Review: Srbuk - Walking Out - Armenia

TellyStats Rating:

1 Day YouTube Views: 326,549
1 Day YouTube Likes: 14,753

Failing to qualify in 2018 with a good but not-spectacular song in "Qami", Armenia have pivoted in 2019 to a highly contemporary track suggesting that they may have their eye on the prize this time around.

"Walking Out" begins in a building, beating, brooding tone leading the whimsical "Wait for..." section before slapping the listener with the powerful chorus. The chorus really is the main event of "Walking Out" and it's easy to imagine how the staging could elevate it further to become a real spectacle. If Srbuk is able to successfully replicate the vocal gymnastics of the video - particularly in the final key-change - Armenia could be an explosive entry.

To reel it in a little - the verses are definitely a weak point, mostly in a spoken tone, they lack any sort of melody or hook. As such, "Walking Out" takes longer than it should to get going, it exceeds it's 'elevator pitch' timeframe for the Eurovision audience which is a shame, on first listen I found my attention wandering before it really began to kick off.

Armenia have received an unfortunate draw, singing first in the second semi where around 5 or 6 entries are more-or-less guaranteed. Will the audience still remember "Walking Out" 17 songs later in a semi where many of the heavy-hitters are performing in the second-half? I'm unsure and won't be betting on the To Qualify markets at this point - it'll definitely be worth monitoring the stats on the night, making sure to account for the disadvantage Armenia is like to receive as a result of the recency bias of the audience.

On the other hand, Armenia's YouTube stats are some of the strongest of all countries, over 300,000 views and almost 15,000 Likes in 24 hours is seriously good. Armenia also have one of the highest average increases in social media followers of any competitor, though this appears to have slowed down significantly in the past few weeks. Curiously, "Walking Out" hasn't featured on the iTunes chart of any country since we began monitoring.

Stats-wise, Armenia appears to be a mixed bag, only confounding the running order situation further. I'd strongly advise against anyone taking a strong position on this entry until more details are made clear such as staging and vocals. On the night of the semi-final itself you have the advantage that Srbuk will be singing first - making it easy to then compare her social media results to others.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.