Athina Manoukian

Athena Manoukian (Greek: Αθηνά Μανουκιάν; Armenian: Աթենա Մանուկյան; born 22 May 1994) is a Greek-Armenian singer and songwriter. She was to represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Chains on You".

Manoukian's first experience in the music industry was in 2007, when she participated in and won first prize at a talent contest called "This Is What's Missing", an international TV show production of Alpha Television Network Greece.

A year later, in 2008, she participated in the Greek national selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "To Fili Tis Aphroditis" where she placed seventh .

In 2011, Manoukian released her first single named "Party Like A Freak", which became one of the biggest hit singles in Greece and has over a million views on YouTube. Following the success of "Party Like A Freak", which was nominated twice for winning an award at the MAD Video Music Awards, in 2012 she released a follow-up single "I Surrender" which instantly became the summer hit of year. She added a new song to her music discography a few months later named "Na Les Pos M' agapas".

Manoukian also received a Gold Disc for "Party Like A Freak", "I Surrender" and Na Les Pos M'agapas.

In 2014, Manoukian released the single "XO", published by Warner/Chappell and Max Music Scandinavia. The track was recorded in Sweden, Stockholm, and its music video was shot in Australia, Sydney with a successful music video and had great success in Europe, Asia, Australia and America. A collaboration of a team behind thelikes of Celine Dion, Madonna, Selena Gomez, Ace of Base, Ashley Tisdale, Enrique Iglesias, Ola Svensson, Jennifer Lopez, GLEE and several others. She also reached number 1 in charts and won the Armenian Pulse Awards competition for Best Song In English. She also won the European Song Contest in Armenia with 122 votes.

In 2017, Manoukian broke into the music industry as a songwriter and wrote the music and lyrics for "Palia Mou Agapi", performed by Helena Paparizou, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Manoukian got a Platinum Disc, as the song reached over a thousand sales.

In 2018, Manoukian she did a guest audition appearance on the UK version of The X Factor, which reached the front page of the newspaper The Sun and got coverage in many more major newspapers and magazines, talking about the fierce stage presence. She amazed the judges Louis Tomlinson from One Direction, Simon Cowell, Robbie Williams and Ayda Field, and, as a result, her live show appearance went viral.

She was also being discussed to represent Armenia in Eurovision Song Contest, particularly in 2015 and 2016. She discussed a desire to compete in Eurovision for either Armenia, Greece, or Cyprus. She won Depi Evratesil 2020, the third season of the Armenian national selection and was supposed to represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020in Rotterdam, The Netherlands with the Hip-Hop and R&B inspired song "Chains on You". However this event was cancelled due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic and replaced with Eurovision: Europe Shine a Light and Eurovision Song Celebration, which revealed she would have performed 14th in heat 2. On the same weekend as Shine A Light, she released a new Tropical house inspired song "Dolla", one of 5 would-be 2020 entries to release new music that weekend. She was the creative and artistic director of "Dolla"'s music video, which she released in July that year. Before Depi Evratesil had taken place, and before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Eurovision to be cancelled, she had revealed she was working on a first full-length album in an interview with Wiwibloggs chief editor William Lee Adams.

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist