Georgia’s ‘Putin song’ banned from Eurovision

10 Mar, 2009 16:30 / Updated 15 years ago

The organizers of the Eurovision contest have informed the participants from Georgia that the lyrics of their song do not comply with the rules of the competition.

Georgia has chosen a provocative anti-Putin song titled “We Don't Wanna Put In” for this year’s Eurovision song contest to be held in Moscow on May 16.

The chorus of the song performed by the band “Stephane and 3G” in the disco style goes:

“We don't wanna put in
The negative mood
It's killing the groove.”

The singers from “Stephane and 3G” didn’t deny that their song was a ‘protest against Russian policies’, Ria Novosti news agency reports.

The European Broadcasting Union has demanded that they either remove the song from the contest, or remove the political references from the lyrics.

The rules of the Eurovision Song Contest forbid songs containing political statements, propaganda, racism or xenophobia.

The decision to change the song’s lyrics will be taken on Wednesday, according to Natia Uznadze, head of the country’s project for Eurovision, during an interview with Ria Novosti.

Meanwhile, a poll taken by Georgia’s TV channel ‘Rustavi 2’ showed 84.9 per cent of those responding were opposed to changing the lyrics.