Notes from the Armenian Blogosphere
Zarchka has a wonderful post on contemporary Armenian music and the way in which honours are dished out by the authorities. Often these are linked to how well individuals — especially singers — serve the Government in pushing out propaganda during elections and referendums. Somewhat alarmingly, honours were recently handed out to “journalists” for the same reason.
President Robert Kocharian issued on Friday decrees giving official titles and top state awards to a dozen journalists from TV stations, news agencies and newspapers controlled by or loyal to his administration.
A statement by the presidential press service said five of them will become the first citizens of independent Armenia to bear the title of “honored journalist.” Among them is Kocharian’s personal photographer and the editors of the government-controlled “Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” newspaper and the private daily “Hayots Ashkhar.” The latter has staunchly backed the Armenian leader and blasted his political opponents throughout his eight-year-rule.
This time round, however, it was the turn of Armenia’s singers. With no real internal music market to earn a living from, every singer is reliant on direct or indirect sponsorship from officials or businessmen linked to the authorities. I’m especially pleased to see Nune Yesayan and Hayko mentioned in Zara’s excellent post.
The first is talentless and was manufactured by a Diasporan businessman and promoted in the U.S. Armenian Community. Promoted through the Armenian International Magazine that he co-sponsored, the myth of the Armenian “Madonna” was created and any journalist — including myself — who dared to say otherwise was threatened with a beating.
Nune – Long time ago when she started her career with spoiling Sayat-Nova’s songs and incomprehensible videos, she was called the “Representative of Armenian song abroad”. Well, this was probably by the fact that she was one of the few singers who had the means to travel. A question: indeed, what has she done for Armenian music, is there any heritage left by her or will there be any at least after acquiring that title???
But if Tata and Nune can hardly fit for that honor, this next one doesn’t actually come within the province at all and is even outrageous. Hayko started his career translating a Spanish singer Luis Miguel’s songs into Armenian and representing them as those of his own. He was all but sure that no one in Armenia knew Luis Miguel and that his little secret would never be disclosed. But his calculations and assumptions were not approved soon when people got to know Luis Miguel and compared their songs.
As far as Hayko was very small to be famous, there remained only a single option, that Hayko was cheating. Although he didn’t learn his lesson and soon after pretending to be a composer he translated another old Spanish song by Alejandro Sans, this time representing it as a song on the basis of Spanish folk music.
Anyway, a great post which can be read here.
Nune is talentless? Well, maybe she is not as gifted as the average Kurd/Yezidi, but at least she is very popular IN ARMENIA too. She is one of the few local singers who can pull really big growds. Have you ever been to her open-air concerts? She is a star by Armenian standards. You can’t negate this fact just because you don’t like her.
P.S. Luis Miguel is a Mexican, not a Spaniard.
Comment by Hayastantsi — September 24, 2006 @ 3:44 pm
Whether Luis Miguel is a Spaniard or a Mexican bothers me not and it’s the same language anyway. Besides, it’s not my post. However, I do think that Nune is talentless and that she has a tedious voice. There are far better singers out there and the only reason she is where she is is because of men friends. First it was the guy at Levon Travel and now, Armenia TV’s Bagrat Sarkisyan who is otherwise known for the role he plays in propagandizing for Kocharian.
God, the guy even made her Director of Channel 5 for a while and it’s no wonder why Nune manages to remain in the spotlight when she should have been relegated to the scrap heap ages ago.
BTW: I’m kind of wondering if you’re not the guy who used to be Nune’s paid publicist that attacked me for suggesting that there were other singers better than her in 2000-2001. If so, interestingly you’d also now be connected to Bagrat Sarkisyan so I can’t blame you for defending her again, especially now she’s linked to your new employer. If that’s not the case, the guy in question who I know reads this blog can drop me an email to clarify and I’ll gladly apologize. Just that I wonder.
Anyway, you’re right about Nune being a star by Armenian standards, but as the whole contemporary music scene is monopolized and controlled by connected businessmen and officials, that’s hardly surprising is it? Talent gets you nowhere here. However, having a State official approve your rise to the top will. More than that, you must also perform at the weddings of relatives of officials and become part of the falisification machine that is elections here. I’m already waiting for these musicians to come out for the parliamentary elections as they did for the referendum and the 2003 presidential election.
Sad, and talking of which, nice of you to show your inherent racism by attacking members of Armenia’s largest minority community who are coincidently citizens of the Republic whether you like it or not. Interesting also to note that you commented on this blog about Zara’s post rather than on hers as well. As Zara is representative of the younger generation in Armenia that also says a lot.
