Eurovision 2016: Review: Armenia: Iveta Mukuchyan: LoveWave

Iveta: Riding the wave for Armenia

It's been more than six months since Armenia announced that Iveta Mukuchyan would be their representative in Stockholm. Finally, at the beginning of March, the song that she will sing was revealed as LoveWave - a co-composition with Lilith Navasardyan, Levon Navasardyan and Stephanie Crutchfield.

With six top ten placings since the country debuted in 2006, Armenia has long felt like a participant that’s getting ever closer to grabbing a well-deserved first victory. But can LoveWave succeed where other Armenian entries have failed?

In short, it's very unlikely. Even though Iveta has one of the better voices in this year's competition, the song is lacking the type of unforgettable hook that is usually required for a Eurovision victory. Actually, it takes several listens to the song before one can even vaguely recall how it went a few minutes after hearing it.

This is mainly so because LoveWave has no natural beginning, middle and end. It starts off with the spoken word before it transitions into a softly sung introduction: a beginning that bodes well. However, the listener is suddenly slapped around the face a number of times as Iveta is transformed into a wild banshee, hollering unintelligibly - all of which is interspersed with oooh-oohs that sound as if they may have been lifted directly from Michael Jackson's Earth Song. Then, just as suddenly, it's all over.

While this entry may not stick in people’s memories, Armenia is nevertheless one of those countries which tends to benefit from a widespread and far-flung diaspora. With televotes in the bag then, most probably it'll be down to the juries as to whether LoveWave qualifies from Semi-Final 1. Most likely, that will happen. But Iveta will then have a struggle to impress in the Final.

However, were this a beauty pageant, she'd win - hands down!

What do you think?

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