GEORGIA 2021

The Georgian song was revealed on March 15th, with the song's premiere will taking place on the 1TV channel. Back in January it was confirmed that last year's act, Tornike Kipiani, had been reselected to represent Georgia. His internally selected song is titled "You".

The self-directed music video is shot in different places around Georgia. The video is very elemental with Tornike walking along a shoreline, climbing over man made boulders, looking out from a boat and walking through a lush green forest. There is a lot of focus on details with some sharp detailed views against others that are more dream-like with a lot of slow motion views. He is also seated on stage in an empty auditorium singing the song with views of a very wafty ballerina.

In essence, this is in a Viennese Waltz tempo (to put it in Strictly terms) but there is a lot of gliding over the bars which makes it a little unusual to the ear. The format of the song is more akin to three verses with repeated some lines within. The song starts with a short atmospheric intro which doesn't really give anything away as to how the song would progress. Tornike's voice is very low, slightly hushed over the top of the guitar. For the next verse he moves up an octave and uses a much stronger voice but not shouty. For the final stanza he moves back down to the hushed tone before belting out the 'my love' part. There is then a brief instrumental with some rhythmic 'oooooohing' on top before another repetition of the 'my love' part but this time much stronger but not quite a cry or shout. The end slightly peters out and is a little underwhelming.

Tornike Kipiani formed his first band when he was 19 not intending to become its vocalist but ended up filling that gap. In 2014, Tornike won X Factor Georgia, where his mentor was Tamta, who would later appear at Eurovision for Cyprus. In 2017, Tornike (with Giorgi Bolotashvili) tried to represent Georgia at Eurovision with an industrial dance song. In 2019, won Georgian Idol with one of the prizes being the chance to represent the country at Eurovision.

I feel like I have to offer this song a HUGE apology. When I first heard this song I was absolutely *aghast*. This was wholly due to my own perception and hopes as to what this song was going to be. I was hoping/expecting loud guitars, shouty vocals, manic lyrics;what I got was so far away from this that I just could not compute. Having left the song on the back burner of a week and listened to it again - this time with an emptier mind. This is a really beautiful song and has a very heartfelt sentiment and makes it very individual. It kind of reminds me of a hymn akin to "Annie's Song" by John Denver and has that cross-genre appeal which shows very clever songwriting. However as a eurovision entry I fear this is going to get left behind. Unless there is some kind of visual moment that pull on the heartstrings I don't really know who would vote for this or why. That said and done, I am actually really glad that it's here.

ARTIST - Tornike Kipiani
SONG - You
WRITING CREDITS - Tornike Kipiani