March 9: Controversial contests

It was predicted by many but now the verdict is official - Georgia's entry to the ESC, 'We Don't Wanna Put In' by Stephane & 3G has officially been banned from this year's competition.

The European Broadcasting Union that oversees the ESC has strict rules regarding the lyrical content of any competition entries. Anyone not familiar with Section 4 Rule 9 of the Rules of the 54th Eurovision Song Contest needs to know that 'no lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political nature or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision contest' and that 'a breach of this rule may result in disqualification'.

The lyrics are widely believed to refer to the conflicts between Georgia and Russia over the territory of South Ossetia last year. 'We Don't Wanna Put In' or should that be 'We Don't Want Putin', has been widely seen as an indirect attack on the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Georgia has been offered the chance to either re-write the song lyrics to comply with the rules or to select another song for the contest. They must do this by 16th March, which is the official deadline for all countries to submit their entries to the EBU.

On a far more promising note, Belgium's entry into the contest was finally revealed at a press conference this morning. We've known for a while now that Belgium would be entering a song entitled 'Copycat' performed by Patrick Ouchène - now we finally know what it sounds like!

The EBU Eurovision Rules

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