The Georgian public broadcaster, GPB, owner of the Georgian channel 1TV which broadcasts Eurovision in Georgia, has put out a statement responding to the matter of Georgia’s jury votes being removed from Eurovision 2022.
As has been stated by the EBU, 6 countries in Eurovision 2022 had their jury votes removed due to irregular voting patterns. Georgia was one of these countries, the others were Azerbaijan, Poland, Romania, Montenegro and San Marino.
As such, along with the other 5 countries, Georgia’s jury vote was nullified and replaced with an aggregated score of other countries with valid jury votes and similar voting methods. Specifically, for Georgia, this was from the other countries in Pot 3 with valid jury votes. As Azerbaijan also were in Pot 3, and so were Russia (prior to their removal from the contest), this means that this was an aggregate of only three countries – Ukraine, Armenia and Israel. Georgia’s jury votes were also therefore identical to Azerbaijan’s.
This is what has naturally prompted a response from the Georgian broadcaster, whose full statement you can read (in the original Georgian) here:
According to GPB, after the Georgian jury submitted their votes, the votes were accepted by the EBU with no initial shortcomings in their validity. The Georgian jury had intended to give 12 points to Ukraine. However on the final night, Martin Osterdahl announced the Georgian jury gave 12 points to the United Kingdom.
GPB stress that they had no interest in manipulating the results of the competition. They remain in constant communication with the EBU regarding the situation.
The broadcaster’s statement
It is noteworthy that the representatives of the national jury approved to evaluate the Eurovision Song Contest make their own assessment not during the final show, but during the previous day, during the dress rehearsal. Points are written, which are sent to the competition organizers in accordance with the relevant procedures, including notarization. Points are announced on the day of the final. The public broadcaster met all the conditions, sent an official document and received the consent of the European Broadcasting Union that there were no shortcomings.
At the Eurovision Song Contest, the national jury from Georgia gave the highest rating – the first place to Ukraine, which means 12 points. However, when announcing the points on the final show, it turned out that 12 points from Georgia were awarded to the United Kingdom. The Georgian delegation of Eurovision, which attended the competition, protested the situation with the organizer of Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). An investigation is underway at the EBU at this time and the broadcaster is awaiting the results.
At the same time, not only Georgia, but also several other countries have faced a similar problem, which is also being investigated by the European Broadcasting Union.
At the same time, the Public Broadcaster explains that the Georgian side had no interest in manipulating the results of the competition, as the representative of our country, unfortunately, could not move to the final show. It was of fundamental importance to the national jury to get 12 points for a worthy contestant, who in this case was the representative of Ukraine, who won a convincing victory. Georgian Public Broadcaster remains in active communication with the European Broadcasting Union regarding the current situation and hopes that the results of the investigation will be announced soon, about which we will inform the public.
GPB (translated from Georgian)
Georgia in Eurovision 2022
Georgia did not qualify for the Grand Final. Their entrant Circus Mircus finished last in semi 2 with the esoteric rock song ‘Lock Me In’, scoring 22 points overall.
During the voting sequence of the Grand Final, Georgia was one of three countries, along with Azerbaijan and Romania, where the spokespersons could not be contacted to reveal their votes. This was stated to be due to technical difficulties in establishing a connection. Instead, the contest’s executive supervisor, Martin Osterdahl, read out Georgia’s jury votes to be added to the scoreboard.
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