Two songs called “Warrior” entered Eurovision 2015, but only Georgia’s Nina Sublatti managed to take hers to the final. She didn’t just have to fight against her competitors and ultimately had to face off with an unexpected enemy: The smoke machine. (No, not Germany’s). A malfunction caused Nina to temporarily disappear from the stage in a cloud of grey smoke. No even a warrior can fight through that.

Georgian fans are, obviously, not happy. This YouTube videos compares Nina’s two performances, highlighting just how bad the problem was. Right before the first chorus, Nina is almost a shadow on the stage. We know one of Georgia’s strong points was the mystery of its staging, but it’s hard to believe this was what their delegation asked for.

The Georgian fan community is rightfully angry. Eurovision is a contest where good staging is essential. ORF’s mistake may have pushed Nina down the scoreboard. In the end, Georgia finished 11th out of a field of 27, despite the fact she was our readers’ favourite! It isn’t an isolated incident. As we previously reported, Belgium’s Loic Nottet had problems with smoke in the first semi final jury show.

Do you think the smoke incident affected Nina’s chances last night? Tell us below!

You can follow all of our Georgia Eurovision news here

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Kan
Kan
9 years ago

The song is good but the lyrics make absolutely no sense so I don’t think it was top 10 worthy.
She could’ve demanded to perform again if she thought it ruined her performance. Someone did that several years ago. Although I don’t think it was going to make a huge change.

Joke
Joke
9 years ago

Eurovision has already been a joke for many years, maybe since 2006. They are obviously lying during announcing the votes. Honestly, it’s a waste of money. It’s been years since an actual good song has ever won.
As for Georgia, I’ve noticed good song/performance or not, they still get the same votes every year. Their song in 2011 was too good for this lame show. So, I suggest some of the countries not to waste good songs for Eurovision.

Auseurochick
Auseurochick
9 years ago

I’m sure it was an accident. Clearly someone forgot to properly extinguish the Austrian piano.

poul
poul
9 years ago

nina is best!!

random.sage2.0
9 years ago

While the smoke machine did affect her outcome, yall forgot that she wouldn’t hit top 3, much less win. The points would’ve been higher but her placing would’ve been the same.

Mocanu
Mocanu
9 years ago

YES IT DID COUNT ! for some good seconds, we could not see her ! If i was her i would stop and ask for a retry.

mary
mary
9 years ago

However, Gagarina’s fake tears was exactly the same as in semi final :))) 😀

lika
9 years ago

nina’s number was blocked different country.

Felix Prochain
Felix Prochain
9 years ago

Smoke didn’t affect anything imo.

Felix Prochain
Felix Prochain
9 years ago

Camera work of this year’s contest was horrible. Congratulations Austrians.

Fatima
Fatima
9 years ago

oximated = shrouded or obscured by smoke

Dave
Dave
9 years ago

I love this song! It didn’t stand a chance against other songs (this year had so many great songs), but it deserved a high place ( which they achieved, I mean, 11 out of 37 is great). The smoke machine was a terrible accident, and, what struck me as well, was the bad camera angle when the wings appeared in the background. Lastly, in the semi-final there was a shot after the song where you could see Nina’s emotions after performing, which was a great shot. Unfortunately, in the finals they skipped that. All these things have hindered her performance,… Read more »

alex
alex
9 years ago

EuroPolitic!! nina was the best!!

Tamo
Tamo
9 years ago

winter is coming Europe ! u are afraid of Russia that’s why u vote for Russia. that’s so crazy and ironical , right now Russians are killing Ukrainian people and u are voting for fakepeace song by Gagarina . that’s so shame . Ukraine was not on Eurovision because of the war with Russia and u were voting for aggressor . Nina was the best . congratulation to Sweden !

Lili
Lili
9 years ago

Its ok. Things like that happens, she performed very well, and has many fans now.
The shame is RUSSIA almost won this contest with so called “song about peace” when they have Ukraine and Georgia occupied. Shame on whole europe for voting this girl with such a fake emotions from Russia. God she was so fake i almost broke my tv screen when she appeared….

Georgia, go home
Georgia, go home
9 years ago

Overrated song. 11th place is the highest she could reach.

