Anoush Chakelian
Don’t get me wrong, Armenia is great at a lot of things. Playing chess. Producing superstar business dynasties.
Stuffing vine leaves. Squeezing pomegranates. All the skills. But
nowhere is it more revered in popular culture (aside from all Kardashian
content) than Eurovision.
Although it’s never won the thing, it has a cult status among
Eurovision fans for always doing fairly well with memorable refrains,
catchy beats and exotic concepts.
My personal favourite was 2010’s “Apricot Stone”, a complicated
mid-tempo lament about childhood, sorrow and fruit. Key lyric: “I began
to cry a lot/So she gave me apricot.” Which says all you need to know
about Armenian parenting.
It’s been in the top ten seven times since its 2006 debut, and has
reached the top five twice – its undisputed best banger “Qélé, Qélé”
(which means, “Come on, Come on”) coming in at fourth place in 2008,
winning the highest number of 12-point scores in the whole contest.
But this year, it seems to have lost its mojo. It failed to get through
in the first semi-final (something that’s only happened to it once
before, in 2011), and was competing with quite an uninspiring one-man
ballad called “Qami” (“Wind”).
