Lip-Stinking in Armenia
I’ve just returned from a fine evening at the Opera House here in Yerevan. A concert had been organised in moral support of Lebanon, given the war that took place over the summer, expressing hope that this country, which has meant so much to Armenians, to the Diaspora, will soon be back on its feet, etc., etc. They aired it live on H1, via satellite, too, by the way.
It was nice seeing the Opera packed, meeting old friends and hearing lots and lots of arevmdahayeren. Naturally, there were many lipanantsis present, so the “dzos” and “gors” rang to my heart’s content. I have nothing against arevelahayeren, of course, but the kind of language I grew up hearing at home does feel that extra bit special, as I’m sure one would understand.
The concert itself can be summed up in one word, my very favourite word in Armenian – khaydaragoutiun. That is truly what it was. It started an entire hour late. I have no problems there. Some of the people on the programme did not perform. Again, that’s fine by me.
My main point of contention – and the real reason I’m writing this blog entry is to vent my frustration at this – is a widespread practice here in Hayastan which, to me, comes under that “incomprehensible” category that also contains being clad in red from head to foot and wiping one’s pointy black shoes with a piece of cloth every three seconds. My beef is with lip-synching.
To begin with, who in Heaven’s name are they kidding ? On at least two occasions this evening, the music began BEFORE the performer(s) actually pretended to perform, and, again, twice the music ended in a fade-out. A fade-out! It’s just the one chap on stage with a microphone, but there’s at least two or three voices singing…! And then this group comes on, all dressed up nicely in old-fashioned, traditional Armenian clothes, going the ashough way with some Sayat Nova. They bring their chairs and musical instruments up front (canon, kamancha, dhol, etc.), and the singers get in line at the back. The music starts, and they barely, barely make it in time to make it look like they’re actually playing, but the real pièce de resistance is the fact that all the music is blasting away from the amplifiers, but there isn’t a single microphone on stage anywhere…! Aboushner!
Seriously, man, such khaydaragoutiun!
Okay, to be fair, there were one or two numbers that were for real, and they were good, and there were two dance pieces which were, of course, quite authentic and legitimate. But I do NOT get the lip-synching and I feel thoroughly upset because of it. I mean, you don’t go to a concert to hear the guy’s CD; that’s what you do at home. You go to a concert to see the guy, his entire group, feel the energy, hear his actual voice… I’m no artist – far from it – but I know when I’m being fooled and I don’t like it.
Is this a common occurrence in other parts of the world ? Will someone please explain this lip-stinking phenomenon to me ?
It was nice seeing the Opera packed, meeting old friends and hearing lots and lots of arevmdahayeren. Naturally, there were many lipanantsis present, so the “dzos” and “gors” rang to my heart’s content. I have nothing against arevelahayeren, of course, but the kind of language I grew up hearing at home does feel that extra bit special, as I’m sure one would understand.
The concert itself can be summed up in one word, my very favourite word in Armenian – khaydaragoutiun. That is truly what it was. It started an entire hour late. I have no problems there. Some of the people on the programme did not perform. Again, that’s fine by me.
My main point of contention – and the real reason I’m writing this blog entry is to vent my frustration at this – is a widespread practice here in Hayastan which, to me, comes under that “incomprehensible” category that also contains being clad in red from head to foot and wiping one’s pointy black shoes with a piece of cloth every three seconds. My beef is with lip-synching.
To begin with, who in Heaven’s name are they kidding ? On at least two occasions this evening, the music began BEFORE the performer(s) actually pretended to perform, and, again, twice the music ended in a fade-out. A fade-out! It’s just the one chap on stage with a microphone, but there’s at least two or three voices singing…! And then this group comes on, all dressed up nicely in old-fashioned, traditional Armenian clothes, going the ashough way with some Sayat Nova. They bring their chairs and musical instruments up front (canon, kamancha, dhol, etc.), and the singers get in line at the back. The music starts, and they barely, barely make it in time to make it look like they’re actually playing, but the real pièce de resistance is the fact that all the music is blasting away from the amplifiers, but there isn’t a single microphone on stage anywhere…! Aboushner!
