According to the contest regulations: song lyrics should not contain any political messages and/or should not bring song contest into disrepute. Decision on the legitimacy of the participating songs will be taken only during meeting of heads of delegations on 16-17th of March. Till this moment it is possible to make an amedments to the contest entry.

Stephane Mgebrishvili, producer and singer of the band: "I can say for certain, that on the current moment, there has been no decision to change the lyrics of the song we will perform at Eurovision-2009. Those who can speak English language at least at the level of 5th grade of school should realize that lyrics has absolutely nothing to do with Russia".

Producer of the band Kaha Tsiskaridze: "If you will read the lyrics with attention, you will notice there is nothing political in it. There is no mention of any politician there. We've followed all Eurovision regulations. There are no breaches contained in our lyrics. If someone wants to devote this song to some person - he can do it - everytime when person listens to music and lyrics, he always imagines something or someone. If he wants to devote the song to someone - he can do it. We have absolutely no intention to change lyrics. There is nothing against the law and contest regulations. Organizers have no right to exclude this entry from competition as it completely fits rules of the contest. There is nothing political. No single person is mentioned there and there is no abuse".

"It is XXI century and there is freedom of speach. Currently, "Stefane & 3G" is the most discussed project and this is very important for us! We've received huge advertising through the reaction of press-center of Russian prime-minister, they called us hooligans. And we're people of art, musicians, we can not speak about politics at all - this is not our job... Our song is very beautiful and dinamic, I think it will do what it is required to. And has already done! But we do not want to abuse anyone, we have many friends in Russia, one of the producers of the band is Russian speaking, and I worked and lived in Moscow", added Tsiskaridze to Euroradio.

Press-secretary of Russian prime-minister Dmitry Peskov has stated: "If this information is true, we do regret that participants from Georgia do not intend to concentrate on the music quality, and try to use the popular European competition for the broadcast of their pseudo-political ambitions, but more simply, the mere hooliganism. We still hope that guests of Moscow Eurovision from Georgia will decide to perform here a real, beautiful song, as Georgian people and Georgian culture are very rich in these"

Myspace: www.myspace.com/3g4music  

You can watch music video for the controversial song and extracts from the press-conference here.

- Unfortunately, the European Broadcasting Union did not tell us specifically what the word or phrase we have to change. It happened so that they simply asked to changed absolutely whole lyrics. And we decided that there is nothing to change, so that, in principle, we decided that we will not do any changes. Now, they probably will decide on the disqualification of the band, of our project. We first asked, please, specifically, tell us, what's wrong, what exactly word or a phrase is wrong for which lyrics have to be changed? At the present moment, no one answered. So we will wait for what a response will be. Without any answers we've received a letter that if there is no change made, then we will be discussing this issue about the disqualification, that they won't let us perform at the contest.

We believe that in this lyrics there is nothing offensive, nothing is mentioned about politics or such. We have created a song and form of performance for our band at the Eurovision. We did not discuss a topic that we will be insulting someone in lyrics, especially insulting some nation. Because we have so many friends in Moscow, a lot of friends, good professionals, we communicate with them. In fact, it were politicians who began to spin up this issue, saying it is song against the Russian people and all that. Absolutely nothing is in there, and never was meant. We didn't put in it any negative move in order to annoy people or anyone else. If it was Putin, then we would write "Putin", and now it says "put in negative move". And this is art, in principle. Creativity is the free thing, as well as journalism. Readers and listeners decide for themselves how this can be taken. For our part, we again conducted a special survey. And somewhat around 80 percent of televiewers have agreed that the song should not be changed, because they want us to represent Georgia in Eurovision.

The Georgian group's producer, Kakhaber Tsiskaridze, said he suspected the song was rejected under political pressure from Moscow. "We suspect that this decision is a result of political pressure from Russia. If that is the case, it's unacceptable," he said. He said he disagreed that the song was overtly political. "Where in the lyrics are there any political statements or insults to someone?" he said.

Currently, it is unclear what consequences such a withdrawal will have. Will Georgian broadcaster be liable to pay a fine, or will be punished otherwise? Will Georgia be allowed to vote in the contest and whether the broadcaster will use this opportunity?

Тем временем, продолжают звучать и мнения тех, кто вообще против участия Грузии в московком конкурсе - против этого высказался депутат верховного совета Абхазии и члены т.н. Грузинского клуба.