Following a disappointing result in Tel Aviv, Armenia confirmed their participation back in October. This was followed shortly by the announcement of the return of Depi Evratesil. Besides these, AMPTV have been rather quiet in the run-up to Rotterdam. Now, further details of the national selection have been revealed by the broadcaster.
In a TV news broadcast on Tuesday evening, AMPTV announced that Depi Evratesil – the Armenian national final for Rotterdam – will take place on February 15th. Although they didn’t reveal the full lists of finalists, footage of the supposed jury shortlisting sheet was shown briefly. Over the past few days, a jury has been assessing all of the submitted songs. The sheet suggests that finalists include Miriam Baghdassarian (The Voice Canada 2018) and Athena Manoukian, who expressed her interest in competing at the contest last year.
Unlike the 2018 edition, it appears that this will only be a one-shot national final. This means that rather than a semi-final structure, all of the songs will be performed for the first time on the night of the final, with the winner being selected from the full line-up.
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!