I VERY MUCH WANT TO BE USEFUL TO ARMENIANS, SAYS RUSSIAN-ARMENIAN SINGER
15:08 * 06.04.15
Excerpt from interview by David P. Vardazaryan
In an exclusive interview with Tert.am, Russian-Armenian pop-singer
Mariam Merabova spoke of her participation in the music project
The Voice of Russia, the Armenian jazz and her concert in the
Nagorn-Karabakh (Artsakh) Republic.
“What happened after the blind auditions for The Voice of Russia is
impossible to describe. My Facebook page simply ‘exploded’; 3,000
messages at once … I wasn’t able to reply to anyone. It was terrible.
So many Armenians, all expressing their wishes from everywhere:
[United States of] America, Portugal, Germany. The Armenian diaspora
were writing to me from all the corners of the world,” she said.
Merabova said that the song Georgia on My Mind became her specific
visiting card as a kind of unique musical performance.
Asked what else she can consider her style outside the contest,
the singer replied, “Rhythm and blues, jazz, Etta James, Sara Wan
… That’s what is mine.”
As for the Armenian jazz, Merabova said she especially loves and
perceives as typical Armenian jazz music the works by Constantine
Orbelyan and Arno Babajanyan. “Babajanyan, by the way, is jazz for
me too, as [his pieces] are non-standard; they are not just ‘Soviet
variety music’. There is such a harmony in what they have created. But
I do not distinguish between Armenian and non-Armenian jazz. And I
do not absolutely suffer from such ‘craziness’. I am for good judgment.
So music is what I adore.”
Asked what Armenian song is included on her upcoming concert program
and whether she intends to perform anything by Komitas, the singer said
the repertoire includes only one song by composer Arthur Grigoryan. “It
will be an amazing song with its beauty. It isn’t just a song. It’s
something very important for me. It has already ‘pierced’ through my
heart once, and that’s all. I don’t think there is anything beyond
it …,” he added.
The singer further spoke of her ancestors who survived and fell victim
to Genocide. “We were a big family. My grandmother’s mother had 12
children. They were a wealthy family and had houses in Erzurum, Odessa,
Batumi and so on. Their job was carpet-making. My grandfather’s father
was a Maecenas. But in [19]15, a sister of my grand-grandfather,
aunt Sonya who studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich, was
killed in Erzurum. She was then on a vacation in Erzurum where the
family were having a rest. They killed her and the others…
“By the way, I have a great number of our photos with all our houses.
“My children are aware of all that. They know everybody by name.
“My grandfather’s paternal uncle, Soghomon, was killed too, during
the Genocide, together with two children aged three. It was an awful
tragedy for the family. Then uncle Vanya left for Hamburg; the rest who
remained alive – Minas, my grandpa’s father, and Mariam, my grandma’s
mother – stayed in Tbilisi. But their children were scattered here
and there, one went to Hamburg, the other – to Petersburg; uncle
George went to Moscow. But [19]15 was not the end of all that, as
1922 followed.”
One of the most influential Diaspora-Armenians on different ranking
indexes, Merabova says she very much desires to be very useful to the
Armenian nation. “I bow to everything Ruben Vardanyan does … I think
[people like him] are the nation’s glory. They see life the way it
will look in 100 years. One’s vision cannot be limited to three or
five years. You have to look 100 years ahead to see what your nation
will have. That’s the important thing,” she added.
Asked whether she isn’t afraid of being blacklisted by Azerbaijan for
her concert in Karabakh, Merabova said she doesn’t feel any discomfort
at all. She said other organizers had been planning her concert in
the country several years ago but didn’t succeed to.
The singer said she doesn’t care at all that after the concert in
Karabakh she will be back to a multi-cultural city like Moscow. “So
what does that change at all? Won’t anyone listen to me in Moscow
after that?” she aksed.