Griffiniskaja Laul 9

Griffiniskaja Laul 09 will be the ninth edition of the Griffiniskaja Laul musical event and Waiting List Song Contest national final which will take place in the principality of Meremaa following their victory at the previous edition.

Bidding phase
This was the first time that Merema won and hosted an edition of the contest. Preparations for the contest began relatively later than usual following the reorganisation in the Griffiniskaja Televisioon as well as local elections in the principality. Despite the late start, it was confirmed by the executive supervisor of the Griffiniskaja Televisioon (GTV) that tradition of co-organisation between the main channel GTV 1 with a regional broadcaster (in this case GTV MER) will continue. This was confirmed by the director of GTV MER as well.

Meremaa was excited to host the event having the biggest bidding phase to date. All major cities expressed interest in hosting the contest and all of their bids were accepted by GTV for the official hosting rights competition. These cities are: Mare Incatato(the capital and the biggest city of the principality, also the second biggest city in the Griffin Empire), Tevs (7th biggest city in the Empire), Salta (13th biggest city in the Empire), and Zonpolah (17th biggest city in the Empire). However the interest was big among the smaller towns as well with Umutstad bidding the whole town as a venue. Total of nine cities and towns had applied to host the show.

Later it was announced that the Bidding Phase was won by the Meremaa capital - Mare Incatato since their biggest venue was already ready and experienced with hosting big events.

City and venue
Mare Incatato, the capital of Griffin Principality of Meremaa was already the host city for the 212th edition of Waiting List Song Contest, so it was only natural for them to get the hosting gig for Griffiniskaja Laul as well. The venue choice for the festival was MareStadiumi, a football stadium in the Saudi Saxmarga district of Mare Incatato.

MareStadiumi (stylized version of Mare Stadijümi), is a multi-purpose stadium and home to the Olimpia football club since it opened in 1937, and was a venue in the 1998 Natia World Cup, the 2007 Natia Rugby World Cup and the Western Natia Football Cup 2016. It is the largest club football ground in Griffin Empire, with a capacity of 67,394 spectators. The stadium is also used regularly by the Griffin national rugby union team. The main problem in the bidding phase was the lack of a retractable roof, but it was later added to the building. This was the biggest venue ever to host a Waiting List Song Contest with the final capacity for the contest bein limited at 38,000 seats. The stadium is four kilometres from the Old Port of Mare Incatato, in the neighbourhoods of Marga and Kamaoozs in the southern part of Mare Incatato. It is bound to the south by the Joföeomösör river and to the north by the Üemid Paark and the headquarters of regional public TV station, GTV MER. To its west runs the Naurödt Boulevardt and to the east the Mare Incatatoiskaja Shaitö ot sparrtotre and the Törild Stadijümi.

It is serviced by the bus and metro networks of the city. Besides several bus services operating in the area, two stations of the Mare Incatato Metro line 2 are close to the stadium. Mare Incatato Meremaa Airport is thirty kilometres from the stadium.