Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Georgia took part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 as the host country after their victory in 2016 with the song "Mzeo" by Mariam Mamadashvili. Their entry was decided through an internal selection. They were represented by Grigol Kipshidze and the song "Voice of The Heart".
Background
Prior to the 2017 Contest, Georgia had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its debut in, and since then they have never missed a single contest. Georgia is also the most successful country in the competition, with three victories in, and.
On 29 July 2017 the Georgian broadcaster GPB announced they were going to select their entrant internally, opening the submissions period until 1 September 2017. The winner of the selection process was be decided by a professional jury. Then, on 6 September 2017, the GPB announced that their entrant would be revealed later that week on 8 September 2017; whereas the song will be revealed at a later point. They did as expected, and on 8 September 2017 the GPB confirmed that their representative for the 2017 contest is Grigol Kipshidze.
Artist and song information
Grigol Kipshidze
Grigol Kipshidze is a Georgian singer who represented Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Prior to his Junior Eurovision experience, he studied at the National Center for Folklore between 2011 and 2015, and in 2014 he entered the Vocal Academy of Tbilisi. He has also participated in various singing contests, achieving the most successful result at the 2017 edition of X-Factor Georgia, where he made it to the final.
"Voice of the Heart"
"Voice of the Heart" is a song by Georgian singer Grigol Kipshidze. It represented Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 and reached the 2nd place with 185 points. It marked only the second time a song from the host nation finished second.
At Junior Eurovision
During the opening ceremony and the running order draw which took place on 20 November 2017, Georgia was drawn to perform ninth on 26 November 2017, following Macedonia and preceding Albania.
Voting
The results of the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be determined by national juries and an online audience vote. Every country will have a national jury that will consist of three music industry professionals and two kids aged between 10 and 15 who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury will be asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The first phase of the online voting will start on 24 November 2017 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances will be shown on junioreurovision.tv before the viewers can vote. After this, voters will also have the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting will stop on Sunday, 26 November, at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting will take place during the live show and will start right after the last performance and will be open for 15 minutes. International viewers can vote for a minimum of three countries and a maximum of five. They can also vote for their own country's song. These votes will then be turned into points. The number of points will be determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song receives 20% of the votes, thus it will receive 20% of the available points. The public vote will count for 50% of the final result, while the other 50% will come from the professional juries.
