Armenia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Fly with Me" written by Lilith Navasardyan, Levon Navasardyan, Avet Barseghyan and David Tserunyan. The song was performed by Artsvik, who was selected through the national final Depi Evratesil organised by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV) to represent Armenia in the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. The national final involved 75 contestants and took place over three months. Two contestants ultimately qualified to compete in the final on 24 December 2016 where a jury panel and a public televote selected Artsvik as the winner. The song "Fly with Me" was selected internally and later presented to the public on 18 March 2017.
Armenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 16, "Fly with Me" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May. It was later revealed that Armenia placed seventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 152 points. In the final, Armenia performed in position 5 and placed eighteenth out of the 26 participating countries with 79 points.
Background
Prior to the 2017 contest, Armenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in 2006. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé" performed by Sirusho and in 2014 with the song "Not Alone" performed by Aram Mp3. Armenia had, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on only one occasion in 2011. The nation briefly withdrew from the contest in 2012 due to long-standing tensions with then host country Azerbaijan. In 2016, "LoveWave" performed by Iveta Mukuchyan placed seventh in the final.
The Armenian national broadcaster, Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV), broadcasts the event within Armenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. AMPTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 30 June 2016. Armenia has used various methods to select the Armenian entry in the past, such as a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However internal selections have also been held on occasion. Since 2014, the broadcaster internally selected both the artist and the song. However, AMPTV announced along with their participation confirmation that a national final would be organized to select the Armenian performer for the 2017 contest, with the song being internally selected.
Before Eurovision Depi Evratesil Depi Evratesil (Towards Eurovision) was the first edition of the national final Depi Evratesil and selected the Armenian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The competition involved a three-month-long process that commenced on 1 October 2016 and concluded with a winning artist on 24 December 2016. All shows in the competition took place at the AMPTV studios in Yerevan, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and broadcast on Armenia 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's website 1tv.am.
Format The national final took place over four stages and consisted of ten episodes. The first stage was the auditions, aired between 1 and 15 October 2016. Following the auditions, 37 contestants were selected by a six-member judging panel to proceed to the second stage of the competition. The second stage was the Judges Selection, aired between 22 October and 12 November 2016 where each member of the judging panel selected four contestants for their teams. If the judges liked the performance, they had the option of pressing a button in front of them during the last ten seconds of each performance, with the first judge that pressed the button getting the contestant who would proceed to the third stage of the competition. The third stage was titled One of Two stage and aired between 19 November and 3 December 2016 where the judges selected two of their team members to battle against each other. The team's judge awarded three points to his/her favourite contestant and the other five judges awarded one point to their favourite contestant. The contestant that received the least points was eliminated. The two remaining contestants in each team battled against each other during the final round and the team's judge selected one contestant to proceed to the fourth stage, the Live Shows. Two semi-finals took place on 10 and 17 December 2016 where two contestants were eliminated per show. The two remaining contestants proceeded to the live final on 24 December 2016 where the winner was selected from the two finalists.
The results of the first three stages of the national final were determined exclusively by the six-member judging panel, while results of the live shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote. The public were able to cast their votes via SMS, while the members of the jury panel varied in composition from show to show. The judging panel was made up of six previous Armenian Eurovision entrants and consisted of:
Iveta Mukuchyan (2016) Essaï Altounian (2015) Aram Mp3 (2014) Inga Arshakyan (2009 and 2015) Anush Arshakyan (2009) Hayko (2007)
Contestants On 6 July 2016, AMPTV announced an online application period with a deadline of 13 November 2016. Eligible applicants were those aged at least 16 and are of Armenian citizenship or heritage. The broadcaster received more than 120 applications at the closing of the deadline, among them being artists from the worldwide Armenian diaspora in the United States, France, Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Lebanon. 75 of the applicants performed in front of the six-member judging panel during the auditions held in September 2016 and had two minutes to convince the judges, which focused on the artists vocal capacity, the performance on stage, and the overall impression by the act. 37 contestants were selected to proceed to the Judges Selection as more than three judges pressed their buttons for their performances.
