"[4]On 21 October 2008, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT) announced that it had internally selected Sakis Rouvas as its performer for the 54th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.During the filming at STARZ, the doors were opened at 23:00 where reporters were allowed to enter, while Evangelinos, and the song's composer, Kontopoulos, as well as Rouvas' entire entourage and some ERT staff were also present.[8] On 14 May 2009, the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Olimpiysky Arena in Moscow hosted by Channel One (C1R) and broadcast live throughout the continent.[10] The Eurovision performance staged by Fokas Evangelinos had extremely complex choreography, with BBC News announcing that "Greece's Sakis Rouvas had one of the more ambitious dance routines".[13] Whilst Rouvas was disappointed with his seventh-place finish, announcing to Greek media "I am so sorry, I wanted us to win", there was still unanimous support towards the artist himself in the country.[14] Some critics, including those from London Greek Radio, suggested the reason why Greece failed to achieve a higher placing was due to a lack of an ethnic-sounding song.[13] A month after Eurovision, Rouvas released the song with Greek lyrics by Viki Gerothodorou as "Πιο Δυνατά" (Pio Dinata).
Rouvas at a Eurovision press conference in Moscow, during which the running order for the semi-final was revealed.