participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "This Is Our Night" written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb and performed by Sakis Rouvas. To select their entry for the 2009 contest, which was held in Moscow, Russia, the Greek national broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) internally selected Rouvas, while his song was chosen through the televised national final Ellinikós Telikós 2009, which consisted of three candidate songs voted upon by the public and a jury.
Following the selection of the song, Rouvas began to travel around Europe and appeared on many television shows, including events held by other participants in the contest. Greece took part in the second semi-final of the contest on 14 May 2009 and qualified for the final, placing fourth with 110 points. At the final on 16 May, Rouvas performed "This Is Our Night" eighth out of the 25 participants and at the end of voting, was awarded seventh place, marking Greece's sixth consecutive top 10 placing since 2004.
Background
Prior to the 2009 contest, Greece had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 29 times since its first entry in 1974. To this point, the nation won the contest once, in 2005 with the song "My Number One" performed by Helena Paparizou, and placed third three times: in with the song "Die for You" performed by the duo Antique; in with "Shake It" performed by Sakis Rouvas; and the year prior in with "Secret Combination" performed by Kalomira. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Greece qualified for the final each year. Their least successful result was in , when they placed 20th with the song "Mia krifi evaisthisia" by Thalassa, receiving only 12 points in total, all from Cyprus.
The Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) broadcasts the event within Greece and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. From to , ERT had selected high-profile artists internally and set up national finals to choose the song, while in 2007 and 2008 it held a televised national final to choose both the song and performer. For the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, ERT was able to secure a high-profile artist once again and planned a national final to choose the song.
Before Eurovision
Artist selection
On 15 July 2008, ERT confirmed Rouvas as the Greek representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Rouvas had previously represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, placing third, and had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in the Greek capital Athens alongside Maria Menounos. ERT's Eurovision project manager Johnny Kalimeris stated that Rouvas' participation was announced so early because "there was no reason to keep it a secret [and that] it was about to leak [so they] decided to make a short announcement early on to avoid the usual speculations and rumours which could do more damage than good". Rouvas' selection made Greece the first nation to publicly announce their entrant for the 2009 contest.
Ellinikós Telikós 2009
Following the announcement of Rouvas as their Eurovision Song Contest 2009 representative, ERT revealed during a press conference on 14 October 2008 that he would perform three songs, all written by Dimitris Kontopoulos and choreographed by Fokas Evangelinos, during a national final titled Ellinikós Telikós 2009 (, "Greek final"). In regards to the style of the songs, Rouvas stated that he trusted Kontopoulos as he had written many hits for him in the past and knew the styles of songs that fit him best. The titles of the three songs were announced on 10 February 2009 and the songs in their entirety were presented during a press conference two days later at the Hilton Athens hotel. Alexandra Zakka wrote the lyrics for the first song, titled "Out of Control", a pop song with R&B elements, while Craig Porteils and Cameron Giles-Webb wrote the lyrics for both "Right On Time", a mid-tempo song, and "This Is Our Night", a dance song. Craig Porteils is a Greek Australian music producer who has written songs and lyrics for Cher, Billy Idol, Tevin Campbell, Guns N' Roses, Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osbourne among others, while Cameron Giles-Webb is another Greek Australian music producer who was the head of Gusto Music.