The final show of Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow (Russia) was probably the most costly event in Russian show-biz in 2009, the total sum of money spent by Russia being debated until now. There is information that the amount exceeded $45 million, of which $33 mln (or 1 billion rubles) were given by the RF Government, $6.6 mln (or 200 mln rubles) – by the Government of Moscow city, and about $6 mln – by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The expenses of the First Channel, a TV-channel that broadcasted the show, are unrevealed, as well as the amounts of sponsor contracts, among which there are Raiffeisenbank, Schwarzkopf, Pepsi and Rostelecom; these expenses were never taken into account in the sum total. At the same time, there is information that the budget of the contest was $42 mln, and the share of the First Channel accounted for about one third of the sum.

Anyway, the final show of Eurovision in Moscow became an absolute record-breaker as of expenditures, being far ahead the Greeks who spent €12 mln in 2006, and the Serbians who made it with €9.3 mln. The expenditures were mainly attributed to construction of the stage, -the largest one in the history of the contest, as well as to lease of Olympiysky sport complex, advertising, transportation, and escorting of delegacies. In particular, the director general of the First Channel, Konstantin Ernst boasted that they rented all LED screens available in Western Europe. From the very beginning the organizers considered the final show of the contest as unprofitable; they just couldn’t expect to win away at least some part of the expenses ’cause a good half of the tickets to Olympiysky turned out to have been distributed for free.

The public opinion about the expenditures was mostly negative (over 39% of 1,200 Russians polled by Online Market Intelligence responded negatively). Experts, too, tell that the organizers could make a proper final show in Moscow for as little as $10 mln. However, everybody agreed that the Moscow show had politics behind it, and was another great occasion to work at a positive image of Russia. So they spared neither expense, nor time of high-ranking persons: Vladimir Putin (the Prime Minister of Russia) visited rehearsals of the show, and Yuri Luzhkov (the mayor of Moscow city) gave a speech on the opening day. In follow-up of the final show of Eurovision Song Contest some organizers, including Konstantin Ernst, got letters of award from Dmitriy Medvedev, the President of Russia.

Tonight another five live national shows will be held. Lithuania and Sweden will continue their searches for Eurovision Final, Slovenia will continue its selection, while Malta and Macedonia will already hold their national finals.

We will know the results later tonight.

Good luck, contestants!

The FINANCIAL, 27/04/2009

Music Breaks Free! This will be the basic idea for which a new international music festival will be held in the capital of Georgia on 15-17 May.

Tbilisi Open Air-Alter/Vision will be the first event of this scale and sophistication to take place in Tbilisi . Freed from politics and social clichés, this festival will be carrying the European cultural spirit, thus perfectly opposing “Eurovision” which will be held in Moscow.

Vaho Babunashvili, Director General of “Step Records” which is the author and organizer of the festival thinks company can count on huge success, and not only this year but all the next ones as the festival will become an annually held tradition. Tbilisi Open Air is expected to be attended by more than fifty thousand people, while the entrance will be free.

“Tbilisi Open Air is the first ever event of this type, scale and sophistication to take place in Tbilisi . We believe that our capital has long lacked a festival that would bring the spirit of a large open air music event, so common and appreciated in Europe and the USA. This event will have a very special atmosphere with few elements contributing to that: a fascinating line-up of bands performing various genres of modern music, from funk and NuJazz to Indie Rock and electronic music. I am sure this is something music fans will appreciate and enjoy a great deal,” Irakli Matkava, Public Relations and Marketing Director of Tbilisi Open Air told The FINANCIAL.

At first the festival was planned to be held in the mid summer. However, some of the foreign bands which will be performing at the festival offered “Step Records” to shift the date to May so that the two events would concur.

Referring to the words of the organizers this has once again proved the negative feeling of the modern musical world towards “Eurovision”, which this year turned into a politically pressured and bureaucratic arrangement.

Eurovision was accused of carrying political influence a number of times. This year song “We Don’t Wanna Put In” by Georgian pop band Stephane & 3G was rejected by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU ruled that the song lyrics did not comply with Section 4 Rule 9 of the Rules of the 54th Eurovision Song Contest, and couldn’t take part in the competition as such, which would see Georgia having to rewrite the song or choose another entry. A spokesman for the EBU said, “No lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted.”

