Georgia

With its debut in Helsinki in 2007, Georgia became the second Caucasus region country to enter the Eurovision fold (sandwiched between Armenia's debut in 2006 and Azerbaijan's debut in 2008), with Sopho Khalvashi's Visionary Dream.  The country has fared decently in the five years it has participated in the Contest (two Top Ten finishes ain't too shabby), but also suffered a forced withdrawal from 2009's Moscow show, because of that year's song We Don't Wanna Put In, included lyrics deemed to be condemning the host country's war with Georgia in the Russian-majority separatist region of South Ossetia and making references to Russian leader Vladimir Putin (I mean DUH...look at the title).  EBU's policies on the Contest are clear that any lyrics with direct or indirect political messages will not be allowed to perform during competition, and as such EBU asked the country's public broadcaster to change the lyrics of the song.   Georgian Public Broadcaster instead launched a counter-protest against, what it called, "political pressure exerted by Russia" to keep the country from competing in Moscow and was left out of the Contest that year.  When the Contest moved to Oslo in 2010, Georgia returned to the Contest with Sopho Nizharadze's Shine, performing in red and white outfits meant to represent the country's flag (and its defiant attitude towards Russia):

Shine received a total of 136 points in the Final (including 10 points from Russia and two douze points from former Soviet republics of Armenia and Lithuania) and placed ninth, giving Georgia its first Top Ten finish.  At the Dusseldorf Contest in 2011, the country was represented by hard-rock group Eldrine's One More Day (we had dubbed the lead singer of the group Gothic Blossom/Jennifer Love Hewitt Hybrid), again getting a ninth place finish on Final night.  Last year Georgia was represented by Anri Jokhadze's I'm A Joker, but it turned out the joke was on him:  Georgia got stuck at the Semi Final barrier for the first time in its short Eurovision history.  After being shut out of the Finals in neighboring Azerbaijan last year (the Georgian entry placed fourteenth in its Semi Final), Georgia returns to the Eurovision stage with Sopho Gelovani and Nodiko Tatishvili's ballady duet Waterfall, making this the third time that the country is represented by an artist named Sopho.  The song was chosen by GPB, will be performed in English and was composed by Thomas G:son, who composed last year's winning song Euphoria by Loreen.  GPB publicly courted the Swede to write Georgia's 2013 entry, seen as a hint by Eurovision followers about how serious Georgia had become about winning the Contest.  Will G:son's involvement get Georgia what it seeks?