João Teles
João Teles
9 years ago

Well, despite that, Nina did a brilliant and fierce performance just like a real warrior, she was my favorite this year along with Amber from Malta which unfortubately couldn’t make it to the final and i’m so happy that she had a nice placing by the end of the voting, 11th place is pretty respectable, if you ask me and she was the number one of the Caucasus entries this year which i think it never happened for Georgia, so, in general, congratulations, Nina, you did a great job overall. 🙂

Alex
Alex
9 years ago

I think it made the performance more interesting!! Honestly, she was just standing there singing anyway, so it provided some mystery to the performance. In the semifinal, when she didn’t sing nearly as well, I was wondering, “what was the point of that?” In the final, she sang really well, but… I don’t think we can really expect Georgia to have gotten more than the number of points it did. It’s not a top-10 song in my book.

danielesc
danielesc
9 years ago

my 14 sms go to nina sublatti from russia
but my 14 sms blocked !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adam
Adam
9 years ago

@Lucas: You don’t type like a native english speaker, so i’m not sure you’re the best to judge Nina’s english 😉 her song was good and its in my top 10 but I could barely understand her enunciation

Adam
Adam
9 years ago

I saw that and I was like “um is that part of it?” lol. I doubt it had any effect on her votes. It reminds me of how last year Sweden tried to get the EBU to only use the jury results for their score because the door didn’t close during Sanna’s performance. Georgia had a good song/good performance and that equaled a respectable score. She should be happy

Ia
Ia
9 years ago

James, you have a mother ?

Paul Skye Karim Kahawaty

First, I thought the the stage caught fire, but as I notice that the camera angle was not on right place, I think to myself that is she being sabotaged, and the amount of smoke might have caused her to choke that ruin her vocal performance on the rehearsal and also original video of Impression of second rehearsal, that racked up more likes than any other country was removed they say because of the wrong spelling of Georgia, it could have been easily corrected without removing it.

Paul Skye Karim Kahawaty

First, I thought the the stage caught fire, but as I notice that the camera angle was not not on right place, I think to myself that is she being sabotaged and also original video of Impression of second rehearsal, that racked up more likes than any other country was removed they say because of the wrong spelling of Georgia, it could have been easily corrected without removing it.

Otna
Otna
9 years ago

Sad that nasty smoke machine had it out for two of my favourites. It clearly made an impact on their respective scores, but Belgium probably wouldn’t have finished any higher. Nina might’ve.

Bronson
Bronson
9 years ago

It doesn’t affect the outcome at all. Georgian fans are just using this lame excuse to try and justify the fact that their expectations were nowhere near reality.

Andrew
Andrew
9 years ago

11th place is really good given a super strong top ten. They got knocked out of the top ten by Serbia with a difference of just two points! Hopefully next year will be just as good.

Huh
Huh
9 years ago

I didn’t notice that. That means her staging is still a win-win for me.

Leaf
Leaf
9 years ago

To be honest it made it kinda better …. Looked like a music video LIVE !!!
I love her eyes piercing in that foggy stage ……. I didn’t like the dryness it had in the semi final.

Gav
Gav
9 years ago

I did wonder if it was meant to r as smoky as it was. However my reaction was WOW! It looked awsome and by far the best stages song and use of lights.

No such thing as too much smoke / wind / clothing changing / ripping / key change

Lucas
Lucas
9 years ago

All of you who are saying that she didn’t deserve to win can suck me dick !
Go to YouTube and check her out she has a true talent unlike many others in EuroFakeVision .
She was too good for this show anyway and her English was just fine ! I could understand every single word during her performance , Georgians have much better accent in English than many other countries .

Chris
Chris
9 years ago

I dont even know how to comment that. Come on, are you serious Wiwibloggs? What next? Too much windmaschine?

R
R
9 years ago

Calm down lol. It’s a good song but it’s too repetitive and not great lyrically – still don’t know what ‘oximated’ means.

I actually love the shroud of mystery smoke covering her, it adds to the drama!

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
9 years ago

It was unfortunate but I do not think it would have made a lot of difference. The reason Georgia underperformed on the scoreboard was the same reason that many countries did: there was a consensus on the top five and almost every country voted for those five in some order. There were not a lot of points for the other likes of Georgia to fight for.

Diane
Diane
9 years ago

As for Nina’s performance, I found it very mystical and more striking than the semi final because of the smoke. Although the smoke did cover her, she managed to came 11th!! Does that affect the votes? I don’t think so.

