News - Russian political rally against Georgian song | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

member login (forgot password?) subscribe (free!)

Become Esctoday fan on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Visit our Youtube Official channel Check our Myspace!


Credits

Written by

Laura Gudim

Published

2/Mar 2009 at 17:49

Source(s)

AFP

News

Russian rally against Georgian Song 'we don't wanna put it' - © AFP
© AFP

We don't want we don't wanna put in

Russian political rally against Georgian song

A protest in Moscow took place earlier today against the proposed Georgian Eurovision Song Contest, We don't wanna put in which has been widely seen as a political statement against Russian influence in the country. The rally was organised by the Young Russia political group.

Georgia selected the song We don't wanna put in during a national final last month by means of a jury and televote. The news of the song's meaning and performance which left viewers in no doubt of the true message of the song became news around the world.

AFP reports that "This song does not just insult to Putin, it insults the whole Russian people," Maxim Mishchenko, leader of Young Russia and a member of the Russian parliament, said."I think that you shouldn't take a non-political contest and turn it into a political show to insult your opponents," he added.

AFP also report that the group brought a live turkey to the protest that was said to represent the Georgian President... This is of course, not the first time that a Turkey has been linked to a controvercial Eurovision Song Contest entry after Dustin the Turkey represented Ireland last year.

Until the song is officially submitted at the Heads of Delegation meeting in Moscow on 16-17 March, the EBU cannot take action to have the song's lyrics or choreography changed. Until then, unless the song is withdrawn or a statement from the Georgian broadcaster is released to say that the song will be altered to remove all political meaning, it is unlikely that this story will fade.

Each country competing at the Eurovision Song Contest has the power to select their entry by their own rules. Once the song is submitted, it must meet the EBU's rules for the Eurovision Song Contest. the song does seem to be in breach of the Eurovision Song Contest rule that states "No lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision Song Contest."

In 2007, Verka Seduchka's Ukrainian entry contained the lines 'Russia Goodbye" which was amended to "Lasha Tumbai" (Meaning Churned Butter in Mongolian). Many people believe that the line 'Russia Goodbye' reappeared in the Eurovision Song Contest performance that took second place at the competition but no action was taken.

Israel's entry that year was called Push the button which was a song speaking out against the possibility of political leaders having the power to destroy the world. The entry also caused controversy but because it did not name any particular leader, the song was deemed eligable to proceed without changes.

Back on 19th February, esctoday.com asked the EBU for a comment regarding the entry and whether it could face disqualification or enforced changes. You can see the article here.

You can watch the winning performance of Stephanie and 3G here:

In 2008 Diana Gurtskaya reached 11th place last year with Peace will come. in 2009 Georgia will part will take part in the first semi final on 12th May, in Moscow, Russia.


Related polls




Go directly to the reactions

Reactions

When reacting to a news item, please stick to the topic. Inappropriate messages (swearing, racism, hate, etc.), messages in other languages than English and spam (which includes URL advertising) will be deleted and you risk your account being removed. Reacting on newsitems is only possible when logged in as a member. Still don't have member account?

Click here to react  Click here to become a member (free!)


Donatas Ilgamiškis [53057]
Sun 8 Mar 2009 21:36:38

I hope Georgia won't be disqualified :) .Nice song


Owen Williams [36362]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 17:29:57

Temur
I'm glad someone FINALLY seems to understand the point I've been making!


Temur Temur [44866]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 16:15:32

Owen

Fully agree with your statement. we are actually talking about the same thing but from the different points of view :))


Owen Williams [36362]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 15:47:49

Temur

Yeah your right about the influence of great powers, what I was objecting to was A) classing the UK in the same league as the USA and Russia in influcening Georgia and Ossetia, B) saying the UK is a puppet of the USA (which it isn't, it's just a good ally), C) saying that individual countries and government have no say, and finally D) incinuating that Russia is any less guilty of the USA and the west in coercing other, less powerful countries do what benefits them.


Temur Temur [44866]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 13:18:03

And a few words on the subject related to turkish participation in contest and overall it's desire to be part of europe.

Actually when I lived in UK, I met much more british people who hownestly wish turkey to join EU. I remember my conversation with one of the most famous british expert in geopolitical situation and proffesor of Edinburg university. He said that Europe will get much more benefits if Turkey join EU rather than let this country stay alone and push turkey to the islamic world. Turkey geographically is part of the Europe( at least one part of it) and for the last 600 years Turkey ( Ottoman Empire) was playing an active role in european politics. There are so many east european and balkan countries which get huge turkish(ottoman) influence during 400 years of it's dominance so just ignoring this is not the most smart thing to do. So nobody can just isolate Turkey from the europe or move this country to the anouther place in the world. So, what we have at the moment?...big dillema for the Europe and for Turkey as well. What Europe wants to see on it's eastern boarder?...a modernised, civil and democratic muslim country which is part of the european family with it's common obligations and responsibilities or huge, powerfull(second army in NATO) clerical muslim country which is going to make a close political relations with fundamentalists rejims like Iran, Afganistan or Pakistan?????.........if Europeans wants to see the second option, so it is their choice but the consiquencess for the Europe might be very serious.

If you ask me what the major drive for the negative opinion against turkish membership amongst ordinary europeans, my answer is - Islam religion. Majority of europeans so afraid of Islam and so stereotiped about muslims, so just imagination of having 80 million muslim nation in european family could cause a panic and negative reaction. I think this situation will changed and in the near future europeans as well turks should finally decide what they need to do in order to build strong, united and consolidated Europe together. And of course Turkey has a gaps for improvements.

p.s. My personnel view. I am not a turkish citizen neither a european citizen so this my personnel opinion. I think Turkey should stay where she is right now and becoming a real regional power for the countries which surrounding Turkey. Turkey must stay a civil country where religion and state is separated and continue it's development based on the fundament which was build by the founder of Turkish Republic Ataturk. This is my opinion.

thanks and sorry for such a long off top.


Temur Temur [44866]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 12:57:32

Owen Williams

In that case yes you are right, but this is constant thread for every countries not just Russia. In the past USSR used war in Vietnam to make a damage to US army and they succeeded in this as well as US used soviet intervention to Afganistan as a tool for further destroying the USSR. My point is, that in 21st century we can't isolate any big powers from the decision making process which related to global security and terrorizm. US, Russia,EU,China - all of them are connected to each other and without cooperation between them, our civilizition is going to be collapsed.




Ki.var . [54365]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 11:10:23

I hope Georgia won't be disqualified.
I think Russia will do all their possibles to take it out the competition... but, at the end, this will finish in nothing.
If 2 songs in ESC have been having a hidden message to Russia, I could think... they are saying the truth...


Owen Williams [36362]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 10:34:24

Temur Temur

I agree with you completely.
Just to clarify something though, Ididn't suggest the UK and US start a war with Russia, there are other ways of distrediting Russia than war either between the west and Russia or one supposedly stimulated by the west between Russia and one of its neighbours. That was my point. I wouldn't suggest a war with Russia at all, that would be really really stupid. lol




Temur Temur [44866]
Fri 6 Mar 2009 09:33:44

Owen William"s quote:
(If the USA or the UK or for that matter any other western nation, wanted to discredit Russia there are easier ways than manipulating a government to a) start a war they could never win, )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
hello. i don't wanna enter into the discussion about georgian song, because I think it is their business. every country has a rights to select what they want to select. and 17th march the eurovision commission will observe every selected songs and make a final decision basis on the existing policy and rules.

i have a huge respect to my neibouring georgian nation. even more, i am working in georgia at the moment and i have a lot of friends from this lovely country. so no doubts that Georgia had a terrible time in august last year and occupation of it's land still continue and became even more aggrresive. Russia should leave georgian territory and let georgian people to decide on their future by themselves.

i just want to respond for the above mentioned quote by William. My dear british friend, I spent 4 years in Uk (2002-2006) and lived in Aberdeen and London and I know what ordinary british people think about UK foreign policy and especially at the time when Mr.Blair was a PM. I have a huge respect towards this man and hownesly think that he was one of the best PM Britain ever had, however the majority of british sociaty was strongly opposed his 'YES' to every single US administration moves around the globe. And every time after long discussions at Westminster's house of common during PM questions time, he finally made decisions which was almoust everytime supportive to US administration despite the national poll opinions. By saying that, I must admit that other 'old' european countries did the same but with much more emotional approach.

As for the above statement, I just want to remind you that underestimation of the second largest nucler power in the world can became quite dangerous. Russia has more than 5000 nucler missiles and the capacity of russian military industry and technology will allow them to produce enouther 20000 nuclear missiles just during a couple of years. Even existing 5000 will enough to completely destroy our planet 64 times. So when you saying that US and UK can start war with Russia and humiliate and destroy this country, I just hope that you were joking :))))

This is the major fundamental guarantee that there is no way that US and Russia ever enter into the military conflict with each other. And I think this is good.

cheers mate from sunny Baku :))


SEA MASTER [53309]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 23:03:57

Interesting song specially in chords!!! But nothing more than that


Chris P [42145]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 10:44:52

Oh, good old publicity. I'm not buying it though. See? Because of stuff like this and because of attention-seekers like this, neither Russia nor Georgia will get my votes this year.

Me either! But I live in Australia - no-one will get my vote :(


Poppy Pickette [54713]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 10:03:50

Oh, good old publicity. I'm not buying it though. See? Because of stuff like this and because of attention-seekers like this, neither Russia nor Georgia will get my votes this year.


