CIVIL SOCIETY
4/25/08
A EurasiaNet Photo Story: Text by Giorgi Lomsadze; Photos by Molly Corso.
Georgian politics has never been short on drama. But with less than a month to go before the country’s parliamentary elections, politicians are hoping that that the glitterati of Georgia’s music world can help them attract votes.
The phenomenon linking music and politics in Georgia is nothing new. Last year, at a campaign event in the western region of Samegrelo, President Mikheil Saakashvili’s wife, Sandra Roelofs, headlined a folk ensemble. In the 2003 election year, President Eduard Shevardnadze took to song on a New Year’s television show.
But while opposition groups and the governing United National Movement have both made song a part of their political repertoire, the campaigns tied to Saakashvili have arguably hustled in the bigger names.
Georgia’s top pop diva, Lela Tsurtsumia, for instance, has thrown her Oriental-style glamour behind Saakashvili, frequently appearing with the president in public and on television. Once a club singer, Tsurtsumia came to fame in the late 1990s with a deep, sensual voice, and a combination of Arab melodies, disco and Tbilisi-style retro. It is a blend that has made her the virtual matriarch of the Georgian show scene.
Tsurtsumia, who hails from a small town near the border with breakaway Abkhazia, ties her support for Saakashvili to the difficulties of the past. "I have lived through all the calamities that fell on Georgia, and now I appreciate every new road, every lamp post, every functioning institution," she said in an interview with EurasiaNet. "None of this was here yesterday. Too bad that our memory is so short-lived." [For addition background on Tsurtsumia, click here].
Saakashvili now draws his support from a host of singers, ranging from Nino Chkheidze, a B-grade pop star, to Zumba, a folk rock performer popular among snobbier Tbilisi audiences.
In contrast to ex-President Shevardnadze, who broadly pampered Georgia’s musical beau monde, Saakashvili has taken the more selective route, one Tbilisi analyst says. "Saakashvili tends to show up with a retinue of artistes handpicked to help further his political ends," commented Ramaz Sakvarelidze, an independent political analyst and psychologist.
The 40-year-old president has tended to count on stars that can cater to younger audiences, thus ensuring a potential return with future votes, Sakvarelidze observes. Sakvarelidze points to the president’s Patriot Camps, established in 2005 to instill national pride in Georgian youth, as one example of this. To help the camps take off, Saakashvili enlisted the support of popular rapper Lexseni.
With a degree in philosophy behind him, Lexseni is anything but a flamboyant narrator of street experiences like his idols Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. "Rap, among other things, is about societal problems," elaborated Lexseni. "I feel that in my work I should address issues that are relevant to Georgia today. First and foremost, this is building a normal state with an open-minded, grown-up society."
One Lexseni video, filmed after the rap star finished a stint in the army, features the performer leading a flag-waving group of young people. "Georgia faces serious external threats and I thought I should do a service to my country as an ordinary conscript, while communicating this call to my fans," he said.
Support for the president is far from uniform in Georgian show business circles. In recent years, Saakashvili has seen a formidable celebrity turn against him – the legendary Georgian drama director Robert Sturua, who, in his plays, often delivers thinly veiled criticism of the government’s privatization and media policies.
Perhaps the best-known opposition-singer is rap star Utsnobi (The Stranger), brother of ex-presidential candidate Levan Gachechiladze, who finished a distant second to Saakashvili, according to official election results.
Shortly before his brother faced off against Saakashvili during the 2008 presidential race, Utsnobi recorded a video that portrayed the incumbent president as a greedy and gluttonous Nero-style tyrant. The video seemed to resonate among certain segments of Tbilisi society. Voting totals showed that Gachechiladze outpolled Saakashvili in the capital.
For reasons that remain unclear, Utsnobi took no musical part in his brother’s recent election campaign. (The rap star, in seclusion at a monastery for Georgia’s Easter holidays, could not be reached for comment0.
Utsnobi’s discontent has extended to some older celebrity singers, too. Singer Irma Sokhadze, a child star of the Soviet era, and a current trustee for Georgian Public Broadcasting, takes issue with what she terms Saakashvili’s "ageism." [For background on Sokhadze, click here].
In the wake of the Rose Revolution, Sokhadze says she saw longtime colleagues at Georgian Public Broadcasting fired for not being part of a new generation. "Forty-five was the ceiling," said Sokhadze, who at the time worked as a producer for the company. "If you were older than that, you are good for nothing."
On the other side of the fence, though, are Nani Bregvadze, a romance singer popular in Soviet days, and opera singer Paata Burtchululadze, who both endorsed Saakashvili when street protests challenged his authority.
Expressions of support in Georgia’s show business world do not always translate into concrete political action. Before the campaign season started, the media gushed with rumored attempts to put various famous singers on party lists, but without result.
One Tbilisi theater actor, however, fared far better than many seasoned politicians. The third place slot on the United National Movement’s party list went to Gia Roinishvili, host of a television talk show about the arts. Reasons for the decision remain unknown.
For many Georgian celebrities, Roinishvili’s potential parliamentary career is no cause for professional envy. Said pop diva Tsurtsumia: "Locking myself in an office is the last thing I need."
Editor’s Note: Giorgi Lomsadze is a freelance reporter in Tbilisi. Molly Corso is a freelance photographer and reporter also based in Tbilisi.
