The five members of the in-studio jury that evaluated the entries during the shows were: The votes of the expert jury and the public televote each created an overall ranking from which points from 1-8, 10 and 12 were distributed. Four members of the jury were appointed by TVE, while an additional member was selected during the first semi-final through the same voting process. The results during all four shows were decided upon through a combination of public televoting (50%) and an in-studio expert jury (50%). The initial format of the national final was to include a Second Chance round which would feature the fourth-placed songs of each semi-final, however the show was later removed due to low ratings of the first two semi-finals and for the purpose of aiding the winning artist in preparing their performance, choreography and official preview video for the Eurovision Song Contest.
The twelve qualifying entries competed in the final during which the winning entry was determined. Each semi-final featured ten entries and four qualified for the final. Thirty artists and songs, selected through an Internet round, competed in Eurovisión 2009: El retorno which consisted of four shows: three semi-finals on 14, 21 and 28 February 2009, and the final also on 28 February 2009. All shows were broadcast on La 1, TVE Internacional as well as online via TVE's official website rtve.es. The national final consisted of four shows which commenced on 14 February 2009 and concluded with a winning song and artist during the final on 28 February 2009. Before Eurovision Eurovisión 2009: El retorno Įurovisión 2009: El retorno was the national final organised by TVE that took place at the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou Theatre in Barcelona, hosted by Alaska and Miguel Serrano. In 20, TVE organised a national final featuring a competition among several artists and songs to select both the artist and song that would represent Spain, a procedure which was continued for their 2009 entry. TVE confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on 21 November 2008. The Spanish national broadcaster, Televisión Española (TVE), broadcasts the event within Spain and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In 2008, Spain placed sixteenth with the song " Baila el Chiki-chiki" performed by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre. Spain has also finished second four times, with Karina in 1971, Mocedades in 1973, Betty Missiego in 1979 and Anabel Conde in 1995. The nation has won the contest on two occasions: in 1968 with the song " La, la, la" performed by Massiel and in 1969 with the song " Vivo cantando" performed by Salomé, the latter having won in a four-way tie with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Prior to the 2009 contest, Spain had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-eight times since its first entry in 1961.
Main article: Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 25, Spain placed twenty-fourth out of the 25 participating countries with 23 points. Ten entries ultimately qualified to compete in the televised final where an in-studio jury and a public televote selected "La noche es para mí" performed by Soraya as the winner.Īs a member of the " Big Four", Spain automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The national final consisted of three semi-finals and a final and involved 30 artists and songs. The Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) organised the national final Eurovisión 2009: El retorno in order to select the Spanish entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. Spain participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song " La noche es para mí" written by Irini Michas, Dimitri Stassos, Jason Gill and Felipe Pedroso.