Georgia

Following the example of their neighbours Armenia, Georgia entered the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in Helsinki. After qualifying for the final, Sopho, who had been chosen in an internal selection and "Visionary Dream" finished 12th in the final. This year Georgian television decided to have a national final and twelve songs competed for the votes of the public on March 1st. The clear winner and earning the ticket to Belgrade was "Peace Will Come" performed by well known local singer Diana Gurtskaya. This is Diana's second attempt to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest, as she was beaten in the final of the Belarussian selection in 2007.

Diana Gurtskaya was born on July, 2nd, 1979 in the troubled Abkhazia region of Georgia. Diana is blind from birth and during the armed conflict in Abkhazia, her family was forced to move from their home town and had to stay in a camp for refugees before later moving to Russia. In 1995 she finished boarding school for blind and visually impaired children in Tbilisi. While studying at a special school she was successfully educated at a musical school in the piano class.

Diana was 10 years old when she first performed on a stage of the Tbilisi Philharmonic Hall. The manner of singing of the small girl brought her unanimous public recognition. Outstanding vocal talent, ambition and hard work, have allowed Diana to become the winner of the international festival of young singers in the Yalta-Moscow-Transit contest in 1995 and she received a special prize of the jury.

Diana's inate talent and constant desire to improve her skills have led her to become a student at the Gnesinich Musical School in Moscow, in a class for a variety of vocal styles. After her graduation, in 1999 Diana began her independent singing career.

In 1999 Diana won the contest Slaviansky Bazar in Vitebsk, Belarus. She repeatedly became the laureate of the Zolotoy Gramafon trophy, festivals, "Song of the Year" awards, "Ovation" and many others. Diana has been honoured with state awards from several countries, including the Honour Award in Georgia, the Honored artist of the Russian Federation and the Award of Saint Barbara in Ukraine amongst others. Diana has also successfully performed in Madison Square Gardens in New York and also in Canada, Israel and the several states of the former USSR. Diana's duets with world celebrities, such as 1991 Eurovision winner Toto Cutugno, Demis Roussos, Ray Charles and others have proven to be very popular.

In 2003 Diana Gurtskaya entered the Russian Academy of a Theatrical Art where she is still studying. Besides art and singing, Diana conducts public and charity activities. In 2004, her personal initiative was established, Diana Gurtskaya's Charity Fund "On call of the heart", in order to help blind and visually impaired children. The singer regularly visits orphan's houses and special schools for disabled children. Diana has released two albums; "You Are Here" and "You Know, Mum", the songs from which remain popular hits and a third album is about to be released. Diana is married to a well known Moscow lawyer Peter Kucherenko and in June 2007 their son Konstantin was born.

The songwriters behind "Peace Will Come" have plenty of Eurovision experience. Composer Kim Breitburg and lyricist Karen Kavaleryan wrote "Northern Girl" which finished 10th for Russia in 2002. Karen, who is one of Russia's greatest pop songriters has since gone on to write the lyrics for "Never Let You Go", the Russian runner-up in 2006 and last year wrote the lyrics for two of the Top 10 in Helsinki, the Belarussia entry "Work Your Magic" (6th) and Armenia's "Anytime You Need" (8th). This year Karen is trying to do even better, as he is also the lyricist of Ukraine's entry "Shady Lady".

Bookmakers and fan polls both seem to agree on Georgian chances in Belgrade, with the song being likely to qualify from the semi-final, but likely to fall short of the Top 10 in the final.