Unlike the 2007 and 2008 MGPs, there were no semifinals prior to the grand final. Ten songs competed in one show where the winner was determined over three rounds of voting. In the first round, the top four songs based on the combination of votes from a public SMS vote and a seven-member jury panel qualified to a second round of voting. In the second round, the four qualifiers competed against each other in two duels, with SMS voting selecting the winner of each duel to progress to the final round. In the final round, the winner was determined exclusively by SMS voting. The seven-member jury panel was composed of:
After a submission period, DR received 684 entries, an increase from the 443 songs that were submitted in the previous year. A preliminary jury selected six songs from the entries submitted to the broadcaster, while an additional four acts: Jeppe, Jimmy Jørgensen, Johnny Deluxe and Marie Carmen Koppel, were invited by the broadcaster to compete based on editorial considerations. The competing artists and songs were announced on 9 January 2009. Controversy rose when the official album for the contest was released prematurely due to a technical error. Set to be released the day before the contest, the album was released as a digital download due to a technical error made by the record label. 17 legal downloads were made before the album was taken off. One of the legal downloads, however, was uploaded onto YouTube as well as published as an illegal sharing file on the internet. My Way Music, the record company responsible for album, will take legal actionagainst the person who illegally uploaded the songs onto the internet.
Final
The final took place on 31 January 2009. In the first round of voting, the votes of a seven-member jury and a public vote determined the top four to advance to the second round: "Det' det" performed by Sukkerchok, "Someday" performed by Hera Björk, "Sindssyg" performed by Johnny Deluxe and "Believe Again" performed by Brinck. In the second round of voting, the four qualifiers competed against each other in two duels, with a public vote selecting the winner of each duel to progress to the final round: "Someday" performed by Hera Björk and "Believe Again" performed by Brinck. In the final voting round, the winner, "Believe Again" performed by Brinck, was selected solely by a public vote.
At Eurovision
Since Denmark was not one of the "Big Four" nor the host of the 2009 contest, it had to compete in the second semi-final of the contest on 14 May. Brinck performed ninth in the running order of the semi-final, following Slovakia and preceding Slovenia, where he qualified Denmark to final of the contest, placing 8th. In the final, Denmark finished in 13th place with 74 points.
Split Results
In the Final Denmark came 13th with 74 points: the public awarded Denmark 19th place with 40 points and the jury awarded 6th place with 120 points.
