BHRT held an open call for songs for those interested in representing Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 2009 contest in Moscow. Artists could only be from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while songwriters could be of any nationality. The deadline for entries passed on 20 December, and the winning song was made public on 1 March 2009, on a special television show called BH Eurosong 2009, however the performer was known on 12 January 2009. At least 50 applications were submitted to BHRT, but more songs may have been submitted due to composers' tendency to enter more than one song when applying. Some names have come forward in saying that they have entered songs into the selection process. These include Irina & Storm, popular rock musicians, as well as Hari Mata Hari, who achieved Bosnia and Herzegovina's best placing at Eurovision, 3rd place in 2006. BHRT selected Sarajevorock band Regina compete for Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision with their song, "Bistra voda" composed by Aleksandar Čović. The song was first presented at a special presentation show, called BH Eurosong, on 1 March 2009. The show included performances by various Eurvision participants: Regina for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Quartissimo and Martina Majerle for Slovenia, Hadise for Turkey, Next Time for Macedonia, Jade Ewen for the United Kingdom, Sakis Rouvas for Greece, Chiara for Malta and Andrea Demirović for Montenegro. Sabahudin Kurt, the 1964 Eurovision entry for Yugoslavia was also present as a special guest.
Promotion
Before performing in Eurovision, Regina visited various competing countries in order to promote "Bistra voda". These countries included Serbia during the semi-final of the Serbian national final, Beovizija 2009. and the Netherlands during the Eurovision Promo Concert in Amsterdam on 18 April. Regina made an extensive promo tour throughout the Balkans. The band appeared in both Albania and Montenegro, as well as performing on TV Bingo Show on Croatia's HRT 1 on 4 April, where they performed "Bistra voda" for the Croatian public. Regina also performed on RTV SLO's TV show Spet Doma in Slovenia. Further promotion was made with the release of English and Russian versions of the song, as well as the final Eurovision version and a remix of the song.
At Eurovision
After Laka came 10th Bosnia and Herzegovina had to compete in one of the two semi-finals in the 2008 contest. At the semi-final draw on 30 January, it was decided that the country would compete in the first semi-final on 12 May 2009. It won a place in the final and eventually finished 9th.
