Pictures: New Wave / Saro

In 2017, he was one of the participants of Depi Evratesil — Armenia’s national final talent show. Two years later, he sang in Tel Aviv as one of Srbuk’s Eurovision backing vocalists. Now, Saro has been crowned as the winner of the 2021 edition of the performing contest New Wave.

After receiving the maximum score for a rendition of Beyoncé’s “Listen” on day one, Saro seemed to be the one to watch for this year’s edition of the international singing contest held in Sochi. Saro remained on top during the second evening too, and only lost out on one point against Russian group Grinkevich during the final Evening of Premieres.

Finishing with a total of 267 points at the end of the competition, the Armenian star achieved a comfortable margin of five points over the runner-up. This resulted in Saro being crowned the winner of New Wave 2021.

Directly behind Saro, Bulgarian songstress Denitsa Karaslavova finished in second. On the second evening, she performed Poli Genova’s Eurovision 2016 hit “If Love Was A Crime”.

Spanish Eurovision 2014 national finalist Jorge González finished third overall. Australia Decides 2019 star Alfie Arcuri ended up in fifth position.

Back in April, the New Wave organisers announced that Eurovision 2016 alumna Samra would also participate in the contest. However, prior to the event, she withdrew her bid.

New Wave 2021: Final results

  1. Saro (Armenia) – 267 points
  2. Denitsa Karaslavova (Bulgaria) – 261 points
  3. Jorge González (Spain) – 257 points
  4. Mezzo (Kazakhstan) – 254 points
  5. Alfie Arcuri (Australia) – 246 points
  6. Max Box (Russia) – 241 points / Grinkevich (Russia) – 241 points
  7. Fabio Curto (Italy) – 239 points / Sevil (Russia) –  239 points
  8. CHEICHAI (Belarus) – 232 points
  9. Natia Rigvava (Georgia) – 231 points

With his victory, Saro enters a star-studded list of the contest’s winners. This includes past Eurovision participants Jamala, DoReDos, Natalia Gordienko, Damir Kedžo, Intars Busulis, Smash!!’s Sergey Lazarev and also Junior Eurovision star Dino Jelusick.

This year’s New Wave also acted as a special celebratory concert for Eurovision 2008 champion Dima Bilan. His artistry was put into focus, with several Russian stars performing reworks of his discography, including Loboda, Philipp Kirkorov and Zivert. Meanwhile, Eurovision 2021 star Manizha performed her contest entry “Russian Woman” during the Evening of Premieres.

Are you happy that Saro won New Wave 2021? Did you follow the contest at all? Let us know in the comments down below!

Read more New Wave news here

Read all our Armenia Eurovision news here

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Apollo
Apollo
2 years ago

Saro is from Martuni in Nagorno-Karabakh, the region which has been under conflict with Azerbaijan for decades and was the reason why Armenia pulled out of Eurovision last year. If the Armenian delegation are smart, they’ll select Saro and make him sing a Jamala-esque ethnic ballad about war/conflict. As we all know, one of the main reasons why Jamala’s song touched so many people was because of the Crimean annexation the year before. I wonder if Armenia will use the conflict to their advantage at Eurovision this year.(Just a disclaimer, I don’t support either side of the Nagorno-Karabakh war. Please… Read more »

Sot
Sot
2 years ago

It was extremely close! Could we see him perform an ethnic ballad in ESC one day?

vangelis vt
vangelis vt
2 years ago

Terrible accent, it is obvious he doesn’t understand a single word he sings. Also so much oversinging. Less is more.

Ron
Ron
2 years ago
Reply to  vangelis vt

So if someone has an accent that means they don’t understand what they are singing? Millions of people have an English accent – doesn’t mean they can’t speak English.

Bombalurina
Bombalurina
2 years ago

Congrats but please don’t let this to take Athena’s chance 🙁

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
2 years ago
Reply to  Bombalurina

I’d like to see her get her second chance, but what if she decides to move on? Whatever choice she makes regarding Eurovision, I think we should respect it

Bombalurina
Bombalurina
2 years ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

I totally agree with you , of course we should but i am a fan of her and i just know that she wants it so bad.. and if that’s not going to happen i would be so sorry for her 🙁

Last edited 2 years ago by Bombalurina
Ron
Ron
2 years ago

I think Armenia might select him for 2022 especially since he’s very close with the heads of delegation…

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
2 years ago
Reply to  Ron

If Armenia does choose to come back for 2022, yeah he could be a good choice. I don’t know if Athena would still be interested representing Armenia or her time has passed. We’ll see.

Ron
Ron
2 years ago
Reply to  BadWoolfGirl

I’m pretty sure Athena would still be very interested in going to Eurovision. I just don’t know what direction AMPTV will decide to take. Either way, he’s a talented, charismatic guy who will do well…