National Final
RTVA invited both composers and singers to enter the competition and began accepting entries on October 24 with a deadline of December 31, 2008. However, it was announced on November 8, that the new deadline would be December 1, 2008 after RTVA received the rules guiding the national selection dates from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
An expert jury chose the three best songs to compete at the 2009 Andorran Eurovision national final. Interested singers were told to send demos with a maximum of three songs, with at least one song sung in Catalan. In addition, composers were told to send in at least one song to the station. All composers and singers must be over 18, preferably with Andorran citizenship and nationality. Catalan lyrics are preferred by RTVA. The singers' musical experience and fluency in Catalan, as well as their fluency in speaking English and French, will also be taken into account. At the national final, the Andorran entrant will be chosen entirely through the use of SMS texting by the public.
107 entries were received by RTVA, featuring 64 songs without a singer attached, 15 performers without songs, and 28 applications of both singer and song. Entries came from around Europe, with almost half of them coming from Andorra, with another 27 entries coming from neighbour country Spain. A further eight entries came from both France and Lithuania, six from Sweden, four from Greece and Malta, three from Belgium, two from both Ireland and Israel, as well as one entry coming from Iceland and the United Kingdom.
The three artists chosen to compete in the Andorran national final were revealed on 13 December 2008, live on Andorran television. The three artists were selected by a professional jury, who began selecting the successful artists from the afternoon of the 13th. One of the original chosen artists, British born singer Jack Lucien revealed 3 days before that he had to pull out due to other commitments, meaning the additional entry of Susanne Georgi, the eventual winner. His song Marxaré was released on May 4, 2009. On 29 December, one of the three finalist songs, "Estrelles d'or", by Marc Durandeau and Marc Canturri, was disqualified after it was revealed that the former had submitted a similar song into the Spanish selection for 2008. The duo was replaced by the runner-up of the jury choice, Mar Capdevila with the song "Passió obsessiva".
Read more about this topic: Andorra In The Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or final:
“... the Wall became a magnet for citizens of every generation, class, race, and relationship to the war perhaps because it is the only great public monument that allows the anesthetized holes in the heart to fill with a truly national grief.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Dignity: the doomed man’s final refuge.”
—Max Frisch (1911–1991)