Country Armenia Selection date(s) 14 February 2009 | Selection process National Final Selected song "Jan Jan" | |
Selected entrant Inga and Anush Arshakyan Semi-final result Qualified (5th, 99 points) | ||
Armenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, as confirmed by Armenian broadcaster Armenian Public Television (ARMPTV). Inga and Anush Arshakyan won the National final with their song "Jan Jan" and represented Armenia in the Eurovision 2009.
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Possible artists
Popular male artist Aramé had expressed an interest in representing Armenia.
The Azeria-Press Agency had claimed that System of a Down would be the artists for the Armenian entry. A member of the Turkish Parliament from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Akif Ekici, commented that the group was going to perform a song about Armenian genocide. He went on to say their song “Holy Mountains” offended the Turkish people, and asked the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, what action could have been taken to stop the group participating in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
National final
The Armenian broadcaster returned to a national final format to select the fourth Armenian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. This was the second time the Armenian entry was selected through a public contest. The final, held on 14 February, 2009 used a mixture of jury and televoting to select the winner. Inga & Anush Arshakyanner with their song "Jan Jan" were landslide winners, taking the top mark from the jury and gaining 35% of the televote. Azerbaijani press agencies claimed that, the song "Jan Jan" fully copying the famous Azerbaijanian composer Tofig Guliyev's dance song "Nakhchivani", which was composed more than 30 years ago.
Mher with the song "My Heart, My Soul" was second while Dorians with the song "Fly" were close third.
At Eurovision
Armenia qualified from the first semi final and eventually finished in 10th place in the final with 92 points. Despite it being the country's worst finish in the Eurovision at the time, it gave them the country's fourth successive top ten finish.