It might only be October, but the Eurovision 2017 national selection season is well and truly underway. Praise. Armenia’s three-month long selection competition, Depi Evratesil, began on October 1st, after filming started last month.

With a smorgasbord of Armenian Eurovision talent on the jury, the first episode launched the audition phase of the competition. Firstly, the fabulous judging panel was introduced. It consists of Iveta Mukuchyan (2016), Aram MP3 (2014), Essaï (2015, as part of Genealogy), sisters Inga and Anush Arshakyan (2009, with Inga also forming part of Genealogy in 2015) and Hayko (2007).

After the judges were introduced, the competition started for real. The first Eurovision hopefuls began their auditions and many left a big impression on the judges (for reasons good or bad). You can watch the first episode in full below.

One contestant decided to audition with a song that has actually won Eurovision, a smart move one would think. Starting at 18:55 into the video, Monica Manucharova performs Ruslana’s “Wild Dances”, the winning song from 2004.

The high energy performance made quite an impression on Inga. She admitted that they could work well together. But while Inga was impressed by Monica’s sound and her drive, alas, it was not to be. Only two judges pressed their buttons, with a majority of four needed to advance to the next round. Harsh but inevitable.

iveta-confused-768x393One act who did advance was the show-stopping Ijin (she also goes by the name Egine), who performed Miley Cyrus’ hit “Wrecking Ball”, which you can see at 39:15. Iveta was clearly confused at first. However, Ijin’s stage presence soon won the judges over, convincing 5 of 6 jurors to press their buttons. Iveta stated that she loved Ijin’s look and presence and wanted to give her another chance, even though her vocals need some work.

A short clip of each of the qualifiers from the first episode is shown at the end of the episode, starting at 1:21:35. The second episode of auditions will air next weekend, when more hopefuls will try to impress their way to Eurovision.

What do you think of the first round of auditions of Depi Evratesil? Is there a potential Eurovision winner in the mix? Let us know in the comments below.

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Mariam
7 years ago

Syuzana or Amalya!
only not Engine

Mariam
7 years ago

Syuzanna or Amalya imo!
only not Engine

Harut
Harut
7 years ago

Maybe Syuzanna Melkonyan?

Steve
Steve
7 years ago

Eghine is very sexy, but has to bring her vocals on point. Artsvik is just so amazing. Amali is justo bland-standing and singing with eyes shut is a 19tj century thing. The pregnant woman was good. Vahe was kind of good boy who can play a macho. The rick-opera singer was good. The first performer had very good voice. The rest are forgotten. However, Armenia needs to find a good song, there quite a few amazing performers. They won’t have problem with that.

Sonya Karapetyan
Sonya Karapetyan
7 years ago

EGINE! she is the WINNER . The most beautiful armenian girl and an amazin artist

AzeriBoy96
AzeriBoy96
7 years ago

Can’t wait to see their new entry, “LoveWave” was cool. Good luck

Susan
Susan
7 years ago

Liked the pregnant girl, the guy near the end, not sure about Wrecking Ball girl either, but totally loved the expressions on Aram’s face when he heard jazzy stuff!

Pollaski
Pollaski
7 years ago

@Estonian/Armenian I… don’t even know where to begin here. I poke fun at Azerbaijan for being so damned overdefensive about EVERYTHING, and I get a response of borderline unreadable dreck… *rubs eyes* blah blah blah I’m “just an Azeri”, blah blah blah only a tribe not a nation, blah blah blah winky face. *sighs* Reading Comprehension. READING COMPREHENSION. REED-EEENG KOM-PRE-HENS-SHON Read it again, sparky. I was making fun of Azerbaijan and its tendencies to take anything Armenia does as a personal affront, including this whole dumb notion that this show is copying them. Then you get personally affronted because you… Read more »

Estonian/Armenian
Estonian/Armenian
7 years ago

Pollaski you are just azeri it can be understandable 100% sure so don’t be such a evil, don’t show at least here your nation real face
wtf is happening with you and your not even nation its just tribe
just calm down and recognise that Armenians are batter than your tribe 😉

Monica
Monica
7 years ago

We are so thankful to Armenia. Finally we have new participants to discover !

Hike
Hike
7 years ago

though I’m impatient?? waiting for the next tour i can say that i see a potential winner here 🙂 guess who?

Lola
Lola
7 years ago

Azeris, stop messing around. We are already fed up with you all

Pollaski
Pollaski
7 years ago

I have to say, its absolutely delightful how EVERY LITTLE THING Armenia does causes Azerbaijan to flip its every loving lid. *Announces a song is titled “Don’t Deny”* “ERMIGOD ITS ABOUT THE GENOCIDE (that totally never happened)” *Waves a flag during voting* “ERMIGOD OUR SUPER SACRED REGION* *Holds a singing contest to find next participant* “ERMIGOD THEYRE COPYING OUR OLD SELECTION” *Picture of a statue in a contested region.* “ERMIGOD MAKE IT GO AWAY” *43 Azeris vote for them* “ERMIGOD TRAITORS” I mean, I don’t even know if Armenia’s actually trolling here. Azerbaijan may be just that wound up and… Read more »

Mark Beckenbreur
Mark Beckenbreur
7 years ago

Armenians want to win the ESC not less than any other year. It is not that they are desperate lol.
They have chosen this X Factor format just to find some new blood – talented unknown singers. Even those who’ll be out of contest will get an opportunity to find their ways in music.
Azerbuyjan is successful and there is only one reason why – THEY BUYING ENTIRE PRODUCTION ABROAD.

loving_ya_harder
loving_ya_harder
7 years ago

It’s obvious that they want to win Eurovision, so that’s why they are using the selection method which had their azeri neighbours during their successful esc years. It might be good for them, but I hate such Eurovision national selections, I could just watch The Voice, X Factor series instead.

khm
khm
7 years ago

Artsvik was the best! Now I’m waiting for Lucy and I hope she nails it and wins this.

