Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Armenia was represented by Sirusho in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé".

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"Qélé, Qélé"
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (2nd, 139 points)
Final result4th, 199 points
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2007 • 2008 • 2009►

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

On 15 November 2007, ARMTV announced Sirusho as the Armenian entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.[1][2]

National final

The song that Sirusho would perform at the 2008 contest was selected through a national final. ARMTV opened the song submission period for Armenian composers to send their entries. From all songs submitted, a jury selected four songs for the competition.

The final was scheduled to take place on 8 March 2008 at the Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Yerevan. However, this was later cancelled due to a State of Emergency in Armenia. Instead the final was filmed and aired on 8 March 2008 at the ARMTV Studios in Yerevan, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and Felix Khachatryan.[3] All four competing songs were performed by Sirusho and the winning song, "Qélé, Qélé", was selected exclusively by a public televote and SMS vote.

Final – 8 March 2008
Draw Song Songwriter(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.

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.

Points awarded to Armenia (Semi-Final 1)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Points awarded to Armenia (Final)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Armenia

See also

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. Eurovision2008.org Archived May 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
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