Waiting until the very last moment, Georgia internally selected Mariam Shengelia to represent them with the song “Freedom.” Mariam Shengelia will perform 10th in the second semifinal.

As the mid-March deadline for Eurovision entries loomed closer, Georgia remained eerily silent. Until March 14th, when they dropped all of the information at once. By releasing their music video with no prior hints or announcements, you could say they dove in head-first. Unfortunately, they didn’t make much of a splash. 

Arriving at the end of the National Finals season (amidst all of the hullabaloo of Sweden’s song contest winner), “Freedom” seemed to vanish into the background almost as soon as it emerged. 

The visuals in the music video are beautiful – the red dress, the stage lighting, the orchestra… But the most remarkable part of the music video has got to be the highly regimented backup dancers who emerge single file in fun, stylized (traditional Georgian?) costumes, and do some cool jumps and spins. However, they disappear a minute into the song, and are not seen again! A waste of talent. Hopefully, we will see them more on the Eurovision stage. 

There are parts of this song and entry that have a lot of promise, but they just don’t quite fully manage to live up to their potential. For example, the driving backing vocals are very cool, but aren’t supported by the main melody.

And then, why is the second verse in English? Just…why? It wasn’t for the exceptional lyricism of a line like, “I’m living my life with my smile / Kindness is sense of my style / Freedom’s what makes life so mine.” Georgia does not have a solid English lyric track record (they contributed the classic “Life is love / Thing is known / Like in dreams” in 2023). It should have stayed in Georgian.