Georgia: Tornike Kipiani's song for Eurovision 2020 released – "Take Me As I Am"

Tornike Kipiani won Georgian Idol on 31 December 2019, and also won the honour of representing Georgia at Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.

Unlike last year, the song for Eurovision has been selected internally by the Georgian broadcaster and Tornike Kipiani, and today, his song has just been released: Take Me As I Am.

Tornike Kipiani wrote the song and the lyrics himself for Take Me As I Am. In Rotterdam, Tornike will be joined by three backing vocals: Aleko Berdzenishvili, Marian Shengelia and Mariko Lezhava.

Tornike Kipiani

Tornike Kipiani (თორნიკე ყიფიანი), is 31 from Georgia. He won X-factor in Georgia in 2014, and rose to fame in his country. In 2017 he also competed to represent Georgia at Eurovision Song Contest, but his song, You Are My Sunshine, was not chosen. Instead it was Tamara Gachechiladze's Keep The Faith that went to Kyiv.

On 31 December 2019, Tornike Kipiani won Georgian Idol, after six weeks of live shows. The winner of the show is also the Georgian representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.

Georgian Idol

The Georgian Public Broadcaster GPB chose to use the format Idol to select its Eurovision entrant. Over six weeks the initial ten artists were narrowed down to four finalists.

The winner of Georgian Idol, and the ticket to Eurovision 2020 was decided solely by public voting, via SMS and Facebook Messenger voting, but four judges gave their feedback upon the performances: Tinatin Berdzenishvili, David Evgenidze, Natia Todua and David Aladashvili.

Georgia in Eurovision Song Contest

Georgia has participated in Eurovision 12 times since their debut in 2007, with the best result in 2010 and 2011 (9th place), and the worst result in 2014 and 2018 (came last in their Semi-final).

The only year Georgia didn't participate was in 2009. They decided to send the song "We Don't Wanna Put In" to Moscow 2009, but because of a controversy about the lyrics in the song, EBU banned the song from participating, if the lyrics was not changed. GPB refused to change the lyrics, and withdrew from the contest.

Georgia has managed to qualify to the Grand Final 7 out of 12 times.