Oostenrijk
Oostenrijk
9 years ago

This year’s Eurovision was by far the best I have ever seen. And the smoke did not hurt Nina at all. That’s just stupid fangirl-crying.

Diane
Diane
9 years ago

I don’t agree that they are doing terrible job. I didn’t know the whole process of the production, so I can’t say whether the Austrian broadcaster have done a great job or not (and that means, I wasn’t laughing when Jon Ola said ORF did a great job). But from my stand point as a viewer, I felt that this year had more technical glitches than the previous edition. Too many silenced moments, they lost the signal very often when the vote was being announced, etc. But still, it is very entertaining and I love how the organizer emphasized the… Read more »

Thiefo
9 years ago

Hahaha really? Yes, Nina got lost in a smoke cloud for a few seconds, big deal. If she ended in 11th it was because of her song and overall presentation, but I seriously doubt that for a thing like this, a significant amount of people might have gone “Oh, I can’t see the performer in that cloud of smoke, I won’t vote for her, even if I like the song” Gotta love the post-Eurovision theories of what went wrong or what caused a country to do worse than expected, some of these are truly hilarious, this one included 😛 So… Read more »

godo
godo
9 years ago

for me here was many differents 1)wings, not proportional 2) lighting (same problem) 3) more smoke 4) breeze. guys every person think about own countrys perfomance and looking deeply , because someone laghing about this and someone hasn;’t action …but i want to say this year eurovision wasn’t ready !!! that all good luck

2015
2015
9 years ago

Austria did a terrible job this year hosting the contest and it has to be said. The camera’s, the smoke (Georgia), the lights (The Netherlands) and the jury performance of Belgium all got ruined, because of these people behind the screens (also those people made this contest rlly good aswell, respect!). Now we go to Sweden so it will be a much better contest this year.

Alex
Alex
9 years ago

11th out of 27 is amazing result for Georgia.

Mar
Mar
9 years ago

It was really harmful to her staging, you could definitely tell there was a problem.
In the end, everything that could have gone wrong in Vienna, did. I laughed when in the press confference Jon Ola said ORF has done a good job.

conor
conor
9 years ago

it sucks that this happened because vocally she was amazing and even better than the semi final. i feel sorry for nina and georgia she was still my winner for the night please send her again

real winner
real winner
9 years ago

Readers’ favorite? What a joke to call that manipulation an actual “favorite”…

MTD
MTD
9 years ago

#Switzerland 2014, that is.

Mario My Vision of Gay Love
Mario My Vision of Gay Love
9 years ago

Georgia’s staging & Nina’s outfit & whole presense was AMAZIIING! <3
The bad thing with the performance of Mans was that it was almost identical to his initial in Melodifestivalen so we were not really surprised but his staging unfortunately…
If was the first that he had watched his show with the little guy & lazer screen then we would be totally blown away! <3

kaden
kaden
9 years ago

I think she made a comment on BBC 3 at the 2nd Semi that Malta’s Warrior performance was “just fire”…..so it seems Georgia’s Warrior was left with the Smoke 😉

MTD
MTD
9 years ago

I remember watching the SemiFinal/Final comparison for Switzerland. That was copy-paste performance in technical terms. DR, bravo. ORF, really?

I don’t know, maybe ORF this year wasn’t really ready for a contest like this in technical terms (unlike DR & SVT), but hey, Denmark & Sweden were doing this once in a year (or several times, as Sweden proves with their MF).

Anyhow, I see the technical aspect of this year’s ESC very low compared to earlier productions. And don’t get me started on the hosts.

Darren
Darren
9 years ago

While I was watching the performance, I thought it was a bit more smokey than the semi-final…but, it actually added to the dramatics in my opinion. She was a warrior and she fought her way through the smoke 😛 Before the contest, I wasn’t focusing much on Georgia, but when I seen Nina in the semi, my mind was changed, loved it. Although I loved Man’s little projected character and heroes was the better song…I actually think Georgia had the best staging. Best Georgian entry since their debut entry in 2007.

Erin
Erin
9 years ago

You can’t contest the fact that Georgia got points from 18 out of 19 juries on the first semi final while only 12 juries out of 39 awarded it with points in the final. Show me another country that had such a significant downfall! Even Serbia who finished in 10th place had 12 out of 19 juries vote for it in the semi final and 12 out of 39 vote for it in the final. I am not suggesting any foul play here, but there were some very obvious technical flaws during the performance in the final. You could say… Read more »