André (singer)
| André | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Andrey Hovnanian |
| Born | Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic |
| Genres | Pop, folk, romance |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Labels | Andrerecords |
| Website | www.andre.am/ |
André (Armenian: Անդրե), born Andrey Hovnanian (Անդրեյ Հովնանյան) is an Armenian singer. He won the Best Male Singer trophy at the Armenian Music Awards in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.
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 the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. 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. He performed a track with Australian R&B/Pop Singer Samantha Jade titled Come Back.
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.
Azerbaijani mass-media complained that the official website of the Eurovision Song Contest showed André's place of birth as "Nagorno-Karabakh", despite the latter being de jure part of Azerbaijan and so at the time of André's birth in 1979 (when it was then Azerbaijan SSR). As a result, the "Place of Birth" section was removed from the singer's profile.
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