This evening 16 contestants tried their best to get the ticket to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in the Russian capital, Moscow. The show started with excerpts of former Eurovision Song Contest winning entries, performed by children. After that, three past Eurovision Song Contest representatives performed their entries again: Serebro (third place in 2007 with Song No. 1), Alsou (second place in 2000 with Solo) and Dima Bilan, last year winner with Believe. Then, the contestants appeared on stage in the following order:
Anna Semenovich - Love Lovila
Thomas N'evergreen - One More Try
Aleksa - Ne Dumat O Tebe
Plazma - Never Ending Story
Anastasia Prikhodko - Mamo
Valeriya - Back To Love
Nano - Traitor
Tim Rox - The Happiest Man
Princessa Avenue - Never, Never
Nikolay Fokeev - You Can't Stop The Time
Venger Collective - 9 O’clock
Polina Griffith - Cry For You
Alexey Vorobyov - Angelom Byt
Unisex - Ai-yai
Arishata - Breakdown
Quatro - Lyublyu Tebya
Anastasia Prikhodko tried to attract attention by performing her song partly in Russian and partly in Ukrainian. Alexey Vorobyov, who was one of the contestans for the 2008 Eurovisin Sing Contest with the song Novaya Kalinka, fought also for victory this year. In between the songs the UK representative for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, Jade, came to promote her entry My Time. The Azerbaijani representatives Aysel and Arash sang their song Always, followed by the Greek participant Sakis Rouvas, presenting his entry This Is Our Night. The three singers that convinced the TV viewers most and received the highest number of votes by SMS and phone are:
Anastasia Prikhodko - Mamo - 25 %
Valeriya - Back To Love - 14 %
Quatro - Lyublyu Tebya - 12 %
After the announcement, the French entry S'il Fallait Le Faire was presented by Patricia Kaas. Then a professional jury consisting of eleven members, behind closed doors, took the decision who should represent Russia this year: They considered Anastasia Prikhodko's entry the best one.
Anastasia Prikhodko was one of the most experienced participants in tonight's selection show. Her pop music is especially known and loved in Russian speaking countries. The young talented artist has won the Russian version of Pop Idol, Fabika Zvezd, in 2007. Following that show, Anastasia has been supported by the famous producer and composer Konstantin Meladze. The latter also used to be a member of the expert jury for tonight's national final, but withdrew from that post after Anastasia Prikhodko had been included to the list of participants for the Russian national selection. She will represent Russia in the Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest with Mamo, a romantic song dedicated to her mother.
