Ten songs ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 28 February 2009 where two rounds of voting by the public and a five-member jury panel selected "Sastrēgums" performed by Intars Busulis as the winner.
Despite a possible boycott to be held between the three Baltic states due to the Russian participation in the 2008 South Ossetia war in Georgia as announced by Estonian Minister of Culture Laine Jänes, Latvijas Televīzija (LTV), which broadcasts the event within Latvia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry, confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on 26 August 2008.
[8][9][10] However, the EBU announced that Latvia would still participate on 12 January 2009 after a lowered participation fee was granted to LTV,[11][12] while LTV confirmed the continued organisation of Eirodziesma 2009 on 23 January 2009 after securing sponsorships and a cooperation agreement with the Ventspils Development Agency and Ventspils City Council.
The semi-final, held on 27 February 2009, featured twenty competing entries facing a public vote where the top ten advanced to the final.
[20][21] A jury panel appointed by LTV evaluated the submitted songs and selected twenty-one entries for the competition.
The jury panel consisted of Daina Markova (musicologist and content editor at LTV), Raimonds Macats (musician and composer), Aivars Hermanis (musician and producer), Ance Krauze (singer and vocal teacher), Dace Pūce (director and producer), Jegors Jerohomovičs (music critic and cultural journalist), Edmunds Kaševskis (producer at Radio SWH) and members of the LTV Eurovision team: Iveta Lepeško, Zita Kaminska, Arvīds Babris, Baiba Saleniece and Uldis Salenieks.
[22][23] Among the artists was Valters Frīdenbergs who represented Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of Walters and Kazha.
[24] On 12 January 2009, Kristīna Zaharova withdrew "I Wish I Could Pretend" from the competition in favour of the song competing in the 2009 Irish Eurovision national final.
In the superfinal, the song with the highest number of votes from the public, "Sastrēgums" performed by Intars Busulis, was declared the winner.
[34][35] On 1 March, it was announced that "Sastrēgums" would be translated from Latvian to Russian for the Eurovision Song Contest, titled "Probka" with lyrics by Sergejs Timofejevs.
[39] 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.
[46] The musicians that joined Intars Busulis were: Gints Pabērzs, the co-composer of "Probka" Kārlis Lācis and Kaspars Zemītis, while the two backing vocalists were Jolanta Strikaite and Vineta Elksne.