Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Greece participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 held in Moscow, Russia. The nation's entry "This Is Our Night" was written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb and was performed by Sakis Rouvas. Rouvas was selected internally by the Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) with his song chosen through a televised national final consisting of three candidate songs. Following the selection of the song, Rouvas began a promotional tour around Europe and appeared on many television shows, including the selections 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. Background. Prior to the 2009 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 29 times since its first entry in 1974. To this point, the nation won the contest once, in 2005 with the song "My Number  One" performed by Helena Paparizou, and placed third three times: in 2001 with the song "Die for You" performed by the duo Antique; in 2004 with "Shake It" performed by Sakis Rouvas; and in 2008 with "Secret Combination" performed by Kalomoira. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Greece qualified for the grand final each year. Their least successful result was in when they placed 20th with the song "Mia krifi evaisthisia" by Thalassa, receiving only 12 points in total, all from Cyprus. Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT), broadcasts the event within Greece and organises the selection process  for the nation's entry. From 2004 to 2006, ERT had selected high-profile artists internally and set up national finals to choose the song, while in 2007 and 2008 it held a televised national final to choose both the song and performer. For the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, ERT was able to secure a high-profile artist once again and planned a national final to choose the song. Before Eurovision. Artist selection. On 15 July 2008, ERT confirmed Sakis Rouvas as the Greek representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Rouvas had previously represented Greece at 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". Ellinikós Telikós 2009. Following the announcement of Sakis Rouvas as the Eurovision 2009 representative, ERT revealed during a press conference on 14 October 2009 that Rouvas would  perform three songs, all written by Dimitris Kontopoulos and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos, during a national final titled Ellinikós Telikós 2009 (). 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 on 12 February 2009 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 is currently 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 1956 when the contest was first broadcast on radio to the present. Rouvas performed all three songs in playback 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 (jury chairman ), Dimitris Gontikas (General Manager of ERT Television), Antonis Andrikakis (lyricist and General Manager of ERT Radio), Evangelia Piskera (President 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. Public voting was conducted through telephone or SMS. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured guest performances by 2009 Belarusian Eurovision entrant Petr Elfimov, 2009 Cypriot Eurovision entrant Christina Metaxa, 2009 Maltese Eurovision entrant Chiara, 2009 Montenegrin Eurovision entrant Andrea  Demirović, 2009 Turkish Eurovision entrant Hadise and 2009 British Eurovision entrant Jade Ewen. 2008 Greek Eurovision entrant Kalomira was also present at the show, performing a medley which included "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga, "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls and the Master Tempo remix of her 2008 Eurovision entry "Secret Combination". Promotion. Following the national final, initial plans for the promotion of "This Is Our Night" were revealed by Johnny Kalimeris, with Rouvas visiting more Eurovision countries than had been visited in previous years. The first official stop after the selection was to Bosnia and Herzegovina where  Rouvas performed at the official presentation of the nation's entry "Bistra Voda" on 1 March. Other guests included Turkey and Malta. The show was streamed live on "eurovision.tv" as had been for the Greek national final. Rouvas was then a guest at the Pink TV BH Morning Show which aired live on Balkan Net, and also appeared on the live radio show "Stari Grad". He also gave interviews to TV Hayat, the "Obavezan smjer" show on TV Sarajevo, and on the Radio Televizija BiH show "Konacno petak". Following his two-day stay in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rouvas returned to  Belgrade, Serbia where he would stay until 4 March, appearing on Fox TV, Radio S, live on 3 March, TV S, TV Avala and Pink TV. On 4 March he was a special guest of Jovana Janković, the hostess of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, on the "RTS Morning Show". Rouvas concluded his promotion in Serbia with a live appearance on Novi SAT channel. Rouvas then flew to Moscow, where he performed live at the Russian National Final along with past Russian representatives, namely Dima Bilan, Yulia Savicheva, Alsou, Youddiph, Natalia Podolskaya, Prime Minister, and Serebro. The next day he  performed at the Kremlin for the celebration of International Woman's Day in Russia. At the second press conference, it was stated that