Syuzanna Melqonyan

Armenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Fly with Me" which was selected internally by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV). It was performed by singer Artsvik who was chosen through the national final Depi Evratesil (English: Towards Eurovision).

Armenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 16, "Fly with Me" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May.

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Armenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in 2006. Armenia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé" performed by Sirusho and in 2014 with the song "Not Alone" performed by Aram Mp3. Armenia had, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on only one occasion in 2011. The nation briefly withdrew from the contest in 2012 due to long-standing tensions with then host country Azerbaijan. In 2016, "LoveWave" performed by Iveta Mukuchyan placed seventh in the final.

The Armenian national broadcaster, Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV), broadcasts the event within Armenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. AMPTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 30 June 2016. Armenia has used various methods to select the Armenian entry in the past, such as a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However internal selections have also been held on occasion. After three consecutive years of selecting both the artist and song internally, AMPTV announced that a national final would be organized to select the artist for the 2017 contest.

Depi Evratesil

Depi Evratesil (English: Towards Eurovision) is the national final organised by AMPTV to select the artist that will represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. All shows in the competition will be broadcast on Armenia 1.

Format

The competition compromises of four stages and it is expected to run for three months between October and December 2016. The winning artist will be determined by a combination of votes from a jury panel and a public SMS vote. Six previous Armenian Eurovision entrants will comprise the jury:

Competing artists

An online application period was open from 6 July 2016 until 25 August 2016 for interested artists to apply. Eligible applicants were required to be at least 16 years old and either Armenian citizens or of Armenian heritage.

Teams

•      Winner
•      Runner-up
•      Third place
•      Fourth place
•      – Eliminated in Semi-Final 1
•      – Eliminated in One of Two

First Stage: Auditions

Auditions for contestants were held in September and were broadcast during three weeks from 1 October. Hundreds of applicants entered from the US, France, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Lebanon as well as Armenia. Only 80 of them were shortlisted to join the televised competition. During the auditions each participant had only two minutes to perform and convince the judges that they have to be chosen as Armenia’s delegate at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. Jury members focused on the vocal capacity of the artist(s), the performance on stage, and the overall impression by the act. If a jury member liked the performance, they pressed the button in front of them. The participants were allowed to continue to the next stage only if more than three judges pressed their buttons.

Second Stage: Judges Selection

The second stage of the project started on October 22, with 37 in the competition. The six judges competed to choose acts for their groups. The judges had the option of pressing their buttons in the last ten seconds of each performance. The first judge to press their button got the artist, with each judge looking for four artists to join their team. If none of the judges press their button, the contestant is eliminated from the competition.

Day 1 (October 22)

Nine artists performed on Day 1.

Day 2 (October 29)

Nine artists performed on Day 2.

• Note 1: According to the rules, all six judges must have four participants in their groups. However, when all participants finished their performances, Essaï had only three, so he was given a chance to choose his final team member from eliminated participants. As a result, Marissa was selected as Essaï's fourth team member at the end of the Day 4.

Day 3 (November 5)

Ten artists performed on Day 3.

Day 4 (November 12)

Nine artists performed on Day 4.

Third Stage: One of Two

The third stage of the project started on November 19. During this round only 24 contestants remain in the competition. The six judges pit two of their own team members to compete against each other. One is saved, the other one is eliminated. Five judges have an opportunity to give one point to their favourite artist. After those votes are made, the team's judge votes by giving three points. To win the battle the participants must receive more points than their opponents. After that, the last two artists of each team compete against each other, but this time only their own judge selects who continues the fight.

Day 5 (November 19)

During the fifth day, 12 participants performed; two from each team. Only six artists were given the chance to continue the fight.

Day 6 (November 26)

During the sixth day the remaining twelve acts performed, two acts from each team. Only six artists were given the chance to continue the fight.

Day 7 (December 3)

During the seventh day two artists within each team performed against each other. As a result, 6 artists, one of each team, get to advance to semi-final.

Color key:

Semi-Final 1 (December 10)

The first semi-final show took place on 10 December 2016 and the top four from the six competing artists qualified to the second semi-final. Top 4 was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and 9 professional juries. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 189 points to award. Each jury distributed his/her points from 1 to 6. The televote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through SMS voting.

In addition to the performances of the competing artits, the interval act featured 2016 Junior Eurovision Armenian entrants Anahit & Mary with their song "Tarber".

