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Exclusive interview with Armenia HoD
Armenia: There will always be a voting imbalance
Diana, do you think that the competition needs a change in the voting procedure?
"Well, what we have now is acceptable for us and the voting activity in Armenia is really high even at 02:00 am. It means that Armenian viewers love and enjoy the Eurovision Song Contest as it is and they don't go to their beds at 03:00 am until the winner is announced. Actually it unites people not only in Armenia as they enjoy the contest sitting in outdoor cafes and watching the show with friends and families, but in the whole Europe. This is an inexplicable feeling - being a part of a huge mechanism and know that your vote really counts and may change a lot of things! What I love in the contest most of all is the knowledge that millions of heartbeats are united and wait for the happy end, no matter if that happy end is unhappy 43rd sometimes."
Do you think emphasis should be more on 'redressing the voting imbalance' or reducing the amount of time it takes to announce the results?
"We constantly discuss this during the Head of Delegation meetings prior to the show and the opinions differ. I do not think that "redressing the voting imbalance" will help much. There will be no solution found that can make all people happy. Majority votes will always differ from the minority votes and this imbalance will always exist. As to the time of the results' announcement, EBU has once reduced it and it helped a lot. But still it is too much for audience's ears to listen to the greetings and figures from all 43 countries. "
What option would you prefer from those on offer in the questionnaire?
"I still have to think about that as there are to many things to be taken into account. Though what we have now is quite satisfying."
Esctoday wishes to thank Diana Mnatsakanyanfor this exclusive interview.
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Her comment 'Know that your vote really counts' - has she not been watching the same contests as everyone else to see how votes in the west have been hijacked? Even before the 2009 entries are chosen I can tell you the top 4 from Ireland will be Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and the UK
armenia would have been in the final even if there wasn't diaspora. qele qele was simply amazing so stop the bullshit
armenia
Armenia
@The real zingo star
I don't agree that Armenia are cheats, as you suggest. After all, they are just competing within the rules. I understand your exasperation, but it is the rules that are at fault - and they need changing immediately.
@Kathrin Schmidt
I agree with everything you have said.
I agree!
Good point!!
Armenia always benifits from imbalance voting!!! and other East countries!!!
CHEATS!!!!
well well well of course they will play it innocnent and will claim that.... this is such a hypocart claim by Armenia !
but of course they will "think" that, because if the voting system will change they will for once have to WORK and make an EFFORT to find a song, and even to suffer anxiety that even after all they may not be in the final after all, and that of course will make hell on their face skin...
so they stick to this system where they can just pick anything and be sure it will be an overwhelm success since they have the support of all their gang members to vote for them no matter even if they will get naked on on stage and sing "this land is your land" - for some reason i am not surprised.
what i AM surprise is that Spain,Germany,UK and France took it standing down until now...
ofcourse Armenia loves the current voting system, just like fucking russia.
@ cpbija 89 and @ Ajdin Mehic
As someone from Germany I must say that I and everyone I know living in Germany WERE complaining about juries in the past who always prefer songs in English or at least in French. Were do you get the idea from that NO ONE in the west was complaining? There were obviously SOOOOO MANY complains that there was massive rules changes. The juries were abolished AND of course the language rule in the late 90s. That wouldn't have happened with no complains from western countries.
And eastern countries weren't the only ones with disadvantages in the past. ALL non English and French speaking countries had less a change too win. That Yugoslavia has only won one time is really nothing exceptional. There are only 12 countries with more than 1 win in the whole ESC history. Look here:
http://en.wikipedia.(...)_Song_Contest_winner s#By_country
And there would be only 11 countries with more than one win, if not four countries were winning in 1969 including Spain which by the way makes also one win of France, UK and the Netherlands count less in my opinion.
What I want to emphasize is, that the rules were in the past changed when it was getting more than obviously that it was extremely unfair to most countries. It is now also more than obviously that there is AGAIN a need for rules changes. Most countries have a massive disadvantage against a handful of countries (in particular in comparison to: Russia, Serbia, Armenia, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine) like in the past just for different reasons. And NOT only western countries have an disadvantage. There are also a lot of eastern countries whose changes for a good place are in contrast to the countries mentioned above very small. The dominance of those countries is now so big that it would be a wonder if not at least 4 of them are in the top 10 again next year. And if one don't achieve a top 10 place it will not be far from it.
