GEORGIA

The Georgian Final was held on January 14th at the 1TV Studios in Tbilisi. The winner was chosen by an international jury (50%) & SMS voting (50%) which ran for two weeks before the final. The winning song was "Warrior" written and sung by Nina Sublati.

The final was an odd affair, with a presentation in the new year and a long voting window before the announcement. Many may see a similarity to the bizarre way the French broadcaster chose Twin Twin last year. The five competing songs were all very different, almost a bit too different, which could have made comparing the songs quite difficult. However, Warrior came first in both parts of the judging.

The song has a definite style and feeling. The verses and chorus have definite patterns which repeat over and over again however the verses are much stronger. The song isn't really in a set genre as it seems to dip into rock, goth and has an eastern-style electro break down in the middle. The main down side to the structure of the song is that it doesn't really go anywhere. The song stays on the same level from beginning to end which is a shame. 

Nina is no stranger to competition as she won the Georgian Idol competition in 2013. She has a good voice and an engaging personality. I do feel that she needs a little bit more help getting the words out correctly but I feel this is more of a lyric issue than a pronunciation one. Although her ability to sing is not questioned, neither is her sense of style. She has a very unique look, one possibly not seen at Eurovision, with her dark make up, tattoos and  black leather dress. Her dark style may appeal to the more rocky followers of Eurovision and might also appeal with fans of gothic series such as Game of Thrones and such like. During the song she doesn't really do much but in some ways she doesn't need to as I don't think dancing walking around or even having over done armography would suit her or the song. She seems to interpret the song with gusto and attitude.

The first thing that needs to be sorted is the song length. As is, it is about 20 seconds over. This could be negated quite quickly by either getting rid of a chorus or by chopping off most of the over-extended intro. Then there is the trouble with the lyrics. It seems to be some kind of Georgian Eurovision trait to have a song in badly written English. Parts of it need to be re-written to make sense or at least contain words that are actually found in a dictionary. As far as the performance goes the track requires backing singers but I don't think it needs much more. I almost see this song as having a "Euphoria" type staging with Nina centre and a dancer possibly around her, emphasising her status as the Warrior in the song. Maybe having drums or an industrial setting might help too. Lastly, it would help if the song really ended on more of a crescendo as I feel the song lacks a real punch, especially for a song that is so feisty.

The obvious comparison now will be with the OTHER song called "Warrior" at Eurovision in 2015. I will admit that after a listen or two I couldn't quite keep it in my head but after a few more it really starts to stick. Although not immediate, this song certainly screams Warrior more than its Maltese cousin. I think this will do pretty well in May although possibly not engaging enough to be a winner.

ARTIST - Nina Sublati

SONG - Warrior

MUSIC - Nina Sublati

LYRICS - Nina Sublati