Eurovision Song Contest 2009
The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following Dima Bilan's win at the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia with the song "Believe". It was the first time Russia had hosted the contest - 14 years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster Channel One, the contest was held at the Olimpiysky Arena, and consisted of two semi-finals on 12 and 14 May, and the final on 16 May 2009. The semi-finals were hosted by Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov, while the final were hosted by Ivan Urgant and Alsou Abramova.
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, 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. This was Norway's third victory in the contest, following their wins in and. The song received a record-breaking 387 points out of 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. Iceland's second-place finish was the country's best placing in a decade.
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 while the format of the semi-finals remained the same.
Location
The contest was held in Russia following its victory in the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia, with Dima Bilan's "Believe". Vladimir Putin, 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 Olimpiysky Arena, and this proposal was evaluated by the European Broadcasting Union and confirmed on 13 September 2008. The Director-General of the venue, Vladimir Churilin, refuted rumours of 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."
Format
Thirty-seven countries participated in one of the two semi-finals of the contest, with the "Big Four" countries 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 was the first year since 2001 without any slogan for the contest.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 worked with the Russians on the TEFI Awards in Moscow in 1998, was inspired by and drawn to art from the Russian Avant Garde period, especially the constructivists... 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.
The postcards were as follows:
- Miss World 2008, Ksenia Sukhinova appeared;
- A group of famous buildings, monuments and landscapes from the corresponding country were shown, similar to 3-D pages of a book;
- Sukhinova reappeared wearing a hat comprising the above and a T-shirt with the colours of the country's flag. On the right the ESC 2009 logo appeared with the name of the country; the Russian video had the exact appearance of Sukhinova shown in the first part of every video and no different hairstyle was shown for Russia.
- Finally a phrase in transliterated Russian and its English translation were shown.
Semi-final allocation draw
On Friday 30 January 2009, the draw to decide which countries would appear in either the first or second semi-final took place. The participating countries excluding the automatic finalists were split into six pots, based upon how those countries have been voting. From these pots, half competed in the first Semi Final on 10 May 2009. The other half in that particular pot will compete in the second Semi Final on 12 May 2009. The draw for the running order of the semi-finals, finals, and the order of voting, occurred on 16 March 2009.| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 |
Voting
In response to some broadcasters' continued complaints about politically charged, neighbourly and diaspora voting, the EBU evaluated the voting procedure used in the contest, with the possibility of a change in the voting system for 2009. Contest organisers sent a questionnaire regarding the voting system to participating broadcasters, and a reference group incorporated the responses into their suggestions for next year's format. Telewizja Polska, the Polish broadcaster, suggested that an international jury similar to the one used in the 2008 Eurovision Dance Contest be introduced in the Eurovision Song Contest to lessen the impact of neighbourly voting and place more emphasis on the artistic value of the song. A jury would lead to less political and diaspora voting as the jury members, mandated to be music industry experts, would also have a say in addition to "random members of the public".It was decided that for the contest final, each country's votes would be decided by a combination of 50% televoting results and 50% national jury. The method of selecting the semi-final qualifiers remained the same for the most part, with nine countries, instead of the ten as in years past, qualifying from each semi-final based on the televoting results. For the tenth qualifier from each semi-final, the highest placed country on the back-up jury scoreboard that had not already qualified, was chosen for the final. At the final, each country combined their 1–7, 8, 10,12 points from the televote with their 1–7,8,10,12 jury points to create their "national scorecard". The country with the most points received 12 points, the second placed country received 10 points, the third placed country received 8 points and so on to 1 points. If a tie arose, the song with the higher televote position was given the advantage and the higher point value. National juries were originally phased out of the contest beginning in 1997, with televoting becoming mandatory for nearly all participants since 2003.
Edgar Böhm, director of entertainment for Austria's public broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk, has stated that the 2008 format with two semi-finals "still incorporates a mix of countries who will be politically favoured in the voting process," and "that, unless a clear guideline as to how the semifinals are organised is made by the EBU, Austria will not be taking part in Moscow 2009." Despite the inclusion of jury voting in the final, Austria did not return to the contest in 2009.