On 11 March 2009, Georgia withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, refusing to change the song lyrics and alleging that the decision to ask Georgia to revise its entry came about as a result of pressure from Russia. The song caused controversy as it was seen to contain political references to Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin in the lyrics.

Meanwhile the streets of Tbilisi and major avenues are blocked by protesters who are demanding President Saakashvili ’s resignation. However this won’t be an obstacle for Tbilisi Open Air Irakli Matkava says, “We do understand and acknowledge the current situation in our capital. But we also believe that as our festival will inevitably be an event that everyone will enjoy, it can and should go ahead. At the same time we do hope that before the festival begins the tense situation will dissolve and that the city’s life will be back to normal.”

This festival is a sponsors-financed event, a common practice for the first round. Yet the organizers do hope to commercialize the event and make it just as successful financially as conceptually. Apart from that organizers do believe that local businesses will also benefit from this festival in the following years as it will be attracting more and more visitors and coverage from abroad.

Tbilisi Open Air will be held on the same dates as “Eurovision”. Tbilisi Open Air will host twenty three bands from Denmark, Germany, France, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Russia, UK, Ukraine and Georgia will be performing at Tbilisi Open Air. Among them are Jazzanova feat. Paul Randolf,  Transglobal Underground, Dohl Foundation, Huggis Horns and other very interesting groups and performers. Irakli Matkava states that another important achievement of this festival will be the introduction of new brilliant performers to Georgian music fans.

The first opening day of the festival, May 15, will be held in the Shardeni area with a smaller stage. That area can accommodate around 2,000-2,500 people. But for the next two days, on May 16 and 17 the festival will move to its main site, Festival City at the Hippodrome. That is a huge space equipped with all the needed amenities and can hold around thirty thousand people.

So over the three days the festival can host at least sixty two thousand people. But considering that some people will be coming and leaving at various times as the festival day starts at 17:00 and ends at around 1:00 a.m., the numbers might be even greater.

“Equally fascinating will be ‘Festival City’, a top-notch infrastructure we are installing at Tbilisi Hippodrome, with high-class stage lights, sound systems, tasteful decorations and merchandise as well as amenities offering food, beverages and all other comforts. And of course our visitors will be a very important part of this atmosphere,” Irakli Matkava says.

As the Public Relations and Marketing Director of Tbilisi Open Air clarifies the defining idea behind the festival is freedom. This is freedom from stress, clichés, social controls, freedom to create and express, freedom to experience what is valued by every single one of us as individuals.

“We are doing our best to manifest the spirit of freedom in every single activity, product or deed of ours. The visual symbols are also aligned with this concept. While “Tbilisi Open Air” is the brand name of our festival it will be presented against a changing set of symbols all associated with freedom and creativity. However they are designed so that they are recognizable and the integrity of our corporate style is preserved.

Fusion of styles, spirit of freedom, fantastic atmosphere of Open Air event, bands from all over the world, thousands of visitors, amazing venues, and crazy parties. All these will make Tbilisi Open Air an outstanding European music event. Artists and music fans from Georgia and abroad will meet, fuse, exchange, learn, enjoy some great music and a very special ambiance,” Archil Guledani, Art Director of “Step Records” told The FINANCIAL.

Public Relations and Marketing Director of Tbilisi Open Air says that there are two major reasons why it was decided to hold the festival in Tbilisi . The first is that they are planning to make it a traditional festival, held annually, and a part of the European festival schedule.

“As we progress along this path we plan to attract not only foreign artists to our festival, but also music fans who often follow their favourite bands. We think that this proposition will be attractive not only to people from neighbouring countries that do not have festivals like ours, but also tourists from Europe and the USA. In this sense Tbilisi has the best infrastructure to support the festival in the long term. Apart from that Tbilisi has the largest portion of the country’s population, so it is only natural that Tbilisi will allow us to attract a maximum number of visitors,” Archil Guledani adds.

Written By Levan Lomtadze

By Aleks Jakulin on May 30, 2007

Duncan Watts wrote an op-ed in NY Times on The Politics of Eurovision. There he writes:

I had heard about this practice, of course, whereby geographical and cultural neighbors tend to vote for each other, and nobody votes for Britain (well, except for Malta). But it was startling to see just how flagrant it was. The Scandinavians all voted for one another; Lithuania gave 10 points to Latvia (whose entry, bizarrely, sang in Italian); former Warsaw Pact countries voted for Russia; and almost nobody voted for Britain (surprisingly, Ireland did — and, of course, Malta).

