The third participant of the six-member group “Genealogy” representing Armenia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is the popular Ethiopian-Armenian singer Vahe Tilbian: he represents the continent Africa.
The third participant of the six-member group “Genealogy” representing Armenia at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is the popular Ethiopian-Armenian singer Vahe Tilbian: he represents the continent Africa. Watch the video material with his participation here.
Experienced singer and musicologist Vahe Tilbian, who stands out for his vivid artistic character, is a renowned artist: Vahe is known for his style – rock, techno, reggae, R&B, Armenian, Ethiopian and even Latin music. This mixture of cultures reflects Vahe’s individuality and distinguishes him as an exclusive artist and dancer. Find his song here.
Vahe was born and raised in Ethiopia. His parents (Garo Tilbian and Ani Aslanyan) are of Armenian origin: his parental grandfather escaped the Armenian genocide, and his mother’s side of the family left Western Armenia by the late 1890s or early 1900s.
Vahe started to practice music when he was a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He earned a diploma of BSc in biology. In that period Vahe was already attracted by dancing and being a professional International Style Latin American ballroom dancer, he was the founder and choreographer of the Salsegnochu Dance Group. Concurrently Vahe was singing as a lead tenor in a choir called The Motley Singers.
Afterward he worked as a back vocalist in 251 Band for many years, performing during local music festivals and other events. After the Band Vahe joined “Eshee Havana” salsa group, working on original remixes of Ethiopian songs into salsa music. In 2011 he made the final auditions to the Big Brother Africa show.
Vahe wrote the lyrics to his first song called “Life or Something Like it”, Michael Hailu put the melody together and they recorded it in 2010. Vahe’s single “Don’t Stop” was nominated for an Armenian Pulse Music Award for the best song in English by an Armenian artist in 2012. The song won the 3rd place by online voting. In 2012 Vahe finished his album titled “Mixology”, and released it for free. In 2013 Vahe released a music video for the song Yene Tizita. It has been over 2 years that Vahe became the lead singer at Zemen Band. Vahe intends to release 2 more CDs, one of which will be completely Armenian and the second – Ethiopian, with equivalent cultural-musical elements, presenting the cultural mixture he derives from.
Vahe is the third participant of the supergroup genealogy representing Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest. The first participant of the group is famous French-Armenian singer Essaï Altounian, who represents the continent Europe, and the second participant is popular American-Armenian singer Tamar Kaprelian. The song to be presented is titled “Don’t Deny” (“Mi Zhkhtir”). The name of the fourth participant of Genealogy will be announced on February 27. This year the contest will be held in Vienna on May 19, 21 and 23 with the official slogan “Building Bridges”. Forty states will participate in the contest. Together with the creative personnel, Vahe is actively participating in the preparatory works of the contest. The first semi-final will be held on May 19.
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