President Saakashvili said that organizers of Eurovision song contest denied the Georgian entry for “political motives.”

“Georgian singers were not allowed to participate in Eurovision because of totally made-up and political motives; this is a shame for Eurovision organizers,” Saakashvili told a small group of Georgian journalist accompanying him in Jordan on a sideline of the World Economic Forum.

He also said that rejecting of the Georgian entry was a result of “a horrible fact of political pressure and also of possible pressure with other tools.” Saakashvili said that it was possible to hold Eurovision song contest final in Moscow through “mechanisms similar to those through which it was possible to hold Olympic Games in Moscow” in 1980. 

Georgia withdrew from Eurovision after the organizer, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), told Georgia to revise the lyrics of its entry, ‘We Don't Wanna Put In’.

Meanwhile, Georgia organized its music festival Tbilisi Open Air-Alter/Vision, or an alternative to Eurovision. The festival, which will feature twenty acts from ten countries, opens on Friday evening. Organizers said originally the festival was planned for June, but decided to move it forward to coincide with Eurovision in Moscow.

“I want to note it with pleasure that the Europe’s best bands arrived in Tbilisi in support to Georgia’s freedom and of creative freedom and also in support of Georgian singers, who were denied from Eurovision… It once again demonstrates how large the solidarity towards Georgia is in Europe,” Saakashvili said.