Juries
"In each of the 42 participating countries, a jury of five music industryprofessionals will judge the entries taking part
in the Final. Their decision will be based on the second dress rehearsal. The names of the jury members must be revealed by the respective participating
broadcasters before or during the Final.
- Each jury member of each national jury will make a ranking of his ten favourite songs and award points from 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points. The chairperson will allocate 12 points to the song having obtained the highest number of votes from all jury members, 10 points to the song having obtained the second highest number of votes, 8 points to the song having obtained the third highest number of votes, 7 points to the next, and so on down to 1 point for the song having obtained the tenth highest number of votes from all jury members. In the event of a tie for any of the above positions, the order of the tying songs shall be ascertained by a show of hands by the jury members.
- The jury should consist of a variety of members in terms of age, gender and background. All jury members must be citizens of the country they are representing.
- None of the jury members must be connected with any of the participating songs/artists in such a way that they cannot vote independently. The participating broadcasters must send a letter of compliance with the voting instructions together with signed declarations by each jury member stating that they will vote independently. The jury voting will be monitored by an independent notary and auditor in each country". – Quotes from Eurovision.tv
Incidents
Armenia and Azerbaijan
and Azerbaijan experienced several conflicts during the 2009 contest.After the first semi-final, representatives for Azerbaijan complained to the EBU over the introductory "postcard" preceding the Armenian entry, since the video clip had included a depiction of We Are Our Mountains, a monumental statue located in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic, which is considered to be a de jure part of Azerbaijan. As a result of the complaint, the statue was edited out during the finals. However, Armenia retaliated during the results presentations by having the monument displayed on a video screen in the background, and having presenter Sirusho read the results from a clipboard decorated with a photo of the monument.
There were also allegations that no number had been shown for the public to call and vote for Armenia's entry during the telecast in Azerbaijan. Representatives denied these allegations by showing a video that showed an untampered signal during the Armenian performance. However, a subsequent EBU investigation found that the Azerbaijani broadcaster, Ictimai TV, had blurred out the number for Armenia's entry and distorted the TV signal when the Armenian contestants were performing on stage. The EBU fined Ictimai TV an undisclosed sum and is said to have threatened to exclude the broadcaster from the competition for up to three years if further infractions of the Eurovision Song Contest rules are made.
In August 2009, a number of Azerbaijanis who had voted for Armenia's entry during the 2009 Contest were summoned for questioning at the Ministry of National Security in Baku, during which they were accused of being "unpatriotic" and "a potential security threat". This incident initiated an EBU investigation that resulted in a change to the Eurovision rules to allow a country's participating broadcaster to be liable "for any disclosure of information which could be used to identify voters". Despite the conflict, Armenia gave Azerbaijan 1 point in the final.
Broadcast delays in Spain
Due to its commitments to broadcast the Madrid Open tennis tournament, Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española broadcast the second semifinal on a tape delay on its channel La 2, approximately 66 minutes after the show began in Moscow. As a result of the tape delay, the broadcaster also utilized a backup jury rather than televoting to decide its votes. TVE had already switched to voting in the second semi-final due to another scheduling conflict, which had already sparked criticism from the neighboring Andorran and Portuguese delegations, who stated that a Spanish vote would have positively influenced their performance in the first semifinal.On the day following the semifinal, local newspaper El Mundo speculated that RTVE may have administered the delay on purpose in order to prevent Spain from winning the contest, claiming that the broadcaster would not be ready to host the contest if Spain were to win. A statement in ABC had cited technical difficulties for the delay.
After the semi-finals, the EBU announced that Spain would face sanctions for their actions in the contest, but also stated that their participation in the 2009 contest in Moscow would not be affected. The Spanish entry, "La noche es para mí", did not fare well in the contest itself, placing 24th during the finals.
