Eurovision opens new wounds in the Caucasus

Already notorious more for its political block voting than even its kitsch and glitzy musical entries, nothing could have prepared anyone for the controversy surrounding the three countries of the South Caucasus in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

In February, the international song contest was already off to a bad start when Georgia, still fuming over the August 2008 war with Russia, decided to enter a retro disco track into the competition scheduled to be held in Moscow.

The song, ‘We Don’t Wanna Put In’ by Stefane and 3G, mocked the Russian prime minister and was naturally considered unsuitable for the contest. Eurovision’s organizers requested that the lyrics be changed, but Georgia refused. Besides, the country had initially considered boycotting the competition and the song had anyway enjoyed considerable international media exposure. Georgia instead decided to stage its own “alternative” music festival which was held concurrently in Tbilisi last week.

However, the first real attempt to politically exploit this year’s competition had actually come in June 2008 when rumors started to spread that internationally renowned American-Armenian metal band System of a Down (SOAD) would enter the competition for Armenia. The band’s front man, Serj Tankian, was quoted as saying SOAD would consider doing so if it could perform a song written about the 1915 massacre and deportation of 1.5 million Armenians living in the then Ottoman Empire.

The full article is available in English and Italian on Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso.