If, like us, you had nothing better to do on a Sunday late afternoon and were slumped on your sofas watching Armenia's Depi Evratesil show, you may have been puzzled by a song that popped up towards the end of the show. What looked like a pile of grey washing began singing a cruise ship disco tune in a curiously strained voice about the wish to get married, before a chap in a posh suit and slick hair burst out of the heap and began an answer verse in a gruff baritone. Eh?
This continued to alternate for a while - each time the singer's voice changing any time the pompoms went anywhere near their head - until the tables were turned and it was now the chap that wanted to get wed, and the grey heap was off on his, her or their heels. It really was perplexing. We were expecting tumbleweed from the audience, but of course the rapturous canned applause made this sound like the most popular thing on earth since lawnmowers. But it got stranger. When the unnecessary co-host was doing the inevitable rounds of the green room, the performer of this curio spoke with the confidence of somebody that was used to this kind of attention, rather than the awkward mutterings of most of the other contestants. But then it dawned on us…
Kamil? Funny voice? Curious garb? Flipping heck, this was Depi alumnus Kamil Show, played by actor Arsen Grigoryan having something of a coming out moment! "Who?" the younger and less attentive of you might be asking? Well, the Kamil Show was an act who took part in the 2018 running of the show who had everyone in a flurry. A hugely popular local drag act, their song Puerto Rico was pretty terrible, with the character Kamil stomping around with red and green hair, not doing all that much bar shouting the occasional line of nonsense and laughing in a grating cackle. Of course, all the usual old grumblers were apoplectic with worry that this would be bagging the ticket to Lisbon. But in the end, Qami beat Puerto Rico onto fourth, and everybody outside of Armenia forgot all about Kamil Show, until it suddenly dawned on me that afternoon.
This continued to alternate for a while - each time the singer's voice changing any time the pompoms went anywhere near their head - until the tables were turned and it was now the chap that wanted to get wed, and the grey heap was off on his, her or their heels. It really was perplexing. We were expecting tumbleweed from the audience, but of course the rapturous canned applause made this sound like the most popular thing on earth since lawnmowers. But it got stranger. When the unnecessary co-host was doing the inevitable rounds of the green room, the performer of this curio spoke with the confidence of somebody that was used to this kind of attention, rather than the awkward mutterings of most of the other contestants. But then it dawned on us…
Kamil? Funny voice? Curious garb? Flipping heck, this was Depi alumnus Kamil Show, played by actor Arsen Grigoryan having something of a coming out moment! "Who?" the younger and less attentive of you might be asking? Well, the Kamil Show was an act who took part in the 2018 running of the show who had everyone in a flurry. A hugely popular local drag act, their song Puerto Rico was pretty terrible, with the character Kamil stomping around with red and green hair, not doing all that much bar shouting the occasional line of nonsense and laughing in a grating cackle. Of course, all the usual old grumblers were apoplectic with worry that this would be bagging the ticket to Lisbon. But in the end, Qami beat Puerto Rico onto fourth, and everybody outside of Armenia forgot all about Kamil Show, until it suddenly dawned on me that afternoon.
All this just goes to show, if something totally weird happens in a Eurovision selection show in a language you don't understand there's usually a reason for it. But not always.
Let's refresh your memories and see what you could have won back in the twentyteens...
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