Indeed, there has been some debate on bloc-voting in 2007. The map on that page does show that East got better scores than West:

Eurovision has been studied by academics a couple of times by now: Derek Gatherer titled his paper “Comparison of Eurovision Song Contest Simulation with Actual Results Reveals Shifting Patterns of Collusive Voting Alliances” and Anthony Dekker has a paper The Eurovision Song Contest as a ‘Friendship’ Network. The titles are not very forgiving, and here is an example of a chart from one of these two papers (neither of which has been authored by Duncan, of course):

(there isn’t a single Baltic country in the area denoted as “Baltic”, but they are all in the Balkan peninsula).

Serbs and Albanians are pretty much in a state of war, yet they seem to be aligned together in a “friendship” network? The same goes for Greece and Turkey in 2005, and many other similar pairs. I guess the young form a voting alliance for the preservation of hip-hop and metal, and the old too form into an opera friendship. It’s not preferences - it’s politics! It’s not musical taste, it’s alliances! It’s not quality, it’s who is friends with whom! It’s not the fact that musicians in Britain, Ireland, France, who top the charts, already have an excellent means of commercially deploying their music beyond the confines of their country. It’s rare for a first-class musician from the West to try for Eurovision: why expose themselves to public ranking and ridicule in case of failure if they can already sell lots of music by other means. But not so with the East; for the musicians there, Eurovision is the best way of going beyond their borders.

It’s true that Balkan music is overrepresented in the voting scores: it has many small countries with similar musical taste and little population. But as this Excel spreadsheet shows, Serbia would win even if all other countries were prevented from voting. In case only the 1994 members were allowed to vote, Turkey would win instead, followed by Serbia in the second place. The results are quite robust with respect to countries that are allowed to vote. If, however, we weighed the votes by population, allowed countries to vote for themselves, and excluded non-1994EU, the winning order would be Turkey, Greece, Serbia. So, even by population-weighting the votes, the results do not change much.

There are some interesting nonlinearities. It’s known that novelty value plays a big role at Eurovision: and there will be little novelty value to British, Irish, Spanish and German music that are so successful and ubiquitous in the marketplace: they won’t get novelty scores like some more exotic types of music will: the past winners include goofy entries such as Finnish monsters, Ukrainian warriors and an Israeli transvestite. On the other hand, anyone who has tried listening to classical music knows that it takes some exposure before you can enjoy music, just as it takes a certain amount of exposure to literature to enjoy poetry.

The reaction from Britain was quite harsh, dismissing scoring as pure politics. But the UK song should be examined in the context of the 1990 winner on a similar theme. Google can translate the lyrics and you can compare them to the UK entry. Among other events, that 1990 song was what inspired the chain of events that led to the break-up of Yugoslavia (where some of the states were pro-EU and others against), and possibly other nations too. For musical quality, compare it to the UK 1997 winner.

So, in summary, there are many models that explain correlations in data. A cluster in votes can be interpreted both as an alliance to win the majority, or it can be equivalently interpreted as a group of countries that shares cultural preferences. One interpretation is cynical, the other is respectful. If you are an author that doesn’t distinguish between the Balkans and Baltic, you might find it hard to decide on the right interpretation. A respectful one is a safer bet.

Sourse: http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2007/05/eurovision_and.html

By DUNCAN J. WATTS
New York Times, May 22, 2007

Oxford, England

ONE of the unexpected pleasures of spending a sabbatical in Britain has been the chance to watch the Eurovision Song Contest, held the Saturday before last in Helsinki. For those not familiar with this quirkiest of European traditions (which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary), the contest involves 42 “European” countries — Israel and Turkey are included, for example — each of which submits a song to be sung by a band of that nationality.

The rules governing the contest are a little strange, and so is the singing, which appears to emphasize camp over more conventional notions of quality. Britain’s entrant, Scooch, put on a saucy, flight-attendant-inspired act that would have made Abba (the 1974 winner) proud, while Verka Serduchka, a Ukrainian drag queen, came out looking like a silver-foil version of Mrs. Doubtfire. The Greeks, meanwhile, were doing their best Ricky Martin, Belarus looked fresh out of a James Bond trailer and Hungary apparently had ditched the whole Euro thing and opted for what sounded suspiciously like country.

