Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Prior to the 2018 Contest, Georgia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since their first entry in 2007.[1] The nation's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been ninth place, which was achieved on two occasions: in 2010 with the song "Shine" performed by Sofia Nizharadze and in 2011 with the song "One More Day" performed by Eldrine. The nation briefly withdrew from the contest in 2009 after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) rejected the Georgian entry, "We Don't Wanna Put In", for perceived political references to Vladimir Putin who was the Russian Prime Minister at the time.[2][3] The withdrawal and fallout was tied to tense relations between Georgia and then host country Russia, which stemmed from the 2008 Russo-Georgian War.[4] Following the introduction of semi-finals, Georgia has, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on three occasions. In 2017, Georgia failed to qualify to the final with the song "Keep the Faith" performed by Tamara Gachechiladze.

The Georgian national broadcaster, Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), broadcasts the event within Georgia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. GPB confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 2 October 2017.[5] Georgia has selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest both through national finals and internal selections in the past. In 2013 and 2014, GPB opted to internally select the Georgian entry, in 2015, the Georgian entry was selected via a national final, and in 2016, the artist was internally selected while the song was chosen in a national final. For their 2017 participation, the entry was selected through a national final. In 2018 the artist was internally selected.

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Georgia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[8]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Georgia was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Australia and preceding the entry from Poland.[9]

Points awarded to Georgia

Points awarded to Georgia (Semi-final 2)[10]

Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points		Ukraine
7 points
6 points
5 points	Latvia  Ukraine
4 points
3 points	Russia
2 points		Latvia
1 point		Hungary

Points awarded by Georgia

Points awarded by Georgia (Semi-final 2)[10] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Moldova  Sweden 10 points  Ukraine  Netherlands 8 points  Romania  Latvia 7 points  Latvia  Ukraine 6 points  Russia  Romania 5 points  Norway  Norway 4 points  Hungary  Malta 3 points  Denmark  Moldova 2 points  Sweden  Hungary 1 point  Netherlands  Slovenia

Points awarded by Georgia (Final)[11] Score Televote Jury 12 points  Israel  Sweden 10 points  Cyprus  Estonia 8 points  Ukraine  Austria 7 points  Lithuania  Germany 6 points  Estonia  Bulgaria 5 points  Italy  Netherlands 4 points  France  Albania 3 points  Moldova  Israel 2 points  Denmark  Lithuania 1 point  Austria  Denmark

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Georgian jury:[12]

• David Evgenidze (jury chairperson) – composer, musician (jury member in semi-final 1)
• Zurab Ramishvili – jazz musician
• Eliso Shengelia – musical producer
• Salome Bakuradze – singer
• Kakhaber Grigalashvili – singer
• Mariko Ebralidze – singer, represented Georgia in the 2014 contest (jury member in the final)

Detailed voting results from Georgia (Semi-final 2)[10]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		D. Evgenidze	Z. Ramishvili	E. Shengelia	S. Bakuradze	K. Grigalashvili	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Norway	5	4	5	11	12	6	5	6	5
02	Romania	15	5	13	4	3	5	6	3	8
03	Serbia	9	17	11	14	10	12		11
04	San Marino	12	16	15	15	16	16		15
05	Denmark	10	15	10	13	15	14		8	3
06	Russia	13	14	12	16	14	15		5	6
07	Moldova	6	11	14	8	5	8	3	1	12
08	Netherlands	2	2	2	3	4	2	10	10	1
09	Australia	16	13	16	6	7	11		13
10	Georgia
11	Poland	14	10	9	12	17	13		14
12	Malta	8	8	8	5	6	7	4	16
13	Hungary	7	9	7	10	8	9	2	7	4
14	Latvia	3	3	3	2	2	3	8	4	7
15	Sweden	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	9	2
16	Montenegro	17	12	17	17	13	17		17
17	Slovenia	11	7	6	9	11	10	1	12
18	Ukraine	4	6	4	7	9	4	7	2	10

Detailed voting results from Georgia (Final)[11]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Z. Ramishvili	E. Shengelia	S. Bakuradze	K. Grigalashvili	M. Ebralidze	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	25	25	15	15	10	20		3	8
02	Spain	19	18	14	8	18	15		24
03	Slovenia	17	22	17	23	9	17		25
04	Lithuania	7	10	7	5	22	9	2	4	7
05	Austria	4	3	3	4	1	3	8	10	1
06	Estonia	1	2	5	6	2	2	10	5	6
07	Norway	15	14	12	16	17	16		12
08	Portugal	22	20	19	22	23	24		26
09	United Kingdom	14	13	20	20	13	19		19
10	Serbia	26	19	21	21	14	22		21
11	Germany	2	1	4	14	3	4	7	13
12	Albania	9	9	8	11	4	7	4	23
13	France	18	8	16	12	21	14		7	4
14	Czech Republic	20	12	26	13	25	21		11
15	Denmark	10	21	11	2	16	10	1	9	2
16	Australia	21	15	22	19	20	23		22
17	Finland	11	17	23	26	12	18		17
18	Bulgaria	6	6	2	10	5	5	6	16
19	Moldova	24	26	24	24	26	26		8	3
20	Sweden	3	5	1	1	6	1	12	15
21	Hungary	13	11	18	3	24	11		14
22	Israel	8	7	6	7	15	8	3	1	12
23	Netherlands	5	4	9	9	11	6	5	18
24	Ireland	12	23	13	18	8	13		20
25	Cyprus	23	24	25	25	19	25		2	10
26	Italy	16	16	10	17	7	12		6	5