Athena Manoukian, Armenia’s chosen representative for the canceled 2020 Eurovision due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hints at her intention to return to the Armenian Eurovision preselection “Depi Evratesil” for the 2025 contest. Will the singer make it to the competition stage this time?
The Armenian national broadcaster, AMPTV, has officially announced the return of the Eurovision preselection event “Depi Evratesil” for selecting Armenia’s representative and song for Eurovision 2025, opening the song submission window until January 10th. Now, Armenia’s 2020 Eurovision representative, Athena Manoukian, hints at her intention to return to the preselection after missing her chance to compete in the contest that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Will luck be on her side this time to raise the Armenian flag in Basel?
Past Success and Future Hopes
As previously noted, Athena won the Armenian Eurovision preselection in 2020 with her song “Chains on You,” but she could not advance to the Eurovision stage due to the contest’s cancellation amid the pandemic, despite achieving significant success among the Armenian and European audiences.
Engagement and Speculation
In the last 24 hours, Athena shared posts on her Instagram account related to Eurovision, sparking excitement among her fans. In a notable story, Athena directly addressed her followers, asking:
“Friends, I still haven’t applied for the Armenian Eurovision preselection ‘Depi Evratesil’. Should I?”
This has led to speculation among her fans about her possible participation in the competition.
As reported, the Armenian national broadcaster has opened the song submission window until January 10th, giving the singer a finite amount of time to decide whether to participate in the Armenian preselection and embark on the journey to represent her country in Basel, Switzerland. According to the rules of the Armenian national broadcaster, songs in the preselection can be in any language, including Armenian and English, which has triggered a wave of responses online regarding the guesses about the nature of the song Athena might submit for the local Eurovision preselection.
This is the first time in 5 years that Armenia will return to selecting its Eurovision representative and song through a national selection. “Depi Evratesil” was previously used to choose Armenia’s entries in 2017, 2018, and 2020. Since withdrawing from the contest in 2021 and returning in 2022, Armenia has used internal selection to choose its Eurovision representative and song. Armenia was the last participating country of Eurovision 2024 to confirm its participation in Eurovision 2025.
With this confirmation, they also announced the return of the national selection as their method for choosing the upcoming entry in Basel. The revival of Armenia’s national selection is part of a trend of countries returning to national selections, including Greece, Poland, and Slovenia. As of now, further details about the competition format, voting method, or the date and location of the national final have not been released. It’s possible that the format will be similar to the 2020 national selection, which was the last time it was held (then conducted as a single show with voting equally split between a local jury, an international jury, and public voting).
Armenia in Eurovision 2024:
“Jako” was the song performed by the duo Ladaniva, representing Armenia at Eurovision 2024. The duo consists of Jaklin Baghdasaryan and Louis Thomas.
Armenia qualified for the final after placing third in the second semi-final with 137 points, and in the grand final, they reached eighth place with 183 points.
Source: Eurovisionfun.
Eurovision 2025: This will be Armenia’s 16th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Armenia joined the competition in 2006 and achieved its best result in Eurovision 2008 and Eurovision 2014 by finishing in Fourth place.
