Cyprus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „Firefly“ written by Nikolas Metaxas. The song was performed by Christina Metaxa. The Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) organised a national final in order to select the Cypriot entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The national final featured 10 entries, resulting in the selection of Christina Metaxa with „Firefly“ at the final on 7 February 2010.
Cyprus was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 7, „Firefly“ was not among the 10 qualifying entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Cyprus placed fourteenth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 32 points.
National final
The Cypriot national final developed by CyBC in order to select Cyprus‘ entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 took place on 31 January 2009 at the CyBC Studio 3 in Nicosia. The show was hosted by Charis Kkolos and Maria Michail and broadcast on RIK 1, RIK Sat, Trito Programma, London Greek Radio as well as online via the broadcaster’s website cybc.cy.
Competing entries
Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 10 October 2008 and 28 November 2008. All artists and songwriters were required to have Cypriot nationality, origin or residency as of 2007. At the conclusion of the deadline, 74 entries were received by CyBC. A seven-member selection committee which included two CyBC representatives shortlisted 20 entries from the received submissions, and the 10 selected entries were announced on 16 December 2008. Among the competing artists were 1995 and 2000 Cypriot Eurovision entrant Alex Panayi and 1999 Cypriot Eurovision entrant Marlain Angelidou.
Final
The final took place on 7 February 2009. Ten entries competed and the winner, „Firefly“ performed by Christina Metaxa, was selected exclusively by a public televote. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show featured a guest performance by 2007 Greek Eurovision entrant Sarbel.
Final – 7 February 2009
| Draw | Artist | Song | Televote | Place |
| 1 | Tefkros Neokleous | „Mary“ | 2,161 | 8 |
| 2 | Christina Metaxa | „Firefly“ | 12,309 | 1 |
| 3 | Marlain Angelidou and the Diesel Sisters | „Mr Do Right One Night Stand“ | 2,526 | 7 |
| 4 | Marian Georgiou | „Heartbeat“ | 1,535 | 10 |
| 5 | Alex Panayi | „There is Love“ | 3,305 | 6 |
| 6 | Zel | „I’m Gonna Breakup With You“ | 3,338 | 5 |
| 7 | Pieros Kezou | „Bleed 4 U“ | 6,59 | 2 |
| 8 | Christiana Theokli, Kostantina Georgiou and Andreas Christofrou | „Moving On“ | 3,737 | 4 |
| 9 | Katerina Neokleous | „I Believe“ | 1,992 | 9 |
| 10 | Gore Melian | „I Wanna Thank You“ | 3,877 | 3 |
Gallery
Source: RikSat & ESC History Archives
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