Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Andorra participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, as previously confirmed by Andorran broadcaster Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA).

Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Country Andorra
National selection
Selection processPassaport a Moscou
Selection date(s)4 February 2009
Selected entrantSusanne Georgi
Selected song"La teva decisió (Get a Life)"
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (15th, 8 points)
Andorra in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2008 • 2009

After many disappointing results since Andorra's debut in 2004, on top of Andorra's poor 16th place in the semi at the 2008 contest, RTVA announced in June 2008 that they had not decided on whether or not they would be present at the 2009 contest.[1][2] However, on 10 September it was announced by RTVA that they would be present at Eurovision 2009, announcing a new proposal for a national final that would be used to select the Andorran representative.[3]

The winner of the national final was Susanne Georgi with the song "La teva decisió", and she was the sixth Andorran Eurovision entry, competing in the first semi-final on 12 May 2009.[4][5]

Georgi failed to reach the final becoming the sixth Andorran Eurovision entrant to miss the grand final.

Before Eurovision

Passaport a Moscou

Passaport a Moscou was the national selection process organised by RTVA to select the Andorra's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters aged over 18 were able to submit their entries between 24 and 31 October 2008. Artists were required to send demos with a maximum of three songs, with at least one song sung in Catalan. They were also preferred to have Andorran citizenship and nationality, as well as having musical experience and are fluent in speaking Catalan, English and French.[6] Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit at least one entry, but those with Andorran citizenship and nationality, as well as those performed in Catalan, were preferred by RTVA.[7] The submission deadline was later extended to 1 December 2008 due to RTVA receiving the rules guiding the national selection dates from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).[8]

At the conclusion of the deadline, RTVA received 107 applications (64 songs without an artist attached; 15 artists without a song attached; 28 entries with both artist and song attached). The submitted entries came from across Europe, with almost half of them coming from Andorra; 27 coming from Spain; 8 from France and Lithuania; 6 from Sweden; 4 from Greece and Malta; 3 from Belgium; 2 from Ireland and Israel; 1 from Iceland and the United Kingdom.[9][10][11] From the received submissions, an expert committee selected three acts for the competition. The list of competing acts were released live by RTVA on 13 December 2008.[12][13][14]

After the list was released, Marc Durandeau and Marc Canturri with "Estrelles d'or" were disqualified from the competition after it was revealed that Durandeau had submitted a similar song into the Spanish selection for 2008. They were later replaced by Mar Capdevila with "Passió obsessiva".[15][16] The 3 finalists were presented over three weekly presentation shows held between 14 and 28 January 2009.

Artist Song (English translation) Songwriter(s)
Susanne Georgi "La Teva Decisió" (Your decision) Susanne Georgi, Rune Braager, Lene Dissing, Pernilla Georgi, Marcus Winther-John, Josep Roca Vila
Lluís Cartes "Exhaust" (Exhausted) Lluís Cartes
Mar Capdevila "Passió Obsessiva" (Obsessive passion) Josep Roca, José Juan Santana, Gonzalo Vandelvira
Marc Durandeau & Marc Canturri "Estrelles d'or" (Golden stars) Marc Durandeau

Final

The final took place on 4 February 2009 at the Apolo Andorra Hall in Andorra la Vella, hosted by Meri Picart. Three acts performed and the winner was selected by a combination of SMS voting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%). The winner was Susanne Georgi with "La teva decisió", receiving 66% of the SMS vote and 47% of the jury vote.[4][5][14]

Final – 4 February 2009
Draw Artist Song Jury
(50%)		 Televote
(50%)		 Total Place
1 Susanne Georgi "La Teva Decisió" 47% 66% 56.5% 1
2 Mar Capdevila "Passió Obsessiva" 23% 13% 18% 3
3 Lluís Cartes "Exhaust" 30% 21% 25.5% 2

Promotion

Due to limited funds in ATV, Susanna was not able to participate in a large promotional tour of her entry around Eurovision. However Susanna did promote her entry to some degree. On 27 February, Susanna performed on Punto Radio in neighbouring Spain. This was followed by promotion in Susanna's home country Denmark, getting extensive coverage in newspapers, and on radio and TV, as well as performing at the Danish Grammy Awards.[17]

Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) revealed that Andorra would be among a number of nations to perform in a special Eurovision show held days before the final on TVE. The show featured Susanna performing "La teva decisió" along with entries from five other countries, the Big 4 of Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as Greece and a number of past Eurovision artists.[18]

At Eurovision

Since Andorra did not win the 2008 contest, it had to compete in one of the two semi-finals. Andorra competed in the first semi-final of the contest on 12 May, where Susanna performed 7th in the running order, following Armenia and preceding Switzerland.

