The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continued its tour of Armenia, travelling to the medieval Geghard Monastery. We examined the beautiful structure carved into the mountain itself. At the conclusion of our tour, we sat down to review two more of the Depi Evratesil 2018 contestants. Did we find “The Voice” to represent Armenia at Eurovision? Did we find an “Unbreakable” powerhouse?

Suren Poghosyan — “The Voice”

“The Voice” reviews

Antranig: The song is aptly called “The Voice” because that’s the best thing about it. Beyond Suren’s strong vocals, there is very little to like about this entry. It feels like a generic Eurovision ballad that doesn’t push any boundaries. It’s a nice song that you would listen to amidst a sea of other entries but it’s not something you’d feel compelled to pick up your phone and vote for.

Score: 6/10

Jonathan: When you call your song “The Voice”, you better have an exceptional one of your own to match (just ask Eimear Quinn). Unfortunately, Suren’s doesn’t quite seem to have the strength to pull off this ballad. The song itself is fairly unremarkable and wouldn’t stand up against the others in a Eurovision semi-final. Armenia definitely has better in its selection this year.

Score: 5/10

Luis: Suren certainly has the voice, but he’s also got a formulaic entry. “The Voice” allows him to showcase his vocals, but it makes you feel no emotion at all. If he was singing this on The Voice’s auditions, he’d no doubt go through. At Eurovision, he’d be lucky if he reaches the finale of Depi Evratesil sadly.

Score: 5/10

Bernardo: For the entire three minutes I expect it to explode and get me emotionally wrapped in it, but “The Voice” fails in its most important task — create a mood in the ones who listen to it. Suren’s voice is very strong but it isn’t enough to make this stand out. It’s just an average ballad.

Score: 5.5/10

Robyn: The verses of “The Voice” aren’t so great, but the chorus has a good amount of emotional heft and a memorable melody. Sadly the song’s production, with the clunky percussion sound, doesn’t do much to give it a sense of progression. It plods along, when it should sail.

Score: 6/10

Deban: A wailing digital ballad with poor enunciation — “The Voice” is packed with many ingredients that have gone off. Suren belts a few high notes, but that just makes this offering more annoying.

Score: 3/10

In our Depi Evratesil Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Barnabas: 6/10

Bogdan: 4/10

Chris: 4/10

Cinan: 7/10

Edd: 6.5/10

Erdi: 7.5/10

Lukas: 6.5/10

Natalie: 5/10

Rezo: 6/10

Sebastian: 9/10

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 3 and a high of 9.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 5.71/10

Zhanna Davtyan — “Unbreakable”

“Unbreakable” reviews

Chris: Come through, generic dance backing track! Zhanna simply never gets the chance to shine in “Unbreakable”, as the song is dominated by its production. Unfortunately, that production is pretty low-rent. Songs like this almost never translate well live. In a national final with some songs that sound like they deserve to be in 2018, this really does fall well short.

Score: 3.5/10

Robyn: “Unbreakable” is like the “you are damaged but strong!” anthems that are endlessly popular in the Maltese national final, given a cheesy tropical house sound for no apparent reason. Zhanna’s voice has so much Autotune used on it that she sounds like a robot in places. But worst of all: “Unbreakable” forgoes a chorus for more digital tomfoolery. What a mess.

Score: 2/10

Bogdan: Forget about “Puerto Rico”, because we found the real joke entry of Depi Evratesil. Seriously though, who thought this so-called song would be 1) a good idea and 2) worthy of inclusion in the Armenian national selection? “Unbreakable”? More like “Unfathomable”.

Score: 1/10

Cinan: I like the beat of that song! “Unbreakable” is a good song though I don’t know if it is exactly for Eurovision, but a good radio hit. The other thing which I love about this song is the key change near the end, I LOVE when there is a key change in a song. Very well done!

Score: 7.5/10

Natalie: I love to hear some really modern production in Eurovision songs, but somehow this seems really overdone. The vocal processing is very unnecessary and distracting. And those electronic beats get really repetitive after a while. I can appreciate this as a very smooth and bouncy electropop song about confidence, which is nice, but it misses the mark. And I can’t really see it translating well to Eurovision. It grew on me by the chord change, but there is better in Depi Evratesil.

Score: 5.5/10

Edd: The verses may be cheap, but this is one cool chorus. Very reminiscent of Rita Ora’s recent smash hit “Anywhere”, the production is interesting and would certainly stand out if it made it to Eurovision. And that key change catches you completely off guard! The success of this song depends greatly if Zhanna can come across as cool — and if the vocal manipulations required still work when sung live.

Score: 7.5/10

In our Depi Evratesil Wiwi Jury, we have 17 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:

Antranig: 6/10

Barnabas: 4/10

Bernardo: 2.5/10

Deban: 3/10

Erdi: 4/10

Jonathan: 7/10

Luis: 2/10

Lukas: 6.5/10

Rezo: 3/10

Sebastian: 8.5/10

 

 

 

 

 

Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 1 and a high of 8.5.

Wiwi Jury Verdict: 4.57/10

See our list of Depi Evratesil 2018 rankings here

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10 Comments
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AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

Sorry guys, while reviewing the songs, I’ve just confused “The voice” with “Forever”.
“The voice is actually a decent song. 6/10

AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

“The Voice”: The verses are just ok, the chorus is good, but this needs an epic staging to stand out, if it stands out. 4.5/10

“Unbreakable”: Good voice, tries to be modern but the chorus doesn’t seem to follow. Forgettable. 5/10

Kris
Kris
6 years ago

The voice : 7/10
Unbreakable: 5/10

Colin
Colin
6 years ago

I love Suren’s song! So sweet and powerful at the same time! 9/10

Khav
Khav
6 years ago

Antranig is so unprofessional. He ranks every Armenia song so high even if he says he doesn’t like it.

Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great
6 years ago
Reply to  Khav

he’s armenian that’s why. lol

Colin
Colin
6 years ago
Reply to  Khav

Since when is a 6 high?

Ron
Ron
6 years ago
Reply to  Colin

lol apparently at the house of wiwi a 6 must be very high.

Steve
Steve
6 years ago
Reply to  Khav

Hey, that song is not even composed by Armenians. The only guy who is Armenian in this team is the performer. If Andranig was biased, definitly he would have trashed this song for being a bit too much externally influenced. Also, 6 is not high at all. Do not try to act as if you’re so clever)

Kris
Kris
6 years ago
Reply to  Khav

Antranig has come a long way. Atleast he doesn’t give every song he likes a 10 and all other songs a 0 anymore.
Every little step needs to be appreciated.