The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the seventh edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Kyiv, Ukraine. It was scheduled for 21 November 2009. 13 countries were confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to compete in the contest. The contest was won by Ralf Mackenbach for the Netherlands with the song "Click Clack". At the age of 14, he was the oldest person to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in its seven-year history. He was joined by Italy's Vincenzo Cantiello who won the 2014 contest also at the age of 14. Luara Hayrapetyan achieved Armenia another second place. Ekaterina Ryabova also took second place for Russia. Both Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko were present during the final; Tymoshenko was also present and speeched during the opening ceremony on 16 November 2009.

Location

Bidding phase and host selection

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) invited broadcasters to bid for the rights to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009; three bids were received from Belarus, Serbia, and Ukraine. TV4 of Sweden had originally sent in a bid during summer 2007, but soon withdrew its bid after deciding to completely withdraw from the contest. On 6 June 2008, after deliberations by the EBU, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) was granted the rights to the 2009 contest and confirmed they would host it in Kyiv. An NTU organiser team headed by then-First Lady of Ukraine Kateryna Yushchenko originally proposed a candidacy set in Camp Artek (located in Gurzuf, Crimea) to the EBU during discussions held in Rotterdam as part of the 2007 contest. However, the bid of Kyiv, with its proposed location being Eurovision Song Contest 2005 venue Palace of Sports, prevailed due to better infrastructure and the experience in past Eurovision events. On 12 November 2009, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Vasiunyk declared that the contest would not be postponed; (earlier) Party of Regions member of parliament Hanna Herman had called on Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to cancel the song contest because of the 2009 flu pandemic in Ukraine.

Participating countries

The EBU announced the complete list of participating countries in the 2009 contest on 8 June 2009. 13 countries competed in the contest. Sweden returned after missing the previous year's contest, while, and withdrew from the contest. According to the rules of the contest, participants must sing in one of their national languages, however they are permitted to have up to 25% of the song in a different language. Prior to the event, a compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2009 contest, along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group on 21 November 2009.

Format

Concept and logo

Logo of the contest titled "Tree of life" is based on the artwork "Sunflower of life" by Maria Primachenko, a well known Ukrainian folk art painter. Creative design of the show was based on the logo of the contest, works and ideas of Primachenko as well as on the concept of the show, titled "For the joy of people".

Presenters

On 22 October 2009, it was revealed that Ani Lorak, Timur Miroshnychenko and Dmytro Borodin would be hosting the contest, with Borodin serving as the green room host.

Contest overview

The event took place on 21 November 2009 at 21:15 EET (20:15 CET). Thirteen countries participated, with the running order published on 13 October 2009. All the countries competing were eligible to vote with the jury and televote. The Netherlands won with 121 points, with Armenia and Russia, both of whom came second, completing the top three. Cyprus, Macedonia, and Romania occupied the bottom three positions. The show was opened by the children's ballet A6 and the Jazz-Step Dance Class of Volodymyr Shpudeyko; they were followed by the children's sports dancing ensemble Pulse. The interval acts included young acrobats Karyn Rudnycka and Yuriy Kuzynsky accompanied all participating contestants on stage, whilst Ani Lorak performed her Eurovision 2008 entry "Shady Lady".

Spokespersons

Detailed voting results

Each country decided their votes through a 50% jury and 50% televoting system which decided their top ten songs using the points 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Since Sweden did not broadcast the show until the morning after, their points were made up solely by their national jury.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received. All countries were given 12 points at the start of voting to ensure that no country finished with nul points.

Broadcasts

A live broadcast of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was available worldwide via satellite through European streams such as TVRi, RIK Sat, RTS Sat and MKTV Sat. The official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary via the peer-to-peer medium Octoshape.