The fourth round of Ranina, Georgia’s method of selection for Junior Eurovision, started this evening with the first five of the ten hopefuls being asked to perform a song in a non-native language.
This week, five of the contestants performed songs in Swahili, English, Spanish, Italian, and Ukrainian, an important Junior Eurovision test as historically many countries insert non-native language lyrics into their songs to appeal to foreign televoters.
Barbara Morgoshia began the evening by performing “Khadja Nin (Simba),” written by Nicolas Fiszman, in Swahili, earning a perfect 120. Mate Martiashvili performed Paul McCartney’s “Black Bird” in English, finishing his Ranina campaign on 116 points.
Giorgi Shashiashvili performed Julio Cesar’s “Al Monte” in Spanish, earning 115 points. Andria Putkaradze performed Josh Groban’s “Cinema Paradiso” in Italian and pulled off a perfect score of 120.
Marta Nozadze performed the Ukrainian folk song “Malanka,” earning 116 points.
Heading into next episode’s second part of the fourth round, here are the scores so far:
- Andria Putkaradze: 117 + 120 + 120 + 120 = 477
- Barbara Morgoshia: 116 + 120 + 120 + 120 = 476
- Mate Martiashvili: 114 + 120 + 120 + 116 = 470
- Marta Nozadze: 114 + 120 + 118 + 116 = 468
- Giorgi Shashiashvili: 113 + 120 + 120 + 115 = 468
- Anastasia Iremadze: 119 + 120 + 120 = 359
- Sandro Ashotia: 118 + 120 + 120 = 358
- Sandro Gurgenadze: 118 + 120 + 120 = 358
- Andria Mishvelidze: 120 + 120 + 118 = 358
- Ia Lachelle: 117 + 120 + 118 = 355
This round’s guest judge is Tinatin Rukhadze, Director of the Tbilisi National Palace. She joined regular judges Dato Evgenidze and Nato Metonidze on the panel.
Each contestant can potentially earn up to 120 points per round. There’s 10 points available for each judge across the four judging categories of vocals, performance, artistry and collaboration.
The five contestants with the highest scores after four tours (usually spread over eight weeks) progress to the Semi-Finals, where the top three progress to the Grand Final.
Hosted by David Aladashvili, with Ranina 2022 finalist Vache Ghviniashvili as co-host and green room interviewer, this is the seventh time that Ranina will be used to select Georgia’s representative at Junior Eurovision. The song is usually released close to the European Broadcasting Union deadline, with the songwriter selected internally (more often than not, it’s serial JESC winning songwriter Giga Kukhianidze).
The best performance by Georgia in the Ranina era is Mariam Bigvava, who came in 3rd at Junior Eurovision 2022 with “I Believe,” one year after Niko Kajaia’s 4th place with “Let’s count the Smiles.”
Last year, 1TV mixed up the formula slightly by pairing Season 6 winner Anastasia Vasadze with Season 5 finalists Nikoloz Kharati and Oto Bazerashvlili on “Over the Sky.” Georgia came in 14th, equaling their lowest ever placement of Giorgi Rotiashvili’s “We Need Love” from 2019.
Overall, Georgia has the joint most wins with France among Junior Eurovision nations with three victories (all Kukhianidze compositions) in 2008, 2011, and 2016.
Tune in to Ranina in two weeks time on Saturday, May 18th, 2024, for the second half of the fourth round on 1TV Georgia.
Now that the fourth round is halfway done, which one of these ten hopefuls do #YOU think has what it takes to win a fourth JESC crown for Georgia? Let us know in the comments, in our forum, or in our social media.
