Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

The Armenian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was internally selected by the AMPTV. On 21 January 2013, the broadcaster indicated that an artist had been selected and that their name would be announced on 22 January 2013. On 22 January, Gor Sujyan was announced as the Armenian representative. Sujyan previously attempted to represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 as the lead singer of the band Dorians, placing fourth in the national final Evrotesil 2009 with the song "Fly". The broadcaster also announced that a national final would be held to select his song.[4]

Following their artist reveal, AMPTV announced a public call for song submissions with a deadline of 20 February 2013.[5] More than 70 songs were submitted by songwriters worldwide and a jury panel together with Gor Sujyan selected four songs to proceed to the national final, which took place on 2 March 2013 at the AMPTV studios in Yerevan, hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and Avet Barseghyan.[6] The show was broadcast on Armenia 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's website 1tv.am and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[7][8] All four competing songs were performed by Gor Sujyan and Dorians and the winning song, "Lonely Planet", was selected by the 50/50 combination of votes from a five-member professional jury and a public televote.[9] The jury consisted of Sergey Smbatyan (conductor and director of State Youth Orchestra of Armenia), Sona (singer), Erik Antaranyan (television host), Gevorg Hakobyan (opera singer) and Karen Kazaryan (producer).[10] In addition to the performances of the competing songs, the interval acts featured Armenian 2012 Junior Eurovision entrants Compass Band with "Sweetie Baby", Georgian 2013 Eurovision entrants Nodi Tatishvili and Sophie Gelovani with "Waterfall" and Maltese 2013 Eurovision entrant Gianluca Bezzina with "Tomorrow".

Following the Armenian national final, Gor Sujyan announced that he would perform at the Eurovision Song Contest as part of Dorians; the other members of the band also accompanied the singer during the national final.[11] The band later filmed the official video for "Lonely Planet", which was directed by Suren Tadevosyan and was released on 18 March 2013.[12][13]

Dorians during a rehearsal before the second semi-final

Dorians took part in technical rehearsals on 9 and 11 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 15 and 16 May. This included the jury show on 15 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

The Armenian performance featured the members of Dorians performing in a band set-up on stage. Gor Sujyan performed in jeans, white shirt and grey vest, while the other members were dressed in jeans outfits. The stage setting was predominately dark with moving spotlights being displayed directly towards the audience. The stage presentation also included pyrotechnic effects as well as the use of a wind machine throughout the performance.[16][17]

At the end of the show, Armenia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.[18] It was later revealed that Armenia placed seventh in the semi-final, receiving a total of 69 points.[19]

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Armenia was drawn to compete in the first half.[20] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Armenia was subsequently placed to perform in position 12, following the entry from Germany and before the entry from Netherlands.[20]

Dorians once again took part in dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Dorians performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 18 May. At the conclusion of the voting, Armenia finished in eighteenth place with 41 points.[21]

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Armenia had placed fifteenth with the public televote and nineteenth with the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Armenia received an average rank of 15.11, while with the jury vote, Armenia received an average rank of 14.44. In the second semi-final, Armenia placed eleventh with the public televote with an average rank of 9.44 and seventh with the jury vote with an average rank of 7.15.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Armenia and awarded by Armenia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Georgia in the semi-final and to Ukraine in the final of the contest.