Georgia’s Eurovision record has been far from exemplary in the past few years. Both Iriao and Tamara Gachechiladze, the country’s entries in 2018 and 2017 respectively, failed to make an indelible impression on juries and televoters Europe wide, as neither act made it to the Grand Final. Georgia seem set to turn this around in 2019 and last week laid out their plans for selecting their artist and song for the Contest: Georgian Idol.
The head of the Georgian Eurovision delegation Natia Mshvenieradze confirmed their plans to make Georgian Idol the show their method of selecting both the country’s Eurovision artist and song for 2019. While the format of the show will likely remain relatively unchanged focusing on the artists at first, there is set to be a shift towards the song selection mid run when the broadcaster will welcome submissions from songwriters throughout the nation.
In the past the long running talent search show, now in its eighth season, has given a platform for emerging stars such as Nina Sublatti, who also represented the nation at Eurovision 2015 with song ‘Warrior’.
Georgian Idol is set to premiere on GPB in January 2019.