Georgia: "We Don't Wanna Put In"
After being placed to compete in the first semi-final on 12 May, a national final was held in Georgia to select its entry. The selected entry, 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. The EBU rejected the song due to these political connotations, calling it a clear breach of the contest's rules. The EBU then asked the Georgian broadcaster Georgian Public Broadcaster on 10 March to change either the lyrics of the song, or to select a new song to compete for the country. GPB refused to change the lyrics or the song, claiming that the song contained no political references, and that the rejection by the EBU was due to political pressure from Russia. As such, GPB withdrew Georgia from the contest on 11 March. The band admitted the political content of the song and their intention was just to embarrass Putin in Moscow.LGBT protests
Russian gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev used the Contest's presence in Russia as a platform for promoting the country's position on the rights of LGBT people, countering Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov's view that homosexuality is satanic. Alekseev announced that the 2009 edition of Moscow Pride, the city's annual gay pride parade, would coincide with the finals on 16 May, the day before the International Day Against Homophobia. The parade was also renamed "Slavic Pride", to promote gay rights and culture across the entire Slavic region of Europe. The parade was denied authorisation by Moscow officials on the basis that it would "destroy morals in society" and statements were issued stating that protesters would be treated "toughly", and that "tough measures" would be faced by anyone joining the march.The rally was broken up by Moscow police, and 20 protesters were arrested including Nikolai Alekseev and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who exclaimed that "this shows the Russian people are not free" as he was taken away by police. Sweden's representative Malena Ernman supported the cause saying that she is not homosexual herself but would be proud to call herself gay to support her fans, stating that she was sad that the Moscow government would not allow a "tribute to love" to occur. The winner of the contest, Norway's Alexander Rybak, also referred to the controversy in an interview when he called the Eurovision Song Contest itself the "biggest gay parade".
The Dutch group De Toppers made news by member Gordon threatening to boycott the final of Eurovision 2009 if the gay parade was violently beaten down. However, the group's failure to qualify for the final left this threat redundant.
Participating countries
Following the release of the final participants list by the EBU, 42 countries confirmed their participation in the 2009 contest, including Slovakia, which returned to the contest after 11 years. Georgia 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 decided to return to the contest, inspired by its win at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008, as well as Russia's 12 points to it in the same contest. 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 San Marino and Monaco. Télé Monte Carlo, the Monegasque broadcaster, confirmed that there were talks with the EBU over a Monegasque return to the 2009 contest. At the same time, rumours spread that San Marino's broadcaster, Radiotelevisione della Repubblica di San Marino, would not participate in the contest 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 the country in the Contest. On 20 December 2008, LTV announced that it would be withdrawing from the contest, 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 country chose its entry for the contest through its own selection process. Some countries selected their entry through an internal selection, where the representing network chose both the song and artist, while others held national finals where the public chose the song, the artist, or both.
Notable artists that did not qualify
