ARMENIA

The Armenian Final was held on February 25th, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan. Before the final there were 2 semis reducing the field of 20 to 10. The eventual winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and an international jury (50%). The winning act was Sevak Khanagyan singing the song “Qami” (Wind)

Sevak is alone on stage. He is sporting quite an impressive beard and a rather confusing fake chest bodice top. The screen behind him is showing a kind of abstract blue outer space scene until the last rendition of the chorus. There are also backing vocals on the track but no extra people can been seen on the stage. Sevak moves around a bit on stage but nothing at all choreographed and seems very natural and meaningful.

The song starts off quietly with piano backing. The song is quite simple and really shows the Armenian language as something that sounds quite pretty. The song is a very slow builder, after each rendition of the verse or chorus the backing music ramps up ever so slightly almost like each layer of the track is added one by one. It is not until the very end of the second chorus does it really step into fighting territory. Sevak’s full voice is charged at this point and gets to show not only his power but his range. Although the song is in Armenian, I would say the song sounded not atall ethnic, in fact it’s more musical theatre than cultural.

A 100% Armenian language entry is unheard of in Eurovision terms so it will be interesting to see how well this does. The flow of the song is very slow and takes a little bit too long to get to the big crescendo. I almost feel like the song needs to be another minute longer (which is against the rules) or a minute shorter (which could happen but won’t). The backdrop idea with the silhouette of the lady is an interesting one but the fact that such technology won’t be in-built into the Lisbon stage means this might need to be rethought. I also don’t quite understand the whole ‘costume’ of the armoured breastplate either – maybe it is just a visual gimmick? As for the song it is quite memorable and the simplistic title makes it easy enough for non-Armenian speakers to at least feel like they can sing along. This isn’t immediate but is a definite grower and once you’ve heard it and know what’s coming you need to listen to the end again !

ARTIST –  Sevak Khanagyan

SONG –  Qami (Wind)

MUSIC - Kostyantyn Bocharov, Anton Karskyi, Mike Ryals

LYRICS - Sevak Khanagyan, Anna Danielyan, Viktorya Maloyan