In short, it’s a great show, but the best part is the voting, which is done “American Idol”-style via text messaging. Anyone can vote as many times as he likes, the one restriction being that he can’t vote for his own country. The votes are tallied nationally, and breathless representatives call in the results to Helsinki, allocating 12 points to their country’s top choice, 10 to second place, 8 to third, and so on down to 1 point for 10th.

Now, I don’t know much about contemporary music, but as they say, I know what I like. And watching the 24 acts in the final (a preliminary round removes the other 18), I felt Sweden and Britain were clear standouts, given the silliness of the whole thing. I also had the overwhelming feeling that the Serbian entry, a turgid ballad called “Molitva,” or “Prayer,” didn’t stand a chance.

So imagine my surprise when Serbia not only won, but crushed the opposition, beating second-place Ukraine (yes, the drag queen) by 268 points to 235. Britain, with a paltry 19 points, narrowly edged out Ireland to avoid last place; and Sweden scraped together a meager 51 points, coming in 18th out of 24. What was going on? Two words that were shouted across the British dailies the next day: “Bloc Voting.”

I had heard about this practice, of course, whereby geographical and cultural neighbors tend to vote for each other, and nobody votes for Britain (well, except for Malta). But it was startling to see just how flagrant it was. The Scandinavians all voted for one another; Lithuania gave 10 points to Latvia (whose entry, bizarrely, sang in Italian); former Warsaw Pact countries voted for Russia; and almost nobody voted for Britain (surprisingly, Ireland did — and, of course, Malta).

But Serbia was the overwhelming beneficiary of the system, receiving the top score of 12 points from every other member of the former Yugoslavia — Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia — suggesting that memories of war and ethnic cleansing can be set aside with surprising ease when it comes to the serious business of winning a singing contest. It’s hard to say whether the 60 points that the former Yugoslavia effectively gave to itself altered the final result, but an enterprising Irishman suggested that if all the Irish counties were allowed to secede, they would be unstoppable.

Does it matter? Probably not. It’s just a game, after all, and the outrageous bias in the voting is as entertaining as the songs themselves. But it does offer an unexpected glimpse of how ordinary Europeans perceive one another. More than anything, it seems, blood is thicker than water, and not just in the Balkans. That Germany gave 12 points to Turkey, for example, probably reflects the large number of Turks living in Germany more than it does a German predilection for scantily clad dancers (of which there were plenty of choices).

But it was also obvious how little love Eastern Europe feels for the West. Although the “big four” — Britain, France, Germany and Spain (Italy does not participate) — basically pay for the contest, none of them made it into the top 16; and Turkey, which you might have expected to be playing nice, given its pending European Union membership application, awarded not a single point to any big four or Scandinavian nation.

This pointed rejection of Western Europe might even be seen as a poignant metaphor for contemporary Europe as a whole. The large, industrialized nations magnanimously invite their poorer but more numerous eastern cousins to join their party, and offer to pay the bill, only to discover themselves locked out in the garden while their new friends complain about the quality of the liquor and the arrogance of the hosts.

The hosts, meanwhile, can’t get along either — the big four collectively awarded one another a grand total of just 12 points. So although it was more than a little odd that the countries that actually tried to help in Bosnia are substantially less popular there than the country that instigated ethnic cleansing, it was equally odd that the Balkans, of all places, was effectively handing the western countries a lesson in cooperation.

The annual chance to score yourself in the eyes of your fellow Europeans might not be a bad thing, however: the Serbs and their neighbors are now going through an outpouring of pride and brotherly love. It’s hard not to think that’s somehow more useful than crowning the successor to Abba. Last week in Britain, meanwhile, for all the cries of foul play, there was a hint of — I wouldn’t say soul-searching — but perhaps head-scratching over what might be done to reverse the tide of resentment from traditional allies and newly minted European states alike. If nothing else, that seems like a good conversation to start.

Now, apparently, NBC has the rights to bring a version of Eurovision to the United States, with all 50 states competing. I hope they do it, but only if they keep the same voting system. It may not tell us much about the music we produce or like; but in a patchwork quilt of a country, with red versus blue states, North versus South, East Coast versus West Coast, the Midwest versus everyone — and who-knows-what going on in Texas — it may tell us a lot about what we really think of one another.

