For the second successive year a country from
the trans-Caucasian region makes its debut at the Eurovision Song
Contest. In 2006 Armenia sent its first entry to the competition,
and this year its their neighbours Georgia that will make to the
stage for the first in the contest. Georgia is a former member of
the U.S.S.R. and it is bordered on the west by the Black Sea, on
the north by Russia, on the south by Turkey and Armenia, and on the
east by Azerbaijan. While some sources place Georgia in Europe,
others place it in Asia. However, culturally and for historic
reasons Georgians are considered European.
In 2005 the Georgian broadcaster GPB became a
member of the EBU, and Georgia became entitled to enter the
Eurovision Song Contest. Originally Georgia had considered the idea
of entering the 2006 show in Athens, but the tight schedule
involved and the lack of preparation made GPB put back their entry
into the competition, until this year.
On December 12th, Georgia confirmed its
intention of sending an entry to Helsinki, and announced that the
country's first Eurovision performer would be Sopho Khalvashi, one
of the biggest stars on the Georgian music scene. The entry would
be chosen by the public by SMS and televote, from a selection of
six songs in the middle of February.
However after all the songs had been recorded,
one was found to be in breach of the rules, and was withdrawn and
the final was postponed by a couple of weeks. Consequently Sopho
performed five songs in the first Georgian National on March 3rd.
The public had already heard the songs and seen recorded
performances of them, so the voting started a week before the show.
It was therefore well known that only two of the five songs stood a
real chance of getting to Helsinki, by the time the national final
was broadcast.
Also the fact that one of the songs was already
intended to be Sop's next single, and had a promotional video
already in place, made the result something of an anti-climax, It
was no surprise when that song "My Story" received 51% of
the votes, with the other four sharing just 49%.
Sopho was born
on May 31st 1986 in Batumi, Georgia. She started singing when she was only
three years old and later began attending the Music School (Piano and Oboe Department) in Batumi. In 2004 she became the winner of
a musical contest designated for young singers "Nutsa's School - 2004." Sopho's real fame came later when she won the first international competition in 2006. Sopho became the third prize winner at the commercial song contest "New Wave - 2006" in Jurmala, Latvia.
After that success she signed a contract with Russian management
agency "ARS" led by the famous Russian composer Igor
Krutoy, and returned in triumph to her homeland, where she
immediately received an offer from the Imedi TV channel to host
local talent show "On Imedi's Waves". She was therefore
a familiar face, and no surprise, when she was announced as
Georgia's first Eurovision entrant.
Rather
surprisingly, and for no obvious reason, it was decided to
re-title the Georgian entry from "May Story" to
"Visionary Dream", a phrase which although mentioned in
the song's text, passes by rather unnoticed. Sopho's first album
"Visionary Dream" was released specially for the Eurovision Song Contest. The album contains English songs, among which
is her Eurovision entry.
The songwriters behind
the song are Beka Jafaridze and Bibi Kvachadze. Composer Beka
Jafaridze was born on 1st of October, 1982 in Tbilisi, Georgia. He
graduated from the Tbilisi Academy of Modern Art and Show
Business. In 2000-2004, Beka worked for the "Georgian
Records" studio as Audio Director. Since 2004 he has been
General Producer of "Step Record" Company. At present
Beka continues working on a number of projects: Group String,
albums of Brothers Lezhaves and Group Sof Eject. Beka is also the
producer of the album "The Last Minute Of A Terrorist"
by group Green Room. Beka's other works include compositions and
cover versions. He was responsible for the project "Chven
Erti Gundi Vart" (We are One Team) - The anthem of Fan Club
of the Georgian National Football Team - official as well as rock
and electronic versions, which included the music for the film
"Erti Gundi" (One Team).
Lyricist Bibi Kvachadze is a Georgian musician,
composer and songwriter who has been involved in
mass-communications activities for many years. During the period of
1995-2001 he was Musical Director of the television studio Maestro.
He worked as a DJ at the same time. Bibi is an author, host and
producer of a number of popular musical radio programs and talk
shows (Radio "96," "Audientsia"). Based on his
professional education he is a specialist of International
Relations, Law and Economics. Since 1995, Bibi has been working
with Georgian Radio and local TV stations.
While is was iriginally planned for Sopho to do
some promotional tours to support her entry, the re-scheduling of
the Georgian final meant that there were few oportunites after the
song was chosen. Instead a new and very impressive promo video has
been made for the European preview shows.
The song has done reasonably well in internet
polls, making the Top 10 in several lists, however bookmakers
remain to be convinced, as see is as one of the entries with good
marginal chance of making the final.
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GEORGIA @ EUROVISION