Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Country	Georgia
National selection
Selection process	National Final
Selection date(s)	14 January 2015
Selected entrant	Nina Sublatti
Selected song	"Warrior"
Selected songwriter(s)	Nina Sublatti Thomas G:son
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (4th, 98 points)
Final result	11th, 51 points
Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2014 • 2015 • 2016►

Georgia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Warrior", written by Nina Sublatti and Thomas G:son. The song was performed by Nina Sublatti. The Georgian broadcaster Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) organised a national final in order to select the Georgian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. In January 2015, "Warrior" performed by Nina Sublatti emerged as the winner after scoring first place with both an international jury panel and public televoting. In the first of the Eurovision semi-finals "Warrior" placed fourth out of the 16 participating countries, securing its place among the 27 other songs in the final. In Georgia's eighth Eurovision appearance on 23 May, "Warrior" finished in eleventh place, receiving 51 points.

Background

Prior to the 2015 Contest, Georgia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since its first entry in 2007.^[1] Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been ninth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2010 with the song "Shine" performed by Sofia Nizharadze and in 2011 with the song "One More Day" performed by Eldrine. The nation briefly withdrew from the contest in 2009 after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rejected the Georgian entry, "We Don't Wanna Put In", for perceived political references to Vladimir Putin who was the Russian Prime Minister at the time.^[2][3] The withdrawal and fallout was tied to tense relations between Georgia and then host country Russia, which stemmed from the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.^[4] Georgia has, to thipoint, failed to qualify to the final on only two occasions, which includes their 2014 entry "Three Minutes to Earth" performed by The Shin and Mariko.

Georgian broadcaster GPB confirmed on 10 September 2014 that Georgia would participate in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.^[5] GPB has utilized both internal selections and national finals to select the Georgian entry in the past. In 2013 and 2014, the broadcaster opted to select the entry through an internal selection. On 3 December 2014, GPB confirmed that a national final would be organised to select the 2015 Georgian entry; the last time Georgia's entry was selected through a national final was in 2012.^[6]

Before Eurovision

National final

GPB organized a national final in order to select the Georgian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The competition took place on 14 January 2015 at 14:00 CET in Tbilisi as part of the programme Communicatori.^[6] The winner was decided upon by the 50/50 combination of the votes of an international jury panel and public televoting.^[6]

A submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries was opened on 3 December 2014 and closed on 20 December 2014.^[6] An expert commission selected five candidates from the received submissions to compete in the national final, which were revealed on 23 December 2014.^[7] The acts and their songs were presented on 31 December 2014 during the GPB's programme Communicatori.^[8][9] The public had two weeks to cast their vote from 1 January 2015 until 14 January 2015.^[7]

Nina Sublatti was the winner of the competition with the song "Warrior" after scoring the highest both with the international jury and the public televoting. The international jury consisted of Eurovision Song Contest 2013 winner Emmelie de Forest, Eugen Eliu, Thomas G:son, Marco Brey and Ralf Reinink.^[10]

Preparation

Following Sublatti's win at the Georgian national final, the Georgian broadcaster announced that Sublatti would work with Swedish composer Thomas G:son in order to revamp and produce the final Eurovision version of "Warrior".^[13] It was also announced that Swedish choreographer and director Sacha Jean-Baptiste would be part of Nina's team.^[13] Between 28 February 2015 and 1 March 2015, Sublatti filmed the music video for "Warrior", which was directed and produced by David Gogokhia and Studio BigCAKE.^[14] The video featured Sublatti and five other females (Nina Potskhishvili, Mariam Sanogo, Keta Gavasheli, Lina Tsiklauri and Dea Aptsiauri) dressed in warrior-like outfits created by Georgian designer Lasha Jokhadze.^[14] The video and revamped version of "Warrior" were released on 11 March.^[15]

At Eurovision

Nina Sublatti during a press meet and greet

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation.^[16] The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[17] On 26 January 2015, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Georgia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 19 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[18]

Once all the competing songs for the 2015 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Georgia was set to perform last in position 16, following the entry from Romania.^[19]

Both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Georgia on GPB First Channel with commentary by Lado Tatishvili and Tamuna Museridze.^[20][21] The Georgian spokesperson, who announced the Georgian votes during the final, was Natia Bunturi.^[22]

Semi-final

Nina Sublatti at a dress rehearsal for the first semi-final

Nina Sublatti took part in technical rehearsals on 12 and 15 May,^[23][24] followed by dress rehearsals on 18 and 19 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.^[25]

The stage show featured Nina Sublatti in a black costume with leather boots, a crown and traditional jewellery. The staging for the performance focused on dark colours with the background LED screens transitioning through images of dark clouds, lightning, large white wings and eyes filled with tears. The stage designer of the Georgian performance, Sacha Jean-Baptiste, stated: "Our goal was to show the song, which has a very generic message about strong women and feminism, with a very personal stage performance by Nina."^[23][24] Sublatti was the only performer visible during the performance, however, she was joined by two backing vocalists: Veronika Hammer and Rebecca Kollau-Freidinger.^[26]

