While Christmas has practically taken over this weekend; Armenia’s national selection show took place. “Depi Evratesil” was won by Artsvik; who will be off to Kyiv, Ukraine in May, to represent her country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.
Armenia has quite the long national selection process, containing several auditions, various fierce duels and three live shows; it’s clear Armenia’s “Depi Evratesil” selection procedure is designed to get the best representative for Eurovision. In this case, Artsvik won the competition on 24 December 2016.
The final was a one-on-one competition between Artsvik and Marta. In a close battle, they each sung two songs. Marta went first with a cover of Rihanna’s hit “Only Girl (In The World)”, whereas Artsvik chose Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”. The second songs were Armenian hits.
The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and a jury vote. Artsvik becomes Armenia’s 11th representative for the Eurovision Song Contest.
Watch Armenia’s Eurovision Act, Artsvik, Perform “I Have Nothing” Here:
As for Artsvik herself, her full name is Artsvik Harutyunyan, she’s 32 years old, and was previously a contestant on Golos, which is the Russian version of The Voice. She made it to the battle rounds before being eliminated.
This means that some Russian voters may identify her from Golos and send some votes her way.
Her song has yet to be chosen and will be announced at a later date. Artsvik is the ninth act to be chosen for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, following Cyprus’ Hovig, the Netherlands’ O’G3NE, Belgium’s Blanche, Macedonia’s Jana Burceska, Azerbaijan’s Dihaj, Ireland’s Brendan Murray, Austria’s Nathan Trent, and Albania’s Lindita.
Eurovision 2017 is definitely hotting up. There are quite a few female ballad singers at the moment, maybe due to the fact that Ukraine’s Jamala won last year with “1944“. However, there’s still 34 acts still to be selected.
How do you think Eurovision 2017 is shaping up? What do you make of Artsvik? Tell us on Twitter @CelebMix.