Georgia: Local fans react to the Georgian Broadcaster’s internal selection of Iriao.
A couple of hours before the dawn of the new year, the Georgian national broadcaster 1TV revealed that the country’s representative for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest will be the group Iriao. It was rather a sudden announcement that took by surprise the local fan community which was expecting a national final to take place.
Local fans and members of the active local fan club of INFE Georgia have expressed dual sided objections towards the national broadcaster’s management of this year’s Eurovision national selection process. First of all fans have expressed their objections against national broadcaster’s choice to determine this year’s representative internally. Though 1TV hasn’t specified yet in what way the song will be selected, fans feel strongly disappointed by the fact that they won’t have any say to Georgia’s next representative.
On the other hand, fans have expressed strong reservations about the group Iriao itself, which was internally selected by the Georgian broadcaster. Fans claim that the group doesn’t meet even within the country any acceptance , while a major part of fans didn’t even know anything about their existence. Therefore, the local fan community is opposing the question :”How can the group score high on international basis when it doesn’t at least have the support from inside”.
The local Eurovision fan community and members of INFE Georgia’s local club have formed a petition against this latest development and the broadcaster’s internal selection of Iriao for Eurovision 2018, calling on fans to sign it and strengthen this voice of protest.
You can find the Georgians’ fans petition here!
It’s a matter of time to see if the national broadcaster will take into consideration these reactions and how these will affect the way the broadcaster will select Gerogia’s next Eurovision entry in the near future.
Last year Georgia was represented by Tamara Gachechiladze and her song Keep The Faith and despite her dynamic performance on stage didn’t qualify to the Grand Final ending in 11th place in the first semi final.
Stay tuned on the INFE Network to keep updated on more news from Georgia’s national selection.
