Bulgaria and Bulgarian National Television (BNT) once again decided to produce a special show to pick the Bulgarian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, but in a different format than 2008's EuroBGVision. For 2009, a two-part process was used: the first part, "Be A Star", consisting of a nine heats and three monthly finals chose the participants for the "Bulgarian Song for Eurovision 2009" part which consisted of a semi-final and final and ultimately chose the Bulgarian entrant.

The Bulgarian national final was divided into two parts. First to take place, was a show titled "Be A Star" which consisted of nine heats, and three monthly finals. The second stage titled "Bulgarian Song for Eurovision 2009" included a semi-final and a grand final.

45 songs competed in nine heats of "Be A Star" with five songs competing each week. After every third heat, a monthly final was held where the nine winning songs from the previous three heats were performed again and voted on, with three going on to the semi-final, a part of "Bulgarian Song for Eurovision". 18 songs in total will compete in the semi-final, to be held on January 24, 2009.

At the semi-final, the first part of "Bulgarian Song for Eurovision", the nine songs chosen through the three monthly finals of "Be A Star" along with nine more chosen by a jury who chose from songs submitted at a later deadline and songs that did not qualify from the heats and quarter-finals. The semi-final was held on January 24, 2009. Nine songs made it through the semi-final to the final through televoting and they were joined by an additional three songs chosen internally by BNT. The final decision, made on February 21, 2009, was decided solely by the public through televoting and SMS text voting.

All songs submitted for "Be A Star" had to be by Bulgarian singers, but the choice of language was up to its writers. The submission deadline for songs was September 19, 2008, and 54 songs were sent in to compete in the heats of "Be A Star", but eight were disqualified having already been released before October 1 or not original works, violations of the contest's rules.

Each month contains three corresponding heats from which nine songs in total will qualify for the monthly selection.

The first heat was held on October 2, 2008. Five songs were presented, with the jury choosing one song and televoting choosing two more to go on to the October selection final; two songs did not make it through. The first artist to perform was Monika Kirovska with her pop-rock song "I Won". She was accompanied by a guitar player who was also a backing singer. The second singer to take the stage was Emil Sokolov with his rock song "Deystvitelnost ili izmama". He wore a shiny silver shirt and played the guitar while singing. Following Sokolov was I Veline with her ballad "Ready for Love". The fourth song was "I Promise" performed by the rock band Perfect Stranger which included two singers, a drummer, bass player, guitarist and a keyboard player. The last song of the night was the electro-pop "Neka s pesen" by Venelina Milanova. Milanova was accompanied onstage by two backing singers and two dancers.

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Wikipedia