Sirusho, Arabkir, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

With the first of the semi-finals in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, just days away, the countries of the South Caucasus are becoming increasingly excited about the international song contest and how their representatives will fair. What makes the situation all the more interesting is that this year will be the first time all three republics compete.

While this will be the third consecutive appearance of Armenia in the competition, Georgia entered for the first time last year, and Azerbaijan will be making its debut. However, of the three contestants, it is Armenia that currently appears to be the favorite not only from the region, but in general as well.

The British bookmaker William Hill currently has 21-year-old Sirusho at 6/1 to win and the popularity of her song, Qele Qele, has extended way past the borders of the country as the Eurovision Blog confirms.

Another tune almost certainly destined for the final is the Armenian entry, Qele Qele. As one of the countries whose national final we paid attention to, we’d heard this one before it was chosen but having heard the other options, we were screaming “Armenia! Choose! This! NOW!!!!!!!!!” before a note of the contest had even been sung. Coming over as Shakira crossed with a healthy dose of Helena Paparizou, only an entirely tone-deaf performance from Sirusho can possibly stop this one from bringing the house down on the night.

All Kinds of Everything for Eurovision 2008 agrees.

ARMENIA : This just gets better and better with every run through. Sirusho sounds confident and looks a lot more confident that before. The choreography is complex and involves a lot more rolling on the floor than I would like, but it is effective for the overhead shots. They have almost all the camera angles right, which is more than can be said for several entries, and even if the song is a tad repetitive, the dancing and fireworks add a bit of variety.

Other people may be less impressed but for me this is an absolutely certain qualifier, and it’s not totally out of the running to win.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Bambir, Puppet Theatre, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Well, last night’s gig by the two Bambirs was a real killer of a show. Quite fantastic and only the second time I’ve seen them perform together since 2001 so it was also quite a unique event. Hopefully they’ll do more joint gigs, but until then, some photographs from last night to follow up pics of their rehearsal the previous day, and an excerpt on the history of the two bands, which cross two generations and which are both known as Bambir, from an article I wrote in 2005.

The name Bambir is derived from a little known traditional Armenian instrument similar to a cello piccolo, but just to confuse matters, it’s also the name of another folk-rock band that comes from Gyumri. Before Armenia declared its independence in 1991, it was this Bambir that was considered the best folk-rock band in the former Soviet Union, fusing Armenian and Celtic influences to seamless perfection.

No surprise then, that Barseghyan and Kocharyan are the 22-year-old sons of two members of the other Bambir, and that now, the name has been passed down to them to take to a new generation of rock fans in Armenia and beyond. […]

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Bambir Rehearsal, Shant TV Studio, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Ahead of tomorrow’s joint concert by The Bambir and their earlier namesake at Yerevan’s Puppet Theatre, I had the opportunity to photograph the two bands as they rehearsed at the studio of Shant TV where they were also practising the sets they will perform with contestants competing for the apparently much coveted title of Hye Superstar. Although I’ve seen the two Bambirs perform together separately, this was the second time I’ve caught them performing together.

The first was in Shushi in 2001 (see here, here and here). Since then, after photographing and hanging out with Bambir the younger on many an occasion, it’s funny to remember guitarist Narek reminiscing about the advice his father, Jag from the original incarnation, gave him when he formed his first band with basist Arman in 1992.

NA (Narek & Arman) was formed at the end of 1992 when the older Bambir were in the United States. Barseghyan and Kocharyan decided to surprise their fathers by performing for them when they returned. Barseghyan’s father, however, was less than impressed, to put it mildly. Gagik Barseghyan, nicknamed Jag because of his love for the Rolling Stones, instead told them they’d never make good musicians.

Much better, he told the two budding musicians, to choose another career. “Something like agriculture, he suggested,” remembers Barseghyan, smiling.

Undaunted by parental displeasure, Barseghyan and Kocharyan wrote their first song, “I’m Crazy,” and it wasn’t long before they found another young musician to join the duo. During Christmas 1995, they discovered flautist Arik Grigoryan performing in a Gyumri restaurant. When the twelve year old said he liked the British folk-rock band Jethro Tull, that was all Barseghyan and Kocharyan needed to hear.

