ENTERTAINMENT
The Killers offend Georgia: where is it and what is its history with Russia?
Brandon Flowers and co were forced to apologise after asking the crowd to treat a Russian fan as their “brother”.
News that The Killers had been booed on stage in Georgia left fans across the United States wondering how they could possibly have offended the Peach State and scratching their heads as to how they hadn’t realised Brandon Flowers and co were playing a gig in Atlanta. Or was it Columbus? No? Augusta?
It turns out it was none of those places, with the band currently on a tour of Europe, which includes shows in the United Kingdom, Ireland Belgium, Switzerland and…Georgia. Not the state, rather the country which is at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia.
Walk-outs at The Killers concert in Ozurgeti
On Wednesday, The Killers played at the Black Sea Arena in Ozurgeti and spectacularly managed to antagonise a significant portion of the crowd, many of whom walked out. Plenty of those who stayed, meanwhile, booed the American band.
Not because Flowers’ vocals were off colour or drummer Ronaldo Vannucci Jr. was out of sync with his bandmates, but instead because a Russian fan was invited on stage to play drums on “Reasons Unknown”, with the frontman asking the crowd to treat him as their “brother”, which didn’t go down at all well. “We don’t know the etiquette of this land but this guy’s a Russian. You OK with a Russian coming up here?” Flowers asked.
Where is Georgia?
Georgia has borders with Turkey (to the southwest), Armenia (to the south) and Azerbaijan (to the south east), but its longest border is with northern neighbour Russia.
Georgian-Russian tension
After being invaded by the Russian Soviet Red Army for a second time in 1921, Georgia was incorporated into the Soviet Union the following year, which it remained a part of until it gained independence in 1991, the same year the Soviet Union was dissolved.
Russia again invaded Georgia in 2008 and has occupied around 20% of Georgia’s territory ever since. The Russia-Ukraine war has also heightened tensions, with many Russian exiles who have fled across the southern border seemingly unaware of the hostility shown towards their country by many Georgians, who are overwhelmingly pro-Ukrainian when it comes to the ongoing war, polls suggest.
The Killers post public apology on social media
Following the completion of the gig, The Killers publicly apologised on social media, clearly unaware of the relationship between the two countries.
“Good people of Georgia, it was never our intention to offend anyone!
“We have a longstanding tradition of inviting people to play drums and it seemed from the stage that the initial response from the crowd indicated that they were okay with tonight’s audience participation member coming onstage with us.
“We recognise that a comment, meant to suggest that all of The Killers’ audience and fans are ‘brothers and sisters,’ could be misconstrued.
“We did not mean to upset anyone and we apologise. We stand with you and hope to return soon.”
Flowers and co taken off air in Georgia
Speaking to the BBC, Ramaz Samkharadze, who runs Georgian radio station Tbilisi FM, revealed that he had taken The Killers’ songs off air as a “gesture of support” to anyone who had been offended.