Armenia's national selection Depi Evratesil 2020 has its final this weekend. Twelve songs were selected out of the 53 submissions and among them names from the Armenian diaspora and participations in various talent shows in Greece and Uk (Athena) and Canada (Miriam), and even a Junior Euroviison winner Vladimir. I listened and commented and no, it's not a good one. The Armenian sound is totally missing and instead we have a selection of very mediocre songs. Out of these if I have to choose my favorites are in no particular orderer Agop, Karina, Hayk and Eva.
Agop – Butterflies ***
Karina EVN – Why? ***
Hayk Music – What It Is To Be In Love ***
Erna Tamazyan – Life Faces *
Eva Rida – No Love ***
Athena Manukyan – Chains On You *
Gabriel Jegg – It’s Your Turn **
Sergey and Nikolay Harutyunov – Ha, Take a Step **
Miriam Baghdsaryan – Run Away **
Vladimir Arzumanyan – What’s Going On Mama? *
Arthur Aleq – Heaven ***
Tokionine – Save Me **
Agop offers rather pleasant indie pop rock that will make or break it on stage. Karina goes for more modern pop sound with the very original oh, oh ohs. Yet somehow it works. Hayk Music (that I for a moment thought was good old Hayk Kasparov but sadly wasn't) tries his luck with a simple piano ballad. Fandom will hate this but I rather listen to this than most soulless pop tunes that fill the various national finals. Erna starts off like "At last" for a second. The obligatory jazzy number that has no share in the final result. Eva sounds like Armenia's Nina Zilli, pleasant. The staging and live will be crucial I suppose. Athena, the fan wank, delivers a song that without staging nailing it is just a big yawn, a mess of sounds and nonsense lyrics. Manufactured. Gabriel goes the Crisalide way changing the style and tempo of his song in the middle with some cool arrangements. But no, not for Eurovision. Sergey and Nikolay, is it a son and dad duo? deliver an interesting song that has its moments, but maybe not the right one for Rotterdam. Miriam goes somewhat modern ballad but gets only shouty. A disaster live if not sung well. Vladimir is kissing lips and missing hips. Err ...no. The song's not going anywhere. An ok demo of a mediocre song. Arthur has something interesting going on but still I feel something is missing to tie it all up. A good effort with a hint of more interesting sounds. Tokyonina... how generic and boring.
(Lots of ***s again but that stands for "ok song that I wouldn't be too upset to hear in Rotterdam" and it's too hard to say with 1-2 hearings and not having seen the staging where it lands in the end. Less than 3 stars stand for No way and more than 3 stars are my favorites and those I'd be happy to hear in Rotterdam, too. )
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