Eurovision disqualifies Georgia entry

It seems the world won’t get to see Georgian vocal group 3G (left) perform their Putin-mocking single “We don’t wanna put in” at the Eurovision song contest in Moscow. The politically charged dicso tune was a little too hot for organizers to handle: The contest’s oversight committee said in a statement on the Eurovision web ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
587826_090312_eurovision2.jpg
587826_090312_eurovision2.jpg
Members of Georgia's Eurovision 2009 song contest entry, pop group "Stephane and 3G", from left, Tako Gachechiladze, Stephane Mgebrishvili, Nini Badurashvili, and Kristi Imedadze pose for a picture in Tbilisi on February 19, 2009. Georgia has chosen a disco song poking fun at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as its entry for this year's Eurovision song contest in Moscow. AFP PHOTO / VANO SHLAMOV (Photo credit should read VANO SHLAMOV/AFP/Getty Images)

It seems the world won't get to see Georgian vocal group 3G (left) perform their Putin-mocking single "We don't wanna put in" at the Eurovision song contest in Moscow. The politically charged dicso tune was a little too hot for organizers to handle:

It seems the world won’t get to see Georgian vocal group 3G (left) perform their Putin-mocking single “We don’t wanna put in” at the Eurovision song contest in Moscow. The politically charged dicso tune was a little too hot for organizers to handle:

The contest’s oversight committee said in a statement on the Eurovision web site that the song violated a statute in the contest’s charter stating that songs must not bring the contest “into disrepute” and banning “lyrics, speeches [and] gestures of a political or similar nature.”

The committee has given Georgia until March 16 to select a new entry or “change the lyrics of the selected song” so that it complies with the rule, the statement said.

I call BS on this. Ireland’s Eurovision entry last year, sung by an obscene turkey puppet name Dustin, poked fun at a number of other countires, was purposely designed to mock the contest, and nearly set off a diplomatic incident in Macedonia. And Arab-Israeli singer Mira Awad has angered Palestinian nationalists with a pro-reconciliation Eurovision duet with a Jewish singer.

Whether it’s a kitschy song contest or the Olympics, geopolitical rivalries are inevitably part of any international competition. It’s very sad to see Eurovision’s organizers compromise the integrity of this august institution by bowing to Russia’s objections.

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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