Irish broadcaster, RT�, has published its rules for its National Final to be held provisionally for Friday, February 20th 2009.

As reported yesterday by esctoday.com here, RTÉ is planning an open selection to determine this year's representative.

The competition will be called Eurosong 2009. There will be a Late Late Show Eurosong Special on a date to be confirmed in late February or early March, where six shortlisted songs and performers will compete to decide Ireland's entry.

RTÉ is now inviting entries that include the song, the singer(s) and any proposed performance/staging details. In this scenario, songwriters entering will have a singer or singers selected when the entries are submitted. Singers submitting entries will have agreed with the song composer that they will perform that song composer's work.

The closing date and time for entries will be noon on Monday, the 2nd of February, 2009. Entries should be submitted to Eurosong 2009, RTÉ Entertainment, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland.

It is a condition of entry to Eurosong 2009 that song entries and their songwriter(s) and performer(s) must at all times comply with the RTÉ competition rules listed below and also with the ESC 2009 rules to be published by the EBU. In the event of any failure to comply with the RTÉ competition rules listed below and/or the ESC 2009 Rules the relevant entry (and songwriter and performer) may be disqualified by RTÉ and/or the EBU.

A judging panel of five experts from the music, entertainment, and television industries will select six entries from all those received to compete in Eurosong 2009. The panel may invite acts to perform for them before a final decision as to selection of the finalists is made.

The judging panel will make their selections employing the following criteria:
a) suitability of the song for the ESC
b) quality of the singer/performer(s)
c) experience of the singer/performer(s)
d) stage appeal of the singer/performer(s)

Ireland's entry for the ESC 2009 will be selected from the 6 finalists, on the night of The Late Late Eurosong 2009, with the voting format to be confirmed by RTÉ and the judging panel. An independent auditor will oversee all procedures in Eurosong 2009.

RTÉ is hopeful that this procedure for Eurovision 2009 will encourage a range of talent to come forward and that Ireland will compete successfully in this exciting competition.

You can view the rules for Eurosong 2009 here.