Eurovision will take place in Sweden from May 7 to 11, 2024. Slimane, winner of the fifth season of “The Voice”, will represent France. But for Armenia it was a group from Lille which was chosen. Discover Ladaniva who reinvents Balkan pop with great energy.
Last year, Eurovision brought together 162 million viewers. The stakes will therefore be high for the participants, from May 7 to 11, 2024, in Malmö, Sweden. Armenia will be represented by a shock duo from Lille, composed of the northerner Louis Thomas for the music and the Armenian Jaklin Baghdasaryan for the vocals.
Jaklin: It’s impressive, suddenly we have a lot of visibility. We were already known in Armenia, but here, it affects everyone! It’s a bit of pressure but at the same time, we’re going to have fun, we have a very happy song.
It was I who wrote it; Her name is Jake, that’s my little nickname. The message ? I want girls in my country and everywhere to be free to be as they are. Tradition, even if I like it, sometimes oppresses women. I want that to change.
Louis: Armenia entered my life four years ago, when we founded the group, but since then I have been there often. I listen to and play their music. Representing them at Eurovision is an honor and it’s a bit weird too. Sometimes I wonder what I’m doing here, and I’ll probably wonder that in Sweden!
J: The Eurovision contest, I watched it when I was little and I imagined myself on stage because I always wanted to sing. But then I stopped and the interest completely disappeared. Today, suddenly, it brings me back to everything.
J: I was born in Armenia, I grew up in Belarus and I came to France at 18 with my mother. I wanted to do something with my life, music. I was running away from problems and luckily I came to Lille! It was the best choice, the one that shaped my destiny today. I met Louis in a bar.
L: It was a little musical love at first sight. When I heard her sing, I said to myself that I would like to make music with her. My first instrument is the trumpet. At the jazz conservatory, I was in piano and trumpet, Jaklin was in voice and piano. We ran into each other in the hallways and started playing a little jazz together, doing concerts in small bars.
J: When it came to finding a name for us, I started talking about Lada, and Louis asked me if I knew the “Lada Niva” cars. [NDLR : le légendaire 4×4 russe, né en 1977]. We realized that his father had one in France and mine also in Armenia!
L: It’s an all-terrain car and since we interpret lots of styles and traditions, we’re like the car that crosses lots of countries. She makes you travel, like us!
J: With Kef Chilini, which has had nearly 30 million views. We were surprised to see how well it worked, particularly in the Armenian diaspora. We started hearing our song everywhere, at birthday parties, weddings. On TikTok, it went viral thanks to dancers from different countries who covered it.
L: When we went to Armenia, we heard it in passing cars with the sound on loud or in the market. It was unreal!
J: In the album Ladanivathere are eleven titles and among others Jake, the Eurovision song. I also compose and write; In fact, it was Louis who really encouraged me to write in Armenian. I don’t know it well since I didn’t grow up there.
However, it is part of me to sing in this language; my mother sang in Armenian at home, it’s something very pure that comes from deep within me. I always wanted to do a project where I mixed jazz with traditional songs. We don’t have a musical style, there’s a bit of everything.
L: But we can still say that it is traditional world music, mixed with everything we listen to in pop, classical music.
Ladaniva was the guest of You are amazing on March 22, 2024. The duo took the opportunity to perform live The mountainanother track from his album, on the set of Hauts-en-Scènes.
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Ladaniva was the guest of Hauts-en Scènes on March 22, 2024. Discover his song “La montagne” live.
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The Ladaniva group has a busy schedule: it will perform at the Bataclan on April 27, 2024, at the En orbit festival in Bailleul on June 30, at the Francofolies in La Rochelle on July 11 and at the Nuitssecretes in Aulnoye-Aymeries on July 12.
Without forgetting of course the big Eurovision event in Sweden, from May 7 to 11, 2024. The final will be broadcast on France 2 on Saturday May 11 from 9 p.m.
