What is on the Caucasus menu… A quick review!

It is another great year where fans from all over the world discuss who will be the winner of Eurovision. Yesterday the last three songs for this year’s Eurovision, the songs from Israel, Malta and Armenia, were released, so we finally have a full lineup. The political drama of Eurovision has also already started, with Ukraine giving themselves the red card, withdrawing from this year’s competition. With MARUV’s ‘Siren Song’ Ukraine had a strong chance to reach then end-game, but perhaps this will be a leaning lesson for the broadcaster…

The beginning of March brought us different music styles from the Caucasus and today we are going to discuss what they are bringing to the table. The Caucasus countries we are referring to are of course the countries from that region competing in Eurovision Song Contest this year, who all got their independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union: Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

So, let’s see what is on the menu this year!

Georgia was the first of the three countries to present their song this year, using Georgian Idol as their national selection show this year, for which the final was on March 3rd. The winner of the should the would represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest. Out of the four finalists, it was Oto Nemsadze who captured the televoters’ attention, getting 44.13% of the votes. The artist will be singing ‘Sul tsin iare’ in Tel Aviv, which translates to ‘Go ahead’. It is a powerful patriotic ballad sung in Georgian, calling for the listeners to stand up for their voices, and not hold yourself down. Even though the language is in Georgian, the artist and the song itself invoke emotions in people, however, knowing the Eurovision crowd, for many this song is not a party starter. Even though we like the song, we do not think that people watching Eurovision will vote for it to go to the final, as people would like to have fun, rather than hear another mourning song during the music fest.

Azerbaijan was the second country to announce their artist. ITV teased the Eurovision fans by publishing a teaser, giving fragments of the music video, and with the message of ‘She is a killer’ appearing at the end, which made a lot of fans question whether the artist was male or female. This combined with the fact that the release date of the song was on the 8th of March – International Women’s Day – fans guessed that it would be a women. Though on the 8th of March, ITV announced that Chingiz Mustafayev is the one who will represent Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv and the song he sings is called ‘Truth’, which is a radio-friendly, upbeat tempo pop song with some traditional vibes. Chingiz was the winner of the seventh season of Yeni Ulduz (New Star). The songwriter is the famous Bulgarian Borislav Milanov, who was also behind songs such as Dance Alone, Beautiful Mess, and In Too Deep. Chingiz style is unique but how he sings the new style live is another question for all of us. Previously, Azerbaijan tried to send artist singing in a different than they usually perform in, and it has not been that successful. For instance sending Dilara Kazimova with a ballad instead of a rock, or sending Aisel with a generic pop instead of a jazz. But we like Chingiz and his ‘Truth’ and have high hopes that he will bring us to the final.

Armenia was the last of the Caucasus countries to release their song, which came out the 10th of March. Previously, the Armenian broadcaster had announced that the artist would be Srbuk, an armenian singer who got the second place in the first season of Armenian ‘The X Factor’, and fourth in the eighth season of the Ukrainian ‘The Voice of Ukraine’. Her song ‘Walking Out’ shows us that Armenia is once geared up for a fight, as last year the country for a second time failed to reach the Eurovision Song Contest Final. The potential of Srbuk’s voice is strong, which she proves in her ‘Walking out’ entry. The song also gives us beats reminiscent of ‘Imagine Dragons’. It is also noteworthy to mention that the lyrics of the song were written by Garik Papoyan, who previously co-wrote Armenia’s 2014 entry for Aram Mp3, which scored the country a fourth place in the final ranking in 2014.

All in all, we think that all the countries have great songs to represent them, however, as discussed previously, in our opinion, Georgia might not reach the final, whereas Azerbaijan and Armenia have good chances to reach the top 10. What do you think? Do you agree with our opinion? Whom are you going to support in the Eurovision Song Contest this year? Write us a comment below.