Peace didn’t come

The 2008 Georgian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest could not have got it more wrong – “Peace Will Come” sang Diana Gurtskaya, reaching a creditable 11th place for Georgia in the competition, but Russia won the overall competition and the rights to host this year’s competition in Moscow.

In the Months following the 2008 contest, border tensions flared between the two countries culminating in a 5-day war when Russian troops helped the two break-away Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to independence – an independence recognized to date by almost no one except Russia.

So it always was unlikely that Georgia would take part in a Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Moscow. However instead of withdrawing outright, the Georgians entered a song “We don’t wanna Put in” by disco funk quartett Stefane and 3G making a barely concealed dig at Russian Prime Minister Putin. Watch


Political or commercial messages of any kind are strictly taboo in the competition; a quiet word from the competition steering committee is normally enough for countries to tweak their entries – but in this case the Georgian artist refused to change the lyrics, the Georgian state broadcaster refused to enter a different song, so Georgia has been excluded from this year’s competition.

In the drawn-out week-long process Georgia earned more than worldwide headlines; it earned the sympathy of a worldwide audience for its predicament, and that was probably the point. As for the competition entry fee rumoured to be around €30k which Georgia will have forfeited in the process – for them certainly money well spent.