OC Media team ranks South Caucasus Eurovision 2025 songs

Ahead of the first Eurovision Song Contest semi-final on 13 May, we asked our staff to give their opinions and predictions of all three South Caucasus entries.

Armenia has been represented at Eurovision 15 times since its debut in 2006, and was the first country from the Caucasus region to compete. They have reached the top 10 on eight occasions, and have qualified for the grand final every year since 2022. This year, their entry is the song ‘SURVIVOR’ by Parg.

In turn, Azerbaijan was the last South Caucasus country to enter Eurovision, debuting in 2008. However, they were the first country to win, in 2011 with ‘Running Scared’, and achieved an impressive five consecutive top-five results between 2009–2013; however, they failed to advance from the semi-finals in the last two years. Hoping to make a comeback, Azerbaijan has chosen ‘Run With U’ by Mamagama for their 2025 entry.

Georgia made its debut in 2007, and has participated in Eurovision 16 times since. They have reached the final on eight of these occasions, but have only achieved two top-ten placements. Their 2024 act, ‘Firefighter’ by Nutsa Buzaladze, was the first to qualify for the finals since 2017. This year, Georgia’s entry is ‘Freedom’ by Mariam Shengelia.

Dominik K Cagara, co-founder and CFO

Georgia

As Georgian Dream and their loyal squad wrestle with Europe’s relentless pressure to ditch freedom and traditional values, Georgia’s Eurovision 2025 entry arrives like pearls-before-swine for decadent European audiences. Mariam Shengelia sings a love song to her ‘homeland, the only one’ in Georgian, surrounded by a troupe of male dancers performing traditional Adjarian moves in full traditional costumes, affirming her assigned-at-birth femininity. The lyrics proudly name-drop the Georgian alphabet, which is also displayed prominently on background screens, all set to the beat of the Georgian doli drum.

Most of this Georgiannes tour de force will be lost on foreign viewers, so the whole performance feels a little pretentious and like it’s made mostly for a self-indulgent local audience. Then, Shengelia switches to English to sing about freedom — a defiant jab at all the Europeans who want to deprive her of it.

The song seems set up to lose the contest to allow Georgian Dream the old Russian spin of how Europe prefers ‘women with beards’ over this flower of Georgian culture. Dear Eurovision fans, Georgian culture is full of treasures, but ‘Freedom’ is not a gem.

Verdict: 5/12

Armenia

The Armenian people have recently endured great hardship and there is a lot of trauma to be processed. I’m only not sure if this process should be taking place during the entire continent’s biggest television event. PARG — all caps to remind us that he’s tough — awkwardly raps through his pain with a voice artificially rasped, affirming his armoured masculinity. He clearly tries to imitate the singing style of Serj Tankian of System of A Down, the most famous diaspora Armenian performer worldwide, which comes off as cliché.

The whole act screams ‘look how strong I am’, but what we actually see is a guy trying way too hard and not pulling it off. Midway, there’s a brief moment when a traditional Armenian duduk plays a haunting, melancholic melody that captures Armenian sorrow and resilience. But this attempt to set the song in an Armenian political context is likely to get lost with European audiences and does nothing to save the performance from feeling, frankly, a bit pathetic. He makes it sound like being a ‘SURVIVOR’ is not a thing to be proud of.

Verdict: 4/12

Azerbaijan

Mamagama’s song reminds us why, out of the three South Caucasus countries, it’s Azerbaijan that truly masters the art of caviar diplomacy — bribing Western officials and whitewashing its abysmal human rights record. Just like the EU is detached from imprisoned Azerbaijani journalists, ‘Run With U’ is completely detached from any political context and instead focuses on delivering a catchy, if somewhat generic, pop-rock tune that actually works.

Unlike many previous Azerbaijani entries written by expensive Swedish songwriters, Mamagama’s work feels more authentic, the artists more connected to their music. Midway through the song, the saz — an Azerbaijani long-necked lute — kicks in, adding just enough local flavour without drowning the song in traditional sounds.

While not earth-shaking, it’s a solid effort that feels honest and enjoyable.

