Freedom (Georgia 2025)

Into the G's now, with Georgia's Mariam Shengelia singing a song of Freedom.

Source

Lyrics: 50%
Composition: 47.5%
Vocals: 76%
Staging: 48%
Vibes: 35%
Overall: 51.3%

Verdict: My freedom is satisfied by skipping this song whenever it comes along.

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LYRICS - Total: 12.5/25 (50%)
Subject Matter: 6/10
Effective Use of Language: 1/5
Clarity: 2.5/5
Flow: 3/5

Let's see. A patriotic song? Mmmmm I'm not sure about this one. Aside from feeling like something better suited to a National Day celebration than the Eurovision Song Contest, it also feels different from other songs like Ktheju Tokës (Albania 2019) or Asteromata (Greece 2025 - coming up soon!). The vibe is... a little strange? 

I'm not really sure what it is, or why it is. Maybe because the lyrics are much more bald and in your face? It also feels a lot less genuine. I'm not questioning how much Mariam loves her homeland. I'm sure she loves Georgia very much. It's just, lines like "I do not want other treasures" feel too nationalistic, like some sort of government propaganda. So too does "And as our life / The homeland is the only one". It's extremely heavy-handed. I'm currently living in another country from where I was born, and I feel freer for it.

Also, what does "Mshvidi da mghelvare zghva" (Მშვიდი და მღელვარე ზღვა) translate to? Google translate says "The calm and restless sea", which doesn't make sense. Most online translations of the song have that opposite (calm/stormy) meaning, which is very strange. There's probably some context I'm not getting here.

And the lines in English?

"Freedom is a human wealth to care"? "Freedom is a mountain spring for share"? "Kindness resists of my style"? "Freedom that makes life so mild"? (did she mean "gentle"?) "...sweet apparel a song"?

What?

The hell?

C'mon, just sing the whole thing in Georgian. Add English subtitles or something. The way it's been done here just sounds pathetic and confusing. I know some people think that changing part of the song into English gives it a wider reach, but if your English is not much better than gibberish (5 out of 10 lines having some sort of dubiousness and a few of the rest sounding awkward), it's not going to help you.

The only reason why I'm even giving this a score of 1 (rather than 0 or 0.5) for use of language is because the bit in Georgian doesn't sound completely stupid. And now I'm thinking I've been a bit too harsh on Poison Cake.

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COMPOSITION - Total: 9.5/20 (47.5%)
Melody/Bass: 2.5/5
Instrumentation: 2.5/5
Development: 2/5
Coherence: 2.5/5

That's a very strange first set of chords, but I did look up some Georgian cultural traditions, and I can sort of see some similarities in both the music and the performance, so I won't ding it based on that. For some reason it vaguely reminds me of O Fortuna.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not aware of most of the traditions referenced in the performance or the composition, and just because I don't understand something doesn't mean it's bad. So my comments are almost always largely related to personal feelings rather than objective assessment, and if I do get something wrong, please do point it out to me.

I'm not really a fan of how this song has been structured. One of the first comments I made on this song was: "The music and the backing soundtrack race along like a squirrel on crack while the vocals drag, and I'm just not sure which I should pay attention to, and it all just feels a little disorganized."

Looking back, that might've been a little harsh, but I think my general feeling hasn't changed. Again, I  apologise if what I'm not getting is a cultural thing, but I still feel like the melody doesn't match the bass. There's some sort of double time bass and ominous chanting in the background, which doesn't make too much sense in a song that's ostensibly about nature and that references skies, mountains, grass, and the sun.

And the English verse starting so slow, after the freneticism of the first, just completely robs the song of the energy it has. This song feels like it has very little idea of where it's going.

Also, that comment about the squirrel on crack was made right before I fell asleep partway through Freedom (Insert bad joke about exercising my freedom to nap).

No, I'm serious. Yes, I was tired, but I'm usually tired. Freedom is the ONLY song in this batch - perhaps maybe even the ONLY song EVER - where I fell asleep partway through. I didn't even KO during Aijā (Latvia 2023) - and THAT one was a lullaby! This one has an uncommon time signature - 5/8 in the verses and 6/8 in the chorus(?) just like Aijā - and even with the 5/8 being actually done WELL, Mariam managed to make it boring.

No, this song is not for me. It starts a little too strangely, carries on in a rather discordant/disharmonious way, has a jarring energy shift partway through, and doesn't really sound impressive at any point. I Can't remember the instruments used. I can't really easily identify any part of the melody. I just don't remember this song.

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VOCALS - Total: 19/25 (76%)
Vocals: 16/20
Immersion: 3/5

It's okay, but it's missing something. She sings well, but there's no climax, no standout moment, no risk, nothing notable about this. It doesn't make me feel.

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STAGING - Total: 12/25 (48%)
The Show: 5/10
The Story: 4.5/10
Outfits: 2.5/5

I wanted to say those dancers look like ninjas, but then I looked it up; I think it's actually some kind of Georgian Round Dance? It could be Khorumi - certainly some of the stances look similar. And I guess in a hyperpatirotic song, that would certainly be appropriate.

Yet, I have no idea how what they're doing advances the messaging of the song. Freedom is ostensibly about how one's homeland is integral to one's freedom, and that to live in a place as beautiful as her home, where:

This Sun warms and illuminates the roads / The mountains and seas of the homeland / We will follow the roads with hope / And, blue and cloudless sky / A calm and turbulent sea / I do not want other treasures

Well, tell me where in the staging you saw any of that when she was actually singing about them. They came in later when she'd already gone to English. And she sung that final line rather offtime, too. Not as badly as Adonxs, but it was still quite noticeable.

I saw a circle, which was maybe the moon, which later transformed into a ring (Latvia 2024, anyone? Or maybe the song is channeling Sauron?). The screen behind was full of dark clouds and a grey sky, and a weird orange that could very charitably be called a child's rendition of a dystopian sun. It looks like they just used a spherical object from Microsoft Publisher or something. Or an orange.

The whole performance felt very static, which is impressive considering they had four dancers doing acrobatics, and then later swinging flags around. Which... why, again? Why 4 giant white flags? Why the red solar system in the background in the last verse? Why that costume change on her switch to English? What did she lose (or change), metaphorically, going from Georgian to English, that necessitated that costume change? Why silver, then red? How does it add to the story? None of it is explained or self-explanatory. It's all very inaccessible, at best.

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VIBES - 35%
Nah.