Georgia 2023: Iru with ‘Echo’

Our last and by far not least addition to the field is Georgia who have decided it might be better to make the final for a change:

Like Armenia, I do appreciate Georgia pushing the boat out and trying something different compositionally. Not everything they throw at this lands but it is memorable with the main hook repeated so much. It is one of the better songs in semi 2 and certainly at the top of the interesting column.

On the negatives the enunciation is surely intentionally bad and it might as well have been in Georgian which would make it a far less frustrating listen. This really gets none of the benefits from choosing English.

There's a bit of background chanting in this and some notable instrumentation, putting my detectives hat on, I will stab in the dark they are going to try something similar to their debut 2007 staging with which this also shares it's avant-garde sound and nonsense lyrics. We will see I guess whether it's sword dancers or anything else but they really need something big live in order to make anything of this. The Spanish entry I've also seen compared to this started at a lower base before the live performance and we know Iru is capable so it will be one I'm interested to see.

Georgia are drawn well in the second half of the weak semi which is a positive as is the presence of Armenia and Ukraine voting. That's about as good as it can get for Georgia who lack much of a base vote. With a strong staging this should be in the top 3 in the semi with a chance to win it if truly great or if early frontrunners Austria doesn't work live - both of which are very possible. Once in the final this might become the most successful Georgian entry of all time but that race could be tight.

Personal Rating: 7/10

Competitve Rating: 7/10

Early Prediction: Semi Two 1st-3rd, 8th-12th in the final.