Duncan J. Watts is a professor of sociology at Columbia.

Kirkorov Comes to Meet Alexander Rybak, Journalists Laugh until they Cry at Intars Busulis’s Press Conference

Ivan Toporischev, Moscow, exclusively for Eurovision Mania
Intars Busulis from Latvia opened the press conference that started yesterday, early in the morning. Intars answered questions in a very easy manner and told that he always behaves like this. He also added that he has some masks but he does not show them because he just does not need them. All that he needs is his natural charisma.

The cheerful climate created by the Latvian singer was further backed up by the Serbian musicians. They started to improvise straightway in the press conference room. Marco – a member of the Serbian group – has already acted at Eurovision. Last year he represented Montenegro as a song writer. He said that he likes the German song, because it sounds like something very amusing from the 90-s. Marco also likes Norway, as well as Montenegro, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Armenia.

Lidia Kopania, a Polish singer, confessed that initially she wanted to be a doctor. However, if she really were a doctor, she could hardly come to Eurovision. Lidia also remarked that she is not going to astonish the audience with open clothes and half-naked body, as it sometimes happens at Eurovision. Her act is full of good mood and encourages people not to be afraid of any changes in their lives.

When Alexander Rybak started to rehearse his act, there were so many people in the room that one could have thought that ordinary viewers were allowed to come in. These people were Eurovision staff members and journalists who came to watch the first rehearsal of the young Norwegian singer.

Alexander Rybak

Alexander Rybak. Photo (c) iBoy71

At the press conference it became obvious that not only bookmakers think that Rybak is going to win the Contest, but journalists too. Alexander did not try to conceal his joy when he heard all these compliments. He spoke to the journalists in English, and even in Russian. However, Dmitriy Shepelev, who administered the press conference, had to help Alexander with his Russian. Although Alexander Rybak was born in Belarus, most of his life he has spent in Norway.

After the press conference, Alexander gave an interview. When the journalist told that at the press conference people were laughing until they cried, Alexander said: “I hope they were laughing WITH me, and not AT me”. No doubt, they were laughing WITH Alexander.

“It is very good that the journalists here are so benevolent. Eurovision is a great thing. Everybody stops thinking about wars. Some people try to bring politics into it, but it is not right. The main thing here is music. I have a lot of free time and I want to meet Russian people. I have already met Kirkorov. Yesterday I watched a TV program about him and was thinking what a nice person he is, and here he comes and says that he is my fan”.

“Kirkorov came to “Olimpiyski” especially to meet you.” – “Really? Thank you!”

After 11 years of absence Slovakia has come back to Eurovision. The Slovaks insisted on Eurovision broadcasting in their country, because they believe that Eurovision is an integral part of European culture.

The Danish singer Brinck was the last one to rehearse his performance. In his song, called “Believe again”, he tries to convince us that we should always believe in love.

Elena from Romania is the Hottest Eurovision Star, and Chiara from Malta is Going to Come Back until She Wins

Ivan Toporischev, Moscow, exclusively for Eurovision Mania
The Semi-Final rehearsals have been going on for three days already. The representatives of Israel, Iceland, Finland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal and Macedonia have already shown their performances on the stage. The most experienced Eurovision participant – a Maltese singer Chiara, who acts at Eurovision Song Contest for the third time – has also rehearsed her act.

The Israeli duet Mira&Noa opened the second day of Eurovision rehearsals. They are going to sing a very symbolic song called “There’ must be another way”. This song is a vivid call for peace, not only in Israel, but in the whole world.

In their recent interview the Israeli singers say that their song contains a very important message. This song should make people think that there is always another way. People should always remain humane and should always look for some possibility to settle their conflicts with the help of words and not weapons. They also say that many people have found their own ideas and thoughts in this song. Mira adds that when she cries she cries for both of them. The both women are sure that there must be another way. Noa says that sometimes it seems to her that people in Israel and in the Middle East on the whole do not understand where they are all going to. “Which way should our people choose? There is endless amount of variants. And the process that is going on at the moment is certainly the wrong one. It might only lead to death.” This song has been much appreciated by Israeli audience. The singers also receive amazing letters from Lebanon, Syria, Qatar and other countries where people thank them for their remarkable and important work.

After the Israelis presented their lyrical song, the Finnish group Waldo’s People showed their very energetic dancing hit called «Lose Control”. This song was previously chosen by Finnish viewers.

