Wikipedia

Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Georgia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, having internally selected Circus Mircus to represent the country with the song "Lock Me In". Georgia failed to qualify, performing in the second semifinal.

Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country Georgia
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 14 November 2021
Song: 9 March 2022
Selected artist(s)Circus Mircus
Selected song"Lock Me In"
Selected songwriter(s)Circus Mircus[1]
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (18th)
Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 • 2022 • 2023►

Georgia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2022. Performing during the show in position 5, "Lock Me In" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Georgia placed last out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 22 points.

Background

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Main article: Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2022 contest, Georgia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirteen times since their first entry in 2007.[2] The nation's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been ninth place, which was achieved on two occasions: in Georgia 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.[3][4] The withdrawal and fallout was tied to tense relations between Georgia and then host country Russia, which stemmed from the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.[5] Following the introduction of semi-finals, Georgia has, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on five occasions.

The Georgian national broadcaster, Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), broadcasts the event within Georgia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Georgia has selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest both through national finals and internal selections in the past. In 2013 and 2014, GPB opted to internally select the Georgian entry, in 2015, the Georgian entry was selected via a national final, and in 2016, the artist was internally selected while the song was chosen in a national final. For their 2017 participation, the entry was selected through a national final. In 2018 the artist was internally selected. In 2019, the entry was fully selected through Georgian Idol for the first time ever, and the show was used again to select the singer the following year. However, after the 2020 contest was cancelled, the broadcaster reverted to an internal selection in 2021, when the country was represented by Tornike Kipiani and "You". The entry failed to qualify from the second semi-final, placing 16th with 16 points.

Before Eurovision

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Internal selection

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On 20 September 2021, GPB confirmed their intention to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.[6] On 11 November 2021, the broadcaster confirmed that they had carried out an internal selection in collaboration with music producers, choosing a group to represent them at the contest.[7] On 14 November 2021, Circus Mircus were announced as the selected entrants.[8] Their entry "Lock Me In" was released on 9 March 2022.[9][10]

At Eurovision

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According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Georgia has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[11]

Once all the competing songs for the 2022 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Georgia was set to perform in position 5, following the entry from Azerbaijan and before the entry from Malta.[12]

Voting

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Points awarded to Georgia

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Points awarded to Georgia (Semi-final 2)[13]
Score Televote Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points   Israel   Czech Republic
4 points
3 points
2 points   Finland
1 point

Points awarded by Georgia

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Jury vote issues

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In a statement released during the broadcast of the grand final, the EBU revealed that six countries, including Georgia, were found to have 'irregular' jury voting patterns during the second semi-final. Consequently, these countries were given substitute aggregated jury scores for both the second semi-final and the grand final (shown above), calculated from the corresponding jury scores of countries with historically similar voting patterns as determined by the pots for the semi-final allocation draw held in January.[15][16] Their televoting results were unaffected. The Flemish broadcaster VRT reported that the juries involved had made agreements to vote for each other's entries to secure qualification to the grand final.[17]

During the broadcast of the final, Georgia's votes were read by the EBU's Executive Supervisor, Martin Österdahl, instead of the scheduled spokesperson, Helen Kalandadze.[18] This was attributed to connection difficulties during the voting, however Azerbaijan's broadcaster İTV, whose jury had also been identified as showing irregular voting patterns, released a statement implying that this was instead due to their refusal to present the calculated aggregate scores.[19] The Georgian broadcaster GPB released a statement requesting further clarification and also revealed that Ukraine would have received the 12 points from the Georgian jury under the removed votes instead of the United Kingdom.[20][21]

On 19 May, the EBU issued a further statement clarifying the voting irregularities identified in the second semi-final. This confirmed that the six countries involved had consistently ranked each other's entries disproportionately highly: the Georgian jury, as well as the juries from Azerbaijan, Romania and San Marino, had each ranked the other five countries' entries as their top five, proving beyond statistical coincidence that they had colluded to achieve a higher placing. This prompted the suspension of Georgia's intended jury scores (shown below) in favour of the EBU's calculated aggregate scores, shown above.[22]

