Junior Eurovision 2020 – Georgia

The Junior Eurovision powerhouse Georgia has finished up in 9th place by the Aussievision team after having listened and ranked all Junior Eurovision songs. The rankings are a bit of a mixed bag with more than half of the team placing Georgia in the bottom half of the rankings. Details, individual rankings and comments below.

The entry

Sandra Gadelia – ‘You Are Not Alone’

Sandra Gadelia has been chosen through the children’s talent show ‘Ranina’ for the third time in a row, aired through Georgian national broadcaster GPB. Different episodes of ‘Ranina’ had different jurors. Some of the jurors with connections to Eurovision included co-host of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017, Helen Kalandadze, and Georgia’s intended 2020 Eurovision representative Tornike Kipiani.

Nine year old Sandra was highest-scoring or tied highest-scoring artist during the first three rounds of ‘Ranina’, and beat out other finalists Marita Khvedelidze and Rati Gelovani.

The Aussievision Team Rankings

Kyriakos - 5th
Ally - 6th
Laura - 6th
Ruby - 6th
Hugo - 7th
Mike - 7th
Cooper - 9th
Dale - 9th
Ford - 10th
Wade - 10th
Liv - 11th
Emma - 12th
Fleur - 12th

The comments

The dark horse of this Contest. I love the stripped back sound of this song which has a powerful chorus. Sandra’s vocals sound great. I love the change up in the song though it does turn into a very Disney song. ~ Kyriakos This song confuses me. As nice as it sounds, it is like a power ballad producer and an indie folk producer chucked ideas at a wall and took whatever stuck. For want of a better word, it seems a bit messy. ~ Wade Starts soft and builds nicely, with a great powerful vocal. Not the biggest fan of the instrumental in the second verse but that last minute is where the voice takes over and dominates. ~ Hugo Wow, I’m not quite sure how to put into words my thoughts about this song, but not in a bad way. This is just absolutely beautiful and haunting and gives me chills. I’ve only put this so low because the songs above it are more up-tempo, and I prefer more up-tempo songs I can dance along to. ~ Ally Loved the operatic trills throughout the song but Sandra seems to struggle when the lower key change kicks in. This doesn’t really go anywhere and possibly needs more instrumentation. May have been better sung as a duo? ~ Emma I found this disappointing. I am not sure where they were going with this song. Sandra can sing but with the overlays of a myriad of effects, it is just extra noise and really does not add much to the song itself. The song is just a ballad. I cannot really see it appealing to anyone's top 5, especially kids. ~ Fleur Very nice atmospheric ballad with plenty of classical flourish. The key change really lifts the song. But I’m not sure if the public will rush to their computers to vote for this - the momentum seems to come a bit too late in the song compared to other songs. ~ Laura A well produced piano ballad that has lashings of Georgian character thrown into the mix gives this 'something' that makes it stand out. The vocal will be a challenge for Sandra and the studio version is already bordering on a little shouty. If she gets the vocal correct, this could really elevate. For me, this could go either way on the night. ~ Mike Found this a little hard to judge – a huge big ballad with operatic tones at time. This could be amazing or a real mess! Up there with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan trying to steal the jury’s attention. This does have a magical quality but I have too many question marks at this stage to rank higher. ~ Dale

This is a good song, but a little forgetful. It could also just be too fresh in my mind at the time of ranking, though. Good, but just not as good as the others. ~ Ford No. ~ Liv

Georgia at Junior Eurovision

Georgia has competed in Junior Eurovision every year since 2007, quickly becoming one of the most successful countries in the competition. Over the last thirteen years, they have won the competition three times, come runner up twice, and made it to the top ten on eleven occasions.

Georgia’s three wins come from trio Bzikebi’s imaginary language entry ‘Bzz’ in 2008, girl group Candy’s ‘Candy Music’ in 2011, and Mariam Mamadashvili’s unforgettable ballad ‘Mzeo’ (‘Sun’) in 2016.

Georgia also had the privilege of hosting the competition in 2017 at the Olympic Palace in Tbilisi, hosted by Helen Kalandadze and Lizi Japaridze.

‘The entry’ and ‘Georgia at Junior Eurovision’ written by Ford