The Finnish singers say that their first rehearsal was just flawless: excellent sound, beautiful stage, incredible screens. They also say that they have never had such perfect conditions for their performance.

Yohanna from Iceland is one of the youngest singers performing at Eurovision Song Contest this year. However, she is also one of the most experienced singers at Eurovision 2009, because her first album was recorded when she was only 9.

The Macedonian group called “Next time” cannot boast about their long-lasting music career, because they started to act together less than a year ago. However, these twin brothers are the most popular pop group in Macedonia now. They have already released their first album and shot 7 videos. They claim that the main component of their huge success is their managers. They say that it is much easier to perform when you have good managers. They signed their contract a year ago, and since then their performance has been getting better and better. Martin and Stephan also thank their fans for their love and support.

Elena from Romania – daughter of a priest and a folk-singer - is the most probable nominee for the Hottest Female Eurovision 2009 Singer Award. She says that she will be happy to get this award, but people’s voices and their appreciation are much more important.

Elena Gheorghe from Romania is the Hottest Eurovision Star

Chiara from Malta is going to act at Eurovision for the third time. Previously she got the second and third positions. This time she is trying to win with a song called “What if we”. She says that she is going to come back to Eurovision until she wins.

An international music show, alternative to the Eurovision song contest, will be held in Georgia on May 9 to 16, at the same time as the Eurovision 2009 Song Contest in Moscow.

22 performers from 15 countries will participate.

According to the Rustavi 2 TV channel, the show is organized as a sign of solidarity with Stephane and 3G group, who was banned by Eurovision committee as its lyrics allegedly contained a political message. The group refused to change the song and dropped out of Eurovision.

The show will be conducted in Tbilisi in the same time as the Eurovision in Moscow, with free entrance.

Georgia Eurovision Moscow 2009

The European Broadcasting Union, EBU has officially informed the Georgian Public Broadcasting, GPB to re-write the lyrics of Georgia’s entry song performed by Stepane & 3G and selected to present Georgia to the popular 54th Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

Georgia has announced withdrawal from ESC 2009. It is not clear to Georgia why Eurovision Broadcasting Union took this decision.

Official Denial of Georgia to participate in the competition is confirmed in the letter of General Director of Georgian Public Broadcaster – Levan Kubaneishvili to the executive supervisor of the contest. “Georgia’s Public broadcaster does not intend to rewrite the lyrics and refuses to take part in the Eurovision song contest. The broadcaster does not agree with your decision and believes it to be ungrounded” – the letter reads.

In Georgia are suspected the song was rejected under political pressure from Moscow. Georgian side disagreed that the song was overtly political.

EBU has offered GPB- 1st Channel to re-write the lyrics of the entry song or either to select another entry song for the contest till 16 March.

Stepane & 3G with the play on words song “Put In Disco” were selected the Georgian entry to the ESC through Georgia’s national competition. The song caused some controversy as it can be perceived to contain political references to former Russian President and present PM Vladimir Putin in the lyrics.

Georgia's Stephane & 3G Sing "We Don't Wanna Put In" - Eurovision 2009

Source: Georgian Public Broadcasting

CBC News, March 10, 2009

Georgia’s entry in the Eurovision song contest, a not-too-sly jab at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has been booted out of the competition because of its lyrics.

We Don’t Wanna’ Put In is a disco-funk song that seems to poke fun at the Russian leader.

The contest is being held in Moscow this May, less than a year after Russia and Georgia went to war over the region of South Ossetia.

Officials say it’s against the competition’s rules to have political content in the entries.

According to the rules of the event, no “lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision song contest.”

The song’s title is a play on the politician’s name and has the chorus: “We don’t wanna put in, the negative move, it’s killin’ the groove.”

The Geneva-based European Broadcasting Union, which runs the competition, said Georgia can either rewrite the lyrics of its entry or enter another song by March 16 or it would not be allowed to take part.

The song was chosen by a public vote and jury and was supposed to be performed by female trio 3G, along with male vocalist Stephane.

Georgia's Stephane & 3G Sing "We Don't Wanna Put In" - Eurovision 2009

In fact, Georgia had initially said it would not take part in Eurovision due to political objections, but the decision was reversed in December.

Russia won the right to host the annual event after winning last year’s competition.