision about the winner will be made based on the votes of a professional jury and the audience (50:50). Submissions are accepted for one month, starting December 24th. Around 150 entries have been received.
5	Poland		Lidia Kopania	"I Don't Wanna Leave" (Alex Geringas, Bernd Klimpel, Rike Boomgaarden, Dee Adam)	Poland sticks to the same national selection procedure as last year. Piosenka dla Europy will take place on 14th of February. List of finalists will be published on 23rd of January. Winner will be selected by mix of jury and televoting. Deadline of submission is 16th of January, foreign artists and songwriters accepted, however minimum experience of at least one album release is required. At least 7 entries will be selected from public submission, plus TVP reserved the right to invite up to 5 performers directly. 90 entries have been received by TVP
6	Norway		Alexander Rybak	"Fairytale" (Alexander Rybak)	Dates for Norwegian Melody Grand Prix have been set: semis on 24th and 31rd of January, 7th of February, Second Chance (for the first time as live event) on 14th of February and Final in Oslo on 21st of February. 350 entries have been submitted and NRK has also approached several songwriters directly. Songs will be presented on 9th of January.
7	Cyprus		Christina Metaxa	"Firefly" (Nikolas Metaxas)	Same selection method in Cyprus - national final of 10 songs on 7th of February, winner will be selected by televoting. Submission deadline - 28th November. Only Cypriot nationals or residents can take part. Songs should not be publicly performed prior to the date of national final.
8	Slovakia		Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková	"Let' tmou" (Полет через тьму) (Rostislav Dubovský - Anna Žigová, Petronela Kolevská)	Slovakia has confirmed taking part in the contest. According to STV the allocated budget is around 100 000 euros, it's entrant will be chosen via national final. Submission deadline is 20th of January. Eurosong is scheduled for March 8th, preceeded by 5 semifinals. All entries in the selection must be performed in Slovak. 177 entries received.
9	Denmark		Brinck	"Believe Again" (Lars Halvor Jensen, Martin Moller Larsson, Ronan Keating)	10 songs will compete in Danish Dansk Melody Grand Prix final on 31st of January with result be decided by jury and televoting. 6 final entries will be selected from open submission. 684 entries were submitted.
10	Slovenia		Quartissimo ft. Martina	"Love Symphony" (Andrej Babic)	Slovenia: EMA will consist of a semifinal on 31st of January of 14 entries selected from the open submission and final final on 1st of February, where semifinal qualifiers will be joined by 6 entries from directly invited composers. Submission deadline -28th of November. Winner will be selected by mix of jury and televoting. 113 entries have been submitted. List of finalists is available at RTV site
11	Hungary		Zoli Ádok	"Dance With Me" ("Tánclépés") (Танцуй со мной) (Zé Szabó - Kasai)	Internal preselection, entries are accepted by 2nd of February. 105 entries received. First chosen song, performed by Mark Zentai has been disqualified, second, by Katya Tompos - withdrawn.
12	Azerbaijan		AySel & Arash	"Always" (Alex 'Arash' Labaf, Robert Uhlmann, Johan Bejerholm, Marcus Englof, Alex Papaconstantinou - Alex 'Arash' Labaf, Robert Uhlmann, Anderz & Elin Wrethov)	Azerbaijan has selected artist for Eurovision through series of closed door castings, which took place in October, however the final decision was revealed only in January. Song for the contest will be selected also internally, but from a public submission. 30 entries have been submitted.
13	Greece		Sakis Rouvas	"This Is Our Night" (Dimitris Kontopoulos - Craig Porteils & Cameron Giles - Webb)	First confirmed ESC 2009 entrant is returning singer for Greece, Sakis Rouvas, who represented his country at ESC 2004 with "Shake It". Provisional date of song selection: February 18th. 3 songs will be in running, all composed by Dimitris Kontopoulos.
14	Lithuania		Sasha Son	"Love" "Pasiklydes zmogus" (Dmitriy Shavrov (Sasha Son))	Concept change for Lithuania preselection. A new show titled "Lietuvos Dainu daina" will be open only for Lithuanian singers and composers. The show is meant to be a showcase of modern Lithuanian music and is planned to include 6 live concerts from 10th of January till 14th of February: 3 quaterfinals, 2 semifinals and 1 final of 10 songs. Around 60 entries received.
15	Moldova		Nelly Ciobanu	"Hora din Moldova" (Moldovan round dance) (Veaceslav Daniliuc - Andrei Hadjiu, Nelly Ciobanu)	Moldovan broadcaster has published the rules for participation in national preselection 2009. The entries are accepted from 13th of November till 20th of December. All performers should be citizen of Moldova, however collaboration with foreign songwriters is allowed. By January 10th, around 15 entries will be selected by jury to take part in the national final. National final will take place within 45 days period after jury selection. Voting will be split 1/3 between TRM comission, jury and televoting. 38 entries received.
16	Albania		Kejsi Tola	"Carry Me In Your Dreams" "Më merr në ëndërr" (Edmond Zhulali - Agim Doçi)	Albanian Festivali i Kenges submission deadline has passed on 18th of October and broadcaster confirmed that the final of FiK will take place on 21st of December, with the preliminary shows taking place on 19th and 20th of December. There will be only 20 songs in this years contest. Winner will represent Albania in Eurovision.
17	Ukraine		Svetlana Loboda	"Be My Valentine!" (Anti-crisis girl) (Svetlana Loboda - Yevgeniy Matyushenko)	Ukraine starts national preselection process. Entries are accepted from November 3rd till January 16th. Songs can be performed only in English or Ukrainian and all performers should be citizen of Ukraine, there is no limitations on songwriters, however the rules state that singer should possess all exclusive rights on the song he enters. From 21 till 23rd of January jury will listen to all submitted entries and will shortlist 30 candidates. During live hearings  in the internal semifinal 15 finalists will be selected. Winner will be selected via 50-50 jury + televoting (jury has the decisive vote) during the live broadcast event on 8th of March. 64 entries received.
18	Estonia		Urban Symphony	"Randajad" (This is the way) (Sven Lõhmus)	Heidi Purga, director of Raadio2, appointed new producer of Estonian "Eesti laul 2009" (replacing Eurolaul as ESC preselection). Contest is open to Estonian residents only. Submission deadline is 8th of December. 10 songs will take part in final, scheduled for 7th of March. Previews will be held for the preceeding month. Best 2 songs will compete in superfinal on the same night. 110 entries received.
19	The Netherlands		De Toppers	"Shine" (Ger van de Westelaken (Gordon Heuckeroth))	Gerard Joling, Gordon and Rene Froger (De Toppers) will represent The Netherlands at ESC 2009, confirmed by NOS. Song selection will take place on February 1st. Entries can be submitted by 23rd of November. 330 entries have been received. On 11th of November NOS broadcaster has announced that due to internal disputes Gerard Joling has been replaced by Jeroen van der Boom.