Rouvas' previous success and popularity in Russia would be a definite factor in Greece conquering the Eastern votes. Rouvas also appeared at a concert in Cyprus on 13 March and continued promotion in Turkey from 10-12 April. At Eurovision. The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 took place at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia and consisted of two semi-finals held on 12 and 14 May, respectively, and the grand final on 16 May 2009. According to  the Eurovision rules, all participating countries, except the host nation and the "Big Four", consisting of , , and the , were required to qualify from one of the two semi-finals to compete for the grand final; the top 10 countries from the respective semi-finals progressed to the grand final of the contest. On 30 January 2009, an allocation draw was held that placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, with Greece being placed into the second, to be held on 14 May. Once all the competing songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 had been released, the  running order for the semi-finals was decided by the delegation heads of the 42 participating countries; the nation was set to perform at position 16, following and preceding . Fokas Evangelinos along with Elias Ledakis, were the choreographers and artistic directors of Rouvas' stage show. Evangelinos had choreographed Rouvas' third place 2004 entry, Elena Paparizou's winning 2005 entry, the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, Ani Lorak's second place 2008 entry, and Dima Bilan's second place entry in 2006 and winning 2008 entry among others. Evangelinos has worked with Rouvas for more than a decade  long, being his choreographer for the majority of his shows. At a press conference on 14 October 2008 it was revealed that Evangelinos would be working exclusively with Rouvas and no other contest entrants. Semi-final. It was announced in January that Greece would take part in the second semi-final on May 14 where it will have to qualify for the grand final. Greece was drawn to perform 13th out of a field of 19, succeeding Azerbaijan's AySel and Arash with "Always" and preceding Lithuania's Sasha Son with "Love". It was one of the ten performances which  qualified for the grand final. Final and reception. In the final, on 16 May, "This Is Our Night" finished in seventh place with a total of 120 points, receiving maximum "12 points" from Albania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus. The song therefore carried on Greece's "Eurovision" success by finishing within the top-ten for the sixth consecutive year, thus making the country the second most successful entrant of the past decade, despite not having even participated in 2000. The event was watched by 86% of the Greek television audience. The performance included complex choreography, with "BBC News" announcing that "Greece's  Sakis Rouvas had one of the more ambitious dance routines" of the contest. Rouvas wore an all white outfit designed by acclaimed Greek designer Celia Kritharioti. He performed on a rotating podium which transported him from left to right across the stage, was part of his group dance routine with four other performers and, in the end, was responsible for lifting him high into the air. In the same moment, a Greek flag is displayed on the floor, only visible to the television viewers. The final part of the performance was completed by silver fireworks in two separate parts. The  official "Eurovision" website states that, this year, Greece had made "high-tech advancements" in the contest's standards. Whilst Rouvas was disappointed with his seventh-place finish, announcing to Greek media "I am so sorry, I wanted us to win", there was still unanimous support towards the artist himself in the country. "Seventh in Europe, first in our hearts" many journalists reported on Greek television. The media and public pronounced their support for Rouvas, the general consensus being that the artist gave it his best even though this did not translate in enough votes in the contest. Rouvas stated that , overall, it has all been a wonderful experience for him: "some win, some lose, personally, I gave everything I had. But it was a wonderful experience". Some critics, including those from "London Greek Radio", suggested the reason why Greece failed to achieve a higher placing was due to a lack of an ethnic-sounding song. He notes the way in which all of Greece's top-three placings, including Rovas' performance of "Shake It" in 2004, had an ethnic bouzouki sound, as did the 2009 Azerbaijani and Turkish entries which finished in third and fourth place respectively. Voting. Voting during  the three shows involved each country awarding points from 1-8, 10 and 12 as determined by televoting in the semi-final and a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting in the final. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts  in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. Greece received the top 12 points from Albania and Cyprus in the second semi-final, and from Albania, Bulgaria and Cyprus in the final. Greece awarded its 12 points to Cyprus in the semi-final and to the United Kingdom in the final. The tables below visualise a complete breakdown of points awarded to Greece in both the second semi-final and the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, as well as by the country on both occasions.