Griffiniskaja Laul 9

Griffiniskaja Laul 09 was the ninth edition of the Griffiniskaja Laul musical event and Waiting List Song Contest national final which took place in Mare Incatato, the capital of the principality of Meremaa following their victory at the previous edition. Meremaa won again on their home ground with Pzyerüyölkeä coming in second and Õklingsmaa in third place which was their best result to date.

Format
Seven principalities of Griffin Empire submitted their entry of choice to compete in a one night final. Each principality gave 1,5,8 10 and 12 points to their favourite songs via televoting. It was forbidden to vote for ones own principality. Fourteen Natian countries were part of the international juries with two more nations broadcasting the show live. The jury nations gave points in the same way as Griffin televoting.

International juries' votes determined Griffin representative at the Waiting List Song Contest. Both juries and televoting combined determined the overall winner of the festival.

It was revealed on all major social, printed and broadcast media that the host for the 89th edition would be Kiernan Shipka. The official photoshoot was revealed on the specially crafted billboard in front of the Museumi ot istorietotr ot Natiaiskaja Liudotre at L'zjuud ot Madnaotr Tere Square in Joglýgët District of Mare Incatato during the traditional 100 days till Laul ceremony.

The tradition of co-organisation between the main channel GTV 1 with a regional broadcaster (in this case GTV MER) continued. All major cities (Mare Incatato, Tevs, Salta, and Zonpolah) expressed interest in hosting the contest and all of their bids were accepted by GTV for the official hosting rights competition. 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 Mare Incatato since their biggest venue was already ready and experienced with hosting big events.

Regional branches of GTV had sole discretion on the process they employed to select their entry for the contest, although the GTV strongly encouraged that broadcasters engage the public with the selection of their act. Even though the regional broadcasters got to choose their representatives completely on their own once again, there were no regional finals for the second edition in a row and all principalities have chosen their acts internally. One of reasons for such decisions was "the risk of the show being postponed once again" as stated by the head director of then Estlandic GTV branch. Number of songs submitted for the first planned event was similar to the previous editions at 3 562 with the most of them coming from Foreõsvdetrre once again and the least from Pzyerüyölkeä.