Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country	Armenia
National selection
Selection process	Depi Evratesil 2018
Selection date(s)	Semi-finals: 19 February 2018 22 February 2018 Final: 25 February 2018
Selected entrant	Sevak Khanagyan
Selected song	"Qami"
Selected songwriter(s)	Sevak Khanagyan Anna Danielyan Viktorya Maloyan
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (15th)
Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2017 • 2018 • 2019►

Armenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Qami" written by Sevak Khanagyan, Anna Danielyan and Viktorya Maloyan. The song was performed by Sevak Khanagyan. The Armenian entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal was selected through the national final Depi Evratesil 2018, organised by the Armenian broadcaster Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV). The national final and consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. Ten entries competed in each semi-final with the top five from each semi-final qualifying to compete in the final on 25 February 2018. "Qami" performed by Sevak Khanagyan was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from an international jury and a public televote.

Armenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 8 May 2018. Performing during the show in position 16, "Qami" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Armenia placed fifteenth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 79 points.

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, Armenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eleven times since its first entry in 2006.^[1] Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 2008 with the song "Qélé, Qélé" performed by Sirusho and in 2014 with the song "Not Alone" performed by Aram Mp3. Armenia had, to this point, failed to qualify to the final on only one occasion in 2011. The nation briefly withdrew from the contest in 2012 due to long-standing tensions with then host country Azerbaijan.^[2] In 2017, "Fly with Me" performed by Artsvik placed eighteenth in the final.

The Armenian national broadcaster, Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV), broadcasts the event within Armenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. AMPTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 27 October 2017.^[3] Armenia has used various methods to select the Armenian entry in the past, such as a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However internal selections have also been held on occasion. Between 2014 and 2016, the broadcaster internally selected both the artist and the song. The broadcaster opted to organize a national final titled Depi Evratesil to select the Armenian performer for the 2017 contest, with the song being internally selected. However, AMPTV announced along with their participation confirmation that Depi Evratesil would once again be organized but would select both the artist and the song for the 2018 contest.^[4]

Before Eurovision

Depi Evratesil 2018

Depi Evratesil 2018 (Towards Eurovision 2018) was the second edition of the national final Depi Evratesil and selected the Armenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition commenced on 19 February 2018 with the first of two semi-finals and concluded with a winning song and artist during the final on 25 February 2018. All shows in the competition took place at the AMPTV studios in Yerevan, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and broadcast on Armenia 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's website 1tv.am.

Format

The national final took place over three stages and consisted of three shows. The first stage was a submission period where artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply by submitting their entries online. Twenty entries were selected to proceed to the second stage of the competition. The second stage consisted of the semi-finals which took place on 19 and 22 December 2018 with ten entries competing in each show. The top five from each semi-final proceeded to the third stage, the final which took place on 25 February 2018. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining ten entries. The results of each of the three shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from an international jury panel and a public vote. The public were able to cast their votes via SMS, and both the public and jury vote developed an overall ranking which were converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned to the competing entries.^[5]

Competing entries

On 27 October 2017, AMPTV announced an online submission period with a deadline of 15 December 2017. Artists were required to be aged at least 16 and are of Armenian citizenship or heritage, and were also required to submit a cover version of another song along with their entry submission. Songwriters worldwide were able to submit songs. The broadcaster received more than 100 entries at the closing of the deadline.^[6] A jury panel selected twenty entries to proceed to the national final, which were announced on 27 December 2017.^[7] Among the competing artists was Tamar Kaprelian who represented Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as part of the group Genealogy.^[8][9]

Shows

Semi-finals

Two semi-finals took place on 19 and 22 February 2018. In each semi-final ten entries competed and the top five qualified to the final by the 50/50 combination of votes from a six-member international jury and a public vote. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the interval acts featured Armenian 2017 Junior Eurovision entrant Misha with "Boomerang" in semi-final 1, and Syuzanna Melqonyan with "Euphoria", "Rise Like a Phoenix" and "1944" in semi-final 2.