The first four rounds of Ranina, Goergia’s method of artist selection for Junior Eurovision 2023, concluded this evening with five of the ten aspiring hopefuls progressing to next week’s Semi-Final.
Over the past eight weeks, ten kids duked it out over four themed “tours,” and the five with the highest aggregate scores moved on.
Anastasia Vasadze, Tako Tomashvili, Soso Chachua, Anastasia Berishvili and Gabriel Lomsadze were the five to move on, with Vasadze, Tomashvili, Chachua and Berishvili all earning perfect scores of 480 points over the four rounds.
In each round, a contestant is scored by three judges in four categories (vocals, performance, artistry and collaboration), meaning Vasadze, Tomashvili, Chachua and Berishvili earned the maximum 40 points from each of the three judges in all four rounds. Lomsadze came in fifth with 479 points.
Not making the Semi-Finals are Anaroza Gaprindashvili (477 points), Datuna Kereselidze (476 points), Anastasia Masurashvili (474 points), and Mariam Gomiashvili and Demetre Okriashvili earning 473 points.
Tonight’s episode featured the second five contestants in the foreign language round, where each had to perform a song in a foreign language.
Anastasia Masurashvili started with a Ukrainian song (“My own mother”), with two judges in particular citing her nervousness as the reason she did not earn a perfect score.
Gabriel Lomsadze followed with the Spanish language “Perfidia,” Zaza Chachua impressed the judges with his take on The Beatles’s “All You Need is Love,” and Tako Tomashvili dazzled with the Portuguese language “O morro nao tem vez,” which also involved a brief duet with Ranina cohost Vache Ghviniashvili.
Anastasia Berishvili finished the night with the jazzy “It don’t mean a thing,” a pick she made as she has recently become very interested in American jazz and said that the style suits her perfectly.
The head of the judging panel is the familiar bandanna wearing Georgian musician and composer Davit Evgenidze, who was also a coach on this season’s The Voice of Georgia which picked Iru Kchechanov for Eurovision 2023. Nodiko Tatishvili, who represented Georgia at Eurovision 2013 with Sophia Gelovani on “Waterfall,” and Tika Rukhadze, Director of Tbilisi’s historic National Palace, were the other two judges for this round.
Next week, June 3, 2023, at 22:00 local time, join the Semi-Finalists as Georgia searches for its representative for Junior Eurovision.
Last year’s winner Mariam Bigvava posted Georgia’s best result since 2017 and in the Ranina era by coming in 3rd with “I Believe.” Georgia came in 2nd with the Jury vote, though 12th with the online vote.
Georgia holds the most Junior Eurovision wins, having taken the trophy in 2008, 2011, and 2016.
Do #YOU think any of the five hopefuls have what it takes to deliver a great result for Georgia? Let us know in the comments below, on social media, or in our forum.