Semi-Final 2 (December 17)

The second semi-final show took place on 17 December 2016 and the top two from the four competing artists qualified to the Final. Top 2 was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and 11 international professional juries headed by Swedish producer Christer Björkman. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 110 points to award. Each jury distributed his/her points from 1 to 4. The televote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through SMS voting.

In addition to the performances of the competing artits, the interval act featured Sos and Victoria Petrosyan with their quick-change acts.

Final (December 24)

The final show took place on 24 December 2016 and top two artists, Marta and Artsvik, performed two songs. The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of public votes and 7 panarmenian juries from Armenian diaspora. The televote and jury's votes was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through SMS voting or by jury members.

In addition to the performances of the competing artists, the opening act featured Voices of Artsakh performing a mashup of all Armenian 10 entries in Eurovision Song Contest. The interval acts featured Hovig with a mashup of his songs and "Hayi acher" and Iveta Mukuchyan with "LoveWave" and "Amenic amena".

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will take place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine and will consist of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2016, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Armenia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 9 May 2016, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Armenia was set to perform in position 16, following the entry from Cyprus and before the entry from Slovenia.

Semi-final

Artsvik took part in technical rehearsals on 30 April and 4 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

At the end of the show, Armenia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.

Final

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the reverse order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Armenia was drawn to compete in the first half.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Armenia and awarded by Armenia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Armenia

Points awarded by Armenia

Split voting results

The following five members will comprise the Armenian jury:

• Ara Gevorgyan – Chairperson – musician, composer
• Emma Asatryan – vocal teacher, singer, songwriter
• Eduard Topchjan (only semi final) – conductor
• Aramayis Hayrapetyan – director
• Zaruhi Babayan – singer, vocal teacher
• Tigran Sanoyan (only final) – musician

Split voting results from Armenia (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Gevorgyan	E. Asatryan	E. Topchjan	A. Hayrapetyan	Z. Babayan	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Sweden	8	6	7	4	5	6	5	7	4
02	Georgia	2	5	5	9	6	5	6	3	8
03	Australia	12	14	8	10	7	10	1	8	3
04	Albania	16	13	15	16	16	16		12
05	Belgium	13	7	14	14	15	13		5	6
06	Montenegro	14	16	16	15	14	15		10	1
07	Finland	10	12	11	8	13	12		14
08	Azerbaijan	17	17	17	17	17	17		16
09	Portugal	7	4	4	5	4	4	7	4	7
10	Greece	4	2	2	2	2	2	10	6	5
11	Poland	9	11	9	6	12	9	2	9	2
12	Moldova	3	3	3	3	3	3	8	2	10
13	Iceland	6	10	10	7	11	8	3	13
14	Czech Republic	5	9	6	12	9	7	4	11
15	Cyprus	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	1	12
16	Armenia
17	Slovenia	11	8	12	11	10	11		15
18	Latvia	15	15	13	13	8	14		17

Split voting results from Armenia (Final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Gevorgyan	E. Asatryan	A. Hayrapetyan	T. Sanoyan	Z. Babayan	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	24	24	21	23	18	24		17
02	Poland	11	12	14	9	21	12		24
03	Belarus	19	11	24	24	15	22		15
04	Austria	16	7	11	13	14	10	1	19
05	Armenia
06	Netherlands	2	21	22	17	13	15		13
07	Moldova	4	3	3	2	2	3	8	5	6
08	Hungary	23	23	20	20	23	23		11
09	Italy	10	9	4	22	7	9	2	7	4
10	Denmark	12	10	19	11	24	16		18
11	Portugal	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	2	10
12	Azerbaijan	25	25	25	25	25	25		25
13	Croatia	14	8	12	7	22	11		16
14	Australia	21	22	10	21	11	19		21
15	Greece	3	2	2	3	3	2	10	10	1
16	Spain	20	20	18	18	8	18		20
17	Norway	6	6	9	10	10	6	5	22
18	United Kingdom	9	14	7	8	6	7	4	14
19	Cyprus	5	4	13	4	4	4	7	1	12
20	Romania	13	18	23	12	20	20		9	2
21	Germany	17	13	15	19	19	17		12
22	Ukraine	15	15	17	6	16	14		23
23	Belgium	22	16	16	16	17	21		6	5
24	Sweden	8	5	6	15	5	5	6	8	3
25	Bulgaria	18	19	8	14	9	13		4	7
26	France	7	17	5	5	12	8	3	3	8