Notable artists that participated in one of the national song selection shows, but did not manage to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest include Agnes Carlsson, Alcazar, Alexey Vorobyov, Ana Bebić, Ana Nikolić, Anita Hegerland, Anna Semenovich, Bambir, Emilia Rydberg, Hera Björk, Hurriganes, Jari Sillanpää, Kaliopi, Måns Zelmerlöw, Marie Serneholt, Valeriya and Wenche Myhre.Returning artists
By the completion of the 2009 selection processes, three countries had chosen artists who had previously participated in the contest. Returning artists included Chiara, who represented Malta in and, Sakis Rouvas, who represented Greece in and presented the Contest. Friðrik Ómar, part of the Euroband duo in, was part of the choir in Iceland's entry and Martina Majerle, who represented Slovenia with Quartissimo, had participated as a backing vocalist in the 2003 Croatian and 2007 Slovenian entries.Semi-finals
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.Semi-final 1
The first semi final took place in Moscow on 12 May 2009. The United Kingdom and Germany voted in this semi-final. Before its withdrawal, Georgia was originally drawn to perform in this semi-final.| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Andrea Demirović | "Just Get Out of My Life" | English | 11 | 44 | |
| 02 | Gipsy.cz | "Aven Romale" | English, Romani | 18 | 0 | |
| 03 | Copycat | "Copycat" | English | 17 | 1 | |
| 04 | Petr Elfimov | "Eyes That Never Lie" | English | 13 | 25 | |
| 05 | Malena Ernman | "La voix" | French, English | 4 | 105 | |
| 06 | Inga and Anush | "Jan Jan" | English, Armenian | 5 | 99 | |
| 07 | Susanne Georgi | "La teva decisió " | Catalan, English | 15 | 8 | |
| 08 | Lovebugs | "The Highest Heights" | English | 14 | 15 | |
| 09 | Hadise | "Düm Tek Tek" | English | 2 | 172 | |
| 10 | Noa and Mira Awad | "There Must Be Another Way" | English, Hebrew, Arabic | 7 | 75 | |
| 11 | Krassimir Avramov | "Illusion" | English | 16 | 7 | |
| 12 | Yohanna | "Is It True?" | English | 1 | 174 | |
| 13 | Next Time | "Nešto što kje ostane" | Macedonian | 10 | 45 | |
| 14 | Elena | "The Balkan Girls" | English | 9 | 67 | |
| 15 | Waldo's People | "Lose Control" | English | 12 | 42 | |
| 16 | Flor-de-Lis | "Todas as ruas do amor" | Portuguese | 8 | 70 | |
| 17 | Chiara | "What If We" | English | 6 | 86 | |
| 18 | Regina | "Bistra voda" | Bosnian | 3 | 125 |
Semi-final 2
The second semi final took place in Moscow on 14 May 2009. France and Russia voted in this semi-final. Spain was also scheduled to televote in this semi-final, but due to scheduling errors at TVE, the semi-final was aired late and Spanish viewers were not able to vote, so the Spanish jury's vote was used instead.| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea | "Lijepa Tena" | Croatian | 13 | 33 | |
| 02 | Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy | "Et Cetera" | English | 11 | 52 | |
| 03 | Intars Busulis | "Probka" | Russian | 19 | 7 | |
| 04 | Marko Kon and Milaan | "Cipela" | Serbian | 10 | 60 | |
| 05 | Lidia Kopania | "I Don't Wanna Leave" | English | 12 | 43 | |
| 06 | Alexander Rybak | "Fairytale" | English | 1 | 201 | |
| 07 | Christina Metaxa | "Firefly" | English | 14 | 32 | |
| 08 | Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková | "Leť tmou" | Slovak | 18 | 8 | |
| 09 | Niels Brinck | "Believe Again" | English | 8 | 69 | |
| 10 | Quartissimo feat. Martina | "Love Symphony" | English, Slovene | 16 | 14 | |
| 11 | Zoli Ádok | "Dance with Me" | English | 15 | 16 | |
| 12 | AySel and Arash | "Always" | English | 2 | 180 | |
| 13 | Sakis Rouvas | "This Is Our Night" | English | 4 | 110 | |
| 14 | Sasha Son | "Love" | English, Russian | 9 | 66 | |
| 15 | Nelly Ciobanu | "Hora din Moldova" | Romanian, English | 5 | 106 | |
| 16 | Kejsi Tola | "Carry Me in Your Dreams" | English | 7 | 73 | |
| 17 | Svetlana Loboda | "Be My Valentine! " | English | 6 | 80 | |
| 18 | Urban Symphony | "Rändajad" | Estonian | 3 | 115 | |
| 19 | The Toppers | "Shine" | English | 17 | 11 |
Final
The finalists were:- The "Big Four".
- The host country, Russia.
- The top nine countries from the first semi-final plus one wildcard from the juries.
- The top nine countries from the second semi-final plus one wildcard from the juries.
