DIANA MNATSAKANYAN SPEAKS ABOUT HIGH TV RATINGS AND MORE
oikotimes.com, Greece
July 16 2007
When Armenia joined the Eurovision family in 2006 very few people
would have expected them to have done so well in their first pair
of participations. Two years on, and the Caucasian country has made
the final twice, finishing 8th both times, and scoring huge totals
in the process. But behind every success is a hard-working Head of
Delegation- oikotimes.com spoke to Armenia’s Diana Mnatsakanyan:
1) What made AMPTV decide to enter Eurovision in the first place?
We have been broadcasting the shows live from Turkey and Ukraine and
our viewers have been very insisting to take part in ESC whatever
it takes. I have received thousands of e-mails and telephone calls
with the same request and question "why don’t WE take part if we
broadcast it?" We became an active member of EBU, then asked for a
favor to participate in the contest and luckily became a small part
of the show twice already.
2) Armenia has now entered Eurovision twice, was in the final both
times, had a top ten finish twice, and both of the entries have
scored over 120 points- did you ever think that something like this
would happen?
To tell the truth – never 🙂 Can you imagine how happy I am to state
that we are twice in the final from the first attempt? I should admit
that viewers played a very important role in our destiny and supported
us strongly. I am more than thankful to all the people in Europe who
were active while voting, writing e-mails, giving us pieces of advice,
sharing their opinions and thoughts in the forums.
They don’t even know how helpfull they were through all the way
to Eurovision.
3) How did it feel when Armenia was announced as having qualified in
Athens, the last name to be opened?
I was in the Green Room with Andre and whole delegation and had
a real heart-attack as I was sure that Belgium will be definitely
in the final. We all expected to hear Belgium when Sakis opened the
last envelope and even prepared ourselves to smile and applaud and be
strong. The first time is the first time, and nobody expected to reach
the final, we stood up to congratulate Kate Ryan and… we heard the
name of our country and saw Albanian delegation happily smiling and
jumping for a second. When all of us understood that Sakis pronounced
"Armenia!" Our joy was really enormous! I couldn’t hear anything
anymore, because everybody screamed like never before 🙂
4) Do you think that Diaspora voting is playing a part in Eurovision,
or that countries like Armenia, Greece, and Turkey are simply sending
very good songs?
Oh, maybe it plays a role, but it plays it badly. Russian Diaspora is
one of the biggest and if they voted the way everyone says, Russia
would have always been the first every year and every time and we
would have Moscow 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and etc.! Of course Diaspora
votes, but not only Diaspora! Even if Armenian, Russian, Turkish,
Greek or Israeli people are spread all over Europe they don’t have
to vote or their country if they don’t like the song. This is the
principle which is strictly followed as to my humble opinion, nobody
can force viewers to vote for something they feel disgust with. I am
convinced that if a song is not good enough nobody and nothing will
help to make it to the final.
5) Armenia will now be entering into JESC, what are the reasons for
entering in this show too?
The reasons are mainly the same. Our active viewers are keen to see
Armenian talented kids among their European "colleagues" 🙂 We were
just learning during the ESC 2006 and ESC 2007 how it works and what
it takes. Now with our small experience we can go ahead with one more
magical show.
6) This year you held a national final, last year an internal selection
and both entries finished 8th. Do you have a preference for which
you’ll continue with?
Someone put a spell on us and we finish 8th everytime. Of course
I am joking! There are reasons for making an internal selection
and national final. First time ever participation was based on an
internal selection, because we had to think about slightest details,
which could be unknown to our audience. The national selection was held
when we broadcast the ESC live and people realized the format of the
show. Now they know that being a celebrity or a complete newcomer in
the show-business plays second or even third role. People know that
they vote for the SONG and not a person and we are intended to trust
them furthermore.
7) What are the viewing figures like for Eurovision in Armenia?
The same figures we had with Football World Cup 2006 in Germany – 90%
of a market share! Nobody slept until 03:00am and made us happy with
that 🙂
8) And finally, if Armenia wins the Eurovision Song Contest, where
would you host the event?
If that happens ever (I hope but I am not sure) it will take place in
Sports-Concert Complex after K. Demirchyan. (Diana has kindly provided
us with some pictures of the venue which you can see by visiting the
link on your left.)
A huge thank you to Diana Mnatsakanyan of the Armenian Boradcaster
AMPTV for answering our questions!