Singer Ruben Hakhverdyan says that he has worked very hard on his new album called “From zero to one hundred years”, during the last four years, because, as he says, writing songs for children differs a lot from writing songs for old people; you can’t lie to them.
During a press conference at the “Hayeli” club, Ruben Hakhverdyan didn’t only speak about his album. He criticized the journalists that called him an authorial singer and said that it was like calling Jivani an authorial singer. He told journalists to give this name to an animal that is not discovered in nature yet and just call him Ruben. Ruben said that small countries like Armenia should have a fixed cultural development ideology and a cover-up which, according to him, is the culture ministry. “I hope the current minister of culture will do something. What’s more, I think the general architectural projects of our city should comply with the projects of the ministry of culture and the ministry should have a lot of power.” He believes that the current minister of culture is honest and doesn’t “steal”. “We are very disappointed in all that is going on. I used to be democratic, but now I think that I am more socialist. If the oligarchs are not forced out of their hidden spots and don’t pay taxes, I think that this will not have a happy ending. They shouldn’t wait for a happy ending. French oligarchs have old shoes and old cars in order to not be in the center of the public eye, but in spite of this, our oligarchs drive huge cars and show all they have”, says Hakhverdyan. According to him we used to have more clever and better authorities during the Soviet times than we have now, because they could develop our culture and Armenia was well-known in the Soviet Union because of that, as for culture, it is a very strong tool for having a good reputation; it can do a lot that weapons can’t do. Anyway, according to Hakhverdyan we will not become like Europe because “we can’t integrate with Aram Asatryan, the song about a desert sun or with Armenchik”. As for the contemporary Armenian singers, Ruben Hakhverdyan says that we have several good singers now. For instance he likes Inga and Anush Arshakyan sisters, Aida Sargsyan, who doesn’t think she is a superstar, as well as Shushan Petrosyan. He also likes Armen Movsisyan, David Amalyan, Edward Zorikyan, but he said that Zorikyan didn’t sing his songs well and threatened to take his songs and sing himself so as to show him the difference. He likes Aida Sargsyan a lot also due to the fact that she doesn’t sing the songs of Sayat Nova, “I don’t like when women sing his songs, it just doesn’t seem right. As for children, I think it looks much worse when children sing those songs; it’s awful. Yesterday a Russian TV reporter said the following about a singer, “He looks well”. We can say the same about a boxer too. The definitions are changing. It is strange but the more money is spent, the more songs and culture are violated”, said Ruben Hakhverdyan. In regard to Andre’s song representing Armenia at “EuroVision”, Ruben Hakhverdyan said that he didn’t like that song and liked intellectual songs with a meaning. It is strange, but Hakhverdyan says that he likes the idea of Tigran Karapetyan founding such a TV company and inviting different children to sing there, and, as he says, although there are a lot of things to laugh at, but there are still a lot of wonderful children who perform well. “They are not trained in special schools. If they were trained, they wouldn’t sing so well. I am grateful to him for what he does; Tigran Karapetyan is really doing a good job… We have forgotten our national minorities. Where can the Kurds sing?-nowhere. He is really doing a good deed”, said Ruben Hakhverdyan. As for the “Armenian Superstar” competition commission, he says that he doesn’t like them because they “tease” children and insult them. He compared this behavior with a sex-shop, “It is impolite to speak to children like that. It is impolite to show your intellectual background and prove that you know more than they do. That’s just pathetic”, said Hakhverdyan and added that he didn’t like that competition because he was angry at the commission members. As for the participants’ performance, he says that they sing songs and there is no need to give definitions of a superstar or something like that. When asked about why he hadn’t been in the spotlight for a while, Ruben Hakhverdyan said, “I am getting old; I am not so active as I used to be…”