Verdict: 9/12

Robin Fabbro, editor-in-chief

Georgia

Mariam Shengelia’s ‘Freedom’ has a promising start, her Georgian vocals slowly building onto the background of low volume chanting. Georgian traditional dancers then run onto the stage, adding to the feeling that something big is about to drop. This initial premise, however, makes the payoff even more disappointing, quickly descending into my least favourite Eurovision musical genre, trite emotional wailing.

While the song is far from the worst of Georgia’s Eurovision entries, Shengelia has apparently thrown in her lot with Georgia’s authoritarian authorities (she said she was dedicating the song to ‘peace’, a dog whistle for arresting protesters and journalists and banning the opposition). So in true Eurovision fashion, my rating will be mostly political.

Verdict: 0/12

Azerbaijan

‘Run With U’ is not terrible. It has typically high production values and the accompanying flashy cyberpunk themed video accompanying its electro dance notes can’t help but get stuck in your head.

The inclusion of the traditional Azerbaijani saz stringing away in the chorus is a nice touch and melds well with its otherwise poppy tune. But it is also pretty generic, as if they simply asked ChatGPT to make an upbeat Eurovision banger.

‘I wanna run with you’ the singer says. I’m not so sure.

Verdict: 5/12

Armenia

Armenia’s Eurovision entry is bad. Really bad. It’s by far my favourite.

In ‘SURVIVOR’, Parg gives it his everything like a Temu Serj Tankian.

Parg’s lyrical and vocal acrobatics are impressive, rhyming ‘I’m a survivaah!’ with ‘Staying alive-ah!’, and even ‘Won’t be tied up-ah’ as he prances around the stage with a contagious energy.

The song abruptly goes quiet in the final third, making space for the obligatory ethnic musical interlude as PARG builds up for his final, and most explosive and emotionally charged ‘I’M A SURVIVAAH, STAYING ALIVE-AH’ yet, sending a shiver down the spine.

Verdict: 10/12

Yousef Bardouka, editor

Armenia

The biggest flaw in ‘SURVIVOR’ is that it is trying its hardest not to stand out. Despite being a very loud song, it has very little to say and I fail to see how or why it took nine people to write this entry. I also thought he was singing ‘I’m a saliva’ the first time I heard it, and that got a chuckle out of me.

Verdict: 4/12

Azerbaijan

Mamagama’s entry is my favourite out of the bunch, but I still think it’s a bit middling and slightly overproduced. I love how dancey and catchy it is, and I think out of the three, Mamagama were the only ones to successfully infuse local musical elements into their song with the saz in the bridge.

As a side note, I thought coverage of the entry was fairly hilarious and borderline orientalist with its focus on the Mountain Jewish descent of the band’s lead singer, Asaf Mishiyev. In a trope-ridden profile on Mishiyev, Rolling Stone goes on to claim that ‘religious and ethnic tensions are practically non-existent’ in Azerbaijan, whose government notoriously and regularly persecutes Shiites, the Talysh minority, and is always more than happy to erase elements of Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh — a region whose entire Armenian population was displaced following its violent takeover by Azerbaijan in 2023.

Verdict: 9/12

Georgia

I found ‘Freedom’ to be somewhat of a substandard orchestral ballad treading the fine line between being cinematic and kitschy — in a modern Georgian pop song sense. The production is better than the other two songs, and Mariam Shengelia sounds wonderful. I do, however, find it particularly ironic that Shengelia is singing about freedom in her homeland at a time when her government is actively intimidating, attacking, and persecuting critics and protesters who have — for almost half-a-year now — been campaigning against its repressive and anti-European policies.

