Gio Pika to perform in Riga despite five-year Lithuania ban

Rapper Gio Pika, who was barred from entering Lithuania for five years, is scheduled to perform in Riga in November, Latvian public broadcaster LSM reported.

Lithuania’s Interior Ministry imposed the ban in February, citing the artist’s performances in Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, according to Lithuanian public media. Lithuanian law allows authorities to bar foreign nationals from entering the country for up to five years if there are serious suspicions they support or take part in actions that violate international law or norms of international relations.

Online information shows Gio Pika performed in Russia in 2022, while reports of performances there from 2023 to 2024 are unclear. The musician, whose real name is Georgy Dzhivoyev, was born in Georgia and has mostly lived in Russia. He currently lives in Georgia and has performed in European and Central Asian countries, as well as the United States.

He performed in Riga and Tallinn last year. Before a Riga concert, he told the Russian-language LSM portal that Riga was the base for his concerts and that seven of the nine members of his team were from the city. He also wrote the song “Hello, Riga” for that performance.

Before a 2025 concert in Warsaw, he had not publicly commented on the war, according to information reviewed by LSM. At the concert, he expressed support for Ukrainians, wishing peace to people who had left their homes, especially those who had fled Ukraine. The remarks drew sharp criticism on Russian social media, where users called for him to be barred from Russia.