RTVA revealed that they were unhappy with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)'s decision to allow Spain to switch semi-finals for their voting. Having originally been drawn to vote in the first semi-final, the same semi-final as Andorra, TVE asked the EBU to switch semi-finals to allow for promotion of Eurovision itself.[19] RTVA announced their disappointment on this decision, as RTVA believed that, without Spain voting, Andorra's chances of qualifying would be lower. There was also a feeling that the amount of promotion done in Spain was to no avail.[20][21]

At Eurovision, Susanna revealed that she would be accompanied on stage by four backing singers. She also explicitly stated that she would not use backing dancers, as opposed the Spanish entry Soraya, as her performance did not require such resources to improve her performance.[22][23]

Points awarded by Andorra[24]
Split voting results from Andorra (final)
Draw Country Jury points Televoting points Scoreboard (Points)
01  Lithuania
02  Israel 6 7 7
03  France 6 3
04  Sweden 4 2
05  Croatia
06  Portugal 12 6
07  Iceland 10 5 8
08  Greece
09  Armenia
10  Russia
11  Azerbaijan
12  Bosnia and Herzegovina 2
13  Moldova
14  Malta 4 1
15  Estonia
16  Denmark 12 5
17  Germany
18  Turkey 3
19  Albania
20  Norway 7 8 10
21  Ukraine
22  Romania 3
23  United Kingdom 8 1 4
24  Finland 1 2
25  Spain 5 10 12
Points awarded to Andorra (Semi-final 1)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

See also

References
  1. Costa, Nelson. "RTVA didn't decide YES or NO Eurovision 2009". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  2. Hondal, Víctor (2008-06-14). "Andorra: 2009 participation uncertain". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 15 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  3. Jaime Solloso (2008-09-10). "Andorra: RTVA confirm participation in Moscow 2009". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2008-09-23. Retrieved 2008-09-10.
  4. Klier, Marcus (2009-02-04). "Andorra: Susanne Georgi to Eurovision". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  5. Costa, Nelson (2009-02-04). "Andorra: Susanne Georgi to Moscow!". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-04.
  6. Jiandani, Sanjay (2008-10-27). "Andorran Eurovision 2009 rules!". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 29 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
  7. Jiandani, Sanjay (2008-10-22). "Andorra prepares for Eurovision 2009!". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 23 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  8. Hondal, Víctor (2008-11-08). "Andorra: New submission deadline set". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 12 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-08.
  9. Siim, Jarmo (2008-12-02). "Andorra: Records beaten!". Eurovision.tv. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
  10. Viniker, Barry (2008-12-02). "107 Eurovision entries in Andorra". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
  11. Konstantopoulos, Fotis. "Andorra: RTVA receives 107 entries for Moscow". Archived from the original on 2008-12-22. Retrieved 2008-12-02.
  12. "Andorra: RTVA to make announcements tonight". Oikotimes. 2008-12-13. Archived from the original on 2008-12-22. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  13. Wells, Simon (2008-12-13). "Three Andorran contenders announced". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  14. Hondal, Víctor (2008-12-13). "Andorra: Jury selects the three finalists". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 15 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  15. Floras, Stella (2008-12-29). "Andorra: Mar Capdevila replaces Durandeau in the final". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 31 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  16. Siim, Jarmo (2008-12-29). "Andorran finalist disqualified". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
  17. Hondal, Victor (2009-05-24). "Andorra: Busy week for Susanna Georgi". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 6 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  18. Hondal, Victor (2009-04-13). "Big-4, Andorra and Greece to perform on TVE". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 17 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  19. Bakker, Sietse (2009-04-28). "Spain to vote in second Semi-Final". EBU. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  20. Hondal, Victor (2009-04-30). "Andorra disappointed over Spanish decision". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 2 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  21. Costa, Nelson (2009-04-30). "RTVA against EBU decision". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  22. Hondal, Victor (2009-04-03). "Andorra: Four backing singers for Susanna in Moscow". ESCToday. Archived from the original on 8 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  23. Calleja Bayliss, Marc (2009-04-04). "Revelations on Moscow performance". Oikotimes. Archived from the original on 2009-11-18. Retrieved 2009-05-03.
  24. Eurovision Song Contest 2009
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