Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „This Is Our Night“ written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb and performed by Sakis Rouvas. To select their entry for the 2009 contest, which was held in Moscow, Russia, the Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Rouvas, while his song was chosen through the televised national final Ellinikós Telikós 2009, which consisted of three candidate songs voted upon by the public and a jury.

Following the selection of the song, Rouvas began a promotional tour around Europe and appeared on many television shows, including the selection events for other countries participating in the contest. Greece took part in the second semi-final of the contest on 14 May 2009 and qualified for the final, placing fourth with 110 points. At the 16 May final, Rouvas performed „This Is Our Night“ eighth out of the 25 participants and at the end of voting, was awarded seventh place, marking Greece’s sixth consecutive top 10 placing since 2004.

Artist selection

Sakis Rouvas, shown representing Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, was once again selected as their representative.
On 15 July 2008, ERT confirmed Sakis Rouvas as the Greek representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Rouvas had previously represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, placing third, and had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens alongside Maria Menounos. ERT’s Eurovision project manager Johnny Kalimeris stated that Rouvas‘ participation was announced so early because „there was no reason to keep it a secret [and that] it was about to leak [so they] decided to make a short announcement early on to avoid the usual speculations and rumours which could do more damage than good“. Rouvas‘ selection made Greece the first nation to publicly announce their entrant for the 2009 contest.

Ellinikós Telikós 2009

Following the announcement of Sakis Rouvas as their Eurovision Song Contest 2009 representative, ERT revealed during a press conference on 14 October 2009 that he would perform three songs, all written by Dimitris Kontopoulos and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos, during a national final titled Ellinikós Telikós 2009 (Greek: Ελληνικός Τελικός, „Greek final“). In regards to the style of the songs, Rouvas stated that he trusted Kontopoulos as he had written many hits for him in the past and knew the styles of songs that fit him best. The titles of the three songs were announced on 10 February 2009 and the songs in their entirety were presented during a press conference two days later at the Hilton Athens hotel. Alexandra Zakka wrote the lyrics for the first song, titled „Out of Control“, a pop song with R&B elements, while Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb wrote the lyrics for both „Right On Time“, a mid-tempo song with rock elements, and „This Is Our Night“, a dance song. Craig Porteils is a Greek Australian music producer who has written songs and lyrics for Cher, Billy Idol, Tevin Campbell, Guns N‘ Roses, Rod Stewart, and Ozzy Osbourne among others, while Cameron Giles-Webb is another Greek Australian music producer who was the head of Gusto Music.

Final

The final took place on 18 February 2009 at the Athinon Arena Music Hall in Athens, hosted by Betty and Mathilde Maggira. The show, directed by Giorgos Kapoutzidis and televised on ERT as well as online via the ERT website ert.gr and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv, had a main concept of Eurovision history and included a flashback to the Eurovision world from the contest’s origins to the present. Rouvas performed all three songs and the winning song, „This Is Our Night“, was selected by a combination of public voting (60%) and jury voting (40%). The jury consisted of Mimis Plessas (composer and jury president), Dimitris Gontikas (General Manager of ERT Television), Antonis Andrikakis (lyricist and General Manager of ERT Radio), Evangelia Piskera (Director of ERT Public Relations), Olga Pavlatou (record executive), Giorgos Kyvelos (record producer), and a ninth press vote consisting of the results from a poll conducted by Eurovision news website ESCToday that featured international Eurovision fans. Only the winning song was announced, though ESCToday later revealed their portion of the vote as „This Is Our Night“ with 61.18%, „Out of Control“ with 25.88% and „Right on Time“ with 12.94%.

In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured guest performances by Eurovision Song Contest 2009 participants from Belarus (Petr Elfimov), Cyprus (Christina Metaxa), Malta (Chiara), Montenegro (Andrea Demirović), Turkey (Hadise) and the UK (Jade Ewen), as well as Greece’s 2008 representative Kalomira.

Draw	Song	Songwriter(s)	Percentage	Place
1	„Out of Control“	Dimitris Kontopoulos, Alexandra Zakka	25,88%	–
2	„Right On Time“	Dimitris Kontopoulos, Craig Porteils, Cameron Giles-Webb	12,94%	–
3	„This Is Our Night“	Dimitris Kontopoulos, Craig Porteils, Cameron Giles-Webb	61,18%	1

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