In these weeks, we take a look at the aftermath of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. In this episode we talk about the countries on the Caucasus and what went wrong for them. Since neither Armenia, Azerbaijan, nor Georgia reached the top 10 this year.

Artistic director Sacha Jean-Baptiste did the staging for both Georgia and Armenia in a stunning way. Whilst Azerbaijan had a strong Swedish team behind the DiHaj song ‘Skeletons’. In the semi finals, the success rate for the Caucasus was as strong as ever, with only Georgia not making it to the final, narrowly.

In the final, expectations were high for Armenia, but for Azerbaijan not so much. DiHaj had a act with a man on a ladder with a horse mask, and not everyone understood what it was all about. In the end the song ‘Skeletons’ ended up on a 14th place.

When all votes were counted, Armenia surprisingly did even worse than Azerbaijan this year. ‘Fly With Me’ by Artsvik got huge reviews at the rehearsals and – even though the starting slot on the fifth place was terrible – the song should end up in the top 10. It did not go that way, with an 18th place this year for Armenia…

Armenia has had a couple of good years in the contest and therefore, people can handle a bad result. On the official Facebook page of Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest, people react positive on the pictures of Artsvik returning to Yerevan. Yes, Armenia deserved better, but there is always next year to do as well as in 2014 or 2016.

Especially the draw was bad news for Artsvik, whose song failed to stand out at the beginning of the evening, followed by many big other favourites in the same first half of the show. Azerbaijan was also in that first half, following winner Portugal. But even though DiHaj did better in the end, for Azerbaijan there are more concerns at the moment.

In their debut years, between 2008 and 2013, Azerbaijan ALWAYS had a top 10 result in the final. Amazing stats, on which some people were anxious, and started the conspiracy theory. Did the Azeri bribe themselves to the top? No one speaks of this nowadays, after Azerbaijan did not reach the top in 2014, 2015, 2016 and again 2017. Azerbaijan needs to find their mojo again, with the combination of strong songs, amazing staging and great vocalists.

On the Georgian Eurovision website, there is not much information on the reception of the non-qualification by Tamara Gachechiladze in Kiev. Georgia failed to qualify on several occasions in the past and has always returned stronger to the contest. They are already focussing on the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Tblisi, later this year. Since Georgia did win the last edition of that contest and will probably stay strong in both contests.