After more than a month of shows and spectacular performances from dozens of candidates, Georgian Idol finally reached its climax on New Year’s Eve. Four acts sang, but in the end, Tornike Kipiani emerged as the winner. In doing so, he earned the right to sing for Georgia at Eurovision 2020.
Eurovision 2020 Tornike Kipiani for Georgia
The public was able to vote for their favourite via both telephone voting as well as through the Facebook Messenger app. Tornike topped the table once more, just like he did in all the preceding episodes.
Unlike last year’s edition of Georgian Idol, which selected both the artist and song for Eurovision, this year Georgia has only selected its artist. Tornike’s song for Rotterdam will be internally selected by the broadcaster at a later point.
Tornike Kipiani won Georgian Idol and he will represent Georgia in Rotterdam!???Our Rezo Mamsikashvili celebrates with him the victory ?
Posted by Wiwibloggs on Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Who is Tornike Kipiani?
Tornike is a 32-year-old musician and the father of three children. He returned to Georgian Idol after previously winning the 2014 edition of X Factor Georgia where his mentor was the future Georgian-Greek Cyprus Eurovision star Tamta.
Tornike has previously tried to represent Georgia at Eurovision. He competed in Georgia’s Eurovision 2017 national final, with the industrial techno song “You Are My Sunshine”.
Georgia at Eurovision
Georgia has enjoyed mixed fortunes at Eurovision in recent years. The decade started well, with Sopho Nizharadze and Eldrine each placing ninth in 2010 and 2011.
In the years since, however, Georgia has switched between non-qualifications and grand placing on the right-hand side of the grand final scoreboard. One exception was 2015, where the fierce Nina Sublatti placed 11th with her oximated electro-pop anthem “Warrior”.
More recently, Georgia has not qualified for the national final over the past three years. Tamara Gachechiladze narrowly missed out on qualifying from an 11th-place semi-final finish, while 2018 act Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao finished last in their semi-final.
While Georgian Idol 2018 winner Oto Nemsadze also didn’t qualify from his semi-final, fans will be hoping that their new Idol will have better luck in Rotterdam.
Do you agree with the result? What sort of song should Tornike perform in Rotterdam? Let us know in the comments below.
If Tornike’s song is as good as “Warrior”, I will be very happy. I doubt it bcos of how Georgian Idol this year seemed SO rigged, but I hope.
Well I’m not appealed right now but let’s wait for the song. One thing is sure: Georgia need to send a real modern song. If you want to send something strange, you need to be good at it.
Georgia Eurovision 2019: Rock artist = fails to qualify into the Final;
Georgia Eurovision 2020: Rock artist….again!?!
How to you wanna succeed, or not to repeat a mistake, if you’re applying the same method?
The problem was not with a genre but rather with the national-focused theme of the song itself, which appealed to the Georgian audience but not necessarily to wider, European one. I guess. :p
The biggest problem with Oto’s song was that is was him angrily yelling ‘vaarada varada’, not that it was a rock song.
I need something edgy at Eurovision. I hope he will provide it and will be successful.
For those who say that he won’t qualify:
-Don’t judge before you hear the song.
Honestly, I liked only two Georgian songs this decade (Shine and Warrior, both masterpieces).
I hope that they will give him a good song, no matter in which language.
Industrial tecnho song… sounds good. A bit psychedelic and noisy for the general public, so they may want to lower it with some traditional sounds and more electronic than industrial. So I would go for something similar to Nina Sublatti’s “Warrior” but with Tornike’s techno style. If that is what he is doing right now cause that song is from 2017 and tbh I haven’t watched any of his weekly performances in the Idol.
Important question. Did he make blonde jury dance or not? If not, I cannot be hyped for him
“That blonde jury” is desperate fan of tornike they even recorded some music together , search it in youtube if youre interested
Ok, now I’m hyped
He needs a fresh new look tho.
WHY? Georgia keeps sending these glorious voices with bad songs :/
Why don’t know if his song is gonna be bad, because we haven’t heard the song yet.
I know that we don’t know the song yet, but after 2015 Georgia has just disappointed me with the quality of the songs. It feels very amateurish!
Nina Sublatti though bringed a banger with quality sounds yet a traditional thought to it which I loved.
What a bad choice… No final for Georgia AGAIN! When will they learn from mistakes???
Why does georgia have a selection show on new years eve? xD
Horrible choice, another rock act after last year’s failure (a pure noise…that was not called music). Hope my country will be in the same semifinal with Georgia (which will definitely not qualify), so…more chances for some other countries….
I rather prefer unusual type of singers at esc….. Normally some participants with Background of x-factor, the voice etc. sounds really similar….
Hope they sing in Georgian
Do you want them to not qualify again? Because that’s what will happen if they sing in Georgian.
Sorry, that´s not sure – Albania qualified two time in a row with songs in native language…
Because Georgia did so well in 2017 with a song in English, whilst Italy and Iceland did so poorly last year with songs in their native languages…
I absolutely agree with you !
Don´t Forget in this list Portugal und Hungary 2017.
Not exactly a big surprise but am still happy about it. I hope he has something that stands out and is a little bit different like, “You Are My Sunshine”. I did like that.
Why will they select the song internally? We could have voted for a song on their website.
The comparison is unavoidable and, based on the few Tornike’s performances I’ve watched, he seems to me like an unpolished version of Oto. I hope there’s more to discover about him, but so far there’s nothing that please my ears like Oto’s raspiness, for example. But hey, with a very specific song to his voice, maybe it can work. Some electro-rock? Happy new year to everybody, by the way. 🙂
this will be my last post here in 2019 so happy new year everyone from Romania.. see you in 2020
Happy new year!
Surprise surprise..
Well, actually he is an interesting voice. I do think that his voice would work with something ethnic as.
But I fear that they’ll go to with rock, which is not necessarily bad, but u know there is good rock and bad rock (if you know what I mean).
I won’t have high expectations, but we’ll see..
Lmao, Rip keyboard, sorry guys!!
*has, *as well
Who knows, maybe a masterpiece is coming…but I doubt it.
I always wait for the song after an artist is revealed, … but this doesn’t look to good considering his similarities to Oto from last year.
Exactly