Seriously, man, such khaydaragoutiun!
Okay, to be fair, there were one or two numbers that were for real, and they were good, and there were two dance pieces which were, of course, quite authentic and legitimate. But I do NOT get the lip-synching and I feel thoroughly upset because of it. I mean, you don’t go to a concert to hear the guy’s CD; that’s what you do at home. You go to a concert to see the guy, his entire group, feel the energy, hear his actual voice… I’m no artist – far from it – but I know when I’m being fooled and I don’t like it.
Is this a common occurrence in other parts of the world ? Will someone please explain this lip-stinking phenomenon to me ?
posted by Nareg at 1:23 AM
13 Comments:
I hear you Narek, that was really just boring. If I hadn't gone with an entertaining friend and been surrounded by many others appreciating the humor in it all, I would have been so bored out of my mind.
But I do have to give it up for Lilit Pipoyan and Armen Movsesian's performance, it was beautiful... along with the classical group accompanied by Arto Tuncboyadjiyan... amazing.
And of course, the beauty of dance is that you can't fake it. There were a couple dances beautifully done.
But the lipsinking MUST GO!!!! That, and I was really just disturbed by the happy childrens performance with bright happy colors and cheerful kids that took place with the dramatic slideshow of Lebanon during the war, including photos of children in hospitals and holding photos of their dead relatives. This was horrifying. The sound of a duduk may have been the ONLY appropriate music to accompany this slideshow. Very disturbing.
Good to see you Narek!
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Absolutely, Arsineh. I wanted to mention the kids with the images of war behind them, too (and the fact that some of my fellow co-bloggers were there. Sorry I left you guys out! :-).
Armen Movsisyan and Lilit Pipoyan were truly fantastic. I don't get how this whole thing was a "hamerk-aktsia", though. Was any money raised at all ?
There used to be a time when the reason was lack of good stage equipment in Armenia (which sadly hasn't changed much), but honestly that's always just been a pathetic excuse. A good singer will always make an effort of showing off his/her talent by singing live. We only have a handful of such artists in Armenia, especially in pop music. A couple of examples are Emmy and Lianna.
A lot also depends on how much their voices have been altered/tuned/enhanced in their recordings, which they obviously can't imitate live. Unfortunately, 95% of our pop artists use this process A LOT.
Lip-synching is obviously frowned upon throughout the world, but almost every singer has done it at least once in their professional lives. Britney Spears, Janet Jackson and Jlo do it all the time, and even Pavarotti’s done it at least once.
Leila performed last night, and she's got a great voice; Aida's voice squeals like a zurna; Armen Movsisyan is one of my most favourite artists, but our Armenian rendition of Tori Amos (Lilit) goes off key way too much, and when she sings with Armen they really don't harmonize well in my opinion; Hamlet Gevorgyan is currently one of the best artists, and I'm always hoping he doesn't go rabiz.
Our singers have way too much pride, and they think God's blessed them all with great voices. Listen to Andre's live performance at Eurovision and compare it to the other singers there, it's quite sad. And he's considered the top male pop vocalist here.
All we can do is commend the ones who do sing live. Let the others perform in shame. Listeners aren't that stupid. They know who's lip-synching and who isn't.
Yea, I don't buy that equipment excuse any more. It's been going on for too long. The fact remains that alot of Armenian pop artists simply cannot sing and thats the bottom line - and because it's such normal practise, singers are very comfortable doing it, and lying to their audience. This is part of the reason why in fact, the Armenian music industry is pretty much non existent. No one has respect for these glossy idiots who pretend like they care about the audience. The only people they make music for are themselves and their little circle of pretentious television presenter friends, who consider Artur Grigorian the God of Soul, and Gagik Tsarukyan as the most charitable man in the country. Lav Eli.
