Introduction
While there have been some ups and downs regarding Depi Evratesil for the selection of the Armenia representative for Eurovision, I think the folks put on a good show. This national final was used to select the countries representative for Eurovision 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2025, but I'm not sure why it was not used for the 2022, 2023, and 2024 contests. Well that's all behind us because this year's Depi Evratesil focused on 12 Eurovision hopefuls.
Armenia’s 🇦🇲 History at Eurovision
Entry year / number of ESC participations: Armenia first appeared in ESC in 2006 and has participated in 17/18 contests (17/18 whether one counts the canceled 2020 contest).
Number of ESC wins: 0
Highest placement (aside from winning year(s)): 4th place with Sirusho's Qele, Qele (Belgrade 2008) and Aram MP3's Not Alone (Copenhagen 2014)
Overall, I think Armenia has had a good relationship with the contest because the country have finished in the top ten eight times. For me, I enjoy this country in the contest because they bring something that is a bit representative to its region either through language or musical styling.
My favorite Armenian entry to date:
Since I am a relatively newcomer to ESC, I have not heard ALL (or even a large number) of Armenia's entries. I think my favorite song/performance so far is Athena Manoukian's Chains on You. It's interesting that this is my favorite Armenian song because this song was from the canceled 2020 contest. While selected it for the contest, it was never performed on a Eurovision stage.
The Songs & Performances
One paper, I thought Depi Evratesil had a nice mix of 12 performances. While I was not blown away by most of the performances, I thought a large number of them had great potential for the contest. To be frank, I do not think that I disliked any of the performances, which is a good thing.
I will say that I thought Depi Evratesil's run of show was extremely efficient because the entire contest was about 2 hours. One thing that I really liked about this national final was the lack of filler. Some national selections will have a pre-performance interview, a video postcard, the performance, then a post-performance interview. The folks at Depi Evratesil kept it simple with a brief overview of the performer (at least that's what I though it was because I don't speak Armenian 😉) followed by the performance. Also, there was not a whole bunch of random chitchat, rambling by the hosts, and/or 80 million visits to the green room to speak with the performers. I thought the production (e.g., audio and video) was fine. However, I was a bit annoyed that many of the performances had some strange shaking camera effect. But other than that very minor issue, I really enjoyed watching this national final.
From my limited knowledge of the Armenian music scene, I think Athena Manoukian was the favorite going into this contest. Primarily, because many felt that she was "robbed" by the pandemic since she could not perform in the canceled 2020 Eurovision contest. Also, to make it a bit worse, Armenia did not participate in the following 2021 contest. In many cases, countries sent their 2020 representatives to the 2021 contest since the 2020 contest was canceled. Side note: So far (and after watched previous Eurovisions), I think the 2021 was my favorite contest in terms of production and music. I hate to say this, but I think having that year off in 2020 really improved the quality of the 2021 songs.
From a combination of a public vote, an Armenian jury, and an international jury, Parg's Survivor was the wining choice.
Armenia's ranking vs mine
Armenia's results courtesy of Eurovision World (***).
Winner, winner chicken dinner! My #1 choice was selected to go to Eurovision, which rarely happens. Overall, I thought Survivor had a wonderful blend of rock, rap/spoken word, and Armenian influences. Ok, so Parg’s vocals were not the greatest compared to the other performers, but I think a lot of that can be worked out during the months leading to Eurovision. Also, there definitely is some time to work on the staging, which was a little too chaotic for my liking. To be perfectly honest, I would not have been upset if any of the top four songs from the official rankings made it to Eurovision. Eh, then again, I do not really get too upset if my favorites do not win or qualify. Looking at the official results, the choice was pretty clear because Parg did well in all three voting categories. Shockingly the fan favorite, Athena, did not win any of the three categories of votes. Then again, the song was not that great (IMO).
Controversies & Drama
Based on the comments from the ESC Twitter/X fandom, many folks disagreed with Parg winning over Athena. Eh, I guess they will simply have to get over this. While folks were upset, I do not think I have heard anything about irregularities in voting or the rigging of the voting process. Since the drama is a bit light, I have a feeling that no one will really care (or still be upset) in a few weeks (or even less)….or when I get around to actually posting this. 😉
I did notice something somewhat interesting. After Parg was announced as the winner, he preformed his song, and the other contestants from the national final joined him on stage. However, Athena was missing. I’m not really sure what happened, but I really hope she did not join the other contestants because she was upset that she did not win.
How Will This Do at Eurovision?
Since we do not know at lot about who is going to Eurovision just yet, I cannot really say how it will do in the contest. I think we still have a little more than 15 songs left. However, I have a feeling that this song will stay in my top 10. Actually, it’s currently in my number one position.
Strengths:
✅ The song has a unique sound and a message that is pretty easy to understand.
✅ Great potential for a decent televote, especially because Parg does offer some eye candy. Also, so far, I think we only have one other upbeat song performed by a man (Norway). However, I think Cyprus is sending something similar.
✅ They song and message leaves a lot to work with for the staging. Hopefully, Armenia has the funds to really elevate the song’s staging.
Weaknesses:
❌ Parg is a bit weak vocally. However, this isn’t a killer because I think many of the artists that have been selected for the contest are weak vocally.
❌ Since he is singing in English, he might have to work on his diction because it was a bit difficult to understand what he was saying. However, this is something that can be easily corrected in the next 3-4 months.
❌Don’t think I have a 3rd weakness at this point.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I think this was a great choice for Armenia, as well as anyone else that was in the top three. I cannot wait to see how this will look on the ESCs stage. Actually, I’m more excited to see how much the Eurovision performance will compare to the national final’s performance.
Video of the National Final: Unavailable
Depi Evratesil 2025 Playlist: (***)