The newly formed trio started to write more and more material. “They were interesting songs with melodies played on flute,” says Barseghyan. “Interesting good, or interesting bad?” I ask. “Interesting awful,” Barseghyan responds, laughing. “We were shit.”

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Bambir Midnight Bash, The Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2006

An email message posted to subscribers of a civil society mailing list bills tonight’s show by Bambir as their first in Yerevan, but what they mean is the first in a long, long time. For six months last year the Gyumri rock band played the club circuit in Los Angeles and other cities in the U.S., before returning to Armenia in December.

Tonight will be their first show here in something like eight months, and ironically coincides with Army Day in Armenia — as the email explained.

MURDER IN A UNIFORM IS HEROIC, IN A COSTUME IT IS A CRIME!

Abbie Hoffman

THE BAMBIR

On

The day of Armed Forces

LIVE SHOW AT “STOP CLUB” ON JANUARY 28, AT 09:00pm
Moskovyan 37, Stop Club

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After a somewhat dubious way of attracting online votes, Silva has won the BBC World Service’s The Next Big Thing. Of course, the BBC and the BBC World Service are not exactly the same as many Armenians here think, but anyway. Silva will now at least be better known among countries of the former Soviet Union, South America, Asia and the Middle East.

Armenian singer Silva has won the BBC World Service’s Next Big Thing competition with her song I Like.

The 17-year-old was chosen ahead of six other acts from around the world at the final, held in the BBC’s Maida Vale studios in London.

The judges praised I Like, which was composed by the singer’s sister Mane, as “fresh and new” and described her performance as “second to none.”

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I first heard the music of Deti Picasso two years ago and liked what I heard. Too often, most contemporary Armenian music falls into one of three categories — traditional, rabiz, very mediocre pop, or a combination of all three. Add to that the unfortunate tendency for most rock bands here in Armenia to content themselves with playing covers of rock classics, there are too few bands that represent anything original.

Certainly, there is little that appeals to a number of listeners that want something original that they can listen to because it’s good music rather than anything sung by an Armenian regardless of quality. I suppose we can consider System of a Down as something exceptional here, but after them, what? Well, we do have Bambir and MDP in Armenia, but they appeal to the same audience of young Armenian rockers. There is little, if nothing, else.

Which is why I love Deti Picasso from what I’ve heard so far. Raffi Meneshian, founder of Pomegranate Music and Executive Director of Yeraz Art, now offers a review of a CD by the band over at Cilicia.com’s Life in the Armenian Diaspora.

The band Deti Picasso is from Russia. Two of the members are Armenian in lead singer Gaya Harutyunyan and brother/guitar player Garen Harutyunyan. The 2004 CD “Ethnic Experiments” is sandwiched in between two other releases, 2002’s “Mesjac Ulybok” (CD Land Records), and their new 2006 release “Glubina” (Deep Movement). They are not considered “Armenian artists” in the sense that they cater to the Moscow rock/punk/experimental music scene and sing mainly in Russian. That’s their bread and butter. Like many ethnic Armenians in Europe and North America, they presumably decided to dabble into their roots and as the CD title states, create “Ethnic Experiments”. They have a cult following in Armenia and have given several very successful club concerts there, despite the general indifference toward rock music in the Homeland.

Whether I simply casually listen, review, or produce artistic risk-takers, there is a high degree of respect that is accorded to them right off the bat from me. I first heard an MP3 song (Im Gala) that was somehow sent to me via email in 2004 via Christina Sarkissian (the person who gave me a copy of Bambir- Quake while in the US) via Gor Mkhitarian. I had never heard Armenian music performed like this before. Yet, I was confused on whether I actually liked the music and needed more of a sample set. So, finally, after 2 years of looking around, I finally bought an authentic CD of “Ethnic Experiments” at the Avant Garde Folk Club on Pushkin this summer and have had time to ponder and absorb the music.

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Blogrel says that the damn awful giant LCD screen in Republic Square will soon be finally gone. It was erected a few years ago, as Armenia Now reported way back then, and was meant to be “temporary,” although I think we all knew that it would stay as long as whoever owned it made money and remained in favour with the local authorites who should never allowed it there in the first place.

Where once Vladimir I. Lenin stood bronzed and pointing the way to socialism, an electronic billboard now stands in Yerevan’s Republic Square, broadcasting capitalism and the best of Hollywood action movies, and video clips from the former dictator’s nemesis, the evil west.