- What we need is a shift in trends so that more people sing live and shame those artists that don't. Correct, Emmy sings live, Andre does mostly, Hasmik Karapetyan can do it, in fact, most of them could if they practised. It's as simple as bringing a backing track. Hell, my friends sing for a living here in bars in the UK, and if they lip synced there would be uproar!
I have to say about Andre though, he was pretty good compared to a lot in Eurovision. When he was in London every piece of equipment failed, no cd, no band, and he pulled it off, and sounded good.
Oh, and we could perhaps ask Mr Kocharyan to take the lead from Turkmenistan's leader, who has made lip syncing ILLEGAL. Yes! How great would that be!
http://funreports.com/fun/23-08-2005/1260-0
I saw a concert by Alla Levonyan, Aida Sargisyan, Arman Hovannisyan and Hamlet Gevorkyan this summer, and none of them lipsynched, or I'm just really bad at noticing things.
Alla Levonyan was singing live in any case, and was wonderful at it, as usual.
Same goes for Hamlet. He kicked ass with Sarer Gaghachem in the end. Almost made me tear. I don't think you should be afraid of him going Rabiz Der Hova. Did you hear his latest CD "mer yerke"?
Too many good songs to ever allow anyone to go rabiz..
i heard a joke on tv lately.. it goes like, "anyone who has a mouth, sings nowadays"... that seems to be the sad reality in armenia.. many singers can't perform live since they don't have the vocals.. technology does the wonder... let's just be a little patient and hope for the better..
Isn�t it that each of us being part of the audience by ourselves let those talentless group of people calling themselves �singer� sneer at us with their mimed songs? I wonder what would be if during such a concert someone just stands up and shouts asking to stop that mockery? Probably the others will rather ask them to shut up and not to evolve. And who will back them then? Our problem is that we allow them to fool us, why to complain then.
They just can�t sing live, because they are simply not able to. It takes them several hours and days to record one song, how can they have that professionalism as to sing it in on breath, they are losers, they just lack that ability. As someone working at a recording studio said �We really miss someone who will record their song without stopping from the beginning till the end�. That�s it, really.
I think its not singer's fault. The audience allows it. They pay money to go and listen to these singers and Robert Kocharian makes Haiko and Tata and some others as the "haykakan mshakuyte tarazogh" artists. If Tata and Haiko are concidered to be forerunners of our culture, and they get medals from the President then there isn't much to be said about the culture, the singers, the types of songs they select and how they fool the audience. I would say it is the audience's fault. It is their taste and maybe the lack of it is the reason why this happens. Shushan Petrossian and some other singers were angry because ALM TV and Tigran Karapetyan give village kids an opportunity to sing. They saw a real threat from these village kids- there you go. They are no better than these amatures thats why they are insecure. Boycot their CD's and concerts. Thats what I do and reccomend.
Hamlet
Hamlet, If indeed you are Hamlet Gevorkyan who sings ( not sure ) I agree with your points about the awards from Kocharian. Whilst I know Hayko and Tata do sing live, calling them "champions of Armenian culture" seems slightly overdone considering Hayko creates spanish/latin pop covers and Tata is largely Kef time music. The idea about the audience being to blame is actually very interesting, never considered it. Why do we sit there, silently, not clapping, when we are being lied to. Audiences should leave, complain, not stand for it. The fact is , however, that Armenia is in such a state that even artists are sponsored by wealthy Gago's who would have us easily removed and probably harmed if we made a big deal about this issue.
Armenian music is in a sad , sad state. We need forward thinking - not stuck in this swamp of old ways and accepting low standards. Just because we have a dhol and a few long words in a song, doesn't make it good. A song needs to be catchy, high quality, well produced, well recorded, and well "madutsvatz". This is highy important, and often singers forget it. I am fed up with singers conning me. Thoroughly shameful
Is anyone in knowledge of the site to access the telethon in the USA tomorrow. HELP, and THANKS.
Zarouhi
This Harmick guy is smart....... Thanks for understanding the real Armenian music scene in Armenia.
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