Comment by Onnik — September 24, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
But btw: yeah, so far the Yezidi women singers I’ve heard have beaten Nune hands down. Zara does too.
Comment by Onnik — September 24, 2006 @ 7:59 pm
You mean Yezdi villagers singing on ALM television? Good point. Entire Armenia has fun watching them and I am no exception.
Regarding Nune, you’re not a composer or music expert to gauge a singer’s talent. You can only like or dislike her. Tedious voice? Well, it didn’t sound tedious to TENS OF THOUSANDS of mostly young people who went to her recent concerts by the Cascade. You insinuate that they were they paid or bullied into attending it, which is ridiculous. Just like your insinuation that I am connected to the Armenia TV guy. Thank God, I’m not. And stop bragging about being threatened with violence. That’s not quite manly.
I personally am not a big fan of Nune’s songs, but I respect her as one of the few real pop stars of Armenia who has a very large following (for whatever reason). She manages to nicely blend traditional Armenian tunes with Western pop rhythms. Her performance of Armenian folk songs is highly professional. I think Nune (and Tata) can and must be promoted to somehow offset or overshadow rabiz music.
I also respect her for having achieved success in her trade, despite not fitting into the pattern of a traditional Armenian woman whose main ambition is to get married and give birth. Her success is a challenge to the conservative social mores and she deserves credit for that. Only losers would allege that she has no talent.
Have you ever watched her TV interviews? She is in no way arrogant and looks remarkably relaxed, independent and self-confident for an Armenian woman. I just wish more local women looked at her and tried to be more ambitious and emancipated.
You mentioned her “men friends.” Publicly gossiping about a woman’s private life is not gentlemanly in the first place. Besides, any singer (especially in a country like Armenia) needs some rich persons who would help to kick off his or her career. Why they would do that is just none of our business. Unfortunately, you don’t realize this because, as I mentioned before, your deep and bizarre dislike of Armenia and the Armenians totally blinds your judgment.
Comment by Hayastantsi — September 24, 2006 @ 9:57 pm
Firstly, let me say again that it is not just me saying this. As I tried to point out, I didn’t even write the post. It was written by a local Armenian so address her opinions and not mine. Secondly, while you might not be who I thought you might be, I doubt you’re Hayastantsi from your English.
I could be wrong, but I would be interested in knowing who you are and what you do, and not least because I tend to suspect that you must be somehow linked to the system in place which is why you’re defending it so much when everyone else here is sick and tired of it. Of course, I suspect that you’re actually from the Diaspora, but anyway.
Regarding the gossip, as corruption and nepotism are huge issues that define almost everything here, I think what people are saying on the streets is important. She is arrogant, however, and I have first hand experience of that from 1999. As we should all know, interviews are all a sham here, and especially when the TV stations are controlled by the same people who are funding these singers.
Anyways, we need to support the development of a genuine contemporary music scene in Armenia AWAY from Government sponsors so I’m glad that other bloggers such as Harmick at Blogrel are on the case here.
Harmick also touched upon the same issue as Zara does on another site although in a more neutral way perhaps.
However, there’s also some interesting discussion about Nune going on in the same site’s forum. Surprise, surprise, it’s about Nune’s attitude and personality.
There’s a few positive comments about Nune in there as well, but it begs the question am I the only one who thinks like this about her? Obviously, I’m not. Incidently, the same site also mentioned her connection to one of Kocharian’s main propagandists, Bagrat Sarkisyan, but I can’t find the link for now.
Anyway, as for your comments about Yezidi villagers singing on ALM every Yerevantsi ridicules Armenian villagers singing on the same station as well. However, you’re right if you’re putting Nune on the same level. Meanwhile, I was talking about professional tradtional singers although I have to ask you once again, why are you commenting and arguing against Zara’s post on my site when you could instead discuss this matter with her?
It’s interesting that on the basis of what someone else has written you’re accusing me of being “anti-Armenian” — the typical response of someone who can’t argue their case well and provide facts to support themselves. I wonder? As Zara wrote the post is she anti-Armenian as well? Is Esoteric also anti-Armenian because he also points out what’s wrong with such artists in a comment on the same blog?
Now, when are you going to have the guts to carry on this discussion with the person who made the post rather than me?
Comment by Onnik — September 24, 2006 @ 10:12 pm
Nune doesn’t seem to be doing too well on this forum either.
http://forum.armenianclub.com/archive/index.php/t-2942.html
And btw: Nune’s own teacher, Artur Grigorian at the National Song Theatre, personally described her as being “just a little above rabiz” when I interviewed him in 2000.
