Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Georgia's Oto Nemsadze with "Sul Tsin Iare"...

I'm chugging along with my spotlights on the countries and artists participating in this year's Eurovision Song Contest. You can catch up with all the other entries so far by clicking here. And on we go...

As I go down the running order of the first semi-final on May 14th, we get to the former Soviet Republic of Georgia (no, not the southern state that wants to take women's rights back to the 12th century). Last year, the self-proclaimed "Ethno-Jazz Band" Iriao graced the contest with the traditional polyphonic harmonies of "For You", only to come in last place in the semi-finals. I really don't feel they deserved that fate, but their older-skewing sound must've put off most people, but I can't understand the jury vote. Despite the title, the song was performed all in the Georgian language, as is this year's entry by the rock singer Oto Nemsadze.

Georgia - "Sul Tsin Iare" by Oto Nemsadze

Nemsadze comes from the city of Gori in the country's center. An contestant on both Georgia's version of American Idol as well as The Voice Of Ukraine, the singer won Georgia's national final, Georgia's Star, to get to go to Tel Aviv. It was a surprising but decisive finish, with 44 percent of the vote out of four contestants going to Oto. The song, though, may be a bit polarizing outside of the country. "Sul Tsin Iare" ("Keep On Going"), a strong but musically steady march about the country and its people facing adversity, may be construed to address the current Crimea-style occupation of two regions of their country, South Ossetia in the north and Abkhazia in the west. But the problem with the song has nothing to do with that (in fact, it should be heralded in the line of similar tracks like 2016's winner "1944" from Ukraine and Armenia's 2015 finalist "Face The Shadow"). It's with the insular nature of the song itself. Oto's growl does propel the progress of the song, but to non-Georgian-speaking ears it will be difficult to follow what is going on , especially if he continues with the field of flags flying on the LED background, with no buildup or change in the melody. There seems to be a "revamp" on the studio version which is translated on to the music video, which punches up the sound - but the video is even more visually political-leaning and the "vadavadavadavadava" chorus is even more prevalent, sounding almost like a made-up line. (It's telling that Eurovision is using the national finals video as the "official" video, even with the chick in the gold dancing weirdly and distractingly at the end..)

This song will definitely get its fans from people in the Caucasus region that are anti-Russia (like the most of Armenia amongst others), but it's steady, deliberate, but monotonous at times tone I believe won't have the same effect that "1944"'s similar message but more expressively nuanced delivery had on the rest of the voting public. It's not a bad song, it's just not the right one for a contest like Eurovision. (Rating: 4/10)

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Georgia has been competing in Eurovision since 2007, reaching the finals on seven out of the eleven years so far. Their best showing is ninth place, which they've done twice - first in 2010 with "Shine" by Sopho Nizharadze...

...and again the following year with Eldrine's "One More Day"...

But my personal fave of the country's official entries so far was Nina Sublatti's "Warrior", which landed in 11th place in 2015...

But special mention has to go to the pop-dance act group Stephane & 3G, who were barred from competing with their infectious (but obviously ballsy) pun-tastic take on Russia with "We Don't Wanna Put-In" in 2009...