What are Georgian and Abkhaz TikTok users arguing about? Status, borders, historical narratives, and… the copyright of an Italian song. Before unexpectedly venturing into this minefield, however, that song made quite a long and turbulent journey from Italy to Georgia, where it quickly became entangled in local political polarisation and got the push it needed to conquer the broader region.
Here is Nini, and the Dispatch newsletter, to talk about an infectious song with a strange potential to unite – or further divide – estranged communities.
Our country has been visited By Killers,
Maroon 5, (James Brown was here)
Sting has arrived three times
I’ve seen him live myself…
These are the opening lines of Georgian Disco, a recent hit that has been living rent-free in the minds of many Georgians, thrilling some and irritating others. Originally performed by the Italian band The Kolors, the simple and energetic Italodisco topped a number of European charts last year before being translated into Georgian by Niko’s Band, a local TV music crew of two men and a woman.
It was this cover version that Georgians – and, apparently, residents of other countries in the region – found particularly appealing. The song quickly began to infect the entire post-Soviet space. The band has even toured various countries – such as Kazakhstan – as local crowds happily and expertly sing along. Social media is flooded with videos of users either adapting the Niko’s Band version into their own languages or even going into the trouble of repeating the unpronounceable Georgian lyrics.
But what are these Georgian lyrics about? The text seems to express the exhaustion of dancing to the tunes of all these foreign celebrity artists coming to Georgia (an average Georgian’s biggest concern?) and suggests instead dancing to our own, national, Georgian disco.
Today you must risk Georgian Disco,
it’s time to start,
let us hear our Georgian Disco!
What’s wrong with dancing to your national disco, some may ask, especially after so many controversies about the government spending huge sums of money to invite foreign artists?
Well, there is a catch. Georgian Disco was produced by POSTV, an openly pro-government channel founded by Shalva Ramishvili, a notorious propagandist who has survived multiple allegations of sexual harassment and even a court verdict confirming that offense. And, if you look closely, the lyrics may indeed mimic the contradictory later-day rhetoric of the ruling Georgian Dream party: taking credit for its foreign achievements – such as EU candidacy – while implying that it doesn’t need anything from the West and that Georgia can do well on its own.
Ramishvili’s crew indeed deserves credit. POSTV staffers seem to have quickly mastered Georgia’s core commercial skill – re-exporting refurbished Western imports. With this song, Niko’s Band even eclipsed the success of Gela Gnolidze’s Band, a different group that performs on Imedi TV, another pro-government channel. The latter had made a name for itself with similarly recording covers of popular songs, but also with public spending scandals as some believe the government has been far too generous in funding their Georgian tours.
This is not Ibiza,
here Khachapuri beats pizza
But to many, the political undertones of Georgian Disco fail to overshadow its simple lyrics and catchy melody. The hit inspired parody versions from opposition channels (‘Georgian Dream Disco’; ‘Pro-Russian Disco’), while Armenian entertainers, too, soon followed the trend with the lively performance of a bittersweet New Year’s Armeno Disco.
So, instead of trying to ruin the party, the opposing camp thought it wiser to join in. When New Year’s Eve arrived, the concert on the pro-opposition Mtavari Arkhi channel, too, featured mostly cover versions of classic European hits.
A performance that stood out was that of Sofia Nizharadze, a prominent Georgian singer and (former or current) partner of jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili, who covered Ancora, an Italian hit from the 1970s. The dramatic performance worked its magic, and Georgia slid into 2024 with a very musical and Italian-themed political polarization.
Yet even if everyone now had the opportunity to enjoy the cover versions of Italian songs according to their political preferences, those with noisy neighbors know that many Georgians had absolutely no problem periodically switching from Ancora to Georgian Disco and back again to make the most of an otherwise toxic political and cultural environment. And little did we know that the song’s simultaneously unifying and divisive powers had more challenging terrains to conquer.
“Apsua Disco”
Abkhazia-produced Apsua Disco hit Georgian social media on the last day of February and caused quite a stir in the Tbilisi social media bubble. The lyrics, sung in both Russian and Abkhaz languages, invite potential tourists to explore Abkhazia’s sunny shores. The performance, again, seemed to mimic the Georgian production rather than the Italian original. This left many undecided about whether to be happy about the Georgian trend infiltrating the region more effectively than anything attempted before – or to be saddened by the Russian-language part. The POSTV factor further complicated matters, playing perfectly into the ruling party’s promises to restore territorial integrity through its “pragmatic” policies.
Even more direct battles were fought on TikTok, where Georgian and Abkhaz users disagreed… over the copyright. While the Abkhaz claimed that the cover had nothing to do with the Georgian version and pointed to the Italian original, the Georgians weren’t buying it. Yet, who knows?! A peace scholar may be lurking in the shadowy corners of Western academia, sharpening the arguments for music as a vital space for building confidence between estranged communities.
So, will it be Italian music in the end that will build bridges between the fractured country? Hard to say. What is becoming clearer, however, is that the latest dramatic tunes from Georgian Dream’s National Disco are set to divide Georgia further. Maybe the song lyrics were even meant to be prophetic, and its determination to reject foreign pleasures is part of the ruling party’s recently announced measures to fight “LGBT propaganda.”
Now that the elections are approaching, we have yet to see what tune GD would have us sing to. But before they ask us to dance to Georgian Disco, they may have to learn how to get along without imported Western chords first. The putrid decadence may be lurking anywhere.
