Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Country	Armenia
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	Various (February-March 2015)
Selected entrant	Genealogy
Selected song	"Face the Shadow"
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (7th, 77 points)
Final result	16th, 34 points
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2014 • 2015 • 2016►

Armenia will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. Their entry was selected through an internal selection, organised by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV). The nation will be represented by the song "Face the Shadow" performed by the group Genealogy, which features members from the worldwide Armenian diaspora.

Background

Prior to the 2015 Contest, Armenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its first entry in 2006.^[1] Its 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.^[2]

The Armenian broadcaster for the 2015 Contest, who broadcasts the event in Armenia and organises the selection process for its entry, was AMPTV.^[3] 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. In 2014, the broadcaster internally selected both the artist and the song, a procedure that had only been used once before to select Armenia's debut entry in 2006. For 2015, the broadcaster opted to continue selecting both the artist and the song through an internal selection.^[4][5]

Internal selection

Armenia's entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest was selected via an internal selection by the Armenian broadcaster AMPTV.^[4][5] The song "Face The Shadow" performed by the group Genealogy was announced as the selected entry on 11 February 2015.^[6] The selected group was created for the purpose of representing Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest. In order to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide (but this is not an official statement),^[7] the Armenian broadcaster extended invitations to five singers from the Armenian diaspora in Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia, to participate in the group.

Members

• The first member of the group, Essaï Altounian, a French Armenian, was announced on 16 February 2015.^[8]
• The second member of the group, Tamar Kaprelian, an American-Armenian singer, was announced on 20 February 2015.^[9]
• The third member Vahe Tilbian, an Armenian-Ethopian singer, was announced on 23 February 2015.^[10]
• The fourth member Stephanie Topalian, is a U.S. born Armenian-American-Japanese singer residing in Japan. Her father is Armenian and her mother Japanese. Her membership was announced on 27 February 2015. Topalian became the Asian Continent representative in the group.^[11]
• The fifth member is Mary-Jean O'Doherty, an Australian opera singer of Armenian descent. Her membership was announced on 3 March 2015.^[12]
• The sixth member is Inga Arshakyan, who also represented Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, along with her sister, Anush. She was announced on 12 March 2015.

The five artists at the same time symbolize the five petals of the forget-me-not flower. In their centre, the group will be unified by their sixth artist.

At Eurovision

All countries except the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), special guest Australia and the host country, Austria, 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 five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[13] On 26 January 2015, an 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 19 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.^[14]

Points awarded to Armenia

Points Awarded to Armenia (Semi-Final 1)

12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Belgium  Russia		Georgia	Belarus  Greece  Macedonia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Albania  France  Netherlands	Moldova  Spain			Romania

Points Awarded to Armenia (Final)

12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Georgia				Russia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
	Belarus	Belgium  France  Macedonia	Czech Republic	Greece

Points awarded by Armenia

Semi-final 1 Points awarded in first semi-final: 12 points  Georgia 10 points  Russia 8 points  Greece 7 points  Belarus 6 points  Moldova 5 points  Serbia 4 points  Estonia 3 points  Romania 2 points  Denmark 1 point  Belgium

Final Points awarded in the final: 12 points  Russia 10 points  Georgia 8 points  Montenegro 7 points  Sweden 6 points  Italy 5 points  Greece 4 points  Belgium 3 points  France 2 points  Latvia 1 point  Australia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Armenian jury:^[15]

• Grigor Nazaryan – Chairperson – producer, music producer
• Nune Yesayan – singer
• Leyla Saribekyan – singer, composer
• Aram Sargsyan (Aram MP3) – singer, songwriter, comedian and showman, represented Armenia in the 2014 contest
• Aren Bayadyan – director

Semi-final 1

The Armenian votes in the first semi-final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.^[16]

Semi-final 1 – Armenian Results
Draw	Country	G. Nazaryan	N. Yesayan	L. Saribekyan	Aram MP3	A. Bayadyan	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Moldova	5	6	7	6	7	5	6	5	6
02	Armenia
03	Belgium	13	15	15	12	15	15	5	10	1
04	Netherlands	6	9	13	4	11	8	12	11
05	Finland	8	10	14	11	12	12	10	12
06	Greece	3	3	3	2	3	3	3	3	8
07	Estonia	12	14	12	13	13	13	4	7	4
08	Macedonia	10	8	10	10	10	11	15	14
09	Serbia	9	7	8	9	5	6	7	6	5
10	Hungary	15	13	11	14	14	14	14	15
11	Belarus	2	2	2	3	2	2	8	4	7
12	Russia	4	4	1	5	4	4	1	2	10
13	Denmark	7	12	6	15	8	10	9	9	2
14	Albania	14	11	9	7	6	9	13	13
15	Romania	11	5	5	8	9	7	11	8	3
16	Georgia	1	1	4	1	1	1	2	1	12

Final

The Armenian votes in the final will be based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.^[17]

Final – Armenian Results
Draw	Country	G. Nazaryan	N. Yesayan	L. Saribekyan	Aram MP3	A. Bayadyan	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Slovenia	19	17	15	15	7	14	19	17
02	France	7	5	7	11	20	8	8	8	3
03	Israel	20	18	25	25	25	25	9	18
04	Estonia	21	20	24	24	9	20	6	11
05	United Kingdom	22	21	20	20	21	22	22	24
06	Armenia
07	Lithuania	23	22	19	17	11	18	25	22
08	Serbia	18	23	14	18	19	19	14	16
09	Norway	17	19	21	19	24	21	15	19
10	Sweden	6	7	3	6	6	6	4	4	7
11	Cyprus	10	6	11	14	18	11	17	13
12	Australia	12	10	8	12	12	10	11	10	1
13	Belgium	8	16	10	5	10	7	7	7	4
14	Austria	16	25	12	8	17	15	24	21
15	Greece	3	2	4	3	5	2	10	6	5
16	Montenegro	4	3	5	4	4	4	3	3	8
17	Germany	15	24	17	16	13	17	20	20
18	Poland	11	8	16	10	16	12	18	15
19	Latvia	2	9	6	1	3	5	13	9	2
20	Romania	13	15	9	13	14	13	16	14
21	Spain	14	14	18	21	15	16	12	12
22	Hungary	24	13	22	22	23	24	23	25
23	Georgia	1	1	2	2	1	1	5	2	10
24	Azerbaijan	26	26	26	26	26	26	26	26
25	Russia	5	4	1	7	2	3	1	1	12
26	Albania	25	11	23	23	22	23	21	23
27	Italy	9	12	13	9	8	9	2	5	6

See also

• Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 2015

References

1. "Armenia Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
2. Kramer, Andrew E. (7 March 2012). "Armenians Are Shunning Song Contest in Azerbaijan". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
3. Jiandani, Sanjay (14 September 2014). "Armenia: ARMTV confirms participation in Eurovision 2015". ESCToday. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
4. "«Եվրատեսիլ-2015»-ի Հայաստանի մասնակցի անունը հայտնի կդառնա փետրվարին" (in Armenian). Armenia 1. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
5. van Lith, Nick (12 January 2015). "Armenia: Internal selection for ARMTV". escXtra. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
6. Brey, Marco (11 February 2015). "Armenia to be represented by Genealogy!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
7. "Հայոց Ցեղասպանությունը, որը դեռևս քաղաքական նուրբ խնդիր է, գրեթե հասել է Եվրատեսիլ երգի մրցույթին". interpress.am. Retrieved 2015-02-15.
8. Marco Brey. "Armenia: First artist of Genealogy known!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
9. Marco Brey. "Armenia: Second artist of Genealogy known!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
10. Marco Brey. "Armenia: Third artist of Genealogy known!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
11. Marco Brey. "Armenia: Fourth artist of Genealogy known!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
12. Marco Brey. "Armenia: Fifth artist of Genealogy known!". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
13. Brey, Marco (26 January 2015). "Today: The Semi-Final Allocation Draw". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
14. Escudero, Victor M. (26 January 2015). "Allocation Draw results: Who's in which Semi-Final?". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
15. Bakker, Sietse (1 May 2015). "Here are this year's national juries!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
16. "Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 First Semi-Final". Eurovision.tv. 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
17. "Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 Grand Final". Eurovision.tv. 24 May 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2015.