Still one of the more recent countries to join the contest, Armenia enjoyed an extremely strong start to their ESC career, finishing in the top 10 on each of their first five appearances. However, things have since gone downhill: first there was Emmy’s non-qualification in Düsseldorf, then the country took a year off while the contest was hosted in Azerbaijan before returning last year with Dorians, who reached the final but ended up in a modest 18th place.

A stand-up comedian and television star with a strange artist name might not seem like the most obvious way to turn around the country’s fortunes, but it is Aram MP3 who will fly the Armenian flag in Copenhagen this May. To be fair, Aram – real surname Sargsyan – is also well-known as a singer in his own right, and the local TV station obviously believes in him, selecting him internally and not even insisting on the usual single-artist televised selection show.

The Armenian entry might be described as the worst-kept secret of the season. It became apparent that Not Alone would be Aram’s contribution to ESC 2014 when live performances of the song were repeatedly uploaded to YouTube and taken down again within hours. Shortly before the end of the submission period, the official video presentation finally confirmed the news that had been suspected all along – and the impact was instantaneous, with a hugely positive response from the Eurovision fan world quickly propelling Armenia to the top of the bookmakers’ lists, too.

This is something of a surprise, considering the song is anything but an obvious fan-pleaser. It’s extremely downbeat to the point of depressive (although the lyrics have the opposite message) and comes with an unusual structure – a quite insistent, repetitive ballad for the better part of two minutes, it then erupts into a climax driven by a dubstep beat.

My verdict is that this would be a hugely improbable ESC winner – but who knows? There’s no doubt that Not Alone is a strong and interesting song, and it should appeal to televoters and “professional” jury members in equal measure. And Aram’s live performances on YouTube certainly suggest a competent performer with an interesting voice who knows a thing or two about effective staging. It’s just such an unusual and difficult overall package that I can’t, in good faith, give it a green light for victory. Armenia’s return to the left-hand side of the scoreboard seems almost guaranteed, though!

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