About
Biography
Iriao is a jazz and ethnic folk music group from Georgia. The band is named after the “Maskulinum” (Iriao-uruao), which is used as onomatopoeia for the Krimanchuli, the Georgian yodel.
The group of seven (David Malazonia, Nuzgar Kavtaradze and David Japaridze were not on stage in Eurovision) was founded in 2013 by David Malazonia. It is considered the first group to combine jazz with Georgian ethnic folk. Founder David Malazonia lives in Germany, where he writes music for TV, theater and other projects.
The band first appeared internationally at the Borneo Jazz Festival in Malaysia in 2014. The group was selected as the representative of Georgia for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon with the song “For you”. In October 2018, they were able to perform in Moscow. A month later, David Malazonia got very seriously indured by an accident in Beijing. Iriao organized a benefit concert in order to collect money for his treatment.
In 2019, Iriao performed at the Baku Summer Jazz Days in Azerbaijan and at the Days Of Georgian Culture in Minsk, Belarus. In November of the same year, they performed at the Münsterland Festival in Germany.