| Draw | Country | Artist | Song | Language | Place | Points |
| 01 | Sasha Son | "Love" | English, Russian | 23 | 23 | |
| 02 | Noa and Mira Awad | "There Must Be Another Way" | English, Hebrew, Arabic | 16 | 53 | |
| 03 | Patricia Kaas | "Et s'il fallait le faire" | French | 8 | 107 | |
| 04 | Malena Ernman | "La voix" | English, French | 21 | 33 | |
| 05 | Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea | "Lijepa Tena" | Croatian | 18 | 45 | |
| 06 | Flor-de-Lis | "Todas as ruas do amor" | Portuguese | 15 | 57 | |
| 07 | Yohanna | "Is It True?" | English | 2 | 218 | |
| 08 | Sakis Rouvas | "This Is Our Night" | English | 7 | 120 | |
| 09 | Inga and Anush | "Jan Jan" | English, Armenian | 10 | 92 | |
| 10 | Anastasiya Prikhodko | "Mamo" | Russian, Ukrainian | 11 | 91 | |
| 11 | AySel and Arash | "Always" | English | 3 | 207 | |
| 12 | Regina | "Bistra voda" | Bosnian | 9 | 106 | |
| 13 | Nelly Ciobanu | "Hora din Moldova" | Romanian, English | 14 | 69 | |
| 14 | Chiara | "What If We" | English | 22 | 31 | |
| 15 | Urban Symphony | "Rändajad" | Estonian | 6 | 129 | |
| 16 | Niels Brinck | "Believe Again" | English | 13 | 74 | |
| 17 | Alex Swings Oscar Sings! | "Miss Kiss Kiss Bang" | English | 20 | 35 | |
| 18 | Hadise | "Düm Tek Tek" | English, Turkish | 4 | 177 | |
| 19 | Kejsi Tola | "Carry Me in Your Dreams" | English | 17 | 48 | |
| 20 | Alexander Rybak | "Fairytale" | English | 387 | ||
| 21 | Svetlana Loboda | "Be My Valentine" | English | 12 | 76 | |
| 22 | Elena | "The Balkan Girls" | English | 19 | 40 | |
| 23 | Jade Ewen | "It's My Time" | English | 5 | 173 | |
| 24 | Waldo's People | "Lose Control" | English | 25 | 22 | |
| 25 | Soraya Arnelas | "La noche es para mí" | Spanish, English | 24 | 23 |
Scoreboards
In this year's Eurovision Song Contest there were a few glitches out of the 84 total televote counts from the two semi finals and Grand final.Semi-final 1
- No problems were reported in the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final.
12 points
| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 8 | Turkey | Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Macedonia, Romania, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
| 7 | Iceland | Armenia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Portugal, Malta, Sweden |
| 2 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Montenegro, Turkey |
| 1 | Armenia | Czech Republic |
| 1 | Finland | Iceland |
| 1 | Portugal | Andorra |
Semi-final 2
- In the second semi final, Spain's and Albania's delays in broadcasting the show meant that their results were provided by the back-up juries.
12 points
| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 6 | Norway | Azerbaijan, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Spain |
| 6 | Azerbaijan | Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine |
| 3 | Serbia | Croatia, France, Slovenia |
| 2 | Greece | Albania, Cyprus |
| 1 | Cyprus | Greece |
| 1 | Denmark | Norway |
| 1 | Croatia | Serbia |
| 1 | Lithuania | Ireland |
| 1 | Estonia | Latvia |
Final
- In the Grand Final, SMS voting was the only method used to provide the Hungarian public voting scores as the televotes could not be counted due to a technical problem.
- Norway's jury vote was used because a technical mistake by the local telephone operator rendered the televotes and SMS texts unusable.
- The full split jury/televoting results were announced by the EBU in July 2009.
12 points
| N. | Contestant | Voting nation |
| 16 | Norway | Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine |
| 6 | Turkey | Azerbaijan, Belgium, France, Macedonia, Switzerland, United Kingdom |
| 3 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia |
| 3 | Greece | Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus |
| 3 | Iceland | Ireland, Malta, Norway |
| 2 | Estonia | Finland, Slovakia |
| 2 | Moldova | Portugal, Romania |
| 1 | Armenia | Czech Republic |
| 1 | Azerbaijan | Turkey |
| 1 | Croatia | Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| 1 | Romania | Moldova |
| 1 | Russia | Armenia |
| 1 | Spain | Andorra |
| 1 | United Kingdom | Greece |
Below is a summary of the split number one selection, by respectively each country's jury and televoters in the Grand Final:
Other Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honoringthe best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman and Richard Herrey, the awards are named after the creator of the annual competition, Marcel Bezençon. The awards are divided into 3 categories; Press Award; Artistic Award; and Composer Award.
