Introduction

• Participant(s): Tornike Kipiani
• Song: You
  
• Writer(s): Tornike Kipiani
• Composer(s): Tornike Kipiani
• Broadcaster: GPB
  
• Social media:     
  
• Team review: 

Tornike Kipiani also belongs to the lucky singers from 2020, who was directly nominated by the Georgian broadcaster GPB for the year after, as the ESC had to be cancelled due the Corona pandemic. Last year Tornike wanted to sing the rock song “Take Me As I am”, this year we can expect a quieter song. “You” is a love song with lyrics like:

Sunshine, I wanna touch you
Wind blow, I wanna see you

In the year 2019 Tornike was able to win Georgian idol and hence he became the representative for Georgia in the 2020 ESC in Rotterdam and 2021.

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. His music style is open for all kinds, but the majority of his songs are rock and alternative rock based. Tornike is an architect and a lucky father of three children.

This year, Tornike will present the 13th ESC entry for Georgia in Rotterdam, but he has to pass the semi-final 2. The song “You” is one of the three ballads of that semi-final, the most songs are medium fast and up-tempo songs. The song is plain and unmistakable. Tornike believes in his song and would like to win the ESC.

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 with more than 200 million TV spectators. For a country like Georgia it’s a great opportunity to show the music variety in the greatest music show of the world.

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 entries since 2017 did not pass the semi-finals anymore. 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

• “Visionary Dream” ǀ Sopho
  Rank 12, Helsinki 2007
• “Pease Will Come” ǀ Diana Gurtskaya
  Rank 11, Belgrade 2008
• “Waterfall” ǀ Nodi Tatishvili & Sophie Gelovani
  Rank 15, Malmö 2013