This year’s line-up seems to be populated by an endless stream of former talent shows participants who started singing while they were still embryos, Armenian artist Srbuk being no exception. She even plays the instrument qanun and we can only assume she taught herself to play before she was born.
It’s probably smart to have some experience under your belt before you get cracking on the Eurovision Song Contest. Whether it’s X-factor, Idol, The Voice and whatnot, becoming used to performing on live TV weeks on end, and being judged and evaluated by both the public and professional juries, quite often even abroad, can only be a massive advantage when being faced with some 200 million viewers. Still we often see contestants cave under the pressure and sing out of tune even in the informal preview parties hosted around Europe leading up to the big event in May. Eurovision is a big thing.
In theory, Srbuk has all the credentials to do well in Tel Aviv and she has a good, contemporary pop song to perform. Walking Out is delicately produced, has strong verses, a good hook and a big chorus. Even the lyrics are not half bad and Srbuk is so in charge of the narrative we suspect she has some personal experience with the rather dark, but important theme. It’s not the first time someone sings about abusive relationships in Eurovision, Serbian Sanja Vučić performed the hell out of (Goodbye) Shelter, and it just worked. Whether Srbuk manages to do the same with Walking Out remains to be seen. Something tells us that she will struggle. It seems like a difficult song to sing and we’re afraid it will become too shouty and insisting.
Armenia is probably desperate to bounce back after a non-qualification and a streak of variable results since missing the final (and the top 10!) for the first time in 2011. Perhaps they end up trying too hard. In a super competitive second semifinal Walking Out is not more than a borderline qualifier.
That’s all we have time to say about the Armenian entry so far, now we have some googling to do to find out what the heck a qanun is.
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