Welcome back to ESCBubble’s coverage for Eurovision 2021! It’s been a busy few days, and today marks the final set of first rehearsals for our semi finalists, with the countries performing in the second half of the second semi final getting their chance to take to the big stage.

As always, you can check out our ongoing coverage through both our Live Rehearsal Blog and also rolling  daily updates on our Twitter Account.

If you are avoiding potential rehearsal spoilers then don’t read any further! Semi Final Two will take place at 21.00 CET on Thursday 20th May 2021 with sixteen countries competing for ten qualifying spots for the final.

First up this morning is… Georgia!

First Rehearsal

Firstly let me just say that Tornike Kipiani has an AMAZI

NG voice. He makes the belting parts look effortless. He’s wearing a white shirt & black trousers, and the stage accompanying him is nearly completely black. There are intimate blue flashlights on him during the first verse and then for the chorus the staging grows to make use of the LED backdrop. There’s like a blue smoke/cloud which covers the screen from the bottom to the top and then it turns in to stormy clouds behind him.

For the second verse, there is again a spotlight but this time Tornike is sat down. The lyrics from the song appear as a projection both on him and the backdrop before he stands up for the big notes at the end. It is a first rehearsal so probably don’t read too much in to it, but he didn’t look or sound too enthusiastic when he was singing.

On the third run, Tornike did something that I’ve never seen anybody before do – he performed the whole song an octave lower and then for the final chorus went an octave higher. He certainly has an impressive range!! The performance itself though appears pretty polished and finalised so I don’t think Georgia will have too much to change. The focus is very much his voice, rather than any surrounding fireworks.

Before Eurovision

Tornike Kipiani won the ticket to Eurovision back in January 2020 after winning Georgian Idol. He impressed many with his gritty rock vocals, however this wasn’t his first attempt at Eurovision. Back in 2017, he competed in the Georgian marathon national final with industrial techno song “You Are My Sunshine”. Last year, his song was in some ways a protest against the Big 5, with the song “Take Me As I Am” talking about him being compared to others or not seen as being as significant for being from Georgia, rather than France/Germany/UK, etc.

Tornike again was one of the earliest confirmations of being permitted to return for a second chance in 2021 after the 2020 cancellation and this year his performance is a lot tamer in some ways, “You” is a much more relaxed rock ballad which builds substantially from something quite small and slow to some huge notes by the end. You can check out the music video here: