Georgia began their Eurovision journey strong with a number of promising results. In recent years, the nation has started to lose their way at Eurovision, with three non-qualifications in a row. Hoping to reverse that streak is Tornike Kipiani, who will be singing You at Eurovision this year.
Anita (Eurovision Union)
Song and Vocals
I certainly had some choice words to describe Georgia’s entry last year. I was completely unimpressed with Take Me As I Am for various reasons, but despite that, recognised that there was room to improve this year. Tornike is back this year, and the rock singer has strayed from hard rock to instead present a delicate and understated entry. It’s certainly a different style to last year’s ‘in your face’ entry, but will it be successful for Tornike?
Short answer, no. Comparing both entries from Tornike, I am much more of a fan of You than I am of last year’s entry. But when you look at it in the context of Eurovision, this song is not competitive enough. Wedged between Serbia’s explosive girl group Hurricane and Albania’s powerhouse vocalist Anxhela, Tornike will surely, and unfortunately fail to make an impact on the audience.
There are elements of the song I do really enjoy, and Tornike can pull off this type of lower impact music with his tone of voice. But I do think he could have played to his strengths better by representing Georgia with a strong rock song. There are some bigger notes in the song, especially towards the end, but as a whole the song remains very two dimensional. Again, it’s not necessarily a bad thing in terms of how the song was created, but the issue is the context – this won’t cut it at Eurovision.
Performance and Act
Not only is this year’s Georgian entry non-competitive, but it is also a song that is difficult to lift through the staging. Every year at Eurovision, there is always a mediocre song that does better than expected due to impressive staging, but I don’t really know what options the Georgian team has in order to lift this song into a qualifying position. A crucifying feature of many performances is when the artist remains too static in the performance, but when you think of this song, what can Tornike really do to prevent this happening? Sure, they can feature dancers and have a range of camera angles, but chances are, he will be standing still on stage due to the low energy song.
Conclusions
While I don’t dislike this song, and think it’s miles better than last year, Georgia is once again offering up an entry that just doesn’t suit a competition. I can’t see the nation qualifying, even with a strong vocal performance. Tornike is a great vocalist, but he certainly needed to be paired with a strong songwriting team to give the nation the best chance at the contest.
Rating
5/10
Dennis (ESCDaily)
Song and Vocals
The Georgian song is a lullaby. In the sense that it is hard to stay awake during the three minutes. It’s rather uninspiring and unexpected. Tornike is a rock singer and showed great skills during X Factor in Georgia in the past. His song for 2020 already didn’t have enough rock influences, but this is next level. It just isn’t a suitable fit for him. A wasted opportunity in my opinion and a very weak entry to make an impact at a contest. Even though a jury might still reward this with some votes if he vocally performs it well, as it’s a very non-offensive song.
Performance and Act
I wonder how they will make the visual picture sincere, with rocker Tornike performing this sweet lullaby. Surely it’s a composition that’s easy to stage, with clouds in the backdrop, creating a very relaxed atmosphere. But I think this song is unsaveable.
Conclusions
I don’t get why Georgia would come up with a song like this for an established rock artist. The total package doesn’t make sense to me. Just like Belarus, Georgia always does great at Junior Eurovision but fails to deliver in the big contest. It’s a waste, because a contest in Tbilisi should be on the wishlist of everybody that ever went there before.
Rating
3/10
Additional Scores from Eurovision Union and ESCDaily editors:
Steef:: 3/10
Joshua: 5/10
Selim: 6/10
Heath: 3.5/10
Kaitlin: 8/10
Average Score: 4.8/10
What do you think of You? Follow our Eurovision 2021 reviews here.. You can support your favourite acts in our Eurovision 2021 poll, which you can find here.