André (singer)

Infobox musical artist
Name = André


Background = solo_singer
Born = 1979
Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, Soviet Union
Genre = Armenian pop
Instrument = Vocals
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André ( _hy. Անդրե), born in 1979, is a popular pop star of Armenia, winning the Best Male Singer trophy at the Armenian Music Awards in both 2004 and 2005. In addition, he performs as a (musical) actor at the local theater in the town of his birth, Stepanakert, in Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the age of three André started singing with his family as audience. Three years later he began taking piano classes, and at the age of nine he wrote his first song, which he called "Prayer", showing his appreciation towards God. His professional singing career started at the age of 15 when he won the music contest "Road to Renaissance". For the last few years, André has been the lead vocalist of the pop-jazz band Karabakh, with whom he has toured all over Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. He has participated in numerous music festivals in Asia, Eastern Europe and the United States, winning many of them and finishing top three in a few others.

Armenia enters Eurovision

In 2006 he was the first artist to represent Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest, performing one of the 37 songs in Athens. There André sang "Without Your Love", a mixture between modern Western and traditional Armenian music. The song was composed by an Armenian celebrity, Armen Martirosyan, the conductor of the Armenian Jazz Orchestra. The instrumentation and arrangement was done by one of Armenian music business' most highly regarded persons, Ara Torosyan. ARMTV presented their Eurovision Song Contest 2006 entry to the public on March 15 2006. After qualifying through the semi-final André finished in 8th place in the competition with 129 points.

Discography

Albums

* "Es em" (It's Me) (2003)
* "Miayn Ser (Only Love) (2005)
* "1000x (i.e. 1000 times) (2006)
* "Yerjankutian Ghatnik (2008)

See also

* Eurovision Song Contest 2006

External links

* [http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=8lTldQScOmE Andre Biography (German)]
* [http://www.andre.am/ Official website]
* [http://www.Andre4ever.de.am/ Fanpage of Andre]
* [http://www.myspace.com/Andrerecords myspace.com/AndreRecords]
* [http://www.myspace.com/Andresings myspace.com/AndreSings]
* [http://www.armtv.com/album/eng/?folder=52 ARMTV presents: André photo album]
* [http://www.homenetmen.co.uk/events/andre_06/index.htm André Live in Concert: London] (November 2006)