ARMENIAN REPORTER
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March 3, 2007 — From the Arts & Culture section
All of the articles that appear below are exclusive to the Armenian Reporter
For images, of which there are plenty, visit
1. Anne Nahabedian is found on Lost
by Tamar Kevonian
2. The "Armenian Björk" & writing songs on the john
Poet, musician, artist, Karin Tatoyan sings about her emotions
by Paul Chaderjian
3. Bringing Armenian history to the screen
An interview with Roger Kupelian
4. Hayko chosen to represent Armenia at Eurovision 2007
by Betty Panossian-Ter Sargssian
And briefly–
5. Armenian punk band Ed releases self-titled album
6. Gor to release a new cd at a Barndall Park concert
7. When Mel Gibson celebrates, guess who plays for Hollywood elite
8. The Long Journey from the NFL to Armenia?.?.?. then Fresno
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1. Anne Nahabedian is found on Lost
by Tamar Kevonian
**
"I refuse to dye my hair. I’m Armenian and I’m beautiful. I’m
beautiful because I’m Armenian and the more I accept it the hotter I
become."
**
Yet another reason to watch Lost, the gripping series on abc, is the
debut of Canadian-Armenian actor Anne Nahabedian in the role of Amira.
Otherwise known as Anne Bedian, the 35 year old has appeared in
numerous television roles in the past few years. Most notable was her
role as Ru’yah "Rita" Fara on The Closer on tnt, starring Golden Globe
winner Kyra Sedgwick. Nahabedian is proud of the fact that Kevin
Bacon, who directed the episode, personally picked her for the role.
The actor in 1998 was cast in her first role because the director
"liked her shape." She has come a long way since then.
* A decorated veteran
Anne Nahabedian started her career in Montreal, where she was born and
raised. At seventeen she joined the Canadian Armed Forces and spent
three years in the Navy because she saw an infomercial one night and
everybody in it looked supportive. She was intrigued by it. "I was
pampered and couldn’t commit to anything. Kept losing part-time jobs
because I couldn’t wake up on time."
She became the second woman in Canada to pass the training and not
only was she one of the first 50 women to be placed on a warship but
also the youngest person on board HMCS Nipigon, the first combat-ready
warship to employ women. She was a steerer and specialized in
demolition, small arms, firefighting, drug busts, rescue at sea, and
chemical warfare. During her tour of duty she spent 180 days serving
in nato and received a distinguished medal as a result.
Upon leaving the military, she started attending Montreal’s Concordia
University, where she majored in accounting. She dropped out just shy
of completion when she started booking acting roles. "I always was
into acting but was forbidden to get into it." During a visit to
Universal Studios at the age of 12 she recalled specifically the
souvenir she most coveted: a mock magazine cover touting her as a
newly discovered actor.
* The Meisner system
After Montreal, she conquered Toronto, acquired an agent, and changed
her last name to Bedian. Then she moved to New York, where she studied
the Meisner system under Jacqueline McClintock and Ron Stetson. Ron
Meisner developed his technique while at the famed Neighborhood
Playhouse in New York City; he believed the actor must be doing
something real in the space so that the audience can, in turn,
experience real happenings. "It changed my acting and my life," claims
Nahabedian. The training was important for her to expand her natural
range. "You have to develop your instrument," she explains.
Los Angeles was the natural next step for her career. "As an actor
it’s scary, but as an Armenian it’s great," she proclaims. Living in
Little Armenia in the heart of Hollywood is a combination of the two
parts of her life: her acting and her ethnicity.
* A proud Armenian
"My favorite thing in L.A. is the Armenian thing. We’re doing
something here. We’re coming together here and degh me bidi hasnink
[we’re going to get somewhere]," enthuses the diminutive actor.
In her short year in town she has embedded herself into the community
life of her new hometown, participating in organizations like Pyunic,
a charitable organization that promotes the physical, social, and
psychological rehabilitation of the disabled in Armenia.
"I want to be involved and bring [Armenianness] with me as I rise,"
Nahabedian says proudly. "I refuse to dye my hair. I’m Armenian and
I’m beautiful. I’m beautiful because I’m Armenian and the more I
accept it the hotter I become and the less make-up I wear," she
continues.
Her pride is the reason she insisted on keeping the "ian" ending when
her agent recommended she change her name. She dropped the "Naha"
because her agent claimed it evoked a Middle Eastern sensibility while
Anne herself was had a wider acting range, an ability to play all
sorts of nationalities, and wanted to avoid her being typecast.