Still, the main point is not about Nune’s rise to the “top” although the way she did it is questionable in my opinion.
Like her or loathe here, is she deserving of the status now conferred upon her? I think not.
Comment by Onnik — September 24, 2006 @ 10:46 pm
I can’t judge Nune’s musical talent, but I saw one of her interviews few months ago and yes she was arrogant. At some point she was complaining about the lack of journalists running afer her, because she is just soooo good and famous. Huh?
Comment by Nessuna — September 24, 2006 @ 10:48 pm
“When Mohammed doesn’t go to the mountain, mountain comes to Mohammed”
Wow, Nune is talentless?? Yes, Hayastantsi, she is, and it’s not a discovery. I had the “fortune” to watch her live concerts on TV and let me say she was tearing her vocal chords trying to keep her voice as long as possible. It was a great failure, especially when she had the concert with Patrick Fiori. And yes, she attracts crowds, as does Hayko and that is one of the main problems in Armenian musical scene. Those are not the right people to represent the Armenian song. Meanwhile I agree that Shushan deserved that title, as I think the songs she’s composing are great, very Armnenian, not only, and nice.
Open-air concerts? Everyone attend open-air concerts just because those are free of charge and they have fun with friends, even if they don’t like the singers much. Incidentally, everyone know the incident when Bagrat Sargisyan’s wife together with Bagrat’s mother beat Nune up right at Channel 5 station. I know that from reliable sources and it’s not a secret at all. And it’s funny how she still speaks of honesty and devotion.
And you know, by Armenian standards everyone who at least know how to keep microphone in their hands are stars, as a result Armenia is just flooded by such “stars and diamonds” along with those of ALM. Widely admitted pop singers are no better of those kids and old people on ALM. A self-enamoured guy named Araz, who called himself a composer and rabiz singer was talking big the other day on TV saying he was the only singer who is close to people and people adore him so much. I had never even learnt of him, but isn’t this much too much already? But right, it’s people themselves who make such vaunts talk big.
And, btw, I have musical education and was singing in a choir for 7 years. I can clearly distinguish who is talented and to what extent, and who is not. Nune is talantless, she hasn’t a go in her, she never tried to be creative. Duduk and qyamancha in songs do not yet mean that the singer is talented or good. Those are nor her merits.
Comment by Zarchka — September 24, 2006 @ 11:45 pm
Zara, thanks for reminding me. Not that it really matters, but when I was a kid I also sang in a choir as well. In fact, it was a major Cathedral Choir in Portsmouth, England, that collaborated and toured with the Vienna Boy’s Choir. Still, doesn’t matter. Whether in a choir or not, Nune and Hayko are just plain crap. Each to their own, of course, but an honour from the President?
That said, I agree with what Zara says about Shushan Petrosyan. Ironically enough it was because I wrote about her in 2000 that got me a threat of a beating from Nune’s sponsor and attacks from her paid publicist. In his words back then, Shushan Petrosyan and Alla Levonyan were nobodies and would never get anywhere even though the former was more respected than Nune back then.
What this situation was all about something quite simple — a lack of information in the Diaspora, and milking foreign Armenians for all they could by creating the myth of the Armenian “Madonna” Nune Yesayan. Thankfully, now we don’t have such a monopoly and control on information so great post Zara, and thanks for your comment on this site. Like you said, if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed…
Comment by Onnik — September 25, 2006 @ 12:07 am
BTW: Going off topic, but as you let your racism come to the fore, a quote about Yezidi women for you:
And I’m not going to dwell too much on the Yezidi Jangir agha who fought alongside General Andranik or that Yezidis were as much part of the battles against the Turks in Bash Aparan and Sardarapat.
Or the fact that many Yezidi fled Turkey alongside Armenians during the Genocide.
Anyway, this comment should give you enough excuse to avoid the issues raised and to attack rather than discuss Zara’s post. Maybe Nune isn’t the only one who’s tedious. But wait! An idea.
If the mountain still won’t come to Mohammed perhaps I can close this comments section and force you over to Zara’s blog. And so you know, if you don’t discuss this matter with the person who actually wrote it, I can only conclude it was never about that in the first place.
Anyway, let’s see. Will you now address her as a local young person who is as much dismayed by the local music scene as the rest of us or not? In case you’re confused and can’t find the post, it’s here.
See you all over at Life Around Me. This comments section is now closed.
Comment by Onnik — September 25, 2006 @ 2:11 am