Verdict: 6/12

Xandie (Alexandra) Kuenning, editor

Georgia

On screen, Georgia’s entry is your standard Eurovision ballad — a woman singing her heart out in a gorgeous ball gown while cultural elements specifically chosen by her artistic team endeavour to make her stand out from every other ballad submitted. In all honesty, I didn’t find the song all that egregious, but that was maybe because the bar is so low for Georgia’s Eurovision entries I now can’t accurately judge what is good or not. The piece is truly nothing special, the tune going straight out of my head afterwards, but at least it’s not Tornike Kipiani’s ‘Take Me As I Am’, Georgia’s Eurovision entry that (happily) never got performed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Verdict: 5/12

Armenia

Parg’s song honestly just confused me. His voice does not mesh at all with the accompanying music, as if he was trying to front for a subpar metal band but accidentally hired the wrong DJ. The staging is also boring, with a heavy emphasis on rocks (for their staying power or just because they were easy to paint?). It is unclear what Parg needed to survive — perhaps just making it through this horrible song.

Verdict: 1/12

Azerbaijan

This song reminds me of something from the 2010s, similar to Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ — it has a taste of nostalgia surrounding it, as well as an inherent catchiness, that I think could do well with the crowds. The traditional saz that comes in halfway through the song just really makes the whole performance. The song is fun — maybe nothing special, but it’s just the thing for Eurovision. For me, it is definitely the best of the three South Caucasus songs, and the only one that has any chance of making it to the finals.

Verdict: 10/12

Nate Ostiller, editor

Georgia

This song represents everything I dislike about Eurovision — it’s an empty, soulless track, dripping with fake emotion and drowning in overproduced instrumentation, and comes off as pure propaganda. It’s like someone said ‘Let’s come up with an idea for a  song to win Eurovision’, but forgot to actually make the song good. I can’t imagine anyone really listening to this non-ironically and enjoying it.

Verdict: 1/12

Armenia

Everything about this song is a blatant ripoff of Imagine Dragons, one of the most (justifiably) derided bands these days — cheesy, unoriginal lyrics and an overly dramatic music video. If I wanted to listen to Imagine Dragons (I don’t), I would, not the Temu version.

Verdict: 1/12

Azerbaijan

There is nothing memorable about this song, which sounds like it could be a generic album filler from 2012. Sure, he’s a good singer, and it’s got some nice elements of traditional Azerbaijani music, but I’d never listen to it again.

Verdict: 3/12

Mikheil Gvadzabia, staff writer

Georgia

This year, Georgia is sending another song to Eurovision — one that, most likely, will fail to bring success, just like the many before it. I’ve already lost count of how many entries haven’t managed to deliver for the country, which has only made it to the final a few times.

The Georgian–English song is built on patriotic themes, but neither its energy nor the singer’s performance inspires any particular expectations.

Georgia’s Eurovision entry — whether the artist or the song — tends to be a topic of debate every year. But this time, the ongoing political turmoil in the country has made the situation even more intense. Mariam Shengelia, along with her band, has taken part in campaign concerts for the ruling Georgian Dream party, which automatically sparks scepticism among parts of the population.

One particularly iconic moment — which many mocked — was what seemed like an obvious, though possibly not accidental, translation error.

In a TV interview in March, Shengelia said: ‘The song is called “Freedom”, and obviously the message is peace’. Many people laughed at this, especially in the context of the ruling party’s campaign messaging, which constantly claimed that the opposition wanted to drag Georgia into war, while they themselves were the sole guarantors of peace — repeating it everywhere, obsessively, in every possible form, almost with the intensity of a subliminal 25th-frame trick. So it ended up sounding like even Shengelia’s song, which is clearly about freedom, was somehow actually sending a message of peace.

Long story short: I’m not looking forward to this year’s Eurovision. Not that I’ve been looking forward to previous ones, to be honest — except for that relatively successful entry back in 2015, when it somehow felt obvious that Nina Sublatti wouldn’t come back completely empty-handed. And then came the long cycle of failure.

Verdict: 8/12

Armenia

The first thing I noticed was that the singer is very handsome!

Verdict: 11/12

Azerbaijan

While Azerbaijan’s song is nice, I felt Armenia’s was nicer.

