This year the Armenian national broadcaster, Public Television of Armenia (AMPTV) has once again internally selected Armenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Armenia only confirmed its participation in ESC 2024 in December last year. This will be Armenia’s 16th time at the contest, its first entry being in 2006.
Armenia tends to announce its entry late in Eurovision season and this year was no exception. The duo Ladaniva was announced on 9 March 2024 and their song Jako was released on 13 March. The duo co-wrote the song with Audrey Leclercq.
Ladaniva was formed in 2019 as a result of the collaboration between the Armenian singer, Jaklin Baghdasaryan, and the French multi-instrumentalist Louis Thomas. In 2022 they won an emerging artist award – Music Moves Europe Award. Their music has a wide range of influences including Balkan music and Armenian folklore.
Both of these influences feature in ‘Jako’. This upbeat song tells the story of Jako, a young woman whose free spirit , love of dance and mischievous antics, win over members of her village who want her to ‘behave like a girl’. The official video entry has a Disney feel to it (not dissimilar to Encanto) portraying Jako living in a visually stunning village where cobbled streets, Armenian lace and carpets feature heavily. The video was filmed in Dilijan, a spa town in northern Armenia.
It will be interesting to see how Ladaniva take a truly captivating video performance to the Eurovision stage.
Armenia will be hoping to at least do as well as its 2023 entry, Future Lover by Brunette (which finished 14th in the Grand Final) and its 2022 entry, Snap by Rosa Linn, which went on to be a global hit with over 930 million streams.