Teams Winner Runner-up Third place Fourth place Eliminated in Semi-Final 1 Eliminated in One of Two
Judges Top 24 artists Anush Arshakyan Marta Alexander Plato Anna Sedrakyan Stepan Hovhannisyan Hayko Egine Anna Danielyan Yeva Kans Amalia Margaryan Iveta Mukuchyan Vahe Aleksanyan Asmik Shiroyan Sona Dunoyan Christina Mangasaryan Aram Mp3 Lucy Lilit Harutyunyan Jujo Saro Gevorgyan Inga Arshakyan Syuzanna Melqonyan Gevorg Harutyunyan Narine Jinanyan Karina Harutyunyan Essaï Altounian Artsvik Opera Viva Marissa Only Girls
Shows Judges Selection + Episode 1 22 October 2016 Artist Song Seconds Left Selected Judge Veronika Grigoryan "Rijeka bez imena" Eliminated N/A Lucy "Mercy" 10 Aram Mp3 Egine "Sledgehammer" 9 Hayko Syuzanna Melqonyan "The Power of Love" 9 Inga Opera Viva "Nessun dorma" 10 Essaï Mery Mheryan "One Night Only" Eliminated N/A Christina Mangasaryan "Try" 10 Iveta Saro Gevorgyan "Bang Bang" 10 Aram Mp3 Rob Avalyan "Yassou Maria" Eliminated N/A
+ Episode 229 October 2016 Artist Song Seconds Left Selected Judge Vahe Aleksanyan "Tonight Again" 10 Iveta Payla Kevorkian "Too Close" Eliminated N/A Marissa "Sweet People" Eliminated Essaï Jujo "Virtual Insanity" 9 Aram Mp3 Albert Ghazaryan "Pero te extraño" Eliminated N/A Stepan Hovhannisyan "Mamma Knows Best" 10 Anush Artsvik "Sweet Dreams" 10 Essaï Armenuhi Gasparyan "Feeling Good" Eliminated N/A Anna Danielyan "Dancing On My Own" 2 Hayko
+ Episode 35 November 2016 Artist Song Seconds Left Selected Judge Mariam Yevriyan "Beggin'" Eliminated N/A Lilit Harutyunyan "All of Me" 10 Aram Mp3 Marta "How Deep Is Your Love" 9 Anush Diana Adamyan "Bang Bang" Eliminated N/A Kristina Avtisyan "Hit the Road Jack" Eliminated N/A Alexander Plato "Monologue" 10 Anush Anna Sedrakyan "Wicked Game" 8 Anush Diana Dikovski "Georgia on My Mind" Eliminated N/A Arthur Abgar "Te quiero, te quiero" Eliminated N/A Asmik Shiroyan "Dziwny jest ten świat" 10 Iveta
+ Episode 412 November 2016 Artist Song Seconds Left Selected Judge Only Girls "Kukushka" (The Cuckoo) 10 Essaï Sona Dunoyan "Sorry" 6 Iveta Gevorg Harutyunyan "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" 7 Inga Axel Daveyan "Feeling Good" Eliminated N/A Karine Harutyunyan "Listen" 10 Inga Zemfira Fridon "Simply the Best" Eliminated N/A Yeva Kans "We Are the World" 9 Hayko Amalia Margaryan "The Show Must Go On" 9 Hayko Narine Jinanyan "Love On Top" 10 Inga
One of Two During the fifth and sixth episodes, twelve of the remaining contestants, two from each team, competed and one contestant per team advanced. During the seventh episode, the remaining two contestants from each team competed and one contestant per team qualified to the Live Shows.
+ Episode 519 November 2016 Judge Artist Song Judges Votes Total Anush Hayko Iveta Aram Mp3 Inga Essaï 1 Aram Mp3 Saro Gevorgyan "Cheating" 3 Lucy "Euphoria" 5 2 Inga Karina Harutyunyan "Think" 1 Gevorg Harutyunyan "I Am Alive" 7 3 Hayko Amalia Margaryan "Jason's Song (Gave It Away)" 1 Anna Danielyan "I See Fire" 7 4 Anush Marta "Back in the Day (Puff)" 7 Stepan Hovhannisyan "Say Something" 1 5 Essaï Only Girls "Arshaluys er..." 0 Artsvik "If I Ain't Got You" 8 6 Iveta Christina Mangasaryan "I Put a Spell on You" 2 Asmik Shiroyan "Sweet Lovin" 6
+ Episode 626 November 2016 Judge Artist Song Judges Votes Total Anush Hayko Iveta Aram Mp3 Inga Essaï 1 Aram Mp3 Lilit Harutyunyan "Price Tag" 5 Jujo "River" 3 2 Inga Narine Jinanyan "Impossible" 3 Syuzanna Melqonyan "Ain't No Other Man" 5 3 Hayko Yeva Kans "I'm Outta Love" 1 Egine "Tired"/"Burnin' Up" 7 4 Anush Anna Sedrakyan "Seven Nation Army" 0 Alexander Plato "Ke qeler" / "Lily" 8 5 Essaï Opera Viva "Maria" 6 Marissa "Stop!" 2 6 Iveta Sona Dunoyan "Dangerous Woman" 1 Vahe Aleksanyan "My Prayer" 7
+ Episode 73 December 2016 Judge Artist Song Result 1 Iveta Vahe Aleksanyan "Radioactive" Selected Asmik Shiroyan "The Way You Make Me Feel" Eliminated 2 Inga Syuzanna Melqonyan "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" Selected Gevorg Harutyunyan "A Song for You" Eliminated 3 Hayko Egine "Sexy Silk" Selected Anna Danielyan "Rumour Has It" Eliminated 4 Essaï Opera Viva "You Raise Me Up" Eliminated Artsvik "Stand Up for Love" Selected 5 Aram Mp3 Lucy "Say Something" Selected Lilit Harutyunyan "Nothing Compares 2 U" Eliminated 6 Anush Marta "Siro Kamar" () Selected Alexander Plato "Faust Cantata" Eliminated
Semi-finals The two semi-finals took place on 10 and 17 December 2016. Two contestants were eliminated from each semi-final based on the 50/50 combination of votes from a professional jury and a public televote. The jury in the first semi-final consisted of nine Armenian members who each distributed their points from 1 to 6, while the jury in the second semi-final consisted of eleven international members who each distributed their points from 1 to 4. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 189 points in the first semi-final and 110 points in the second semi-final to award. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of all jury points rounded to the nearest integer: 19 points in the first semi-final and 11 points in the second semi-final. In addition to the performances of the contestants, the interval acts featured Armenian 2016 Junior Eurovision entrants Anahit and Mary with their song "Tarber" in the first semi-final, and Sos and Victoria Petrosyan with their quick-change acts in the second semi-final.