EFV 09 - Dublin, Ireland

Bidding Phase & Entry Acceptance
For this edition of the contest, it was previously decided on the Council Meeting that the previous champion would host the following season of the contest. Ireland decided to open a poll, in which three cities were disputing the players votes. Dublin was the chosen city to host the contest. The 28 participating countries had almost two weeks before the closure of the previous season and the opening of the current season to send their entries and the Management Team could organize the Official Playlist for the voting. Most of the delegations sent their entries with their final votes.

Motto
Dublin is the second city in EFV History which didn't want to indicate a motto to be the theme of the contest.

Visual Identity
Dublin is quite a modern city, but behind all modernism in town there's a great countryside hidden. That's what the Management Team wanted to desing: what is hidden behind Dublin's eyes. EFV logo and all arts were composed taking in mind a great end-of-the-day landscape from a "countrysider" Dublin. To contrast, the logo was still in changes, so a white guitar was covering part of the side with the inscription of the contest on it, the season number, the star (which was the symbol of the winning title). The name of the city was inscripted in the landscape as a signature, an autograph, using the Irish national colours.

Artists & Entries
Here you can find a list with the 28 entries in the competition. The winner is listed in bold/italic.

Semifinals Running Order & Voting
Due to the number of contestants, EFV had the use of Semifinals and Final Rounds. All countries were drawn and allocated in two semifinals. The Top 4 countries were also allocated to vote in the Semifinals, but they would only perform in the Grand Final.

Semifinal's Wildcard Round
There was a surprise reserved for all players: a wildcard round. As a test, the Management team decided to keep an extra round which would be decided in an open poll. The rules were simple: the players would decide between two songs, the ninth placed ones from each semifinal. The most voted qualifies to the Final. Qualified: Iran.

Winner Acceptance
EFV didn't have any problems to declare Belgium as winner, receiving 147 points.

Curiosities & Notes

 * 1) This was the first single victory for Belgium, but overall, Belgium became the first two-time winner country in EFV History..
 * 2) It was the first time that a Greek song is part of Top 4 songs (and also Greece qualifies automatically for the Final).
 * 3) It was the first time Luxembourg qualifies to the Final with a song in German.