Armenia deserved Grand Prix in Children’s New Wave – singer

The young Armenian singers participating in the Children’s New Wave 2012 song contest really deserved a Grand Prix, Nadezhda Sargsyan, a merited Armenian pop singer, has told reporters.

“There were several contests before the concert per se; they checked the participants’ literacy level at interviews,” said Sargsyan, who was the producer of this year’s young Armenian participants in the contest. “They say a participant has to be a professional artist; they say you are already artists if you are on stage,”

The annual song contest was held in Jurmala, Latvia, between August 13 and 16. The two Armenian participants, Sona Gyulkhasyan and Arina Malkhasyan, won the second and sixth places respectively.

Sargsyan believes the decision to award a second prize to an Armenian participant was politically motivated.

“The local press said the top winner had sung out of tune and nonetheless won the first prize. But Sona’s success pertains not only to us, but to the whole state,” she said.

As for the young singer, she considers the award a success despite the existing excitement that she didn’t bring the first prize.

“We did our best and have a success, but everything is still ahead,” Gyulkhasyan said.