Georgia: Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz for EUROVISION 2016

GPB, the Georgian national broadcaster has revealed the name of the 2016 Georgian representative earlier today during a press conference in Tblisi.

This morning the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) has revealed that it’s going internal for Eurovision 2016. They have selected the indie band Nika Kocharov & Young Georgian Lolitaz for Stockholm. The entry song should be created specifically created for the 2016 Georgian representatives with the following requirement: melodic song structure of alternative and indie rock with electronic beats, synths and/or samples, and club orientation of post-disco dance music. The composition, lyrics and music, must not have been commercially released before. The song should be less than 3 minutes long. All interested musicians, songwriters are invited to submit their pontential songs along with their photo and CV, via e-mail to the following email address: evrovision@gpb.ge . The submission period is opened as of today 15 December until 8 January.

Hereafter a special GPB committee will select the 5 best songs out of all the submitted entries. The 2016 Georgian entry will be selected via live audience/ jury deliberation.

Georgia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since their first entry in 2007. The nation’s highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been ninth place, which was 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.

The withdrawal and fallout was tied to tense relations between Georgia and then host country Russia, which stemmed from the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Following the introduction of semi-finals, Georgia has, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on only two occasions. In 2015, Georgia qualified to the final where the country placed 11th with the song “Warrior” performed by Nina Sublatti.