The song was performed by AySel and Arash, which were internally selected by the Azerbaijani broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV) to represent the nation at the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia.

AySel and Arash's selection as the Azerbaijani Eurovision entrants were announced separately on 17 January and 12 February 2009, respectively, while the song "Always" was presented to the public on 3 March 2009.

The selection of AySel as the Azerbaijani Eurovision contestant was based on the decision of İTV and a national jury panel from 40 potential artists that attended a casting round on 24 and 25 October 2008.

The song was selected from 30 submissions from local and international songwriters in a similar broadcaster and jury method.

[15] Between 18 and 19 April, AySel and Arash took part in additional promotional activities in Russia where they performed during the Muz-TV programme VIP zone.

[16] On 23 April, AySel and Arash appeared during the TVP1 morning show programme Kawa czy Herbata in Poland.

[4] On 29 April, AySel and Arash performed during the Eurovision Preview Night event, which was held at the Trädgården venue in Stockholm, Sweden.

[19][20] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries.

[28] The LED screens displayed red and yellow colours as well as erupting volcanoes and drums and the performance also incorporated pyrotechnics, which included flames and fireworks.

[30] At the end of the show, Azerbaijan was announced as having finished in the top ten and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.

This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.

The head of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Belarus, which numbers tens of thousands of people,[40] Natik Baghirov said that he did not know anything about the action, and that the song received support from the entire Europe, not just Belarus and Lithuania, while Sergey Malinovsky, Belorussian jury member of the Eurovision, openly doubted that such vote irregularity could take place, and believed that the Azerbaijani song received public support because of its catchy melody and good performance.

[39][41] Following the protests of Azerbaijani officials, Eurovision's Russian hosts removed from the video of the Armenian performers the image of the monument We Are Our Mountains, which is located in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

[43] In response, the edited image was used as a background by Armenian Public Television during the announcement of the voting results in Armenia.