* Keeping things real
The actor enjoys the variety of roles she is offered and believes she
brings a depth and a voice to her characters. Her early roles involved
some nudity, which bothered her parents, but her agent no longer
allows her to do nudity. "I take what [my parents] say, but I know
what I’m doing," she stresses. "I used to be a huge prude, but when I
joined the military I had to let go of that." She explains she is
comfortable with nudity because she lost her inhibitions living on a
ship for three years with 250 men and only ten shower heads in the
women’s shower.
Her roles lean toward the serious. She occasionally wonders whether
she should have pursued the sitcom path to success. But she finds
drama much more rewarding. The audition for Lost was one of her most
grueling, and left everyone in the room in tears. Affecting an
audience, "that’s what I’m trained for," she says. She adds that they
wanted to extend the episode to 90 minutes so as not to edit any part
of her performance, but the show’s new time slots did not allow for
it.
Although she still does accounting for a living, acting is her focus.
But she realizes that 99 percent of the world is not into acting and
will always keep her hand in numbers just to keep things real.
Nahabedian’s appearance on The Closer and, now, Lost, indicates that
she is well on her way to making her mark in one of the most
challenging industries in the most competitive town in which it is
practiced’and she is that much closer to her ultimate goal: a golden
statuette at the Academy Awards.
***************************************** **********************************
2. The "Armenian Björk" & writing songs on the john
Poet, musician, artist, Karin Tatoyan sings about her emotions
by Paul Chaderjian
HOLLYWIERD, Calif. ` And a gray-haired Black man walking through the
patio of the Coffee Bean with a ghetto blaster on his right shoulder
grabs our attention. We all turn to look at the commotion. His stereo
is blaring an 80s pop tune from Madonna. The music is so loud, you
can’t hear yourself think. For a second, on this fifth day of 2007, we
all flash back to 1983.
"Holiday. Celebrate," echoes from the café at the corner of Sunset and
Vine. "If we took a holiday, took some time to celebrate. Just one day
out of life. It would be, it would be so nice."
Karin laughs. It’s a sweet laugh. Wise laugh. An insightful one.
"How did you find out about me," she asks me, the interviewee
interviewing the interviewer.
Oh, excuse me, dear Reporter readers. Let me introduce you to Karin
Tatoyan. Singer. Poetess. Musician. Performer. Artist. Armenian.
That’s why you’re reading this ` to find out about her.
First, I have to tell her my story.
I found her searching for apartments on Craig’s List, which is pretty
much the classified section from your local paper on the Internet. A
landlord advertising a one-bedroom had written that the neighbors in
his building were very nice people ` Armenians and Iranians.
The reference to "Armenian" in the ad made me want to know what other
"Armenian" mentions there were on Craig’s List. (Yes, it’s an illness
I suffer from as well. We used to look at movie credits for our
surnames; now we use search engines.)
The first hit mentioning the keyword "Armenian" on Craig’s List was a
hospice looking for an Armenian-speaking employee. Let’s not go there
(literally and figuratively). The second hit was Karin Tatoyan looking
for a drummer.
"Armenian artist," said the body of the want ad, and it led the reader
to her web page. There, four original songs play at the press of a
space bar, and the listener can’t help but wonder who this person is.
Who is this self-described enigma of a person and artist?
Karin was born in Alabama. Her parents were from Damascus and Aleppo.
The couple and their three daughters lived in Alabama and then
Indiana, while her father trained and practiced medicine. Dr. Krikor
Tatoyan, who is still practicing, is also a popular medical talk show
host on Horizon TV in Southern California. His show is a sensation,
but that and how the couple had a fourth daughter after their move out
West is a whole other story.
So, Karin lives in Indiana for the first decade of her life. "I still
feel a total connection to it. I’m still an Indiana girl at heart,
running in the woods, cornfields. That’s how I grew up. I didn’t grow
up in the Armenian community. Dad did his residency in New York,
Baltimore, Indiana, and he moved here to L.A., because he wanted us to
be with other Armenians."
What else would parents from Syria want? While they pursued their
studies and professions in the U.S., they would take their daughters
to Syria each summer. "We’d go for three months and spend time in the
city and at my family’s hotel and restaurant called Jebel Ahrbyn,
which was in the mountains."
This young family, nurturing its children in the Middle East and the
U.S., came from a history of music and theatre. Karin’s grandfather
Bedros Knadjian was an actor and singer. Karin’s great, great
grandfather Apkar was a talented puppeteer.
The muses that visited them have also been visiting Karin and her
older sister Sona, who is an actress and film producer. Sona will be
starring and producing "Celestina," which was written by
Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jose Rivera (Motorcycle Diaries, Jungle
Book, Diff’rent Strokes). Oh, yeah, Sona is married to Jose, but
that’s yet another story. First, dear reader, we move forward with
Karin. She says she’s very proud of her sister and considers her a
role model.
"We came out to L.A., and I went to Armenian school for two years,"
says Karin. "I have to say when I got here, it was very difficult. I
was a real 10-year-old. I was a tomboy, and I came out here, and it
was a real different world. [The Armenian kids] were so mean. They
were so snobby. It was all about the money in L.A. None of the kids
spoke Armenian. Here I was, oh my God, surprised that there were all
these other Armenians. The only other Armenians I knew were from Haleb
(Aleppo). I couldn’t imagine the Armenian-ness of those two worlds
were so very different. It was just very hard for me. It was
difficult."
The Alienation. Displacement. The stark contrasts between the values
of Armenians in Syria and the affluent and pampered children of
nuevo-riche Southern California Armenian suburbanites began to fuel
the hurricanes inside the young Karin that would later show their
might in the lyrics she would write and the music she would perform.
"I grew up with my dad and mom telling me that I could do anything,
you’re going to do everything, you’re a woman and you’re equal," says
Karin. Strengthened by her family’s belief in her, and being told by
elementary school teachers that she was good at singing, Karin agreed
to perform in musical theater and studied the piano as did her
sisters. Confidence, intelligence and talent gave her a strong sense
of self early on in life.
"So, I was always very opinionated and outspoken," she says. "When
people were putting others down and used derogatory terms, I was
standing up for them. People here just didn’t get that, so I became
sort of like an outcast. I left Armenian school after two years and
went to a private American school."
At Campbell Hall, the private Episcopal college preparatory day school
she attended, Karin realized how much she enjoyed singing. She was
involved in all of the musicals, but didn’t like to put up with the
infantile politics of high school. She would spend hours playing the
piano and writing songs, even though she played doctor with her
friends and wanted to be a doctor like her father when she grew up.
"This sounds so cliché," she says, "but I was singing to a bunch of
stuffed animals in my room. I had a baseball bat in my hand,
pretending it was guitar, listening to Ani DeFranco and pretending
like I was her and I was in front of people. At this point, I knew I
loved singing and realized that this is all I want to do with my
life."
At 15, Karin picked up the guitar and taught herself how to play like
her dad had taught himself. She says she didn’t take lessons and that
has helped her develop her own style. She did, however, take classical
piano lessons, learned how to play notes but hated to sit and practice
for hours each day.
After high school, Karin attended the private women’s liberal arts
college called Mills College in northern California. "Because my
family and I were so tight," she says, "because my sisters are my
best friends, I just couldn’t be away from them." So Karin moved back
and enrolled at California State University, Northridge. She’s
studying sociology there and will be graduating this year. She says he
wanted to study sociology because she already knew music would be her
career and bliss.
Karin says she began composing music when she was 13, but she didn’t
put lyrics to her music until she was around 18. "First I tried to put
poetry to my music," she says, "but it was sort of an inorganic
process. Now, I think I just make the music and come up with the
lyrics as I go along. It’s been an interesting push and pull process
with me not knowing what to do first, but now it’s really easy."
That easiness of how songs are born demonstrates itself when Karin
writes a song in 20 minutes. She says this song was about a
relationship that had ended and that her lyrics are generally about
human relationships and emotions. She has more than 30 original
compositions and spends a lot of time writing, rewriting, recomposing,
and reworking a song until she feels it’s perfect.
"Whether they are love relationships, family relationships, or
friendships, I’m just an emotional being," says Karin. "My music is an
extension of all the things I can never say or explain. I absorb what
the hell is around me, and I write about it. Some people write about
politics. That’s what’s really, really important to them. In my life,
I go through the world as an emotional thing, and I write about my
emotions, not necessarily my relationships, but whatever is important
to me at the time."
Karin. An acoustic guitar. Maybe an electronic keyboard. And now a
piano and her voice. Raw emotions and talent on stage. Over the past
year, she has performed "a million" shows, she says. The number is
more realistically between 40 and 50 at such Hollywood hotspots as
Ghengis Cohen. She has mesmerized her audiences, and her myspace page
has played her songs more than 30,000 times to fans who can’t get
enough of her original sound and lyrics.
Enter Joshua Fisher. He’s  – Karin’s new manager and A&R developer. I
didn’t know either, but A&R are the initials for artist and
repertoire. In the music industry, A&R help develop talent, find
artists a record label, and set them up with producers or other
musicians. Fisher says A&R developers generally work for record labels
and develop artists into what the artists need to be in order to get
their records out.
Why Karin? I ask him. Why did he pick her? "Karin is my first artist,"
he says, "and kind of the reason I’m doing this now. I’ve always
worked with music on some level. I just didn’t know what I wanted to
do. I’m not a musician myself, unfortunately, or I would be in a band
trying to make it like she is."
Fisher heard Karin for the first time 18 months ago when she was
performing at the Ghengis Cohen. "A friend of mine took me to see her,
and I had no idea who she was. I had no idea what to expect. But as
soon as we walked in there, I saw this beautiful girl on the stage,
but the passion that she had when she was singing her songs was
unbelievable. I looked around the room as she was singing, and you
could just see it on everybody’s faces. They were so into what she was
doing. It was almost as if she had hypnotized them. They were
captivated."
Her fans call her the Armenian Björk. She is compared to Ani DeFranco
and Tori Amos. But how would she describe her sound, I ask her. "I was
just thinking about this question," she says, "because I knew you were
going to ask me, and I was not going to know what to say, and I was
going to freak out."
Fisher interjects. "Her music is more like this unique sound that’s
not like anyone else’s," he says. "It’s different, and I think that is
what’s important. She definitely has people that have influenced her.
You can kind of tell that she might listen to Björk a lot, but her
music is so different."
"For me," continues Karin, "it’s always been that I have to be
different. I have to be different. But it’s just like when you are
different, you are different. I get positive comments from people who
listen to rap music and make rap music. People who like my music are
people who listen to something different than what I do, but they like
my music too. They say, I wasn’t going to listen, and I listened, and
you have so much emotion. It’s all about the emotion. I feel like I
write about things, and I put into words what people have thought and
felt but didn’t know how to express."
Since connecting with Fisher, Karin’s songs have been regularly
featured on 103.1 FM in Los Angeles. The station bills itself for
playing independent music, and the more requests the station has for
Karin’s songs, the more airplay they’re receive. Karin has also
appeared on Serj Tankian’s "Axis of Justice" radio program on Southern
California’s KPFK Radio.
Fisher and Karin have been working on her first album. Karin had an
option to lend her voice to a major music label, but they would choose
her songs and make her sing pop tunes. This would not be a good option
for someone who’s got things to say. So Karin has signed a record deal
with  – StereoType Records. The company approached Karin and said they
would distribute her new album digitally.
"This label is only a stepping stone," says Karin. "They’re a very
small label, but they’re going to help make my music more available
and get the word out. Hopefully, within the year, I’ll have other
labels at my door wanting to sign me, and I’ll keep moving up the
ladder. I also have a new addition to my live show. His name is Thomas
Greene. He’s going to be playing drums and electronics up on stage
supporting my music. He’s sort of a mad scientist."
Fisher also plans to distribute Karin’s first album through an
organization called the Indie Alliance. The group represents some
50`60,000 independent music stores, and if the Alliance likes a
musician’s album, they make the CDs available across the nation.
Dear Reader, I guess the Craig’s List ad worked for Karin. She has a
drummer and a manager, and you can listen to her songs online at
; – karintatoyan and write her. In five to ten years,
 – Karin hopes that she can be an artist about whom Armenians in the
community can say, "Here’s a woman who’s doing something artistic,
powerful, and strong, and she is just like us, one of us, an Armenian,
we are proud of her."
** ver-cha-bess
spectacular event of laughing,
you are surprised,
you can’t believe it.
you are the father,
you are the mother,
you are the author of
a particular event
marking
the absence of you crying
oh what a day
to celebrate
you don’t find many
patience is running out
is slipping out
from under your feet
‘Karin Tatoyan
** Stomach
You’re the axe that broke the frozen sea in me
Epic if not for you, it was for me
Time will tell a story of its own
if i had my way i’d have my day
on repeat and rewalk that cobblestone
My stomach got smaller, your eyes got bigger
i’m trying to cut the bullshit but i haven’t the right scissors,
And so, i blow, my nose, out of proportion
And i stand back, where i’m held back, watch the noise rush to my face
You’re so perfect, yes you are
You’re so pretty yes you are
I’ve let all this go to far
So i keep on talking to drown out the voices
Simply put i’m hiding, my tongues a contradiction
so i better put it in writing and keep on writing
And so, i blow, my nose, out of proportion
I stand back, where i’m held back, watch the noise rush to my face
I see your lips moving saying things to me me me
describing a life that will never be be be
You’re the axe that broke right through my chest
Tore between my hearts life vest
I’m trying to stay afloat amongst the crashing waves of our love’s mess
Here are my guts right here i spilled for you
so you could see, what it took for you
Here is my skin i peeled off for you, the muscles i built into
to have the strength to say, this is my goodbye to you
If i could i would but this is the best i could do
‘Karin Tatoyan
***************************************** **********************************
3. Bringing Armenian history to the screen
An interview with Roger Kupelian
HOLLYWOOD, Calif ‘ Among the Armenians celebrating Oscar honors this
year: Denise Chamian, for casting Pursuit of Happyness and Roger
Kupelian for his work as lead matte painter for Letters from Iwo Jima.
Kupelian’s résumé includes work as a director of music videos, a
documentary filmmaker, and design and paint positions on high-profile
productions including the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Spirits
Within, Mission to Mars, The Truman Show, Hard Rain, Six Feet Under,
Devil’s Advocate, and Inspector Gadget. The Armenian Reporter asked
Kupelian about his work on the Oscar-nominated film and his career.
Kupelian: I spent about a year working on Flags of Our Fathers, the
companion piece (also nominated for a couple of Oscars). A lot of the
production design and research done for Flags ended up in Letters. I
moved on to other projects right as Letters started, owing to the fact
that Letters needed a lot less in terms of visual effects. A lot of
the work involved researching and recreating digital backgrounds to
the action. There was a lot of design work as well, taking historic
photographs and making them fit the action, and this visual style was
applied to both projects.
AR: How long did the process take?
Kupelian: Flags took a year. It was a project I was really excited
about, to the point where I took the James Bradley`Ron Powers book on
my honeymoon. It’s a wonder my wife is still married to me, God bless
her. Recently, my four immediate supervisors were nominated for a
Visual Effects Society award for the work on Flags.
AR: Is this your first Oscar-nominated film?
Kupelian: No. Not the first time.
AR: What were the other Oscar-nominated films you worked on?
Kupelian: Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy would be
first. We were watching in New Zealand when the first film won and the
room went crazy. It was as if a small nation, New Zealand, itself,
came into the cinematic forefront with that Oscar. Armenia has never
produced a film that has made it to the Oscars, despite producing
artisans that are Oscar-worthy. Most of our best work is usually done
as diasporans, an example being Egoyan. Early in 2004 I collaborated
with Vigen Chaldranian on his Priestess project with some costume and
production design. [See the Feb. 3 issue of the Reporter for a
review.] Vigen is one of the first to really try and depict our
ancient heritage with his own artistic vision, as borne out by his
recent release.
AR: Tell our readers about your documentary on the Karabakh liberation war?
Kupelian: It was in May 1994, right out of college. I sold my
film-school equipment and went to Armenia during the
Armenian-Azerbaijani war in Karabakh. I spent most of my time with the
partisans to the north, in the Shahumian region. When there was a lull
in the fighting, I had a chance to really get into the lives of these
people. It was an outsider’s point of view; even though I spoke a
similar language, my cultural experience had been very different. I
named the documentary Dark Forest in the Mountains, a loose
translation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
AR: How much time did you spend in Karabakh?
Kupelian: Close to a couple of months in the region. Dark Forest,
however, took 10 years to really complete. First, I edited what I had
a few times, trying to find the real narrative of the experience.
Then, realizing that most people usually have no idea what an Armenian
is, let alone the Karabakh conflict, I created an animated history
sequence from the inception of our nation millennia ago to the present
day.
In 2004 I went back and reshot interviews with the same people I had
met on the front lines ten years ago. Sevag Vrej, a filmmaker who had
worked a lot with System of A Down, came on board and we finished
Hands and a Homeland. The two films, like Clint Eastwood’s Flags and
Letters, are companion pieces. They were just released on DVD
together, along with the animated sequence, stills, and special
features, available on
AR: What are some of your present and future projects?
Kupelian: The life and impact of Vartan Mamigonian has been felt very
strongly not only in Armenian culture, but regionally as well. In
fact, it can be argued that the sacrifices that forced Sassanian
Persia to grant Armenian Christians freedom of religion had an impact
on medieval history itself.
However, in a world that has seen films like Braveheart and Gladiator,
and the immensely popular HBO series Rome, no one has been able to
bring Vartan to either television or film. There have been a number of
false starts, to the point where Mel Gibson was rumored to be
interested.
Armenian history, for many within and without our culture group, seems
to have started in 1915, not thousands of years before. Little has
been done by way of popular media to educate the world at large of our
rich cultural heritage, and its contribution to the world we live in
today (especially in a way that keeps their attention).
We were successful with Dark Forest in the Mountains in that regard,
but Karabakh is seen as a current political issue, which hampers wider
distribution. Our Vartanantz miniseries project is very different, in
that it is historic and visual but very much about storytelling and
art as opposed to politics. It does not exclude any one cultural
organization or party due to political bent. This is about all of us,
and in fact goes beyond the Armenian culture, really. Vartan is our
own St. George, our own Braveheart, and we can share him with the
world.
My company, Fugitive Studios, was founded primarily to achieve that
goal. We’ve been earning our wings on creative services for outside
Hollywood clients, while moving forward on the first steps of the
project. Our approach has first been to educate the non-Armenian world
about our warrior-saint through a docudrama miniseries, created toward
broadcast on the the History Channel and similar venues. We are using
our expertise in visual effects to recreate the ancient worlds of
Armenia, Rome, and Persia. Eventually that approach will pave the way
for a cinematic epic, where you get some A-listers attached. But it
has to be one solid step at a time.
Right now, our bites begin on a grassroots level, and we’ve moved
forward with a few ways for people to get involved.
We unveiled our miniseries project on the Armenian Heritage cruise
earlier this year, and the support was amazing. We really have a
community that, for the most part, wants to "support our troops." In
order to help them do that, we’ve offered a limited edition oil-print
of one of the striking images from the upcoming miniseries. It is
called "451 AD" and depicts Vartan Mamigonian in his magnificently
defiant last stand. Only 451 of them will be made. Also, any sales
from our DVD release of Dark Forest goes toward the project.
In the end, Armenians are an army of volunteers.
************************************* **************************************
4. Hayko chosen to represent Armenia at Eurovision 2007
A monthlong search for a face and sound to represent Armenia at the
Eurovision 2007 contest, to be held in Helisnki this May, ended on
February 25 with a well-staged victory for Hayko, the choice of
Armenian music industry leaders and the audience alike. Hayko won
Armenia’s slot with "Anytime You Need," Betty Panossian-Ter Sargssian
reports.
YEREVAN ` It was a three-day music show that made the most famous
artists of the Armenian music scene tremble with high expectations and
the fear of disappointment. For this year even the shiniest stars had
to compete neck and neck with teenage starlets to win the right of
representing Armenia at the finals of the Eurovision 2007 song contest
to be held in Helsinki this May.
The consecutive live music shows staged by Armenia’s Public Television
were crowned by the victory of Hayko, the man of last year’s Armenian
music scene, and his ballad "Anytime You Need." And a red carpet to
the limelight of Eurovision will surely secure the star’s status as
one of the leading names of the Armenian music world. Only seconds
before the winner was announced, at the conclusion of the final show
held on February 25, Hayko’s hands were trembling and his Adam’s apple
was visibly bobbing.
And it was a double win. Prior to the announcement of the jury’s
choice, Hayko got the backup of the viewer’s votes, which tactfully
justified the jury’s decision.
Hayko was the Best Male Singer of 2003 and 2006 at the Armenian
National Music Awards; in the fall of 2006 he was awarded the title
Honored Artist of Armenia. For the past ten years he has planted his
feet firmly on the Armenian stage, and his presence at this contest
next to new names and singers mostly second to his fame and status was
a little odd. "It didn’t feel strange, as it was a tough competition,
since all of the participants revealed strong performances and
deserved to be on that stage. It is always said that the same old
faces and names are highlighted. This was a new chance for all of us
to explore fresh breath, new voices, and competing with them was a
true challenge for me", Hayko told the Armenian Reporter minutes after
the announcement of his victory.
New faces indeed, but for the second year in a row, Armenians will
cheer a very familiar face on May 12. Hayko’s victory wasn’t a
bombshell even to the artist himself. "I cannot say that it came as a
big surprise. But I had taken this contest very seriously and had
asked the producers to consider me a participant equal to all the
others."
Seven artists performed seven songs at the finals of the
Eurovision-Armenia 2007 contest. Among the finalists were Armenians
from Russia and Germany hoping to win the honor of presenting Armenia
to the world.
The runners up were Emmy, another Armenian pop star, who shared the
Best Female Singer 2006 at Armenian National Music Awards, and Meri
Voskanyan, from Germany. The latter won the second largest number of
audience votes with her "Carry Me In."
The event was the first time the Armenian representative was chosen in
an open competition. Last year’s nominee, André, was appointed to
represent Armenia for its debut at Eurovision. Armenia was the first
Transcaucasian country to take part in the highly prestigious European
competition.
André, with his song "Without Your Love," was the public’s favorite in
both Armenia and the diaspora; he managed to land in eighth place in
the finals of Eurovision 2006 at Athens. Since he was in the top 10,
Armenia’s 2007 choice goes straight to the finals.
In Helsinki Hayko will compete with another 24 participants. In
addition to last year’s top 10, four countries, the United Kingdom,
France, Germany, and Spain, automatically qualify for the final as the
biggest financial contributors to Eurovision. The top 10 countries of
the semifinals round out the list.
The 20 songs in Armenia’s national selection this weekend were mostly
in English, although there were three completely Armenian and two
bilingual, English-Armenian songs. During the two-day semifinals
(February 23 and 24), the jury selected five songs and another two
were chosen by text messaging or SMS voting. In both the semifinals
and the finals, Hayko was also the viewers’ favorite. "I am really
happy that [at the finals] I received the viewers’ vote. It makes me
feel more confident, validates the jury’s choice, and proves that the
public has faith in me", said Hayko, adding that his victory wouldn’t
mean so much to him if he hadn’t been found worthy of the audience’s
trust.
"Anytime You Need," the song that Hayko will perform on the Eurovision
stage, is a sweet little love song written and composed by Hayko and
Karen Kavaleryan. It appears on the singer’s latest CD, Don’t Be
Afraid, the soundtrack of an upcoming television series of the same
name. "With this song I am true to my style. I didn’t try to change my
image," Hayko said.
A love ballad with a slow rhythm, "Anytime You Need" should be easily
grasped by the European audience. At the same time, the song also
tries to introduce some characters of Armenian music to the European
audience. The melancholy melodies of Armenia’s famous and beloved
tutug (duduk) accompany Hayko’s sweet tenor.
The Eurovision contest is also a big show and an opportunity for an
Armenian artist to stage a great performance with effects. At both the
semi – finals and the finals of Armenian Public Television’s Eurovision
contest, three ballerinas from the Armenian National Opera and Ballet
Theater danced to the tune of "Anytime You Need." Asked about his show
in Helsinki, Hayko didn’t want to reveal much. "At Eurovision my
performance and the show will be totally different from this contest,
something much bigger."
According to Hrach Keshishyan, Public Television’s producer for the
Armenian contest, the fate of the clip and show is yet uncertain, as
Hayko has his own producers and surely they will want to have their
own input in this whole matter. "But Public Television is ready to
cooperate."
For any Armenian singer the Euro – vision contest is certainly a big
step toward a European audience, and Hayko is well aware of this.
"Eurovision not only gives me a new arena for testing my powers, it is
also a good opportunity for establishing new ties. I think the whole
experience will be very interesting," the artist says.
And what are Hayko’s expectations? "I want very much to be the winner,
but we are going there to have fun, too."
Armenia was a first timer last year, and there were some missteps.
During the show the microphone got stuck between André’s lips,
creating the false impression that he had forgotten the lyrics. And
from that unfortunate moment on, André was a bit shorter in his
otherwise very confident performance. Hayko was part of the team
accompanying André to Athens. "Last year we all were very tense. Now
that we have a successful history in Eurovision, I feel more relaxed."
Public Television also had a lesson or two to learn from last year’s
experience. For one, the selected song doesn’t allow jerky movements
on the stage, and Hayko certainly isn’t the man for that type of a
show. "By establishing ties with our European counterparts and through
sharing our experiences we have enriched our own skills in TV show
producing", Hrach Keshishyan told the Armenian Reporter.
In May 2006 the Finnish monster band Lordi was the surprise winner of
Eurovision. On May 12, 2007, Europe will vote for the new face of
Eurovision from a record-breaking number of 42 participant countries.
Armenia, with the backup of European countries with large Armenian
communities, has a good chance of being the winner and the host
country of Eurovision 2008.
"I call Armenians in the diaspora to be very active on May 12 and to
be by my side," says Hayko.
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And briefly
5. Armenian punk band Ed releases self-titled album
Dropping into cyberspace this week is the first full-length punk rock
album from a band of four Armenian rockers from Southern California.
The young’uns range in age from 17 to 20 and call themselves Ed, in
honor of the band’s former drummer who’s no longer part of the band’s
success formula.
That success formula is all about the love of music, having fun, and
performing. The four friends have been rockin’ together for the past
two years. What was at first a bunch of friends jamming turned into a
band that has already composed more than thirty songs, played dozens
of gigs, and is hoping the best is yet to come.
The best so far is that Ed’s gigs are always packed with fans ranging
in age from high school to college. The group has a huge following and
has already toured with the established Alien Ant Farm last year. Ed
is even shooting a new music video for its single "Providencia."
Ed will be playing at the famous Knitting Factory on March 17, and
Rodney on the "Roq" of the world-famous 106.7 FM KROQ will featuring
the band on his show. And if that was not enough of a success story,
managing Ed is none other than Serj Tankian’s brother Sevag from
Serjical Strike Records.
Ed’s 17-year-old drummer, Chris Daniel, says their success has
surprised many including his mother, who is confused by their music
and overwhelmed by their career. However overwhelmed and confused they
may be, Daniel’s parents still support him and the band. Daniel’s
father is the one who slipped the band’s new CD into the hands of KROQ
DJ Rodney.
"We really have a unique sound," says Daniel. "It’s punk. It’s kinda
heavy. Intolerable. It’s about fun times. It’s about girls. Some
politics. It’s about chaos (like setting off firecrackers in Downtown
Burbank). We were influenced by System of a Down and other bands that
have made it. I guess our music is upbeat. We hardly have any slow
songs. There’s more push and drive to it."
Daniel says his classmates from Holy Martyrs Ferrahian High School in
Encino show up to party with the band, as do classmates from the older
band members who study at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
In addition to Daniel, Ed includes Alex Khatcherian as vocalist and
guitarist. Shant Bismejian is the lead guitarist, and Shant Mastikian
plays the bass.
connect:
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6. Gor to release a new cd at a Barndall Park concert
Folk singer Gor Mkhitarian will be releasing his new album at a CD
release concert on Saturday, April 7 at 8 p.m. at the Barnsdall
Gallery in Los Angeles. Gor promises a new acoustic folk album with
fresh and innovative arrangements of popular Armenian folk songs. He
says the new album is acoustic, guitar-driven, and includes rearranged
songs like "Gakavik," "Sarer," "Shogher Jan," "Artsiv," and many other
favorites.
connect:
[email protected] ,
* * *
7. When Mel Gibson celebrates, guess who plays for Hollywood elite
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences will have handed out
its 79th annual Oscars by the time this paper reaches the printers.
But regardless of who wins or loses, an Oscar nomination counts for a
lot. One film crew celebrating, even before the Oscar show, was Mel
Gibson’s Apocalypto team.
Apocalypto received nominations for best makeup, best sound, and best
sound editing, and those who shared the nomination gathered in Beverly
Hills to celebrate. On tap as entertainment for Hollywood insiders for
whom sound matters was none other than the Armenian and world-music
band Element.
"This feels awesome," says Ara Dabanjian, the musical genius behind
Element. "This was an unexpected and spontaneous invitation, and I’m
very happy to be playing here. This fits into our goal of exposing our
original songs, as well as Armenian music to non-Armenians who
appreciate it."
Vocalist Soseh Keshishian says she always knew that she would be
performing at an Oscars party, but she didn’t know it would be this
soon. "It’s nerve racking," she says, "but it’s also exciting. I love
performing, and to be able to perform in front of industry people
makes it even more fun."
Dabanjian says what’s been most interesting for him is seeing young
Armenians appreciate the band. "It was was a big surprise for me to
see Armenian kids, high school kids get into our music," he says. "I
knew in my bones that the older generation would like it, because
these are familiar songs. But it hadn’t crossed my mind that younger
folks would like it as well."
Not only younger Armenians, but Element has apparently turned on
big-time filmmakers who like to have the band’s unique blend of
Armenian and world music genres as part of their once-in-a-lifetime
celebrations.
connect:
www.ele mentband.com
* * *
8. The Long Journey from the NFL to Armenia?.?.?. then Fresno
One of the films featured at the 8th annual Armenian Film Festival at
Fresno State last week was The Long Journey from the NFL to Armenia.
The film was shot in Armenia by producer Peter Musurlian. The
documentary chronicles the journey made by NFL footballer Rien Long,
his mother, and his grandmother.
The Armenian Students’ Organization and the Armenian Studies Program
of California State University, Fresno, sponsor this annual film
festival. The program allows talented up-and-coming and professional
filmmakers to share their work with new audiences.
The 8th annual festival also featured Dorothee Forma’s The Story of My
Name: An Armenian Tale. Forma, who is well known for her documentary,
A Wall of Silence, tells the story of Alex Luijten from the
Netherlands. After discovering his biological father is Armenian,
Luijten changes his surname to his father’s and explores his father’s
story.
connect: , www.
armenianstudies.csufresno.edu
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