The 1st Ever Ethiopian at The Eurovision Song Contest

And he is the third member of the band “”, representing Armenia in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with “Don’t Deny.” Born and raised in Ethiopia, he will represent the continent of Africa in the project.

Vahe Tilbian is an Armenian-Ethiopian artist with an enthusiastic and bright character. He has a unique style: from rock to techno, from reggae to R&B, from Armenian to Ethiopian, and all that mixed with a lot of Latin music. This blend of cultures expresses Vahe’s personality and makes him stand out as an exclusive artist and a passionate dancer.

Genealogy will be uniting the new generation of Armenians spread through 5 continents (Europe, Asia, America, Africa, and Australia) around the world in the year of 1915. The group consists of 6 artists with Armenian origin – 6 destinies with 1 story.

An Armenian Artist from Africa

While Vahe was born and raised in Ethiopia both his parents are of Armenian origin. Vahe heard the call of the stage as a singer only after he graduated from University of British Columbia in Vancouver. After working in the business sector for over three years as a young college graduate, Vahe left his job in 2008 and started working in music full

He joined the band Z Beyaynetus and soon, Kenny Allen, performer and producer from DC residing in Ethiopia, heard him at one of the local bars and asked to sing backing vocals for his album release show with the 251 Band. Shortly afterwards Vahe decided to diversify his genre and repertoire joining a salsa band called Eshee Havana and worked on original remixes of Ethiopian songs into salsa music. In 2011 he reached the final auditions of Big Brother Africa.

Vahe wrote the lyrics to his first song called Life Or Something Like It in 2010. This gave him the enthusiasm and courage to write more songs. In November 2012 Vahe released his first album titled Mixology. In May of 2013 Vahe released Yene Tizita, a new rendition of the an old Ethiopian style of song.

A graduate of the Vancouver University, Canada, Vahe began demonstrating a serious interest in music upon obtaining his bachelor’s degrees in biology. He commenced as a senior tenor in the choir “The Motley Singers”.

The young singer’s first song, “Life or Something Like it”, was released in 2010. In 2012, his single “Don’t Stop” won the third place in the Armenian Pulse Music Award.

Later the same year, he completed the disc “Mixology” which was released for free.

In 2013, the singer released the song Yene Tizita (Nostalgia or Memories), which was a reproduced version of an old Ethiopian prototype. Its director and producer are Aramazd Kalajian and Mulugeta Amaru.

For the past two years, Vahe has been the soloist of Zemen Band. He has collaborated with singers Zeritu Kebede and Michael Belayneh, and the Nubian Arc Band. The ethnic Armenian singer has also been a back vocalist and first concert performer for Abby Lakew, Nhatty, Tsedenya Gebremarkos, Eyob Mekonnen and Shewandagn Hailu. He has performed concerts with Oliver Mtukudzi and Vee and Liz Ogumbo during tours in Ethiopia.

Vahe has been a correspondent for the Ethiopia-based Zoma Magazine; he can freely expresses his thoughts in Armenian, English, Amharic, Italian and French.

The young singer now intends to release two more discs, of which one will be completely Armenian, while the other will feature the Ethiopian musical culture, at the same time presenting a mix of equivalent elements.

The Eurovision 2016 semifinals are due on May 19 and 21. The final concert will take place on May 23.

—Keeping Up With The Kardashians circa 1900! How Kim’s ancestors heeded prophet’s warning of looming slaughter to escape rural Armenia for a new life in the U.S.

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Europe Losing Its Vision

Ed’s note: The continental news Chanel,“Euronews” is broadcasting in 11 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Turkish and Persian. What have Arabic, Turkish and Persian to do with Europe? Why aren’t Hebrew and Greek included? you might ask, Greece is the cradle of Europe, and Israel is closer to Europe in many aspects than Turkey, Arabia or Iran. Well, may be there is some conspiracy against Greece and Israel? Europeans are getting tough and less friendly to these nations. According to the Book of Daniel those apostate western nations who betrayed Christianity will create a temporary alliance of convenience with the Muslim orient. These western nations are assisting Islamic movements in North Africa and the Middle East who are now grabbing power everywhere – these “democratic” nations fight alongside terrorist groups in Syria to topple a secular government while remaining silent when millions of Christians are persecuted and forced to leave their homelands – they are even willing to stage a music show in one of the most undemocratic, intolerant and despotic nations on the planet – Azerbaijan.

May these charming Orthodox grannies baptize the participants in the Holy Spirit, this Pentecost!

Europe’s version of ‘American Idol’ a joke

Normally, its viewers don’t associate “Eurovision” with global politics. The annual singing show is a camp retread of the cultural wasteland of the 1970s — all crashing ballads, gaudy europop and singing penguins. Britain has signaled its contempt for the contest by sending 76-year-old Engelbert Humperdinck as its representative, a man once regarded as a stud but who now looks eerily like one of those Mexican mummies. The crooner was born two decades before Eurovision even started, and it’s touch and go whether he’ll survive the weekend.

However, this year the contest, which holds its finals Saturday, has taken on an unexpected degree of controversy. It is being held in the oil-rich tyranny of Azerbaijan, and while contestants were warming up their acts this week, pro-democracy demonstrators were getting beaten in the streets of Baku. The annual singing contest draws an audience of 125 million across Europe, so the dictatorial regime of Ilham Aliyev had hoped to use it as an opportunity to sell his country to the world. Instead it has been a public relations disaster.

Explainer: What is Eurovision?

Arguably, the outrages in Azerbaijan have exposed a hidden dimension of Eurovision. It is and always has been a very political event. That’s more obvious this year than most because the politics of Europe are so blatantly and unavoidably polarized.

The most obvious problem is one of definition. What on Earth, you might ask, is a central Asian country like Azerbaijan doing in a contest called Eurovision? Nothing about contemporary Azerbaijan marks it out as distinctly European — it’s Islamic, undemocratic and many, many miles away from the continent.

It’s in the contest by an accident of history: Azerbaijan used to be part of the Soviet Union. Its leaders desperately wish to claim some European identity because they want to participate in capital and labor markets — something that should, theoretically, encourage democracy. But Ilham Aliyev also wants to retain the integrity of a classic Asian despotism. As the European Union engages farther eastward, through Turkey, it has to deal with nations and cultures like these that don’t precisely fit its Western, liberal template.

There are plenty of divides within continental Europe itself. Voting has always been political. Britain’s 1997 victory was widely interpreted as a “thumbs up” for having elected the popular liberal leader, Tony Blair; its defeat in 2003 was punishment for the Iraq War. Likewise, Eurovision has traditionally operated a buddy system. Nordic countries often vote for each other and Cyprus typically favors Greece. In a way, that’s a good thing, because it means that no matter how awful an entry is, someone is duty bound to vote for it. Britain has been bailed out by faithful little Malta several times.

Continue reading…

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Europe: Mad over Madcon

 

M adcon (Mad Conspiracy) is an Ethio-Norwegian Hip Hop duo formed in 1992 by Yosef Wolde-Mariam and Tshawe Baqwa.

They are well known from the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Interval Act, in which they performed their hit song “Glow” (The video). Madcon quickly established themselves in the Nordic music industry, and supports various international superstars like Destiny’s Child,50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Wu-Tang Clan, Xzibit, Saian Supa Crew, Clipse, Redman (rapper), and Busta Rhymes.

Madcon supported the latest official European tour with Gang Starr. breakthrough came with the hit single “Barcelona” in 2002 with long-time collaborators Paperboys (on the Bonnier Madcon published a cover version of a 1967 Four Seasons Song “Beggin'”, earning the group several # 1 chart positions in Europe (including France, Portugal, Norway and Russia), and a global position # 2 on the European Billboard Hot 100 chart. In addition, they achieved 9 x platinum in Norway, and were No. 1 on the official Norwegian sales charts for 12 weeks, making “Beggin'” one of the biggest hits of all time in Norway . They led the World Music Awards on November 10 2008, and won the World’s Best Selling Norwegian Artist Award. After several negotiations, Their third album, “Inconvenient Truth” was released all over Europe in early to mid-2009, and the group saw other major releases, including in USA, Japan and Australia. Their song “Glow”, was the background of the “Eurovision 2010 Flashmob dance” music video that aired in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Interval act.

In 2011, during the gala awards ESKA Music Awards 2011 in Poland, was awarded the International Band of the Year.

RESPECT!