The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Moscow, Russia, following Dima Bilan’s win at the 2008 contest in with the song “Believe” – marking the first time that the country had won the contest.
The event was staged between 12 and 16 May 2009 at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow.
The contest was won by Norway’s Alexander Rybak with his self-penned “Fairytale”, which received a record-breaking 387 points out of 492, at the time the highest total score in the history of the contest and with a margin of 169 points over the second place which went to Iceland.
After criticism of the voting system after the 2007 Contest, changes in the voting procedure were made with the re-introduction of a national jury alongside televoting while the format of the semi-finals remained the same.
Forty-two countries participated in the contest.
For the very first time in Eurovision history, there were four hosts, each divided in two sets: Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov were the hosts of the semi-finals, while the final was presented by Ivan Urgant and Alsou Abramova.
