Depi Evratesil: Round Two ends and judges finalise their teams

Seven episodes into the three-month long Armenian national selection Depi Evratesil, the judges have finally determined their teams. After three weeks of auditions, contestants then competed in Round Two over the past four weeks. This week, nine more artists fought to impress our star-studded panel. Once the dust settled, we were left with the 24 artists still with a chance of representing Armenia at Eurovision 2017.

In Round Two, judges have the option of pressing their buzzer in the last ten seconds of each performance. The first judge to press their buzzer gets the artist on their team, with each judge looking for a total of four artists. If none of the judges press their button in this period, the contestant is eliminated from the competition.

As of last week, both Aram MP3 and Anush Arshakyan had completed their teams. The other four judges still had a number of spots on their teams and this week’s hopefuls were looking to snatch them up.

You can watch this week’s episode in full below.

Up first was the girl group Only Girls, performing at 5:35. They covered our favourite Russian queen Polina Gagarina, which impressed the judges and received a standing ovation. Nobody was more impressed than Essaï, who pressed his button and stated that he was very pleased to have Only Girls joining his team. Essaï believed that the girls have a wide variety of strengths and they could master a large collection of styles and genres.

The second performance of the episode featured one of our early favourites, Sona Dunoyan. With guitar in hand, she caught our eye with her cover of Meghan Trainor’s “No” in the second episode. This time, she covered Justin Bieber’s “Sorry“, starting at 11:20. Iveta Mukuchyan was clearly impressed and chose Sona as the final member of her team. Iveta believes that Sona has a very sweet voice and they could work together to work on her strengths. Inga believed that Iveta and Sona would work well together and looked forward to her journey in the next round.

Hayko added two new artists to his team. He first chose Eva Kans who performed “We Are the World” at 42:00. Despite most of the judges questioning the song choice and sisters Inga and Anush being in disagreement, Hayko pressed his button and secured Eva’s services. Hayko also chose Amalya Margaryan, who covered Queen’s “The Show Must Go On” at 50:25.

Inga had three spots open on her team before this episode, adding Gevorg Harutyunyan, Karina Harutyunyan and Narine Jinanyan.

As the auditions wrapped up, Essaï was left with only three team members while all other judges had completed their teams. Essaï was then given the opportunity to save any of the eliminated acts to complete his team of four. Essaï chose Marissa, who caught our eye two weeks ago with her cover of Alyosha’s “Sweet People“.

The final makeup of the teams is as follows:

Aram MP3 — Lucy, Saro Gevorgyan, Jujo and Lilit Harutyunyan
Inga — Suzanna Melkonyan, Gevorg Harutyunyan, Karina Harutyunyan and Narine Jinanyan
Essaï — Opera Viva, Arcvik, Only Girls and Marissa
Iveta — Christina Mangasaryan, Vahe Aleksanyan, Hasmik Siroyan and Sona Dunoyan
Hayko — Egine, Anna Danielyan, Eva Kans and Amalya Margaryan
Anush — Stepan Hovhannisyan, Marta, Alexander Plato and Anna Sedrakyan

The next round of the competition kicks off next week with 24 hopefuls still in the running.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Who will win Depi Evratesil? Let us know in the comments below.