| Category | Country | Song | Performer | Composer | Final result | Points |
| Artists Award | "Et s'il fallait le faire" | Patricia Kaas | Anse Lazio, Fred Blondin | 8th | 107 | |
| Composer Award | "Bistra voda" | Regina | Aleksandar Čović | 9th | 106 | |
| Press Award | "Fairytale" | Alexander Rybak | Alexander Rybak | 1st | 387 |
OGAE
Organisation Générale des Amateurs de l'Eurovision is an international organisation that was founded in 1984 in Savonlinna, Finland by Jari-Pekka Koikkalainen. The organisation consists of a network of 40 Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, and is a non-governmental, non-political, and non-profitable company. In what has become an annual tradition for the OGAE fan clubs, a voting poll was opened allowing members from different clubs around the world to vote for their favourite songs of the 2009 contest. Below is the top five overall results, after all the votes had been cast.| Country | Song | Performer | Composer | OGAE result |
| "Fairytale" | Alexander Rybak | Alexander Rybak | 323 | |
| "Et s'il fallait le faire" | Patricia Kaas | Anse Lazio, Fred Blondin | 184 | |
| "La voix" | Malena Ernman | Fredrik Kempe, Malena Ernman | 172 | |
| "Bistra voda" | Regina | Aleksandar Čović | 152 | |
| "La noche es para mí" | Soraya Arnelas | Irini Michas, Dimitri Stassos, Jason Gill, Felipe Pedroso | 132 |
Barbara Dex Award
The Barbara Dex Award has been annually awarded by the fan website House of Eurovision since 1997, and is a humorous award given to the "worst dressed" artist each year in the contest. It is named after the Belgian artist, Barbara Dex, who came last in the 1993 contest, in which she wore her own self designed dress.| Country | Song | Performer | Composer |
| "Dance With Me" | Zoli Ádok | Zé Szabó |
International broadcasts and voting
Voting and spokespersons
The voting order and spokespersons during the final were as follows:- – Iñaki del Moral
- – Maureen Louys
- – Ekaterina Litvinova
- – Pauline Agius
- – Thomas Anders
- – Petra Šubrtová
- – Sarah Dawn Finer
- – Þóra Tómasdóttir
- – Yann Renoard
- – Ofer Nachshon
- – Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
- – Roberto Meloni
- – Jovana Vukčević
- – Brigits García
- – Jari Sillanpää
- – Cécile Bähler
- – Yoanna Dragneva
- – Ignas Krupavičius
- – Duncan James
- – Frosina Josifovska
- – Ľubomír Bajaník
- – Alexis Kostalas
- – Laka
- – Marysya Horobets
- – Meltem Ersan Yazgan
- – Leon Menkshi
- – Jovana Janković
- – Sophia Paraskeva
- – Radek Brzózka
- – Yolanthe Cabau van Kasbergen
- – Laura Põldvere
- – Mila Horvat
- – Helena Coelho
- – Alina Sorescu
- – Derek Mooney
- – :dk:Felix Smith|Felix Smith
- – Sandu Leancă
- – Peter Poles
- – Sirusho
- – Éva Novodomszky
- – :az:Hüsniyyə Məhərrəmova|Hüsniyyə Məhərrəmova
- – Stian Barsnes Simonsen
Commentators
Most countries sent commentators to Moscow or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, provide voting information.;Participating countries
The commentators of the 42 participating countries are as follows:
| Country | SF1 / SF2 / Final | Commentator |
| All | Leon Menkshi | |
| All | Meri Picart | |
| – | – | |
| – | – | |
| Semi-Finals | Leyla Aliyeva | |
| Semi-Finals | AySel | |
| Final | Leyla Aliyeva | |
| Final | Isa Melikov | |
| All | Denis Kurian | |
| All | Alexander Tikhanovich | |
| All | Jean-Pierre Hautier | |
| All | Jean-Louis Lahaye | |
| All | Patrick Duhamel | |
| All | Corinne Boulangier | |
| All | André Vermeulen | |
| All | Anja Daems | |
| All | Michel Follet | |
| All | Dejan Kukrić | |
| – | – | |
| – | Elena Rosberg | |
| – | Georgi Kushvaliev | |
| All | Duško Čurlić | |
| – | – | |
| All | Nathan Morley | |
| – | Melina Karageorgiou | |
| All | Jan Rejžek | |
| – | – | |
| All | Nikolaj Molbech | |
| Semi-finals & Final | Marko Reikop | |
| Final | Olav Osolin | |
| All | Jaana Pelkonen | |
| All | Mikko Peltola | |