Georgia's suspended jury results (Semi-final 2)[22]
Score Country
12 points   Azerbaijan
10 points   Montenegro
8 points   Romania
7 points   San Marino
6 points   Poland
5 points   Israel
4 points   Ireland
3 points   Estonia
2 points   Finland
1 point   Australia
Detailed voting results of Georgia's suspended vote (Semi-final 2)[22]
Draw Country Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3 Juror 4 Juror 5 Rank Points
01   Finland 15 10 4 4 16 9 2
02   Israel 3 8 10 6 7 6 5
03   Serbia 12 9 8 15 11 11
04   Azerbaijan 2 1 3 1 1 1 12
05   Georgia
06   Malta 13 11 16 7 12 12
07   San Marino 14 5 5 3 2 4 7
08   Australia 5 12 9 5 17 10 1
09   Cyprus 8 15 12 16 14 15
10   Ireland 6 7 7 13 6 7 4
11   North Macedonia 10 13 15 14 10 14
12   Estonia 11 4 13 12 4 8 3
13   Romania 9 3 2 8 3 3 8
14   Poland 4 6 6 10 5 5 6
15   Montenegro 1 2 1 2 8 2 10
16   Belgium 16 14 11 17 15 17
17   Sweden 17 17 14 11 9 16
18   Czech Republic 7 16 17 9 13 13

Detailed final results

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Notes

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  1. ^ a b Georgia was among the six countries whose jury results were found to have had irregular voting patterns. Their jury votes were substituted with aggregated jury results for the second semi-final and the final based on countries with similar voting patterns, as determined by the pots that the countries were put into for the semi-final allocation draw.[23][24]

References

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  1. ^ [1] The overlay before the beginning of the song lists the band as writers of the song.
  2. ^ "Georgia Country Profile". Eurovision.tv. EBU. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  3. ^ Bakker, Sietse (10 March 2009). "Georgian song lyrics do not comply with Rules". Eurovision.tv. EBU. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  4. ^ Jonze, Tim (11 March 2009). "Eurovision 2009: Georgia pulls out of contest over 'Putin song'". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  5. ^ "Putin jibe picked for Eurovision". BBC News. 19 February 2009. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  6. ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (20 September 2021). "Georgia: GPB confirms participation at Eurovision 2022". ESCToday. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  7. ^ Jalaghonia, Tamar (11 November 2021). ევროვიზია 2021. 1TV (in Georgian). GPB. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  8. ^ "Georgia's Circus Mircus take their show to Turin". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 14 November 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  9. ^ Farren, Neil (8 March 2022). "🇬🇪 Georgia: Eurovision 2022 Entry to Be Released on March 10". Eurovoix. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  10. ^ "Georgia: Circus Mircus release their Eurovision 2022 song: "Lock Me In"". Eurovisionworld. 9 March 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  11. ^ "Eurovision 2022: Which Semi-Final is your country performing in? 🇮🇹". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  12. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 2022 Semi-Final running orders revealed!". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b c "Results of the Second Semi Final of Turin 2022". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Results of the Grand Final of Turin 2022". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  15. ^ "EBU statement regarding voting patterns during 2022 shows". Eurovision.tv. EBU. 14 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  16. ^ Cobb, Ryan (15 May 2022). "EBU reveals six national juries were removed from Eurovision 2022". ESCXTRA.com. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  17. ^ Bruggeman, Floor; Grommen, Stefan; Arnoudt, Rik (15 May 2022). "Verdachte jurystemmen in 6 landen op Songfestival: organisator EBU moest uitslag laten herberekenen". vrtnws.be (in Dutch). VRT. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  18. ^ "Eurovision 2022: Ukraine wins, while the UK's Sam Ryder comes second". BBC News. 14 May 2022. Retrieved 16 May 2022.
  19. ^ Argyriou, Giannis (16 May 2022). "Azerbaijan: Announcement for the cancellation of its jury vote". EurovisionFun. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  20. ^ "საზოგადოებრივი მაუწყებელი ევროვიზიის სიმღერის კონკურსზე ეროვნული ჟიურის ქულებთან დაკავშირებით განცხადებას ავრცელებს". 1TV (in Georgian). Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  21. ^ Granger, Anthony (15 May 2022). "Georgia: GPB Seeking Clarification Regarding Jury Voting in Eurovision Grand Final". Eurovoix. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  22. ^ a b c "EBU Statement: Irregular voting patterns during Second Semi-Final 2022". eurovision.tv. EBU. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  23. ^ "EBU statement regarding voting patterns during 2022 shows". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 14 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
  24. ^ Cobb, Ryan (15 May 2022). "EBU reveals six national juries were removed from Eurovision 2022". ESCXTRA.com. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
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