Iveta Mukuchyan

Biography

Iveta Roberti Mukuchyan (Armenian: Իվետա Ռոբերտի Մուկուչյան, pronounced [ivɛˈtɑ mukuˈtʃʰjɑn]; born 14 October 1986) is an Armenian singer. Born in Yerevan, she moved to Hamburg, Germany, in 1992. Mukuchyan returned to Armenia in 2009 and placed fifth in the fourth season of the talent competition Hay Superstar. During this time, she received vocal training at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory. Mukuchyan also participated for season two of The Voice of Germany in 2012. She represented Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "LoveWave", finishing seventh in the final. Mukuchyan made her acting debut in the comedy movie Run Away Or Get Married that year, and released her debut extended play, IvaVerse. In autumn 2016, Mukuchyan was a jury member on the first season of Depi Evratesil, a television series selecting the Armenian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Mukuchyan and Aram Mp3 released "Dashterov", which won a Song of the Year Award, in 2017. The song preceded a collaborative project of the same name, which received the Collaboration of the Year award at the Armenian Europe Music Awards. Mukuchyan released Armenian Folk, a solo version of Dashterov Project, on 3 October 2017. That year, she starred in the film The Path of Our Dream. At the 2018 Swallow Music Awards, Mukuchyan won the title of Best Female Singer of the Year. In 2020, she was honored at the Distinctive International Arab Festivals Awards (DIAFA) in Dubai, UAE. In December 2022, she hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Yerevan.

== Early life == Iveta Mukuchyan was born on 14 October 1986 in Yerevan, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, to Ruben Mukuchyan and Susanna Ambaryan. Her mother worked in a tourist information center when her husband went to Germany to buy a car. However, he stayed in Germany due to unforeseen circumstances, therefore, Mukuchyan's mother decided to move the rest of the family to Germany in 1992. In 1995, the family returned to Armenia, however, they moved back to Germany because of the horrible conditions at the time. She attended the Catholic Sankt-Ansgar-Schule in Hamburg from 1998 to 2006 while working part-time as a waitress in a café. Mukuchyan described her father as a patriot and a strict man who demanded she only speak Armenian at home and marry an Armenian man. While in Hamburg, Mukuchyan joined a music club and sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" at a ceremony. Following the performance, her parents believed that she should become a singer. She studied at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory leaving her design studies, begun in Germany, unfinished. Her sister, Marianna, is a stylist.

== Career ==

=== 2009–2014: Hay Superstar and The Voice of Germany === In 2009, Mukuchyan auditioned for season four of the talent competition Hay Superstar (the Armenian version of Pop Idol), where she finished fifth. She received the Discovery of the Year award at the Armenia Awards in Moscow, and appeared in the French-language track "L'amour n'a pas de loi" on Armenian rapper Ararat 93's debut studio album Amalgame (2010). Mukuchyan appeared the following year on Parahandes, where she was eliminated before the semifinals. That year, she placed third in the German song contest The Voice of Hamburg. Mukuchyan appeared on several Armenian talk shows, including Pop Encyclopedia, Let's Begin Freshly, The Century's Night and Found Dream, and was on the cover of El Style magazine. She participated in season two of The Voice of Germany in 2012 (performing Loreen's "Euphoria" during her audition), and Xavier Naidoo chose her as part of his team. Mukuchyan was the winning contestant from Naidoo's team in the second phase of the contest, where the participants sang "Many Rivers to Cross". In December 2012, El Style named her the "Sexiest Armenian" and featured her on its cover.

=== 2015–2016: Eurovision Song Contest ===

Mukuchyan released the single "Simple Like a Flower" with a music video in October 2015. The same month, Armenian Public Television announced that the singer would represent Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm. "LoveWave", written by Lilith and Levon Navasardyan with lyrics by Mukuchyan and Stephanie Crutchfield, was chosen as the Armenian entry in February 2016. Mukuchyan premiered the song and a music video in March 2016, and appeared again on the cover of El Style. During the Eurovision season, Mukuchyan and her team were constantly providing information via Eurovision Diary, an AMPTV program specifically designed for Armenian Eurovision entrants. On 3 April 2016, she promoted "LoveWave" as the Armenian Eurovision entry at the Eurovision Pre-Party concert in Moscow. However, she changed some of the song's lyrics because of the then ongoing Artsakh clashes. The singer cancelled her participation at the 9 April Eurovision in Concert event to protest the clashes.

Mukuchyan was seen holding the flag of the disputed Republic of Artsakh during the first Eurovision semifinal in May 2016, sparking controversy and a backlash from the Azerbaijani press. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) released a statement the following day, calling the incident a "serious breach" of its ban on political messages and saying that Armenia's public broadcaster would face sanctions: "Any further breach of the rules of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest could lead to disqualification from this year's event or any successive editions." In response, Mukuchyan said that "[her] thoughts are with [her] Motherland. I want ... peace everywhere." An airplane appeared near the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm on the day of the Eurovision final with the message, "Karabach loves Iveta". "LoveWave" finished seventh at the Eurovision, with 249 points. The singer also won the titles of Eurovision's Next Top Model and Best Female Solo Vocalist of Eurovision 2016. In addition to her musical career, she starred with Mkrtich Arzumanyan in the adventure-comedy film Run Away or Get Married (2016) and recorded the soundtrack of the movie.

=== 2016–2017: IvaVerse and Dashterov === After Eurovision, Mukuchyan guest-starred on a number of Armenian television shows. In June 2016, the Mukuchyan sisters attended Sónar, a three-day summer electronic music festival in Barcelona. Mukuchyan was guest singer at the July 2016 Armenian Street Festival in London where she performed with duduk player Gevorg Karapetyan. In September, she performed a solo concert for the launch of Armenian Evocabank's advertising campaign. She was named Armenia's entertainment ambassador at the 19 November 2016 Pan Armenian Entertainment Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, where she performed "LoveWave" and a new single, "Amena". "Amena", which Mukuchyan said is a song about women and their transformation, inner struggles and values, was released five days later. Its music video, produced by Mukuchyan, was released in April 2017. She was a jury member on the first season of Depi Evratesil, a television series selecting the Armenian entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. Her final act, Vahe Aleksanyan, finished fifth in the contest with 48 points.