Eurovision song contest

The brilliant official slogan for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 “Building bridges” inspired us to create “Genealogy.” Two basic characteristics connect our 6 artists - the first one is the blood running through their veins that carries Armenian genetics, national traits and the reach history of Armenia. The second one is music, which also unites genetically. We have built a bridge between the past and the present, Armenian genetics and world music, Armenia and Eurovision. This is the genealogy of history and music – it can be distinctly defined from the official logo that the life tree has strong roots and branches reaching out to heights with the shape of connecting molecules. AMPTV’s designer Luiza Petrosyan was the creator of Genealogy’s logo.

Participants

While implementing the idea and selecting participants, the necessity to define the geography was extremely challenging because we, Armenians, have numerous talented artists spread all over the world and every Armenian is aware of Armenia-Diaspora-Artsakh unity. So we started looking for talented, young and charming artists and the initial list included over 30 names. However, according to the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest; only 6 people are allowed to perform on the stage. Armenian Public TV Company made the tough decision considering singer’s ability to perform live on stage, diversity and peculiarities of vocal capacity and style.

From the continent of Europe Essai Altounian has been selected. Despite his charming voice and appearance he was slightly popular in Armenia. Several years ago he took part in one of AMPTV’s musical projects and recorded a music video dedicated to Yerevan. 

From the continent of Asia we had many potential participants but Stephanie Topalin has been selected. She was a real discovery, my discovery, because none has ever heard about Stephanie in Armenia. It was challenging to find her through the Internet because in Japan other social platforms are being used, however it was meant to be. With uniquely beautiful facial features of Armenian-Japanese mixture and soft delightful voice our compatriot joined the project.

In terms of continent America it was relatively easy, as there is a large Armenian community and we pretty much know all of them. There were some discoveries in South America; yet our choice was elegant singer Tamar Kaprelian. Tamar was also slightly popular among Armenian fans and her name was even actively discussed in Social Media as a potential participant for Eurovision several years ago.

In the continent of Africa we did not have a large choice – there are Armenian communities mostly in Egypt and Ethiopia. We selected Vahe Tilbian because he has great experience in singing live and he usually performs with a band. He has a very enthusiastic character and is a great patriot.

In Australia there is a wonderful world-renowned soprano Arax Mansourian as a representative of the elder Armenian generation and she was the one to direct us to one of her students - Mary-Jean. This choice took only one minute. We agreed without hesitation because the powerful voice of this opera singer is attracting from the very first second.

The group would be impossible without a representative from the Republic of Armenia, simply because the bridge is being built between Armenia and Eurovision. The singer, who will be revealed along with the premiere of the music video, is the center and the connecting dot of “Genealogy”. The singer’s voice is powerful and diverse, even in the song it is uniting and connecting the five voices. 

“Face The Shadow”- The song and the music video

The song has also been selected internally. We have been collaborating with numerous Armenian composers and lyricists. This year I was especially thrilled with the fact that after our last year’s success in Eurovision there was a wave of excitement and desire to create a winning song. The creative team of AMPTV selected the song composed by Armen Martirosyan and lyricist Inna Mkrtchyan. This was the song to perfectly fit Eurovision song format and combine all 6 unique voices creating the desired atmosphere on the stage.

We decided to have a double premiere and present the song along with the music video considering that it is making a greater impact and is reinforcing the power of the narrative. The song is about universal values and the message is one - “Happiness is born when people are united and live in harmony with themselves, their families, love relationships and so on. Generations are shifting with time but the genealogy remains, thus the values of love and peace are stable.”

The participants visited Armenia for a short trip to record the song and the music video directed by Aren Bayadyan. Several exclusive photo shoots were held with stylist Armen Galyan. The music video premiere will be on March 12 on AMPTV at 18:30 CET (21:30 local time) right after the main news simultaneously with Eurovision.tv.