At the end of the show, Georgia was announced as having finished in the top ten and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.^[27] It was later revealed that Georgia placed fourth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 98 points.^[28]

Final

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winner's press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Georgia was drawn to compete in the second half.^[29] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Georgia was subsequently placed to perform in position 23, following the entry from Hungary and before the entry from Azerbaijan.^[30]

Nina once again took part in dress rehearsals on 22 and 23 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show.^[31] Sublatti performed a repeat of her semi-final performance during the final on 23 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Georgia finished in eleventh place with 51 points.^[32][33]

Voting

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.^[34]

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Georgia had placed thirteenth with the public televote and tenth with the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Georgia scored 52 points, while with the jury vote, Georgia scored 62 points.^[35] In the first semi-final, Georgia placed fourth with the public televote with 96 points and third with the jury vote, scoring 90 points.^[36]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Georgia and awarded by Georgia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:^{[28][33][37][38]}

Points awarded to Georgia

Points awarded by Georgia

Semi-final 1 12 points  Belarus 10 points  Moldova 8 points  Armenia 7 points  Russia 6 points  Albania 5 points  Belgium 4 points  Greece 3 points  Estonia 2 points  Netherlands 1 point  Romania

Final 12 points  Armenia 10 points  Azerbaijan 8 points  Italy 7 points  Sweden 6 points  Belgium 5 points  Russia 4 points  Latvia 3 points  Lithuania 2 points  Estonia 1 point  Israel

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Georgian jury:^[34]

• Zaza Shengelia – Chairperson – musical producer
• Chabuka Amiranashvili – composer, musician
• Nodiko Tatishvili – singer, represented Georgia in the 2013 contest
• Sopio Oqreshidze – vocal teacher, pianist
• Sophie Gelovani – singer, represented Georgia in the 2013 contest

Split voting results from Georgia (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Z. Shengelia	C. Amiranashvili	N. Tatishvili	S. Oqreshidze	S. Gelovani	Average Jury Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Moldova	5	3	6	3	7	2	10
02	Armenia	3	2	13	1	8	3	8
03	Belgium	8	4	4	15	3	6	5
04	Netherlands	6	12	5	10	10	9	2
05	Finland	4	13	15	4	15	12
06	Greece	11	6	2	14	2	7	4
07	Estonia	7	5	12	5	14	8	3
08	Macedonia	10	14	9	13	13	15
09	Serbia	15	15	8	7	12	14
10	Hungary	13	11	7	11	5	11
11	Belarus	2	1	10	2	6	1	12
12	Russia	12	8	1	6	1	4	7
13	Denmark	14	9	11	12	9	13
14	Albania	9	7	3	8	4	5	6
15	Romania	1	10	14	9	11	10	1
16	Georgia

Split voting results from Georgia (Final)
Draw	Country	Z. Shengelia	C. Amiranashvili	N. Tatishvili	S. Oqreshidze	S. Gelovani	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Slovenia	14	12	26	15	20	20	18	21
02	France	15	10	22	20	19	18	24	24
03	Israel	16	9	11	26	11	14	11	10	1
04	Estonia	17	8	16	19	21	16	6	9	2
05	United Kingdom	18	7	20	16	22	17	13	15
06	Armenia	19	20	3	3	2	7	1	1	12
07	Lithuania	20	17	4	4	1	6	9	8	3
08	Serbia	21	11	24	23	23	25	12	19
09	Norway	22	13	14	13	16	15	23	22
10	Sweden	1	1	1	2	3	1	7	4	7
11	Cyprus	5	16	12	18	15	13	22	18
12	Australia	6	14	15	12	12	11	15	11
13	Belgium	2	2	8	7	6	2	8	5	6
14	Austria	3	3	7	8	10	3	25	13
15	Greece	23	15	13	21	14	19	10	14
16	Montenegro	24	26	25	25	18	26	20	25
17	Germany	9	18	23	14	24	21	14	17
18	Poland	11	19	17	17	26	22	16	20
19	Latvia	8	21	9	9	8	10	5	7	4
20	Romania	10	22	21	22	17	23	17	23
21	Spain	7	5	18	11	13	8	19	12
22	Hungary	25	6	19	24	25	24	26	26
23	Georgia
24	Azerbaijan	13	23	5	1	4	5	3	2	10
25	Russia	26	4	10	10	9	12	2	6	5
26	Albania	12	24	6	6	7	9	21	16
27	Italy	4	25	2	5	5	4	4	3	8

See also

• Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015

References

Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest   Participation 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016   Artists 2000s Sopho Khalvashi Diana Gurtskaya Stephane & 3G 2010s Sofia Nizharadze Eldrine Anri Jokhadze Sopho Gelovani & Nodiko Tatishvili The Shin & Mariko Nina Sublatti Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz   Songs 2000s "Visionary Dream" "Peace Will Come" "We Don't Wanna Put In" 2010s "Shine" "One More Day" "I'm a Joker" "Waterfall" "Three Minutes to Earth" "Warrior" "Midnight Gold" (Note: Entries scored out are when Georgia did not compete)