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Armenia withdraws from Eurovision

By | Published on Monday 8 March 2021

Eurovision Song Contest

Armenia has withdrawn from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. National broadcaster AMPTV was somewhat vague about the reasons for the decision, although did blame a “shortness of production time” among other things.

In a statement, AMPTV said: “After careful and detailed discussions, the public television company of Armenia has decided to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, considering the latest events, the shortness of production time, as well as other objective reasons that make the proper participation of Armenia at ESC 2021 impossible”.

Those “latest events” may be partly pandemic-related, although likely reference the ongoing fallout from last year’s military conflict with neighbouring Azerbaijan.

“The [European Broadcasting Union] community is deeply sorry that AMPTV has decided to withdraw from participating in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest”, says Eurovision Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl. “Armenia have a great record at the Eurovision Song Contest and always bring excitement and quality performances to the stage. We understand the reasons for their withdrawal and we will miss their hard working and professional delegation in Rotterdam. We very much hope to welcome Armenia back in 2022”.

Armenia first took part in the contest in 2006. In 2012, it withdrew from the event due to security concerns. The country also failed to qualify for the semi-finals in 2011, 2018 and 2019, while last year’s contest, of course, was cancelled due to COVID-19. However, Armenia has finished in the top ten in seven of the ten years where it has reached the grand final.

Azerbaijan – which won in 2011, and hosted the 2012 competition from which Armenia withdrew – has also yet to put forward a song for this year. In March last year, its national broadcaster Ictimai TV said that Efendi, who had been due to sing the country’s 2020 entry, would represent it in 2021. The titles of six possible songs were announced last month, with the final selection for Azerbaijan’s entry set to be announced this month.



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