Iraq to replace Georgia at the Moscow Eurovision

In a surprise move sources at the EBU, organizers of the European Song Contest, have today revealed to us that Iraqiya the State Television Channel of Iraq has joined the EBU and will be taking up the slot left vacant by Georgia in the first Semi Final of Eurovision 2009. Iraqi singer Shada Hassoun, a former winner of the Arab Star Academy, will represent her country performing her latest song "yold" watch .

Iraq's eligibility to join the EBU and thus take part in the Eurovision Song Contest is defined by Article 3§3 of the EBU's Statutes, which in turn refer to the International Telecommunications Union's definition of the European Broadcasting Area.

Shada is an accomplished artist known across the Middle East. She won the Arab version of tv talent show Star Academy in 2007 and has gone on to have a series of songs inclluding "Rooh", "Asmallah Asmallah" and "Oushaq". She is known to have been cooperating with Iraqi poet Karim Al Iraqi and Lebanese composer Melhem Barakat, however it is not yet clear whether they were involved in her 2009 Eurovision entry.

She is multi-lingual and is known to have sung songs in English, French, Spanish, Italian and German as well as her native Arabic. Her offical website has yet to confirm in which language she will be singing in Moscow.

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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.

Georgian Jerusalem Of Gold

This year's singer from Georgia is Diana Gurtskaya who is blind. She addressed this handicap first in her press conference listen. Then upon request from Israeli Radio and quite without advance notice she sang her ethereal version of Jerusalem Of Gold listen.