| All | Asko Murtomäki | |
| All | Sanna Kojo | |
| All | Jorma Hietamäki | |
| All | Tobias Larsson | |
| SF2 | Peggy Olmi | |
| SF2 | Yann Renoard | |
| Final | Julien Courbet | |
| Final | Cyril Hanouna | |
| Final | François Kevorkian | |
| All | Tim Frühling | |
| Final | Ina Müller | |
| Final | Thomas Mohr | |
| All | Maggira Sisters | |
| All | Gábor Gundel-Takács | |
| All | Sigmar Guðmundsson | |
| All | Marty Whelan | |
| All | Maxi | |
| – | – | |
| – | – | |
| All | Kārlis Streips | |
| All | Darius Užkuraitis | |
| – | Karolina Petkovska | |
| – | Aleksandra Jovanovska | |
| All | Valerie Vella | |
| – | Rosalina Rusu | |
| – | Andrei Sava | |
| – | Dražen Bauković | |
| – | Tamara Ivanković | |
| All | Cornald Maas | |
| All | Synnøve Svabø | |
| SF2 & Final | Artur Orzech | |
| All | Hélder Reis | |
| All | Ioana Isopescu | |
| All | Alexandru Nagy | |
| All | Yana Churikova | |
| Semi-Finals | Alexey Manuylov | |
| Final | Philipp Kirkorov | |
| SF1 | Dragan Ilić | |
| SF2 & Final | Duška Vučinić-Lučić | |
| All | Roman Bomboš | |
| All | Andrej Hofer | |
| All | Joaquín Guzmán | |
| SF1 | Arash | |
| All | Shirley Clamp | |
| All | Edward af Sillén | |
| All | Carolina Norén and Björn Kjellman | |
| German | Sven Epiney | |
| French | Jean-Marc Richard & Nicolas Tanner | |
| Italian | Sandy Altermatt | |
| All | Bülend Özveren | |
| All | Timur Miroshnychenko | |
| Semi-Finals | Paddy O'Connell | |
| Semi-Finals | Sarah Cawood | |
| Final | Graham Norton | |
| Final | Ken Bruce |
;Non-participating countries
The commentators of the non-participating countries are:
| Country | SF1/SF2/Final | Commentator |
 Australia | All | Julia Zemiro |
| Australia | All | Sam Pang |
| All | Benny Hörtnagl | |
 New Zealand | – | |
| New Zealand | – |
Broadcasting
; ':Although Australia was not eligible to enter, the contest was broadcast on Special Broadcasting Service as in previous years. The first semi-final was broadcast on Friday 15 May 2009, the second semi-final on Saturday 16 May 2009, and the final on Sunday 17 May 2009, with all shows broadcast at 19:30 local time. This year, instead of airing the United Kingdom's commentary, the broadcaster sent its own commentators, Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang. They also anchored a number of behind the scenes and interview pieces, which were inserted during assigned the various broadcasts. In recent years the contest has been one of SBS's highest-rating programmes in terms of viewer numbers. The contest rated well for SBS with 482,000 viewers tuning in for the final, with 414,000 for the second semi-final and 276,000 for the first semi-final.; ': Österreichischer Rundfunk confirmed that, despite having no Austrian entry in the competition, they would broadcast the Contest on television. Both semi-finals were broadcast on ORF on a time delay, beginning past midnight CET. A song presentation show was broadcast on the night of the final, before broadcasting live the voting in the final. The entire Eurovision final was broadcast later that night. In all three shows the commentator was Hitradio Ö3 radio presenter Benny Hörtnagl.
; : Although New Zealand was not eligible to enter, the final of the contest was broadcast on Triangle TV's satellite channel STRATOS on 17 May 2009. They also did a compilation of the two 2008 semi-finals on 3 May 2009 and the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 final on 10 May 2009. This was the first time in 30 years that the contest has been broadcast in New Zealand. The 2009 final was broadcast in local prime time, about 10 hours after the show has finished in Moscow.
; Worldwide : A commentated live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest was available worldwide via satellite by broadcaster streams such as
Additionally, the also provided a live stream without commentary via the peer-to-peer medium Octoshape.