[…]

While authorities are looking for a worthy replacement for Lenin they gave permission to AD Technology advertising company to put the 15-meter high billboard where the 18-meter-tall former leader stood until 1991.

[…]

Vahram Gharibjanyan, manager of AD Technology and in charge of technical and program support of the billboard, says he chooses clips of movies that are interesting to spectators: such as “Taxi” and “Terminator”.

The manager himself thinks Lenin’s monument should have stayed, for its historical value. But since the place is vacant, why not fill it with advertisement?

[…]

Ads on the board cost $2 to $8 per minute, depending on the number of times it appears.

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Scatology, Stop Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

While the opening of the One Nation — One Culture festival was underway, members of Armenia’s albeit small alternative scene instead had the opportunity to enjoy a rare musical occasion — a German electronic band performing in Yerevan. Initially, I wasn’t going to go, to be honest, but after Nessuna pointed me towards the band’s web site, I decided to check them out.

scatology has just one principle:
- we only use alien textfragments (literature, songtexts of other bands), cut them and bring them together in a special way

- the music is electronic and filled up with natural samples and cut-up-samples of other music stuff
- sometimes it’s loud - sometimes it’s quiet

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Yellow Bird Indian Dancers, Cascade, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

I’ve just returned from a night out in Yerevan and quite a spectacle by the Casdade — Native American Indian dancers. Unfortunately, whenever I’m behind a camera I generally forget to fully immerse myself in any show that I’m photographing, but what I did take in was impressive as well as refreshing. Of course, the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia was in attendance along with other foreign diplomats and a few hundred Armenians sitting on the steps of the Cascade.

Yellow Bird Indian Dancers

Saturday, May 27, 20:00

The Cascade, Yerevan

The US Embassy is organizing and sponsoring a Native American Indian cultural performance tour. The “Yellow Bird Indian Dancers” hail from Arizona and will tour Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In Armenia the group will travel and perform in Yerevan, Gyumri and Ararat. You are invited to attend the Yerevan concert with your family and friends. This will be an outdoor concert, open to the public, free of charge, and appropriate for all ages. No tickets are necessary; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis on the Cascade steps.

The Yellow Bird Indian Dancers are respected in America and around the world for continuing the traditions of ancient cultures through their family. In their dance, in the sharing of eternal wisdom through storytelling, and in their preservation of traditional Apache craftworks, they sustain ageless Native American art forms so that they may be shared with the people of today and tomorrow. The U.S. Embassy is proud to bring the Yellow Bird Indian Dancers to Armenia so that they may mingle the ancient and beautiful traditions of the first peoples of America with the equally ancient and beautiful traditions of Armenia.

For more information about the group go to: http://www.yellowbirdindiandancers.com/

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As a few of the Armenian blogs becomes active in support of Armenia’s first entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, more and more cultural and political disagreements are beginning to emerge in the Diaspora, and also in Greece. Over at Cilicia.com, much of the reason for this is because some ethnic Armenians consider that the entry by local singer Andre sounds too “Turkish” rather than Armenian, and I have to admit that he does sound like a Tarkan wannabe.

It is hardly possible to associate Armenia with Europe with that song contrary, it is easier to associate Armenian with Turkey or Azerbaijan as many people currently do. I tried to do my best (unsuccessfully) to listen to that song from start to end . Not only it has nothing to do with Armenian or Armenia ( lyrics are in English, music 99% Turkish) but it is also out of date i.e. it is a copycat of past Turkish Eurovision songs.

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Bambir Midnight Bash, The Club, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

It was meant to start at 23.43, but this being Armenia where timekeeping is lacking to say the least, the premiere of Gyumri rock band Bambir’s new programme of music at Yerevan’s The Club started at well past midnight. Not that it mattered, perhaps. It was late, and the concert was always going to run into the early hours anyway. No wonder the band performed in their pyjamas — typical of these guys from Armenia’s second largest city, as I recently wrote for Hetq Online.

The band’s charismatic madcap antics always prove a huge success with a young, progressive audience.

“Gyumri is a city of humor,” says Barseghyan, “and our outlook is shaped by that. We’re clowns, and I’ve always wanted to make people laugh because for me, that’s a great art. In Armenia, we need that now, and especially among youth. We need to see more people smiling.”

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