Nunu
Nunu
7 years ago

love the show, good luck Armenia

Mark Beckenbreur
Mark Beckenbreur
7 years ago

These singers can’t possibly have a Eurovision ready song. They are hardly known and totally unknown.
Armenia just can’t have something like Swedish Melodifestivalen. So stop whining about ‘they should first have song then singer.’.

Mark Beckenbreur
Mark Beckenbreur
7 years ago

@Anabela SakamTe this year’s Armenian talent show has to do with Pop Idol, The voice of.. or The X Factor television competitions – but not with Azerbaijan.
I repeat, Armenians will never copy anything from those people. It would be downgrading for them, since the Azeris themselves copying and buying everything they can.

Diana
Diana
7 years ago

I am for Egine!!! She is stunning, sings and dances professionally!!! She could show a super performance an a big stage!!!!
I’m keeping fingers crossed for her!!!!!!!!

Bart
Bart
7 years ago

First: they have to look for songs, instead of a awful voice competition
Second: The last added person was amazing 🙂 and the funny man with the beard
Three: it looks like these are R&B influenced singers so maybe the song will be too

mocosuburbian
mocosuburbian
7 years ago

@Pollaski Lithuania has used the selection you’re describing multiple times with such wildly successful entries as ‘Attention’ and ‘This Time’ coming out of it
it’s better the way it is

mocosuburbian
mocosuburbian
7 years ago

Suzyanna, Artsvik, and Anna Sedrakyan were quality
hozier girl, the girl band’s second song, dungarees, and Amalya (?) were also pretty good
the guys scream ‘hello i’m a boring non-qualifier’
Egine… no. She has like minor starpower in Armenia, so I can see why she passed through auditions. But in Kiev, those vocals won’t fly. plus, wrecking ball? choices.

Anabela SakamTe
Anabela SakamTe
7 years ago

Agree with @Radomir and @Pollaski, this type of selections Azerbeijan was doing before and this is not interesting to watch as a eurovision fan. They should make the songs selection instead. Good luck anyways

Chance
Chance
7 years ago

I like the two guys who sang the songs from Dreamgirls.

Pollaski
Pollaski
7 years ago

I actually kinda agree with Radomir here. (Not the part about copying Azerbaijan.) Basically, its a song contest, not a singing competition- and yes, there is a difference. You need one good song, three minutes of genius, to win, not someone you can make an album or even a career out of. Is this show going to find a talented singer? More than likely yes. But how many talented singers have gone to Eurovision and crashed and burned because their song sucked? Ergo, if you’re going to have an open competition, you’re going to need it between songs, not singers.… Read more »

Jack
Jack
7 years ago

Amazing project. Thanks Armenia!

Armenia is calling
Armenia is calling
7 years ago

Copying Azerbaijan? LOL. Such impression that talent shows are historical cultural heritage of Azerbaijan! Just Armenian Public Broadcaster decided to use this talent show to make its view rates bit more compatible with private chanels without paying licence fees for such international projects like Voice and XFactor are!
I liked more the system of internal choices to be honest! No one professional artist with respectable background will take part in this project!

Karen Hovsepyan
Karen Hovsepyan
7 years ago

Egine was WOW! Her energy is beyond words

Suren
Suren
7 years ago

INFO ABOUT EGINE IS INCORRECT!SHE ISN’T RUSSIAN BORN,SHE WAS BORN IN YEREVAN!

Yoyo360
Yoyo360
7 years ago

I was quite impressed by Saro, Aleksander and Vahe in the male artists, and Kristina, Amalya, Mariam and Artsvik in the female artists

Mark Beckenbreur
Mark Beckenbreur
7 years ago

@Radomir.
Lol, the last thing Armenians will do in this Universe is to copy whatever Azeris did.
They do not copy, they just looking for talented singers. So simple it is.

Lili
Lili
7 years ago

it’s not Izin it’s Egine ! Please correct

Radomir
Radomir
7 years ago

They do just try to copy the same method which Azerbaijan was doing before 2014 years. I really don’t like this type of selections, cause it’s more like a talent show at its worst. In my opinion they should focus on to finding the best song, not the Voice.

Azaad
Azaad
7 years ago

Somehow I feel this will lead to a poor result, maybe even a second non qualification?

johanleekens
johanleekens
7 years ago

I am really excited to see where this is going and I hope Armenia will win, because they clearly deserved to last year. So far I have seen great talent but I have a feeling that either the public vote will pick a bad act or that the live performance at Eurovision will be terrible, let’s hope I will be proven wrong.

Harut
7 years ago

I hope I will see more cause I supposed to see famous singers also..Monika was the representative of JESC 2008 Armenia.

Mark Beckenbreur
Mark Beckenbreur
7 years ago

So many talented singers.. The pregnant girl did it well)) That Izin is beautiful.
Can’t wait to see next auditions and especially the final battle.

Steven
Steven
7 years ago

Izin is extremely glam! She should try an uptempo number next round