Four acts fighting for two final positions. That was the scene in Armenia tonight. Next Saturday, Artsvik and Martha will meet in the final with only one of them winning the title and the ticket to Kyiv, Ukraine.

Last week, we saw the first semi final where tonight’s four acts all qualified from. The second semi-final tonight had a different twist to it; an international jury, with Christer Björkman as head, voted. The two finalists were chosen by the international jury as well as televoting.

This week, participants had to sang two songs. The second part of the performances was each participant singing Eurovision songs from the past editions.

The participants

• Anush Arshakyan –  Martha

Martha opened the show for the second time in a row. She performed the song Popuri. Martha appeard in a white outfit with an agelic background. She was with a pianist also in a white outfit. Her voice probably made everyone think of an angel. The song is an opera style.

For her second song, Martha chose Rythm Inside by Loic Nottet, Belgian representative in 2015. The staging was telling about the same story like Loic did, humans against machine. This version was slightly weird and turned into an R’nB style. The vocals of Martha were a bit fragile and all over the place. At the end, she sang little parts of Qele, Qele, Lovewave, and You’re Not Alone.

• Inga Arshakyan – Syuzanna Melqonyan

After the angelic voice of Martha, Syuzanna performed in second position with the song This Is A Man’s World. She was dressed in a black suit with white shirt and red tie. Behind her, a group of guys were dancing around her. The voice of Syuzanna was very powerful as usual and she threw everything she got into it.

Syuzanna chose the song of Sweet People, Ukraine 2010. She appeared in a simple outfit. She showed her powerful voice right at the beginning of the first lyrics. The viewers could feel the emotions through her voice. It was flawless and she can reach the high notes easily.

• Essai –  Artsvik

Artsvik was next with the song Crazy. She was dressed in a leather costume. The vocals of Artsvik were more powerful and energetic than last week and reached very good notes and made the show.

Then, the second song of Artsvik was A Million Voices by Polina Gagarina, representative of Russia in 2015. She began with a white background and a slow start. She sang with a live violin behind her. Her voice was very clear and she seemed to have no difficulties to hit the same notes as Polina.

• Hayko  – Egine

Egine was last with the song Crazy In Love. At the beginning, she was static on the stage with her white outfit. In the background, a dancer did some figures around her. Egine sang it with very much energy with a twist in the middle of the song. She began to dance on a techno vibe melody. She really did the show with a powerful voice, but the staging was odd.

Finally, Egine performing Warrior by Nina Sublatti, representative of Georgia in 2015. The staging reminded of an hellish atmosphere. Her vocals were a bit fragile and did too much variations of her voice. It was again a weird version performed from her, but somehow it suited her well.

The Show

The second semi-final took place in ARMTV’s studio. Gohar Gasparyan, as always, hosted this semi-final. To begin this second semi final, the four artists began directly to sing one by one.

Contrary to the first semi-final, the artists performed two songs instead of one. One they chose, and the second one, a former Eurovision entry.

At the end of the performances, Armenians could vote by calling or sending a text message. In order to help them, a small recap of all the performances was shown.

Then, during the time of the voting, the host of Depi Evratesil, interviewed Christer Bjorkman about Melodifestivalen, the armenian contestants, etc… After that interview, a small clip was shown to Christer about the different performances of the semi finalists.

In addition to the performances of the competing artist, the interval act featured Sos and Victoria Petrosyan with their quick costume changes.

The Results

The two finalists were selected by a 50/50 combination of televoting and 11 international juries.  The televoting was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through SMS voting. 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.

Draw	Judge	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
					Percentage Points
1	Anush	Martha	Popuri Rythm Inside	21	36.4%            40	61	2
2	Inga	Syuzanna Melqonyan	This is a man’s world Sweet People	30	21.8%            24	54	3
3	Essai	Artsvik	Crazy A Million Voices	35	24.6%             27	62	1
4	Hayko	Egine	Crazy in Love Warrior	24	17.2%             19	43	4

At the end, the two finalists are :

• Martha
• Artsvik

Judges of the Armenian national selection at Eurovision

Back in 2007, Hayko represented Armenia with his song Anything You Need. He participated in the national selection where he finished in 1st place. Comparatively, Emmy, the representative of Armenia in 2011, had also participated in the Armenian national selection alongside Hayko. Emmy came in 4th place. In Eurovision however, Hayko finished in 8th place in the Grand Final with 138 points.

In 2009, Inga & Anush Arshakyan represented Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest. Indeed, they participated in the Armenian national selection where they finished in 1st place. The song had received some criticism from the Azerbaijani press agencies. They claimed it was copied from a song 30 years ago from a famous Azerbaijanian composer.

Then in 2014, it was the turn of Aram MP3 to follow the steps of his colleagues. He was chosen internally by the Armenian broadcaster, ARMTV. Aram MP3 managed to achieve a 4th place for his country with 174 points with the song Not Alone. It was the best result that Armenia received since 2008.

The following year, in Austria, we saw a group of 5 singers from the Armenian diaspora. The singers all came from a different continent and created a group called Genealogy. Their song title was Face The Shadow. Among them, Essai, who is a french singer and songwriter, wrote songs for french musical comedies. At the age of19, Essai was part of group of singers where he was the leader.

Finally, Iveta Mukuchyan represented Armenia in 2016. Similarly to Genealogy, and Aram MP3, Iveta was chosen by internal selection. However, her song was not revealed when she was announced as the Armenian representative. Moreover, she achieved top 10 status in the Grand Final. She came in 7th place with 249 points with her song Lovewave.

You can see our selection of highlights from Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 – 2015 below: