Before studying singing with Aleksander Rahnel in Yaroslavl where a cultural centre for evacuated Estonians had been established, Ots was a young Navy Officer who had escaped a sinking ship bombed by the Kriegsmarine in 1941.

His repertoire included the roles of Eugene Onegin, Escamillo, Renato, Don Giovanni, Papageno, Rigoletto, Iago, Porgy, Figaro, and Kabalevsky's Colas Breugnon.

The libretto of The Demon is based on Mikhail Lermontov's famous epic poem, once banned because of its plotline involving a misalliance between a dark angel and a Georgian princess.

Ots also played a leading role in Between Three Plagues, a film based on a historical novel by Jaan Kross which illuminates the life of Balthasar Russow.

Ots's biography, written by Kulle Raig, was first published in Finnish in 2002 ("Saarenmaan valssi: Georg Otsin elämänkerta") and in Estonian in 2003.