Verdict 10/12

Arshaluys Barseghyan, staff writer

To be honest, I wasn’t impressed by the Eurovision 2025 entries from Armenia or its two neighbouring countries. Armenia has definitely sent stronger songs in the past. Overall, Armenia’s song is rhythmic, catchy and easy to remember, especially with the repeated line ‘I’m a survivor’, which reflects the title. However, something feels off to me. Maybe it’s just me, but I find the singer’s performance a bit overacted, which distracts me and keeps me from fully connecting with the song. On the other hand, I prefer the orchestral version — it feels better and is emotionally resonant.

In turn, the Georgian entry started off beautifully — it was quite captivating — but the rest of the song didn’t live up to that initial promise.

As for the Azerbaijani song, it’s not exactly the type of music I usually enjoy.

Verdict: I don’t see any of these countries placing near the top this year.

Aytan Farhadova, staff writer

Armenia

From the first notes, the song reminds me of the soundtrack to the Netflix series Peaky Blinders. The feeling of new voices, like new names, which do not fit into this year’s Eurovision exhibition.

Verdict: 3/12

Azerbaijan

I can’t remember the exact song, but the rhythms of Azerbaijan’s Eurovision entry seem like they were stolen from something from the 1980s. In order to draw attention to the current political situation in Azerbaijan, the music video, which features the lead singer being reassembled like a robot, almost suggests that if you ‘choose to become a robot, you will survive in Azerbaijan’.

Verdict: 3/12

Georgia

Compared to the Azerbaijani and Armenian songs, Georgia’s entry is more original and sounds like Georgia’s fate today if it were voiced. The title of the song does indeed correspond to the meaning of the song, and the singer's voice is very good.

Verdict: 7/12

Elizaveta Chukharova, staff writer

In short: I don’t see a winner among these three countries.

Armenia

I am already out of the age when girls drool when looking at the representative of Armenia. Of course, he is kind of handsome, but his brutal image rather scares me off. Now my heart is more attracted to quiet and homely boys, not macho ones. The song in the style of Imagine Dragons, of course, is good, but not so catchy to remember the melody.

Verdict: 7/12

Georgia

The representative of Georgia has staked her claim on national identity. It’s an interesting move, though national costumes and mountains in the background don’t surprise me as a person from the Caucasus — you can see such images in any rural house of culture. But she has an incredible voice. It’s very cool! And her tattoo is very cool too.

Verdict: 9/12

Azerbaijan

I didn’t like the Azerbaijani entry at all. At first I couldn’t even understand who was singing, a boy or a girl. And the song itself is too ‘zoomer’ in style. It’s not my genre at all. But it seems that this is what is popular nowadays.

Verdict: 3/12

Lily Samarine, intern

Armenia

‘SURVIVOR’ is basically a rip-off of Kanye West’s ‘Black Skinhead’, which is a little funny considering Kanye’s lyrics are about race relations in America, and ‘SURVIVOR’ is a kind of Chat GPT motivational song. Parg is a real heartthrob, but in a theatre kid kind of way. He’s also got quite a bad and thin voice. I liked his outfit though, the armour-plated arm looks cool.

Verdict: 6/12

Azerbaijan

Their entry has a weird and amusingly bad music video, bearing no visible relation to the lyrics. The bandmates are performing some kind of sci-fi Frankenstein operation on the frontman, and with the unexpected arrival and subsequent plucking of a saz, the frontman suddenly springs to life. It’s quite a catchy song. The frontman said his primary inspirations are Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse, though, which is quite mysterious.

Verdict: 8/12

Georgia

I’m not really sure what to say about this one. It’s a classic Eurovision ballad. She’s got a pretty good voice. The music video features some cool male back-up dancers in modernised traditional Georgian dress. Her dress, however, is very ugly.

Verdict: 7/12

I think of these three entries, Azerbaijan will probably do the best. It’s the most fun and light-hearted of the songs — basically inoffensive.

Final scores

Armenia: 47

Georgia: 48

Azerbaijan: 60

🗞️ Subscribe to the OC Culture Dispatch

For our culturally curious readers: a free, biweekly selection of film, book, and music recommendations from the Caucasus. Our team offers a varied selection of hidden gems, cherished classics, and notable new releases from all over the region, included in our newsletter.