Introduction

• Participant(s): Tornike Kipiani
• Song: Take Me As I Am
  
• Writer(s): Tornike Kipiani
• Composer(s): Tornike Kipiani
• Broadcaster: GPB
  
• Social media:   
  
• Team review: 

At the end of 2019 Tornike could win the Georgian idol and hence he became the representative for Georgia in the 2020 ESC in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, the ESC this year has been cancelled due to the worldwide Corona crisis. Luckily the Georgian broadcaster GPB has confirmed that Tornike Kipiani will get another chance in 2021 with another song.

Tornike Kipiani (Georgian თორნიკე ყიფიანი) was born in Tiflis in 1987. In the age of 19 he founded his first own band. But there was a singer missing, so he replaced that missing position and started to like singing. In 2014 he participated in the X Factor, his mentor was no less than the Cypriot representative 2019 Tamta. In 2017 Tornike has already tried to get the Eurovision ticket “You Are My Sunshine”  and ended up on a very low place, that song was probably too special, even for Georgian ears. Therefore he could make the race for the upcoming ESC. Normally Tornike is an architect and father of three children.

With the self-written song “Take Me As I am” Tornike would have send another unusual song to Eurovision. There is a strong chorus and loud singing, the song is striking and shrill. It’s about being perfect, how do you want me to be?

“How do you want me to talk, like an Englishman?
Where do you want me to dress like an Italian?
Now, do you want me to dance like a Spanish guy?”

Let’s hope Tornike will compose another strong song for 2021.

History

• Debut: 2007
• Participations: 13
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 7
• Top 10: 2
• Chances for Top 10: 15%
• Chances for Final: 54%

Georgia’s first year in the Eurovision Song Contest was in Helsinki 2007. With the great first song “Visionary Dream” by Sopho, Georgia has been celebrating its debut in the ESC. Armenia joined one year earlier and Azerbaijan another year later. Over all it can be considered as great enrichment having the Caucasian countries in the contest, as they often bring high quality entries and a big passion for this event. Of course not many people are aware of the music scene from this part of the world. That’s why the Caucasian countries are so keen in participating as this is one of the highest acclaimed TV shows of the year. Furthermore ESC is the perfect platform to get the world’s attention on a big scale. For a country like Georgia it’s a great opportunity to show the music variety in the greatest music show of the world.

Last year in Tel Aviv “Sul tsin iare” by Oto Nemsadze did not make it into the Grand Final.

The Georgian entries were always surprising, and Georgia has reached the Grand Final seven times. A Top10 rank could be reached two times, the chance for this is statistically at 15%, which is slightly decreasing. Unfortunately, the wow entries have become less in the past years. At least Georgia could shine in the Junior Eurovision Song contest, with three victories it’s the most successful country in that contest.

Since 2007 Georgia is participating every year, but in 2009 the Georgian delegation has decided to withdraw, because the song “We Don't Wanna Put In”  by Stephane & 3G has been interpreted as a provocation against the Russian president Putin – We don’t Wanna Put In and the contest in that year was held in Moscow.

Due to the fact that the Caucasian countries are located in the very south east corner of Europe, the neighbour countries like Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran do have an impact in the musical influence in an unequivocally strong way. Therefore it’s a pleasure to watch songs and performances from the Caucasian countries with such a great creativity, as this kind of music is not that well known in Western Europe. But there are traditional and also modern tunes as well.

Biggest successes

• 2x 9th place
  “Shine” ǀ Sofia Nizharadze (Oslo 2010)
  “One More Day” ǀ Eldrine (Düsseldorf 2011)

Video Nostalgia

• “I'm A Joker” ǀ Anri Jokhadze
  Rank 14 (Semi Final), Baku 2012
  
  
• “Three Minutes to Earth“ ǀ The Shin and Mariko
  Rank 15 (Semi Final), Copenhagen 2014
  
  
• “Iraio” ǀ Sheni Gulistvis
  Rank 18 (Semi Final), Lisbon 2018