“All the intellectuals, including the minister of culture, who are against Andre performing his song at “EuroVision” can go to the Garni temple and make sacrifices to the Gods to forbid Andre from singing that song. There’s nothing else they can do,” says president of the Armenian Public Television/Radio council Alexan Harutyunyan. What’s interesting is that recently, the minister of culture of Armenia called Harutyunyan on the phone and told him that he was sorry for expressing his negative opinion about Andre’s song to be presented at the “EuroVision” song contest. The thing is that the honorable minister of culture had only seen the commercial for the video clip of the song, but hadn’t really heard the song. It is worth mentioning that not only the minister of culture, but also well-known artists have differing opinions about the song written by Armen Martirosyan and arranged by Ara Torosyan. One of the opinions can be discussed among journalists, while the other is open to interpretation by the president of the public television/radio council Alexan Harutyunyan.
Ay, Ay, Ay
Before writing this article, “168 hours” had planned on inviting the songwriter, the person who did the arrangement, president of the Composers’ Union Robert Amirkhanyan, composer Martin Vartazaryan and doctor of art criticism Anna Arevshatyan to the editorial office all on the same day and at the same hour. The goal was to give answers to the “national” part of the song, as well as questions based on professionalism. Unfortuantely, this meeting didn’t take place due to some reasons. Armen Martirosyan and Ara Torosyan didn’t want to participate because Alexan Harutyunyan did not grant them permission. In fact, Alexan Harutyunyan even knew beforehand that Robert Amirkhanyan was not going to come either. Robert Amirkhanyan, in turn, knew beforehand that Armen Martirosyan wasn’t going to come (he said that during our phone conversation and added that he wasn’t too pleased with the song and the singer; he also said that things would get out of hand if he came to the meeting).
“But even someone like Rostropovich will not reject an offer to meet with musicians that are not as good as him in order to debate and tell the truth.” “168 hours” tried to persuade the composer to come to the meeting.
“I don’t like that tone and I don’t want to continue this conversation. Beep, beep, beep… (he hung up the phone-L.A.) Martin Vardazaryan heard about our meeting and refused, thinking that we were going to gather around a table with barbecue and talk while listening to Aram Asatryan’s songs:
“Criticize the song without me. If I come, I will ruin everything.”
Art critic Anna Arevshatyan didn’t come to the meeting because “she was simply shocked” after hearing the song and didn’t feel like participating. The sad thing though is that both Robert Amirkhanyan and Martin Vartazaryan weren’t able to express their real opinions and praised the song in front of Alexan Harutyunyan. Mr. Harutyunyan told us that during an interview. After hearing this, “168 hours” didn’t hide the fact that both composers had expressed their negative opinions on the song.
“It’s interesting to hear Martin Vartazaryan’s opinion, but let’s not forget that nobody participates in the contests that he used to participate back in the Soviet Union. This is not “Soviet contest”, this is “EuroVision”. Robert Amirkhanyan actually stated his honest opinion about the song and said that it was good. Now, I don’t know with whom he was more honest-me or your newspaper staff? Perhaps we could discuss representing Armenia with the song “Yeraz im yerkir” or “Hayi Atcher”, but unfortunately, we couldn’t do that because, according to the contest rules and regulations, the song had to be written after October and never heard.”
“168 Hours” asked Alexan Harutyunyan for all the information because he was the only one that spoke freely about it.
Nothing will change no matter what you do
“I’m head of the public radio/television council and I had the right to send, for example, a 12-year old singing in the “Arevik” children’s choir to “EuroVision” without asking anyone’s opinion. It’s my right. Even if I’m right or wrong, I am the one responsible for that and the financing. But I didn’t do that. Since “EuroVision” is a song contest organized by Europeans for singers broadcasted on television and radio, it was entirely up to the radio/television council to decide which song will represent the country.”
According to Harutyunyan, the council has taken into consideration the opinions of all well-known musicians of the country. Everyone was also present during the premiere, “including the composers you mentioned”, as he said, and they didn’t state any negative opinion. Nobody from the European countries voting for the song have said anything bad about it yet.
“The demos of that song are already on sale in CD stores and that already says a lot about the song’s popularity. You can hear the song being played on the cellular phones of many 20-year olds in cafes (they are practically the only ones voting for songs in “EuroVision”). This really says a lot,” says president of the Armenian Public Radio/Television council.
Finally, Mr. Sarajeyev
“Many of the professors at the Conservatory, especially Andre’s professors, praise the song. A couple of days ago, even the rector of the conservatory Sarajeyev said that the chosen song was the right one. I would like the professionals who claim that the song doesn’t have any Armenian sound to it to show me one part of the song where there is no Armenian melody,” says Alexan Harutyunyan.
According to him, if we go along with that, then we can say that part of Armenian music, starting from Sayat-Nova and all Armenian folk songs, don’t have an Armenian sound to it.
“If there is anyone who is ready to allow Turks or Azerbaijani to take that part, then they are responsible for that. We define Armenian music by Komitas, Sayat-Nova and even Martin Vartazaryan,” said president of the Public Radio/Television Council Alexan Harutyunyan in closing.
Although “168 hours” doesn’t doubt the musical knowledge of Harutyunyan, however we decided to ask professor of the Yerevan State Conversatory and doctor of art criticism Anna Arevshatyan for her opinion. In fact, she actually denied that Andre was a good student when he was studying at the Conservatory. As for the song to be presented at “EuroVision”, according to Arevshatyan, an Armenian singer can sing in a voice, which can somewhat be similar to Middle Eastern music. But you can take the same voice and come up with a melody that will sound exactly Turkish or Arabic. Arevshatyan says that you can hear some vibrations in Andre’s song that have nothing to do with Armenian music.
“I really feel sorry that Armenia is not representing itself to Europe with a song written by a well-known composer, like Robert Amirkhanyan.”
As for Armenians’ genetic love towards the vibrations of the voice in Middle Eastern songs, Anna Arevshatyan explains this with the fact that to this day, Armenians are still under the Ottoman control.