Now that the National Finals season is finished and all songs for Eurovision 2016 have been selected we now have a period of around 3 weeks where we wait for the rehearsals to begin in Stockholm. What better way to fill the time than to look back over the 60 years of Eurovision at some of the best and worst entries that countries have sent to the Eurovision stage. There are 43 countries going to Stockholm to take part in the 2016 edition of our favourite musical extravaganza and we continue our journey with Armenia who have never won the contest but have finished in the top 10 on six occasions which is remarkable considering they have only competed on nine occasions.  Their best position has been 4th twice and worst is failing to qualify from the Semi Final once. You can check out the previous articles in the best and worst series for Ireland HERE ,Spain HERE, Austria HERE, Bosnia & Herzegovina HERE, Iceland HERE, Belarus HERE, Denmark HERE, Georgia HERE, Germany HERE, Cyprus HERE, Finland HERE, Belgium HERE, Hungary HERE, Switzerland HERE, Ukraine HERE,Moldova HERE, Estonia HERE, Norway HERE, Italy HERE, Slovenia HERE and The Netherlands HERE.

So this year Armenia are represented by Iveta Mukuchyan with the song ‘LoveWave’. We will have to wait and see if it turns  out to be more of a best or  worst song for Armenia but the overall reaction is fairly positive so far. You can catch up on our recent article giving our thoughts on her song HERE.

So my selections for best and worst entries are based on a combination of actual results and personal taste. Now Armenia have only nine entries to choose from making the task a lot easier. Like I said before Armenia have six songs that ended up in the top 10 so I will highlight three of those and the other three outside the top 10 will be here too.

We do not have to go very far back in time to find our first song that is one of the best for Armenia. The year was 2014 and we were in Copenhagen to see Aram Mp3 singing the song ‘Not Alone’.

 

Now Armenia sent Aram Sargsyan better known as Aram Mp3 who is a successful singer-songwriter, comedian and showman. The song was written by Aram along with his friend Garik Papoyan and was a ballad with a mixture of dubstep in it. The performance had Aram Mp3 performing on stage alone. The stage atmosphere during the performance transitioned from dark settings to explosive and pulsating elements projected on the LED screens as the song progressed. It qualified from the Semi Final in 4th place then went on to repeat that place in the Final with 174 points.

Moving along we look at one of the worst entries for Armenia. We were in Malmo in 2013 to see Dorians perform the song ‘Lonely Planet’.

Now Dorians are a rock band. The lyrics were written by Vardan Zadoyan and the music was written and produced by Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi. It was a fairly powerful rock song which qualified for the Final in 7th place in the Semi Final then went on to finish 18th with 41 points.

So now we move back to look at another best of entry Armenia. We were in Belgrade in 2008 and the performer was Sirusho with the song ‘Qélé, Qélé’.

Now the song was sung with a mixture of Armenian and English. Sirusho won through a national final to get to Eurovision and wrote the lyrics herself. Sirusho herself had a lot of early success in Canada with the Armenian Diaspora music scene. The song finished in 2nd place in the Semi Final then 4th place in the Final with 199 points. This to date is Armenia’s best placing and points total.

Our next song that has to be considered one of the worst for Armenia was in the year 2015 and we were in Vienna to witness the spectacle that was Genealogy singing ‘Face The Shadow’.

There is no doubt that this was a well performed song. The band was a supergroup specially formed for Eurovision with 5 of the 6 members coming from other continents representing the Armenian diaspora who had spread throughout the world. The only one that was directly from Armenia was Inga Arshakyan who had represented her country in 2009 previously with her sister. The song went on to finish in 7th place in the Semi Final then 16th in the Final with 34 points.

So onto our last song that was one of Armenia’s best. It was in 2010 and Oslo was witness to seeing Eva Rivas perform with the song ‘Apricot Stone’.

Now starting with the song it was sung in English and was composed by writers of previous Eurovision entries for Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. The song featured the Armenian national music instrument duduk played by famous Armenian `dudukahar’ Djivan Gasparyan, one of the oldest persons ever to feature in a Eurovision Song Contest performance. The instrument is traditionally made of apricot wood. Eva comes from a mix of Armenian, Russian and Greek descent. She was considering going to Eurovision again in 2012 until it was decided Armenia would not go to Baku. It finished in 6th place in the semi final then finished 7th in the Final with 141 points.

We now arrive at the last song for Armenia and it’s another of the worst. In 2011 we saw Emmy represent her country in Dusseldorf with the song ‘Boom Boom’.

 

It was a song that was internally chosen in Armenia. Now Emmy is considered a bit of a pop princess in her country and narrowly failed to get to Eurovision in 2010. She performed the song with a bit of a boxing theme going on and was the first Armenian entry to fail to qualify for the Final ending up in 12th place with 54 points. This is to date Armenia’s worst result at Eurovision.

So there we have it folks, my little delve into Armenian Eurovision history and some of the best and worst moments over the years. Do you agree with all or even any of my choices? Feel free to comment below.

This series will continue with another look at songs over the years for each and every country competing in Eurovision 2016 so keep coming back for more reflections of the best and worst that Eurovision has had to offer us.

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Author: Andrew Main

Source: Eurovision Ireland