Hip-hop was introduced to Georgia in the 1980s as perestroika loosened the blockade on western influences within the USSR. Local rappers appeared at that time as well, but it was not until the 2010s when the Georgian hip hop scene really began to have appeal not just at home but also abroad. The artists below […]

The history of soccer in Georgia goes back to the late 1800s, when it was brought to country by English sailors shortly after the sport was invented. Although Georgia was an early adopter of the sport, its development has been arguably held back by colonialism. Georgia was largely a backwater for Soviet soccer and the […]

Nino Katamadze has been given many titles, from “jazz-diva” to “the Georgian Janis Joplin.” Her experimental, genre-defying work makes it not only possible but sensible to compare her to jazz artists and rock stars alike. Katamadze and her band Insight (together known as Nino Katamadze & Insight) are renowned across the globe, performing almost non-stop […]

Georgian polyphonic singing, added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is a musical technique in which a single song has several melodies, each sung concurrently, with no one tune dominating the others. In Georgia, the style varies by region, but the practice reflects both military, folk, and religious culture. […]

An Armenian singer, actor, and keyboardist, Essaï Altounian (Եսայի Ալթունյան) is most famous artist as a French popstar. He sings mostly in French, but also has released hits in English and, of course, Armenian. Altounian was born 1980 in Paris, France. The son of Armenian parents, Altounian was greatly influenced by the stories of his […]

While in various parts of North America and the Middle East, lemonade refers to a non-carbonated, sweetened lemon beverage, in most of Eurasia, lemonade is a sweet, fizzy drink resembling what most of us call “soda.” Generally regarded as a Western invention, lemonade reached Georgia by 1833 and, soon after, the Georgians were pairing fizzy […]

Tangerines (Mandariinid) is a 2013 Estonian–Georgian drama film. It’s in Russian and Estonian, despite the fact that it takes place in and was filmed in Georgia. The film is about a village in Abkhazia (considered a part of Georgia or an independent republic, depending on who you ask), whose residents are mostly ethnic Estonians. The year […]

Earthquake (Землетрясение) is a 2016 historical drama by Russian–Armenian director Sarik Andreasyan (Сарик Андреасян). The film depicts the massive earthquake, and its aftermath, that shook Armenia on December 7, 1988. Starring Konstantin Lavronenko (Константин Лавроненко), Mariya Mironova (Мария Миронова), Viktor Stepanyan (Виктор Степанян), and Tatev Ovakimyan (Татев Овакимян), the film has seen a lot of […]