Molly Parton [29330]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 09:30:29

So what really, if they don't want to be run by Putin and the Russians? Who does?


mirza saric [45800]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 08:56:09

Its Boring.....


Axel L [33654]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 01:53:02

I love how a harmless disco song has been transformed into a mass destruction weapon :D This kind of things only happen in the ESC ;)


pap themos [45170]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 01:33:56

hi evrybody if someone wanrs to participate to my song contest please check my site www.esongfestival.webs.com
and send me an emai at
esongfestival@hotmail.com ! thanks.


Chris P [42145]
Thu 5 Mar 2009 00:20:07

Mina:
The point that I was making was that not all culture is "nice". We get people going on and on (and on) about how Eurovision is some cultural masterpiece, so it would seem there is a fundamental flaw with that idea. I personally don't think you can get any cultural value from a 3 minute pop song.

The reality of the situation is what Ro L said. Lax enforcement of certain rules has lead to this situation. And now if the EBU comes down on them, Georgia will cry foul and say "Russia made them do it" and because the west is still a bit suspicious of Russia (their government anyway), the media will run with the story. As I said, win, lose or withdrawn, Georgia has already got the headlines they were after. The best thing to do would be to let the song go ahead, that would completely take the sting out of their attack. Is it right? No. But as I said way back on the original article, the EBU has dug a hole for itself by not taking action before on political songs.


Barbara Mercurio [28114]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 23:35:29

support Russia on this issue .
EBU should ban Georgia this year and make it clear to the georgia's regime not to mix politics with ESCand to stop with provocations .


Yighit T. [44826]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 20:04:40

Turkey , greece , south and north cyprus is bloodbrother . number one greece , turkey and cyprus good luck ( go georgia go )


mark ukesc [54089]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 18:45:32

epsc(eurovision political song contest) this is really true


ukrainian lover [54799]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 17:25:06

i will vote for Georgia
Ukraine with you!!!


Ro L. [14797]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 15:17:08

btw, I think EBU should sharpen their rules and stick more to them. there's too much plagiarism in the contest, all political songs have to be banned and they should stand up for what ESC is about.
ESC and it's organization is too soft, too scared to loose countries, not knowing they have rules they can use to prevent that. if a song is too long or too short or if it has voices on tape in the background, they use the rules propperly, but in cases like this, they should just take a stand and say.... 'there is a possible political issue here, let's see what we can do.'
I just don't understand why the EBU doesn't get more involved in the local preselections. I mean, how come that songs participate in prerounds that are changed before the contest, that are way too long at first, that are using parts from classical pieces as their music. ESC isn't evolving as much as they could. it's starting to become a shy organization instead of just standing up for what they always were: a songcontest that should unite europe and that gives a platform for artists to Europe. Songs should have originality and quality and not simple basic ripoffs, jokesongs, political statements etc.
EBU/ESC: DARE to live up to your own rules!!


Ro L. [14797]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 15:10:14

sigh. people. reaction is all they want, if Putin really feels offended he should ignore it, because it's all a matter of childish behaviour. the song is nice, but performed in a bad way so the joke should be on georgia and not on Russia. ESC is not for political statements, if you react the way like described above, I'm sure we will keep on getting these stupid kind of songs.
I mean: Ukrain: Russia Goodbye!!!
it's been done before. ignore it and things will blow over!!!


Owen Williams [36362]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 13:05:12

And another point Marc

Actually a lot of nations DO want Turkeyto enter the EU! general public opinion is negative, however most governments in the EU want it to enter at some point! this is the same situation in the UK, most people don't really want Turkey to join but the government is in favour of it!


Owen Williams [36362]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 13:00:55

Marc W

If you go through the posts of ANY of the articles on here you will find that probably around 60% of them are written by British people! or Greek! its rediculous to make a judgement on British foreign policy (which btw I study as part of my degree) on what people say on HERE! A) its generally a place where people don't come to talk about politics B) the amount of people from each country is not the same, some countries have far more members on here than others, for example the UK probably has 10 times more fans than Germany or France.

You actually even suggesting that this site has any relevance to British foriegn policy and our views about the war in Ossetia goes to show that you know nothing of the situation!


Owen Williams [36362]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 12:12:04

Well said Surry Guy


Surrey Guy [12260]
Wed 4 Mar 2009 10:57:23

@ Mark W...Given thaat you are from Germany whose chancelor calls the Kremlin every morning for her daily orders, I think it is a bit rich to criticise the UK and its relationship with the US.


The list of 234 reactions is divided into 9 pages. Choose a page:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

React yourself

Closed for reactions
This news article is older than one week. Reacting to articles is only possible in the first week after publication.


































09/Feb/2012

295 visitors online

5 members online

42434 members

11 reactions today

Become a fan

Set as home page!

Search news

Tools


Related links

More news

Country pages

Share!

Do you have news for esctoday.com? Please let us know! You can submit your newsitem in our contact centre!


Tip!