The national selection final took place in Yerevan and the five boys, Compass Band, have been chosen among the seventeen candidate entries to represent Armenia in the next edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to be held on December 1 in Amsterdam.
The hosts of the show were Gohar Gasparyan and Avet Barseghyan, both of whom also presented the 2011 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Yerevan, alongside Dalita who represented the country last year.
Besides the fourteen candidates selected to take part in the national selection, as it approached the date of the super final, three more artists have joined the lineup becoming seventeen the potential acts to represent Armenia at this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
That is the case of 13-year-old Marine Abrahamyan’s entry Stop! which was originally decided not to proceed to the final because, according to the jury, her song was too serious for the junior contest. After her management company appealed against the decision accusing broadcaster in breaking the rules Marine’s entry was allowed to participate in the final. The other two acts added to the line-up of the Armenian national selection were the group Khentutyun singing Linm E, Chi Linum and Zangak with Tik-Tak.
The running order of the live show was decided by a draw where the participants got their number from an iced bowl. The images from the draw were used as introduction before each performance together with a short presentation of the artist.
The winner was selected by a 50/50 combination of SMS voting and a professional jury and thus it was decided that Compass Band will perform Sweetie Baby at the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is an appeal to all the girls to smile, as the boys are ready to do their best to make the girls be happy.
Established one year ago, the members of the band are Aram, David, Abraham and Arshavir who attend the Yerevan Secondary school N55 named after Chekhov and the youngest member of the group is 10-year-old Mika.
"It is very important for us that we are a team and we really did not expect to win in the finals", said the guitarist of the group David Paronikyan. "We dedicate the song to all the girls", stated the solo guitarist Aram Tsaturyan, adding half joke half serious that if there had not had the support of their female classmates, they would not have won in the final. He said as well that the participation at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be a great responsibility for them and they would not spare efforts to represent Armenia in the best way possible.
André, who is Armenia’s first-ever contestant at the Eurovision Song Contest, and the group Candy from Georgia, winners of last year’s Junior Eurovision held in Yerevan, were the guest stars of the show.
Armenia hosted last year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest having won once, in 2010, with the song Mama performed by Vladimir Arzumanyan.
Below you can watch Compass Band singing Sweetie Baby at the Armenian national final:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIemx4p9oOI
