Betty
Betty Armenia
  • Song

    “Arevi mardik“ (“People of the sun”)

  • Composer(s)

    Betty, Mane Hakobyan

  • Writer(s)

    Avet Barseghtan, Betty

Betty

The 12th annual Junior Eurovision song contest 2014 took place in Malta, for the first time. It was the third time when the contest was hosted by the previous year’s wining country, following Gaia Cauchi’s win with her song “The Start” in the 2013 Junior Eurovision in Kiev, Ukraine. A total of sixteen countries participated, with Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia making their debuts. The contestant that represented Armenia was Elizabeth Danielyan better known as Betty, with her song “People of the sun”.

Betty came up with the theme of the song by herself and wrote the music (lyrics by Avet Barseghtan and Mane Hakobyan, vocal coach Emma Asatryan). Betty first sang “People of the sun” at Armenia’s national selection for Junior Eurovision song contest 2014 on September 14. As a result of SMS and jury voting, Betty earned the right to represent Armenia at the 12th edition of the contest in Malta on November 15, leaving behind the other nine contestants. It was Armenia’s eighth entry in the contest.

Armenia was the 12th country to perform, after Italy and before Russia. Betty’s performance in Malta was very different from the national selection performance. On stage at Junior Eurovision 2014, she was joined by two dancers from a hip-hop dance group “Life” and three acrobats from the Circus School after Gevorg Ginosyan (choreographer Kristina Hovakimyan). It was in fact the most energetic performance of the night, despite Betty’s sickness. As she said during an interview, the song is about her friends, whom she calls “people of the sun” since they never fail to make her laugh. The requisite used on stage and the singer’s clothes were colored orange, symbolizing the sun.

When the voting was ended, Armenia finished at the third place, scoring 146 points. In fact, Betty was the one who got the most twelve points out of all the contestants. Armenia lost only one point to Krisia, Hasan & Ibrahim from Belarus and thirteen points to the winner of the contest Vincenzo Cantiello from Italy with his song “Tu primo grande amor”. This was Italy’s first victory in a Eurovision competition since 1990.