The Scoop

What can we expect from the rumoured names?

ARMTV said they’d reveal their act on 13th October yesterday, but that doesn’t stop the rumour mill from going in full swing. Currently, about four names seem to cover most of the rumours. Time for us to take a look: What can we expect from any of these four performers?

Athena Manoukian

21 year old Athena Manoukian is probably the most prominent rumour at the moment. Not only does she fit the very basic picture of a female solo singer, she can be linked to the Armenian Eurovision entry in multiple ways. Rumour has it ARMTV was planning to include Athena in the 2015 group Genealogy, but for some reason that didn’t work out. It definitely wasn’t because of a lack of interest: She repeated several times that she would love to do Eurovision and get back in touch her Armenian roots. She now lives in Sydney, which may explain why the video released yesterday by Eurovision.tv may have an Australian accent (is it truly Australian though…?). Added to that, she was in Yerevan the past few weeks. Coincidence? Maybe, but it seems Athena Manoukian is a clear favourite to fly the Armenian flag in Stockholm.
What can we expect from her musically? Well, full on pop music with a hit of dance sometimes. Knowing Armenia, there would be a bit of Armenian music in there as well. Athena’s latest single was called XO and is iconic for what she stands for:

Tamar Kaprelian

We know Tamar Kaprelian. She was in Genealogy, representing the Americas there. She wasn’t too sure what Eurovision was all about when she got on the plane to Austria, but she loved the entire experience. Straight after Eurovision, a campaign was launched by some fans to get Tamar to Sweden to represent Armenia once again – this time as a solo entrant. Tamar seemed rather enthusiastic, stating that she’d love to do it. Question is: Will ARMTV pick her or will they go for a new name?
Tamar musically can go any way actually. She does pop, she does pop rock, but also tends to go country sometimes. As we said, she’d probably have some Armenian elements in it, but besides that, we could end up with pretty much anything. Below, it’s her most recent single Yours To Keep.

Iveta Mukuchyan

Another very diverse name pops up on this list here. Iveta Mukuchyan, a German-Armenian singer and also model was mentioned by an Armenian blog (blognews.am) a while ago: It reported that ARMTV had internally selected Iveta for Stockholm. The broadcaster however firmly denied any sort of signed deal with Iveta. That doesn’t mean much in the world of Eurovision… For all we know, she only just signed the contract?
Iveta pretty much does anything in terms of music. Pop, jazz, dance – it’s all there in her repetoire. She also does pure ethno though and that may give us an idea of what we could expect if she’d represent Armenia in Stockholm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTdQU6KkKMk

Lilit Hovhannisyan

Meanwhile we can count Lilit Hovhannisyan to the eternal rumours. I personally cannot remember a single year in which Lilit wasn’t in some sort a rumour. This year is no different. The 27 year old is one of Armenia’s biggest stars in the Eurovision world. Question is if ARMTV will indeed go for Lilit. There is no hint from within the broadcaster that they intend to select Lilit, unlike with especially Athena and Tamar.
What can we expect? Pop, dance, bit of ethno. Just your usual Armenian entry, just topped off with an incredible amount of Armenian glamour and incomprehensible English. Lilit normally sings in Armenian and has released one single in English, even though it is kind of hard to identify it as English. You can see her English one below, Armenian Girl from 2014.

Summary
All in all, these four names all have some foundation to their rumours. Some of these names look more likely than others, especially Athena Manoukian. The puzzle just seems to fall together for her, but we cannot underestimate the power of social media, who wish for Tamar Kaprelian or Lilit Hovhannisyan.
 

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