The modern face of Armenian music: Sirusho

So as I was watching some videos on youtube (and wasting time as usual), I found the new video of Sirusho’s song. “I like it” is her new single and the singer released the music video on November 10.  For those of you who don’t know her, Sirusho is an Armenian singer who represented Armenia in the 2008 Eurovision Song contest.  It was in that year, that people around Europe started noticing Armenia in the contest, and started waiting for their choice of singers and songs ever since.  Sadly, the quality of songs chosen has gone really bad ever since, especially with this year’s song (*vomits*).  This artist, born into a family of artists (as you’ll notice in the second video of her singing with her parents), has been singing since she was a toddler.  She is known for composing songs of her own since the age of 9, and successfully competing in international contests.

Her new music video is pretty decent for an Armenian artist who is not backed by a major international label company.

Also, there’s an old video of her singing with her parents, it looks like she was preparing for a contest or something.  You can see how much her parents encouraged and believed in her, it’s a must see video for all her hardcore fans out there.

Armenia in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest

Six months after Azerbaijan’s Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal’s victory in the 2011 version of the Eurovision Song Contest, Europe’s biggest TV show, that was held in the German city of Düsseldorf, and Armenia hasn’t decided yet whether or not it will be taking part in the 2012 version of the contest that is going to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan.  While the officials at the EBU and the contest supervisors claim that the Eurovision is nothing but a song contest that brings 40 or plus European nations together to enjoy music and art, many of us know that for many countries this has to do with more than art, it has to do with national pride, politics and national identity.  Neighbor countries tend to vote for each other, former Soviet republics always tend to support each other with the exception of the republics of the Caucasus.  The song contest that began with a little number of European countries back in the 50s, witnessed a great expansion and development especially in the last twenty years when it began accepting the entry of several countries from Eastern Europe, the former soviet republics and even non European countries such as Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (Yes I know that many of these countries are considered European, but on the other hand many sources do not recognize them to be part of Europe: While Armenia and Cyprus are entirely in Asia, they are considered to have historical, cultural and socio-political ties to Europe.  And while Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia have part of their territories in the old continent, Israel is allowed to take place in the contest because of its cultural relations with Europe).  Back to Armenia’s participation in next year’s event, the Armenian delegation has been taking so long in making a simple decision: Are we going to Baku in 2012 or not? What is so difficult to decide.  Their main response is that they are waiting for security guarantees by the EBU and by the Azerbaijani government.  Seriously?  What’s the worst that can happen, will the Azerbaijanis immediately attack the Armenian delegation once it sets its steps in Baku?  The ESC 2012 is a major international event, and Azerbaijan will do anything to guarantee the success of the contest and prove itself to Europe and the world.  I don’t think they’re gonna take any risk by attacking or harassing the Armenian singer(s) and delegation.  On another note, personally, I believe that the Armenian delegation has failed to send successful candidates to the ESC every year with the exception of 2008.  And don’t get me started on the choice of songs,  we can take an example from Azerbaijan whether we like it or not.  Their choice of singers and songs improved exponentially from 2008 till 2011, that is why they deserved their well earned victory last May.

So Armenia, what’s it gonna be next year?