|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Freedom by Mariam Shengelia
Sometimes a country, especially one making an internal selection, keeps their cards close to their chest until the latest possible moment, then delivers a hand they hope will land like a royal flush. Other times they might just be bluffing, their hand populated by the two of diamonds, a Pokémon trading card, and Mr Bun the Baker. Georgia 2025 feels like the latter. The last to show their hand during the on-season, this seems to have landed like the dampest squib and only got wetter.
Mariam, an alumnus of her local Voice and X-Factor shows, delivers a song designed to stir the Georgian heart. She has imagery of the mountainous landscape, lyrics rooted in folklore, and – lest you still be unconvinced – a troupe of Khorumi dancers.
Representing a country which, politically, seems to be in-fighting over its global identity is always going to raise suspicion that there’s a bit more than just national pride on display here. In fact, when the song was finally revealed, Mariam’s own political associations garnered scrutiny, with claims her public support for the increasingly authoritarian Georgian Dream party aligned her with values far from Eurovision’s. She’s disputed this, of course, claiming her true message is one of peace.
I have to take an apolitical stance in reviewing Eurovision songs (I mean, we’ve Israel still to come, let’s not make this harder for ourselves), and to be fair to Mariam I don’t know enough about her to comment on her real intentions: let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. I can’t, though, review a song in isolation from the surrounding hullabaloo, and in the modern trial by social media I fear the damage is already done. This is languishing at or near the bottom of both the betting and the fan polls, and I can’t see Mariam turning that around. The song has some interesting Georgian elements, but nowhere near enough of an enjoyable tune to make this competitive.
My marks: 2 points
Photo: GBP/EBU