ARMENIA

The Armenian entry was presented on March 14th during a special show on Armenian TV where past participants Gor Sujyan, Hayko, Emmy, André and Eva Rivas all performed. Back on New Year's Ever, Aram mp3 was revealed as their internally selected artist. The song he will be singing is called "Not alone".

I watched most of the show live but in the end it was a little bit of a disappointment. After all the performances in the studio, the song was eventually revealed at the end of the show - as a video clip. Aram mp3 was even in the studio during all of this. It did make you think why he wasn't singing it live.

The video is partially based in a studio, punctuated with instruments being played, whilst the rest features Aram mp3 driving and arguing inside a car. As the song builds up the colours and camera angles change and become more frequent. Am not quite sure how relevant the car bits are as I find the studio bits, especially with the changing lights, much more effective visually. Also this possibly this might give us an idea of what a performance version might look like.

The song starts as a quiet, thoughtful ballad. In some ways the recorded version is too quiet to the point where it feels very mumbled and you can't understand a thing. The chorus just seems to be 'you're not alone' repeated a few times with large gaps between which although repetitive is not exactly the best song writing. But half way through the beat starts kicking in and although he tempo does not change the style of the song becomes more angry and powerful. It is only really at this point does the song and performance start come alive and show some personality. Even at this point the song writing is very repetitive. Finally the song ends by repeating the chorus quietly.

I think the studio parts could give an insight to what Aram mp3 might do on the Eurovision stage. There us also a large scope for other people on the stage as the recorded version on contains his voice. They might decided to put a group together behind him or have some kind of dance troupe. My main concern though it whether he can sing and perform this live. Although I think he could probably carry off the first part of the song I am not sure if he can perform the final part without getting too screechy, shouty and out of tune. As I said earlier, the fact that this was shown as a video clip does give you reservations.

On first listen to this I was very unsure. If I am honest, I was really not expecting this kind of song. On further listens it has grown on my and does make an impact. With a decent singing performance this will qualify but come mid-table in the final, but with a poor semi-final show it will be marked down by the juries putting it on shaky ground.

Artist - Aram mp3

Song - Not alone

Music - Aram Sargsyan

Lyrics - Garik Papoya