In an act of disco defiance, Georgia has chosen a song that mocks Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, as its entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

We Don’t Wanna Put In includes a play on the leader’s surname in a Seventies-style performance that is unlikely to get Russian organisers of the contest dancing in the aisles. The cheesy disco number, sung in English by Stephane and 3G, has the chorus:

“We don’t wanna put in
The negative move
It’s killin’ the groove.”

It goes on to urge: “You better change your perspective.”

The song also features the line: “Gonna try to shoot in/ some disco tonight” – at which the trio of women in the group mimed being shot in the head during their performance on Georgian public television. Stephane Mgebrishvili, the song-writer, goes on to rap: “I love Europe.”

Georgian television viewers and a jury chose the song on Wednesday night from among ten entries for the contest. Stephane and 3G will perform in Moscow at the first semi-final on May 12 in an attempt to reach the Eurovision final, which is to be broadcast live in Russia and Europe four days later.

The prospect of Georgia’s none-too-subtle protest against Mr Putin winning the song contest in the Russian capital is already stirring controversy. Its success attracted dozens of comments on the contest's official website, with predictions that Eurovision’s notorious bloc-voting tradition would be used to deliver a humiliating snub to Mr Putin, particularly in the Baltic states and Eastern Europe.

The entry follows Georgia’s war with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russian troops and tanks occupied large parts of Georgia during the conflict last August.

Mr Putin played a highly visible role, directing military operations. The Kremlin then recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Georgia’s other breakaway region of Abkhazia, drawing condemnation from Europe and the United States.

Georgia will compete for one of nine places in the final against Bosnia & Herzegovina, Sweden, Israel, Belgium, Andorra, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Iceland, Bulgaria, Portugal, Switzerland, Macedonia, Finland, Belarus, Turkey, Romania, Malta and Armenia. The semi-final will be broadcast in Britain, Germany and Spain, where audiences will also be able to vote.

The girl group 3G entered Georgia’s national final last year with the song I’m Free.They lost to Diana Gurtskaya, a blind refugee from Abkhazia, who sangPeace Will Comeat last year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Serbia. Her forecast proved inaccurate and Georgia decided initially to boycott the Moscow final as a protest at the war. It reversed the decision last month and many Georgian viewers saw We Don’t Wanna Put In as an opportunity to embarrass Russia, which is hosting the contest for the first time.

If Stephane and 3G win in Moscow, Georgia will earn the right to stage next year’s Eurovision final.

Contested lyrics

- The artist appointed to perform the 1968 Spanish entry La La La insisted on singing in Catalan when the language was forbidden in public life in Spain. He was replaced and the song went on to beat Cliff Richard’s UK entry

- In 1974 Portugal’s military was plotting a coup. The signal to mark to start of the uprising was encoded in the country’s Eurovision song

- The fall of the Berlin Wall was marked in Germany’s 1990 Eurovision entry Free to Live. Austria performed a song called No More Walls, and Norway one called Brandenburg Gate

Source: Times archives

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