Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

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Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Country Armenia
National selection
Selection processArtist: Internal Selection
Song: National Final
Selection date(s)Artist: 15 November 2007
Song: 8 March 2008
Selected entrantSirusho
Selected song"Qél��, Qélé"
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (2nd, 139 points)
Final result4th, 199 points
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2007 • 2008 • 2009►

Armenia was represented by Sirusho in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé". It received the maximum of 12 points from eight countries.

Before Eurovision[]

Artist selection[]

The Armenian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was internally selected by the ARMTV. On 15 November 2007, Sirusho was announced as the Armenian representative.[1][2]

National final[]

Following their artist reveal, ARMTV announced that the Armenian entry would be selected through a national final alongside a public call for song submissions. From all songs submitted by songwriters from Armenia, four songs were selected for the national final.[3] The competing songs were announced on 6 March 2008.[4]

The final was scheduled to take place on 8 March 2008 at the Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Yerevan, however the live televised final was cancelled due to a State of Emergency in Armenia. Instead the final was filmed earlier at the ARMTV studios in Yerevan and aired on 8 March 2008, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and Felix Khachatryan and broadcast on Channel 1. All four competing songs were performed Sirusho and the winning song, "Qélé, Qélé", was selected exclusively by public SMS votes.[5] In addition to the performances of the competing songs, the interval acts featured Armenian Eurovision 2006 entrant André and Armenian Eurovision 2007 entrant Hayko.[4]

Final – 8 March 2008
Draw Song Composer(s) Televote Place
1 "Strong" Vahram Petrosyan, Sirusho 2.4% 4
2 "I Can't Control It" DJ Sergio, Sirusho 6.0% 2
3 "I Still Breathe" Martin Mirzoyan, Sirusho 5.1% 3
4 "Qélé, Qélé" Harutyun Der-Hovagimian, Sirusho 86.5% 1

At Eurovision[]

In previous years, if a country placed in the top 10 countries in the final they automatically qualified to the final of the next contest. Had this rule remained for the 2008 contest, Armenia would have directly qualified for the final. However, a change in rules due to the large intake of countries participating in the contest meant that only five countries, the host country and the Big 4 countries, would automatically qualify to the final. As such, Armenia were forced to compete in one of the two semi-finals of the 2008 contest in Serbia.

At the first semi-final, held on May 20, Sirusho performed 14th, following Bosnia & Herzegovina and preceding the Netherlands. Armenia qualified to the final, placing second in the semi-final and scoring 139 points.[6]

In the final, Sirusho performed 5th following Germany and preceding Bosnia and Herzegovina. She finished fourth with 199 points, the highest number of points in all of Armenia's Eurovision entries until 2016, when a new voting system was used.[7]

Voting[]

Points awarded to Armenia[]

Points awarded by Armenia[]

References[]

  1. ^ Eurovision2008.org Archived April 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Floras, Stellas (November 15, 2007). "Sirusho to Belgrade for Armenia". Esctoday.
  3. ^ "Armenia 2008".
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Murray, Gavin (6 March 2008). "Armenia: Listen to the songs online". Esctoday. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
  5. ^ Eurovision2008.org Archived May 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ "First Semi-Final of Belgrade 2008". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  7. ^ "Grand Final of Belgrade 2008". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "Results of the First Semi-Final of Belgrade 2008". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b "Results of the Grand Final of Belgrade 2008". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
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