ARMENIA

The Armenian entry was unveiled on March 2nd via ARMTVs website. Back in October 2015, the Armenian broadcaster announced that Iveta Mukuchyan would be representing the former soviet state although it was not revealed until February 216 that “LoveWave” would be the title of the song.

This is a very contemporary ethereal song although not too dissimilar in structure to “Not Alone” by Aram mp3. It starts off with a spoken word, whispery monologue. This is all well and good but you can barely hear a word as it's said so quickly and her breathy voice is not attractive. She starts singing and all seems well. Her  singing voice is reminiscent of Anastacia, This then leads into an overly long and winding build up to the next part  but it seems to go on forever. The chorus stars with some oohing and then another too quick and badly dictated line. It’s only after you are half way through the song do you actually get to the first proper verse/chorus progression. All of a sudden it ends again.

Iveta Mukuchyan, although born in Armenia, spent most of her life in Hamburg. She returned to Armenia in 2009 and started studying jazz. She participated in the fourth season of Hay Superstar (Armenia’s version of Pop Idol) in 2009 coming in 5th place. However she returned to Germany in 2012, participating in of The Voice of Germany and opted to be in Xavier Naidoo’s team. Since leaving the show she has released solo material and been a featured artist on other singles too.

This was a video presentation so there are few clues as to the stage performance that might be offered or as to how well she can sing this live. The video does show Iveta in a number of different outfits which could work on stage and I love some of the body contour light shows at the end. The song takes far too long to get going and I think many people will get about 45 seconds into the song and give up and put the kettle on. If you can push through the pointless beginning parts there is a good song longing to push through. She will need a good set of backing singers to help her with the chorus and it will need some dynamic staging. I am not fully convinced she can be dynamic AND sing the song full out. This is a really bad song with a really good song waiting to come out. This leaves you feeling a bit odd and wondering if you have missed something. A lot of style and not much substance.

Will the Armenian diaspora and former Soviet voting be enough to get this through – possibly not. I’m not sure who else would vote for it apart from those compelled politically or genetically. This is in no way shape or form a Eurovision song. That said, I could see this as a good semi final 1 opener as it has that kind of winding up feeling but this might just set up the atmosphere for the other songs after it. If I had my way this would not make the final but if it does it won’t be troubling the left hand side.

ARTIST – Iveta Mukuchyan

SONG – LoveWave

MUSIC – Lilith Navasardyan, Levon Navasardyan

LYRICS – Iveta Mukuchyan, Stephanie Crutchfield