And to put that in context, there are NOW much more countries participating than at the times of the juries. Even with absolutely fair juries the chance for a top 10 place were mathematical much higher in the past. It should be now much harder for ALL countries to reach nearly continually a place in the top 10, but that isn't the case. It is now at least as easy probably even easier for Russia to achieve a top 5 place than it was for Ireland and the UK at the times of the juries.
So the rules should change to make the contest as fair as possible for ALL countries regardless WHERE they are geographically.
she's so cute
PAREV DIANA
kisses from spain 
she should for sure have louder back vocals and a female voice to sing a choirs together with her. back vocals helped Kalomira a lot for example
Definitely!
yes.
the begining of the song is in all ways different then what we get after. when it starts it looks like its gonna be a ballade.
but i love the song all tohether.
only, she didn't sing it good on stage, and she should for sure have louder back vocals and a female voice to sing a choirs together with her. back vocals helped Kalomira a lot for example
Though begining is quite well writen but nobody understands, and then we get childish English lyrics
That made me look for the translation of the Armenian lyrics in the beginning and they're quite good and very different to the rest of the song!!!
From my Armenian land
I came to bring
The wind of the mountains
The light of the sun
she definitely should sing in Armenian.
English lyrics just destroyed the song.
Though begining is quite well writen but nobody understands, and then we get childish English lyrics
Come to think of it, I might like qele qele more if I couldn't understand the lyrics..lol
Well, qele qele was in the category of a catchy tune (of course the lyrics are childish) so I think it would do equally well in Armenian 
"I prefer songs in the English language and I think it's a big help if the public can understand the lyrics. "
Yes, and Armenia had so wise lyrics this year - you wanna be with me, you think and dream of me, qele, qele, qele, qe qe qe qele :-)
I think the song would do well even if it was not in English.
And Armenia do get diaspora vote, but this year they got many many fair votes too. Serbia for example gave her 5 points and we have no Armenians here. And the song is still big hit here
Armenia was 8th last year, not 7th. Greece was 7th 
About the language rule, I think every country should be free to sing in any language they want and personally I prefer songs in the English language and I think it's a big help if the public can understand the lyrics. I think that for a song to do well in a native language it has to have either exceptioal music/vocals or a very, very catchy tune.
About the accent problem now, I don't mind that much, maybe because I'm not a native English speaker. I suppose native speakers will mind..lol
I hope the Armenian song from this year will be out in Denmark soon.
yes...their song last year was so "empty" I think...have no idea why it finished 7th. maybe he sang well, but it was boring beyond beliefe!
I think many people overemphasize the diaspora / neighbour thing. My country have often not given to the neighbours - ad also the other way round. To do well, you need most of all a SONG that will appeal across the board. it's more about songs than countries.
Actually, I write in this thread mostly because I want to say I hope the rumours of hard rock /metal band System of a Down representing Armenia are true. Would be so AWESOME to have a hard rock act like them in. Even if they are polittical, i like them, and they do hard rock in a better way than many of their oponents I think. Would be great for us ESC lovers who love rock. And they will get lots of rock votes! Maybe a victory?
Armenia is very comfortable with the voting imbalance as it is. An awfully dire song like last year's still managed to place 7th!!!
for me eurovision always whas the same thing , with televoting or with jurys everything is the same,only the winning countreys change, before was ireland and UK now is ukraine and russia.
Finland and Greece are geography in EAST. That is a fact and noone can say different.
Line of west and east are (but the stil belong to west): Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Malta. All right of those countries on a map are in eastern Europe. If Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia and Albania are eastern countries, then Greece is SOOOO east in those facts.
If there were not diaspora votes, Armenia would not be at final!
Very clever of her to accept the "voting imbalance" considering Armenia is one of the countries that always benefits. How arrogant.
That's a very cold-headed woman! great!...
This sections should have spellcheck! Some Reactions are WAY TOO DIFICULT to understand when they have all those mistakes in syntaxis and grammar!...OMG!
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