Dear Mr. Timberlake,

We write to you as admirers of your music and as supporters of the values you’ve championed throughout your career. With your upcoming concert in Tbilisi, Georgia, just days away, we feel an urgent responsibility to share the truth about what is happening in the Republic of Georgia and how those in power are using your presence.

Over the past year, Georgia’s government has taken a dark authoritarian turn, abandoning the democratic and European aspirations supported by the vast majority of its citizens. Journalists have been beaten and jailed. A “foreign agents” law has been used to target civil society and silence dissent. Protest rights have been stripped from citizens. Criticism of public officials has been criminalized. Teenagers have been arrested and sentenced to years in prison. Each parliamentary session ushers in increasingly repressive legislation aimed at suppressing political dissent. Opposition party offices have been raided, and political leaders - such as Nika Melia, Nika Gvaramia, Mamuka Khazaradze, Badri Japaridze, Zurab Japaridze - and many more- are now behind bars. International commentators have remarked that few countries have descended into authoritarianism as swiftly and dramatically as Georgia.

The most recent elections, in October 2024, were condemned by leading international observers, including the OSCE and European Parliament, as fundamentally flawed. A few days after declaring victory, the ruling Georgian Dream party’s Prime Minister formally suspended Georgia’s path toward EU membership, sparking some of the largest protests in the country’s post-Soviet history.

Additionally, sweeping anti-LGBTQ legislation, branded as “family values” laws, has outlawed public LGBTQ+ events, banning the display of rainbow symbols, and mandating the erasure of any queer representation from imported film and music before they can be publicly shown. These laws serve as a rallying cry to violent ultranationalist factions, which the government has mobilized as a paramilitary force against protesters.

This is the backdrop against which your concert is being promoted, as a centerpiece of the ruling party’s “Starring Georgia” propaganda campaign, used to sell Georgia as free and open and distract the people from ongoing crimes and human rights abuses.

This is the company you are associating with as a celebrity visiting Georgia.

We want to be absolutely clear: we are not asking you to cancel your performance. Your music is cherished by Georgians, and canceling would only serve the regime’s narrative that foreign voices, local activists, and human rights defenders are somehow “against Georgia.”

What we ask is simple, and in keeping with the values you have championed for many worthy humanitarian causes. We ask you to make a clear and public statement that you do not support authoritarianism, that you condemn the repression unfolding in Georgia, and that your image must not be used to whitewash state violence. 

If of interest, we also want to extend an invitation to you to meet with activists and show solidarity with those fighting to retain democracy in a small country of 3.6 million people.

Should you be open to it, we invite you to meet with activists and young people who are standing up for democracy, dignity, and Georgia’s European aspirations. Your words of support would resonate not just throughout Georgia’s 3.6 million citizens, but across an entire region of small, Western-leaning democracies threatened by the advance of authoritarianism.

With love and respect,

The People of Georgia