# Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Georgia competed in and won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Madrid, Spain with the song "To My Mom". For the seventh year in a row, the children's talent show Ranina was used to choose Georgia's representative.

## Background

Prior to the 2024 contest, Georgia have participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest sixteen times since its debut in 2007, having never missed a contest since then. Georgia is also the most successful country in the competition, with three victories in 2008, 2011 and 2016.
In 2023, Anastasia Vasadze was selected to represent the country following her victory in the sixth season of Ranina, however it was later announced that she would be joined on stage by fellow Ranina finalists Nikoloz Kharati and Oto Bazerashvili, marking the first time Georgia was not represented by a soloist since 2015. The trio sang the song "Over the Sky", which ended up in 14th place out of 16 entries with 74 points.

## Before Junior Eurovision
### Ranina

For the seventh year in a row, Georgia used an original children's talent show format, Ranina (Georgian: რანინა), as the selection method for their artist. GPB opened applications on 28 November 2023 and held castings in December to select the contestants. The final list of artists was revealed on 1 January 2024 on the official Facebook page of Ranina, publishing ten videos where the family of the contestants broke the news to them on New Year's Eve.
Classical pianist Datuna Aladashvili [ka] was the main host of the seventh season of Ranina, a role that he has held since the first season. During the shows, former contestant Vache Ghviniashvili joined him at the studio.
The format of Ranina remains unchanged from previous seasons, as all ten contestants compete across four thematic tours in the main round, where they perform accompanied by a live orchestra and famous singers or bands from Georgia. Each tour is divided in two episodes. Each time that they perform, the artists are rated by a three-member jury, who can award up to ten points to each artist in four categories: vocals, performance, artistry and involvement. All the scores are added up and, at the end of the fourth tour, the five artists with the highest scores advance to the semi-final. In the semi-final, the five artists are rated by the jury following the same system to select three finalists. The winner of the final was also chosen by a three-member jury.
Every episode of the main round was broadcast on the First Channel of Georgia on Saturdays at 21:30 GET. As for the two final episodes, GPB broadcast them on the weekend of 25 and 26 May 2024 at 22:00 and 21:30 GET, setting the final to coincide with Georgian Independence Day. The two final episodes were also broadcast on Georgian Radio, alongside the regular broadcasts on the First Channel.
List of contestants :
| Name | Main round scores | Main round scores | Main round scores | Main round scores | Main round scores | Semi-final | Final | Place |
| Name | Tour 1 | Tour 2 | Tour 3 | Tour 4 | Combined score | Semi-final | Final | Place |
| Andria Putkaradze | 117 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 477 | Qualified | Winner | 1 |
| Barbare Morgoshia | 116 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 476 | Qualified | Finalist | 2 |
| Sandro Gurgenadze | 118 | 120 | 120 | 120 | 478 | Qualified | Finalist | 2 |
| Andria Mishvelidze | 120 | 120 | 118 | 120 | 478 | Eliminated | Did not qualify | 4 |
| Sandro Ashotia | 118 | 120 | 120 | 119 | 477 | Eliminated | Did not qualify | 4 |
| Anastasia Imeradze | 119 | 120 | 120 | 115 | 474 | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 6 |
| Ia Licheli | 117 | 120 | 118 | 119 | 474 | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 6 |
| Mate Martiashvili | 114 | 120 | 120 | 116 | 470 | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 8 |
| Giorgi Shashiashvili | 113 | 120 | 120 | 115 | 468 | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 9 |
| Marta Nozadze | 114 | 120 | 118 | 116 | 468 | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | 9 |

#### Tour 1

In the first tour, the ten contestants covered songs by the Georgian composers Roma Rtskhiladze and Gia Macharashvili, joined on stage by past Ranina contestants. The first episode featured five songs by Rtskhiladze, who sat in the jury, and the second episode featured five songs by Macharashvili, who also joined the jury.

#### Tour 2

In the second tour, the ten contestants covered Georgian classic songs accompanied by young Georgian musicians Giga Gigashvili and Beka Gochiashvili. The first episode of the tour featured Gigashvili on stage and Gochiashvili in the jury, and the roles reversed for the second episode.

#### Tour 3

The third tour was dedicated to Georgian folklore, as all ten contestants performed traditional songs alongside the ensemble Shavnabada.

#### Tour 4

The fourth tour was themed as an international tour: the contestants performed songs in ten different languages chosen by Natia Okruashvili alongside a choir made up by past contestants from the six previous seasons of Ranina. The broadcast of the second half of the tour, initially set to be on 11 May, was pushed back by a week because of news coverage on the 2024 Georgian protests.

#### Semi-final

The semi-final took place on 25 May 2024. The vocal sextet The Bookmarks made up of six former Ranina contestants Anastasia Garsevanishvili, Barbare Imnadze, Marita Khvedelidze, Kato Chkaureli, Rati Gelovani and Soso Chachua joined the five qualified artists on stage performing songs by the classical composer Meri Davitashvili [ka]. Buka Kartozia, director of The Bookmarks and the person chosen to select the songs in the semi-final, also acted as the rotating juror in the episode next to Evgenidze and Metonidze.

#### Final

The final took place on 26 May 2024, coinciding with Georgian Independence Day. The artists that qualified from the semi-final covered Georgian patriotic songs originally written by the singer Gogi Dolidze, as arranged by the composer Zviad Bolkvadze. Orchestra conductor Nikoloz Rachveli is the rotating judge in the final alongside Evgenidze and Metonidze. At the end of the final, Andria Putkaradze was declared the winner of Ranina. Putkaradze started singing at the age of two and he is a member of the group Children of the Sea.

## At Junior Eurovision

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 took place at Caja Mágica in Madrid, Spain on 16 November 2024. Georgia performed 9th, following Poland and preceding Spain.

### Voting

The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition will be used, where the results will be determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country has a national jury that consists of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who are citizens of the country they represent. The rankings of those jurors are combined to make an overall top ten.
The online voting consists of two phases. The first phase of the online voting will begin on 15 November 2024 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances is shown on the contest's website 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 end on 16 November at 17:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting will take place during the live show and begin right after the last performance and will be open for 15 minutes. International viewers will be able vote for three songs. They will also be able to vote for their own country's song. These votes will then be turned into points which will be determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song receives 10% of the votes, it will receive 10% of the available points.
At the end of the show, Georgia received 180 points from juries and 59 points from online voting, winning the contest. This was Georgia's 4th victory, following their wins in 2008, 2011 and 2016, becoming the country with the most wins in the contest's history.
Points awarded to Georgia :
| Score | Country |
| 12 points | Albania Armenia Cyprus Estonia Ireland Italy Malta Netherlands Portugal San Marino Spain Ukraine |
| 10 points | Germany North Macedonia |
| 8 points | France Poland |
| 7 points | |
| 6 points | |
| 5 points | |
| 4 points | |
| 3 points | |
| 2 points | |
| 1 point | |
| Georgia received 59 points from the online vote ||