Tornike selected to represent Georgia at Eurovision 2020

On New Years’s Eve 2019 Tornike Kipiani beat three other finalists and won Georgian Idol. He now goes on to represent Georgia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.

The Georgian Idol television show began in 2008. It has spawn many singers who have gone on to represent Georgia in Eurovision. They include Oto Nemsadze who won it twice, Nodiko Tatishvili and Nina Sublatti.

It is the second year the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) has used Georgian Idol as a platform for their national Eurovision artist selection after Oto Nemsadze won the show last year and represented Georgia in the 2019 Contest in Tel Aviv with the song “Keep On Going”.

The 2019 season of the show ran over 10 weeks. The final was held in Tbilisi and the winner was selected by the Georgian public through online voting and televoting.

Fans of rock shall be delighted with his National Final win. He sings rock and the occasional rock ballad, and he has a unique style. In the Georgian Idol final Tornike performed a cover of Alice In Chains “Love, Hate, Love”.

Tornike, who is also known as Kipo, is no stranger to television music competitions. The 31 year old became a household name when he won the first edition of The X Factor Georgia in 2014. His mentor was Tamta, who represented Cyprus at Eurovision last year with “Replay”. During that season he sung a rock cover version of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” featuring his harmonica!

In 2017 Tornike entered the National Final to represent Georgia at Eurovision together with Giorgi Bolotashvili. Unfortunately their song “You Are My Sunshine” came in 23rd place.

Tornike’s song entry for Eurovision 2020 will be selected internally and announced in the coming months.

Georgia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. Over the last 13 years they have reached the final seven times. They reached the Top 10 with two entries with both finishing in 9th place. The first time was in 2010 in Oslo, Norway, with Sopho Nizharadze’s “Shine” and the second time was in 2011 when Eldrine performed “One More Day” in Düsseldorf, Germany.