The penultimate artist in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is Tornike Kipiani from Georgia.
Tornike Kipiani was born on 11th December 1987 in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. The singer rose to fame after he won the first season of the X Factor Georgia in 2014, where his mentor was Tamta (Eurovision Cyprus 2019). In 2017, he attempted to represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest with his song “You Are My Sunshine”.
In 2019 he was selected to represent Georgia at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest following his victory at Georgian Idol, where he picked up 33.82% of the public votes. He finished first in the public vote in every live show except Week 1. He was due to sing “Take Me As I Am”, a song written by Tornike himself, before the contest was cancelled.
Shortly after the cancellation, Georgian broadcaster GPB revealed that Tornike would sing for Georgia at the 2021 contest. He will sing “You”, another song written and composed by the singer.
Tornike will perform in the second half of the second semi-final on May 20th.
Image source: GIORGI TSAAVA
Georgia debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007, they were represented by Sopho Khalvashi and the song “Visionary Dream”. Sopho finished 12th in the final scoring 97 points, the song received 12 points from the televoters in Lithuania. Their best result was a 9th place in both 2010 and 2011. Georgia has only ever missed one contest since their debut, this was in 2009 when they had selected Stephane & 3G with “We Don’t Wanna Put In”. The EBU asked for Georgia to rewrite the lyrics of the song or change the song completely.
