March 9: Controversial contests

Georgia has decided not to take part in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, following the decision by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to reject their song.

As we reported back on Tuesday, Georgia's entry was rejected because the EBU felt that the song "We Don't Wanna Put In" was in breach of their rule that states: "no lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political nature or similar nature shall be permitted during the Eurovision contest."

Many Eurovision fans and commentators had taken the lyrics of "We Don't Wanna Put In" to be a reference to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin - a particularly controversial figure in Georgia following the conflict between the two countries over the region of South Ossetia last Autumn. However, the Georgian state broadcaster GPB has denied that there's any political element to their song.

The EBU offered GPB the chance to either rewrite the lyrics of "We Don't Wanna Put In", or to submit an alternative song. However, the Georgians decided to stick by their original decision. "Our song... does not contain political statements and the public broadcaster is not going to change the text of the song and refuses to go to competition in Moscow," GPB said in a statement on 11 March.

So what does this mean for this year's Eurovision Song Contest? In short, there'll be one less country taking part in the first semi-final on Tuesday 12th May - leaving 18 nations to compete for ten spaces in the grand final. There'll be 19 nations taking part in semi-final #2 on Thursday 14th May, again battling to grab one of the ten possible spaces available in the grand final.

The ten successful acts from semi-final #1 will join with the ten winners from semi-final #2, the host nation Russia and the 'Big Four' countries of the UK, France, Germany and Spain in the final on Saturday 16th May. One thing we know for certain, though - Georgia won't be one of them...

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