Earlier today, ARMTV has announced the competing artists for this year’s Depi Evratesil. As we have previously reported, the national final will be taking place on February 15. ARMTV has confirmed that it has received 53 applications, and whittled it down to 12.
Who is competing?
The competing acts for this year’s competition was selected by a jury, where they looked at the validity of the application, as well as the diversity of the music genres submitted. The jury included Naira Gurjinyan, Anita Hakhverdyan, Lilia Nikoyan, Ruben Babayan, Vardan Hakobyan, Tigran Danielyan, David Tserunyan, Karen Tataryan and Anush Ter-Ghukasyan.
- 1. Athena Manoukian
- 2. TOKIONINE
- 3. ERNA
- 4. Miriam Baghdasaryan
- 5. Agop
- 6. Karina EVN
- 7. Vladimir Arzumanyan
- 8. Hayk Music
- 9. Arthur Aleq
- 10. Gabriel Jeeg
- 11. EVA Rida
- 12. Sergey & Nikolay Arutyunov
A familiar name in the list of participants is Athena Manoukian, who has participated in X Factor UK in 2018. In addition to this, she also participated in Greece’s 2008 Junior Eurovision selection. She has previously expressed her interest in participating in the contest last summer. Could she make it to the Eurovision stage this time?.
In addition to Athena, also competing in this year’s selection is Vladimir Arzumanyan, who won the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest for Armenia with the song ‘Mama‘.
Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest
Armenia debuted at the contest back in 2006 with “Without Your Love” by André. They were the first Caucasus nation to compete at the contest, followed by Georgia (2007) and Azerbaijan (2008). They started strong, achieving five consecutive top 10 finishes between 2006 and 2010. Although intending to participate in 2012, they eventually withdrew due to security concerns around the contest being hosted in neighbouring Azerbaijan.
Armenia has yet to win the contest despite a strong history of results. To date, their best result has been two 4th place finishes. The first was achieved by Sirusho’s “Qélé, Qélé” in 2008, followed by Aram MP3’s “Not Alone” in 2014. However, the country has struggled to retain their strong record in recent years. They have now failed to reach the final on three occasions (2011, 2018 and 2019).
In 2019, Armenia was represented by Srbuk with the song “Walking Out”, finishing 16th in the semi final with 49 points. This is now the country’s worst result at the contest to date. Can Armenia return to its former glory? We hope so!
What do you think of the participants of Depi Evratesil 2020? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our reactions to the news in the run up to Rotterdam!
