RTÉ Announce Eurosong 2009 Finalists

On Friday 13th February, RTÉ announced the six Eurosong 2009 finalists, as selected from the public competition. The song contest was open to songwriters from outside of Ireland and a jury chaired by Eurovision winner Linda Martin chose six songs from almost 300 entries received from both home and abroad.

These six songs will be performed live on The Late Late Show Eurosong Special 2009 on Friday 20 February.

The final six songs are:

• "Flying" performed by M.N.A and written by Ronan McCormack
  
  
• "Out of Control" performed by Laura-Jayne Hunter and written by Derry O'Donovan.
  
  
• "So What" performed by Lee Bradshaw and written by Billy Larkin and Kevin Breathnach
  
  
• "Amazing" performed by Johnny Brady and written by Tony Adams Rosa
  
  
• "I Wish I Could Pretend" performed by Kristina Zaharova and written by Lauris Reiniks and Gordon Pogoda.
  
  
• "Et Cetera" performed by Sinead Mulvey & Black Daisy. Composed by Niall Mooney, Jonas Gladnikoff, Daniele Moretti & Christina Schilling.
  
  

(Click on any of the links above to read more about the finalists...)

The songs will be performed in the order above as drawn by independent auditor Michael O'Neill of Price Waterhouse Coopers.

The winner will be decided by 50% regional jury vote and 50% public televote which replicates the change to this year's Eurovision Song Contest Final in Moscow, when national juries will once again have a say in the outcome of the contest, sharing the decision equally with the televote.

The final six songs were chosen by a judging panel chaired by Eurovision winner Linda Martin and included MD, Universal Music Ireland, Mark Crossingham, showbiz agent/choreographer Julian Benson, RTÉ 2FM DJ and Eurovision Commentator, Larry Gogan, and Diarmuid Furlong head of the Official Eurovision Fan Club of Ireland.

The Late Late Show Eurosong Special will be broadcast on Friday 20 February with the winner announced at the end of the show.

Two Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will take place on - Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14 May. All countries barring the UK, Spain, Germany, France, and last year's winner Russia, must compete in one of them in order to win a place at the final which takes place on Saturday 16 May, 2009. Ireland will compete in the second semi-final on Thursday 14 May. Both the semi-finals and the final will be televised live on RTÉ Television.